KNOXVILLE — Possible renovations up to $10 million to the Knoxville Civic Auditorium and Coliseum came as great news to Ice Bears General Manager Mike Murray.
"We don't want to go anywhere, we want to stay here. But we also want to be able to grow our business," Murray said.
He said the program just wants what has become league standard.
“What everybody else has. The center hanging videoboard where you can do the dance for your dinner and kiss cams … all the fun entertaining things people do these days that people don’t have," Murray said.
The city of Knoxville brought in a team to test the feasibility of the building back in 2016. The study recommended the city spend around $140 million to replace the coliseum, or spend at least $26 million to bring it up to industry standard.
The city council recently approved moving forward on a renovation plan that could cost up to $10 million to replace the ice floor system, replace lights and repaint the ceiling.
Even with those renovations, the money is $10 million to $16 million short of what the 2016 study called a bare minimum fix.
According to Eric Vreeland with the city of Knoxville, the $10 million dollar figure was mainly procedural between the city and the team over the renovations.
Murray said he will take whatever the city is willing to give.
"Whatever the max number is that's what we want to see because anything that can be done to make this building better and make more people want to come and see what we do, we're all for it," he said.
The plan for the Coliseum is part of the city's developing budget plan. Mayor Rogero is expected to discuss how the renovations will be paid for in her State of the City address later this month.