Amway Center Passes Royal Flush Test
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By John Denton
September 8, 2010
ORLANDO -- As the Orlando Magic’s President and the project manager for the new Amway Center the past four years, Alex Martins can have just about any seat that he wants when the dazzling, $380 million facility throws open its doors to basketball fans on Oct. 10.
Instead, Martins plans to stand that night so he can fully see the awed reactions from the patrons when they step inside a building that promises to be the most modern and technologically advanced facility in North America.
The Amway Center hit another major milestone in its construction on Wednesday when superstar center Dwight Howard, local politicians and celebrities, students from the Nap Ford Community School and even Martins himself participated in the Drano Royal Flush. For 10 minutes straight, people flushed the 560 toilets in unison, operated the 430 sinks and turned the other 210 drinking fountains and showers on and off.
The 875,000-square-foot facility, one that is almost three times the size of the Amway Arena that the Magic played in the previous 21 years, passed the flush test. Up next is the Magic’s Oct. 10 preseason home opener against the New Orleans Hornets and fans first chance to see that the new facility passes their eye test.
Martins is eager to see the looks on the fans faces that first night when they get to fully enjoy his labor of love the past four years.
``I want to be at the front door when people start walking in just to see the reactions on their faces. I want to walk through the stands and see the reactions,’’ Martins said. ``I honestly believe that our Central Florida community has no idea what they are about to walk into. And rightly so because their old perspective is the smaller Amway Arena. As we know, that was one of the most out of date facilities in North America.
``Now, our fans are about to walk into the most modern, technologically advanced facility of any arena in North America,’’ Martins continued. ``I don’t think fans will fully understand what that is and what that means until they walk through it and experience it firsthand.’’
Howard, Orlando’s consensus All-NBA center, got a chance to experience the fifth-floor concourse of the new Amway Center on Wednesday for the first time. He’s been down in the bowels of the building a couple of times before to shoot commercials and tour the new practice court and locker rooms. He is confident that fans are going to be blown away by the luxurious features of the Amway Center, especially the 42-foot replay board at center court.
``I’ve been coming here for about three years now and I’ve got to say that it’s really beautiful. It’s all new,’’ said Howard, one of Wednesday’s celebrity flushers. ``We’ve got all of these new restaurants like the Big Blue Taco for the Big Blue Magic and we have the state-of-the-art JumboTron. It’s so nice and people are going to love it.’’
What Magic fans and concertgoers will love most are the expanded, improved amenities. Concourses are almost double the size of the one at Amway Arena, the grand lobby is a showcase area of the building and the beacon atop one corner of the building will serve as a highlight along the Orlando skyline.
As for fan amenities, the new facility will have 56 suites, 1,428 club seats, four concourses, 27 restrooms, three retail stores and one concession point of sale for every 150 spectators. The restrooms, which got plenty of use on Wednesday, are a big improvement over the four men’s and four women’s bathrooms in the old building.
``Obviously the last building didn’t have enough restrooms. What we learned from Amway Arena was that the fan amenities didn’t meet the capacity of the building,’’ Martins said. This building has significantly more restrooms. And our points of sale are more than double what they were in the old facility. With this building one of the major responsibilities was improving fan amenities and making sure that every patron who uses this facility is much better taken care of than before.’’
Martins said the construction of the facility is ``93 to 95 percent’’ complete and the project is expected to come in on budget and one time. The bowl of the facility is complete with the only remaining work left on the fan and hospitality areas. Martins said one of the greatest achievements in the building of the facility is that sight lines are still as good in the 875,000-square-foot Amway Center as they were in the 367,000-square-foot Amway Arena.
``I’ve walked every section and sat in seats in every section and I’ve gotten pretty much the same reaction from construction workers and sponsors on tours – there’s really not a bad seat in the house,’’ Martins said. ``The great part of the design is that the square footage is significantly bigger than the old building, but the intimacy of the seating bowl has been maintained. We were able to keep that feeling of being right on top of the action for a basketball game or a concert. There will be a real intimacy throughout this building even though it’s much bigger.’’
And Martins said he can’t wait to see that ``wow’’ factor splashed across the faces of Magic fans when they enter the facility for the first time next month.
``I’m still wowed every single day when I walk through this building,’’ he said. ``I’ve walked it every week for the past two years during construction and we worked on design the two years prior to that. You have a vision and when it comes to reality and to fruition it really wows you. I think we’ll be walking through this building for the better part of a year and years after and will be continually wowed at how it’s the most modern, technologically advanced building in all of North America.’’
John Denton writes for Orlandomagic.com. Submit questions to John’s weekly Question-and-Answer pieces by writing to John at AskJD@orlandomagic.com.
September 8, 2010
ORLANDO -- As the Orlando Magic’s President and the project manager for the new Amway Center the past four years, Alex Martins can have just about any seat that he wants when the dazzling, $380 million facility throws open its doors to basketball fans on Oct. 10.
Instead, Martins plans to stand that night so he can fully see the awed reactions from the patrons when they step inside a building that promises to be the most modern and technologically advanced facility in North America.
The Amway Center hit another major milestone in its construction on Wednesday when superstar center Dwight Howard, local politicians and celebrities, students from the Nap Ford Community School and even Martins himself participated in the Drano Royal Flush. For 10 minutes straight, people flushed the 560 toilets in unison, operated the 430 sinks and turned the other 210 drinking fountains and showers on and off.
The 875,000-square-foot facility, one that is almost three times the size of the Amway Arena that the Magic played in the previous 21 years, passed the flush test. Up next is the Magic’s Oct. 10 preseason home opener against the New Orleans Hornets and fans first chance to see that the new facility passes their eye test.
Martins is eager to see the looks on the fans faces that first night when they get to fully enjoy his labor of love the past four years.
``I want to be at the front door when people start walking in just to see the reactions on their faces. I want to walk through the stands and see the reactions,’’ Martins said. ``I honestly believe that our Central Florida community has no idea what they are about to walk into. And rightly so because their old perspective is the smaller Amway Arena. As we know, that was one of the most out of date facilities in North America.
``Now, our fans are about to walk into the most modern, technologically advanced facility of any arena in North America,’’ Martins continued. ``I don’t think fans will fully understand what that is and what that means until they walk through it and experience it firsthand.’’
Howard, Orlando’s consensus All-NBA center, got a chance to experience the fifth-floor concourse of the new Amway Center on Wednesday for the first time. He’s been down in the bowels of the building a couple of times before to shoot commercials and tour the new practice court and locker rooms. He is confident that fans are going to be blown away by the luxurious features of the Amway Center, especially the 42-foot replay board at center court.
``I’ve been coming here for about three years now and I’ve got to say that it’s really beautiful. It’s all new,’’ said Howard, one of Wednesday’s celebrity flushers. ``We’ve got all of these new restaurants like the Big Blue Taco for the Big Blue Magic and we have the state-of-the-art JumboTron. It’s so nice and people are going to love it.’’
What Magic fans and concertgoers will love most are the expanded, improved amenities. Concourses are almost double the size of the one at Amway Arena, the grand lobby is a showcase area of the building and the beacon atop one corner of the building will serve as a highlight along the Orlando skyline.
As for fan amenities, the new facility will have 56 suites, 1,428 club seats, four concourses, 27 restrooms, three retail stores and one concession point of sale for every 150 spectators. The restrooms, which got plenty of use on Wednesday, are a big improvement over the four men’s and four women’s bathrooms in the old building.
``Obviously the last building didn’t have enough restrooms. What we learned from Amway Arena was that the fan amenities didn’t meet the capacity of the building,’’ Martins said. This building has significantly more restrooms. And our points of sale are more than double what they were in the old facility. With this building one of the major responsibilities was improving fan amenities and making sure that every patron who uses this facility is much better taken care of than before.’’
Martins said the construction of the facility is ``93 to 95 percent’’ complete and the project is expected to come in on budget and one time. The bowl of the facility is complete with the only remaining work left on the fan and hospitality areas. Martins said one of the greatest achievements in the building of the facility is that sight lines are still as good in the 875,000-square-foot Amway Center as they were in the 367,000-square-foot Amway Arena.
``I’ve walked every section and sat in seats in every section and I’ve gotten pretty much the same reaction from construction workers and sponsors on tours – there’s really not a bad seat in the house,’’ Martins said. ``The great part of the design is that the square footage is significantly bigger than the old building, but the intimacy of the seating bowl has been maintained. We were able to keep that feeling of being right on top of the action for a basketball game or a concert. There will be a real intimacy throughout this building even though it’s much bigger.’’
And Martins said he can’t wait to see that ``wow’’ factor splashed across the faces of Magic fans when they enter the facility for the first time next month.
``I’m still wowed every single day when I walk through this building,’’ he said. ``I’ve walked it every week for the past two years during construction and we worked on design the two years prior to that. You have a vision and when it comes to reality and to fruition it really wows you. I think we’ll be walking through this building for the better part of a year and years after and will be continually wowed at how it’s the most modern, technologically advanced building in all of North America.’’
John Denton writes for Orlandomagic.com. Submit questions to John’s weekly Question-and-Answer pieces by writing to John at AskJD@orlandomagic.com.
