The Pensacola Bay Center (formerly the Pensacola Civic Center renamed in 2012) is a municipal arena located in Pensacola, Florida. It is owned by Escambia County and operated by SMG Management. The Civic Center has a capacity of 8,150 for hockey games, and as much as 12,000 for non-hockey events. The arena contains 23000 sq. ft. of space and 10000 sq. ft. of meeting space.
The arena is nicknamd the The Hangar for hockey.
Sporting Events[]
The Civic Center opened in 1985 and was used primarily as the home of the Pensacola Ice Pilots hockey team until the team's exit from the ECHL on June 23, 2008. Hockey returned to the Civic Center in fall 2009 when the Pensacola Ice Flyers of the Southern Professional Hockey League hit the ice.
Arena Future[]
The board overseeing the running of the arena has reportedly been looking at selling naming rights to the arena to help offset losses that the arena has occurred over the past few years. The fiscal 2016-17 report looks at a loss of $1.3 million with naming rights believed to be in the $1 to 1.5 million range annually. The arena is in need of a new ice plant and other upgrades to make the facility viable enough to keep open. The same report stated that replacing the arena is another possibility and that would potentially scare off some groups from pursuing that naming rights to the present arena. [1] The proposal for a new arena stalled on May 17, 2018 when the Escambia County Commision did not vote on a letter of intent between the county and Pensacola Arena Development Partners. Several unresolved issues about the project caused the county to not take action on the LOI.[2]