Toyota Center set to reveal upgrades for new hockey season

Toyota Center Executive Director Cory Pearson was tickled when he saw a letter to the editor in the Tri-City Herald this week, complaining about the new score boards.

"We put a lot of work into making the score boards look like the old score boards," he told Kennewick City Council members during a tour Tuesday night.

The new 41-foot long LED screens are already installed, but officials at the Toyota Center want to officially unveil the new boards at the Tri-City Americans home opener

on Saturday, October 5, 2019.

"Every year at the beginning of the season, they run a promo video," Pearson said. "We'll run the video, it's gonna glitch, and it's gonna stop, and it's gonna start, and it's gonna glitch, because that's what it used to do."

Council members and others who attended Tuesday night's council meeting got a preview of what the reveal will look like, but Newsradio 610 KONA was asked not to take any photos or video of the production.

Pearson says the monitors are even better than what they had initially ordered.

"Every NHL facility tooled up this year for 6mm boards. Because everybody is making that change this year, we were able to get in on that. It was basically a $17,000 upgrade that should have been about a $200,000 upgrade. But, because everyone is doing it, they didn't want to re-tool to do a 10mm board."

In addition to the new displays, the Toyota Center's new ice machine is operational, and exceeding expectations.

"It used to take us eight guys about 8 hours to flood the ice," Pearson said. "We bought a piece of equipment with a spray bar on it that we put the paint in and everything, it takes one person about eight hours to go out and do the ice by themselves now."

The new ice machine is housed in a separate building outside of the arena, improving safety, and making it more accessible for the second rink on the property.

Pearson said the new machine can also support a third rink if the Toyota Center decides to expand in the future.

The ice rink also has new mesh protective screens, complete with a new trellis to hold them in place. The new screen will provide protection for fans in the stands, and are easier to see through.

City Council members also got to see how the new LED overhead lights work. Pearson says they have the ability to use an infinite range of colors, and provide 200 candle power, compared to the previous 110 candle power, with half the number of fixtures.

Other improvements include adding carpet to the locker rooms.

You can see many of the updates first-hand at this season's Tri-City Americans hockey games, with tickets available on the Toyota Center website.