September 28, 2012

2006 – Broomfield Event Center had quick, rocky start

BROOMFIELD — In what was seen as a defining moment in the history of Broomfield, its city council in 2005 approved the site development plan for the Broomfield Event Center, a 180,000-square-foot, multipurpose arena located south of U.S. Highway 36, near the Wadsworth interchange. The facility would have a scalable capacity of 3,500 to 6,500 people.

But if you think the concept was embraced throughout the community with open arms, you’d be wrong.

The first public meeting for the proposed event center was held June 14, 2005, and the facility was approved less than two months later. That process, perceived as hurried, was not acceptable to some. Residents asked, “Why was there no feasibility study done? Why was there no citizen task force set up to explore the need for an event center?”

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Although several of the initial meetings were held in January 2005 and before, the event center concept wasn’t brought to the city council until the end of March, and two months elapsed before the proposal was made public.

Public testimony revealed that many weren’t opposed to the event center concept or even the desirability of having such a state-of-the-art facility in Broomfield. Instead, dozens of people were concerned about the process — and traffic flow.

Broomfield Event Center opened in 2006 under ownership of the Broomfield Urban Renewal Authority. It originally hosted year-round sporting events, including new professional minor-league teams from the Central Hockey League and the Continental Basketball Association. It also was to be home to numerous exhibitions, concerts and educational activities.

The new arena was to anchor a 215-acre upscale development dubbed Arista — an urban, transit-oriented area that would include housing, retail and a Regional Transportation District bus rapid transit station.

Now called 1st Bank Center, the facility is owned by the city of Broomfield and managed by Kroenke Sports Enterprises and AEG Live Rocky Mountains through a joint venture called Peak Entertainment. The minor-league sports franchises didn’t survive.

BROOMFIELD — In what was seen as a defining moment in the history of Broomfield, its city council in 2005 approved the site development plan for the Broomfield Event Center, a 180,000-square-foot, multipurpose arena located south of U.S. Highway 36, near the Wadsworth interchange. The facility would have a scalable capacity of 3,500 to 6,500 people.

But if you think the concept was embraced throughout the community with open arms, you’d be wrong.

The first public meeting for the proposed event center was held June 14, 2005, and the facility was approved less than two months later. That process, perceived as hurried,…

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