The ongoing $50 million Alfond Arena renovation remains on track to be completed by the end of 2025, university officials said during a tour of the project on Thursday. Work is expected to continue through the fall, but enough should be done in time to start the next hockey season.
“We are on schedule and on budget,” said Elizabeth Simonds, the project manager who led the tour.
Previous reporting on the renovations pinned the cost around $45 million. When combined with several million dollars of work already completed such as a new scoreboard, ribbon boards and LED boards, the total projected cost is closer to $50 million.
“Some pieces will be ready before others but it will be comprehensively completed by the end of December,” said UMaine athletic director Jude Killy.
Killy said the funding has come from the Harold Alfond Foundation as well as several other private donors.
The Harold Alfond Foundation donated $170 million to the University of Maine’s athletic department to upgrade its athletic facilities, as part of a larger $320 million grant from the foundation to the University of Maine System.
It is the first major upgrade to the 48-year-old Alfond Arena since 2011.
The arena opened on Feb. 5, 1977.
The renovation includes a multitude of improvements and additions that will benefit the coaches, players and fans.
The women’s and men’s hockey teams will have much larger locker rooms including one for their street clothes and another for their hockey equipment.
They will have lounges with kitchenettes, study tables and nutrition bars and they will also have conference rooms and a better and larger workout room.
And Simonds said all the upgrades for each team will “mirror each other.”
The coaches’ offices will also be similar.
The two teams will share a 39-seat video room.
There will be more expansive training rooms, a new in-ground hydrotherapy pool along with above-ground cool and hot pools for muscle health and rehabilitation.
There will also be a spacious equipment room and space for beverages like Gatorade.
The fans will have a new larger high-ceiling entryway and will be treated to a larger Bear Necessities merchandise facility, a larger Dexter Lounge and Shawn Walsh Center for player development, and a significantly expanded area to honor and celebrate former teams and players from both the women’s and men’s teams who extended their careers beyond Maine (ie. Olympics and professional hockey).
They have also added a brand new concession stand inside the arena and a covered outdoor patio.
“And there will be a lot more walking space,” said Killy. “It will be easier to maneuver around.”
Killy said the renovations are “paramount” to helping both UMaine hockey teams attract top recruits and compete in Hockey East.
“You have to have it. It doesn’t have to be top-notch everything to everyone but you’ve got to be in that top third to be able to compete in Hockey East,” said Killy. “We’re trying to win national championships on both the men’s and women’s side in hockey and to do that you have to have the caliber of facility that is going to attract appropriate talent and provide you with the resources to do that.”
Visiting teams will have new locker rooms, also, which represents a significant upgrade over what they had been using which included two small rooms across the hall from each other and a very limited number of showers.
“Things that a student-athlete may think less of like your athletic training space, your equipment space and your film room are all important to the bones of your program, the structure of your program,” Killy added. “Those pieces are just as important as the sizzle pieces are with the locker room and the hype tunnel.”
Simonds said an upgraded lighting system in the arena will create a better “ambiance.”
Killy said the timing of the project couldn’t be better with the men’s team earning its first back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths since the 2005-06, ‘06-07 seasons.
He and the UMaine administration have a great deal of “gratitude” for the opportunity to renovate Alfond Arena.
“We are so appreciative of the opportunity we have to make the renovations and to build the addition on. That, in large part, comes from the Harold Alfond Foundation but also the generation of our other donors,” said Killy, also crediting the university administration’s leadership.
