NEARLY 45,000 PATRONS ATTENDED THIS YEAR’S TOURNAMENT IN BANGOR
BANGOR, ME – Over the past 2 weeks, Spectra Venue Management, managers of the Cross Insurance Center, welcomed nearly 45,000 patrons through the doors of the venue to attend the 2016 MPA Northern High School Basketball Tournament for Classes B, C and D. The attendance was record-breaking, beating last year’s turnout by about 1,000 guests.
Spectra Venue Management’s Joe Imbriaco, General Manager of the Cross Insurance Center said, “We’re excited that the Cross Insurance Center is finding its way into MPA Tournament history at the same time guests are embracing our new efforts, like this year’s addition of advance ticket purchasing for all sessions through Ticketmaster, to improve the overall experience.”
In the back to back weeks, attendance wasn’t the only record-breaking stat and fun fact to come from the tournament. During the 10 days of tournament play, other events played the arena as well. A total of 6 different events, including UMaine Basketball and a Broadway Theater show, took place in between tournament days, which ultimately lead to moving and picking up the basketball court 7 different times. Making adjustments to the court, working the games as well as the other events, meant many labor hours for staff at the Cross Insurance Center. Between the operations department, event services department, box office and food and beverage department, the Cross Insurance Center staff clocked approximately 6,800 labor hours in the past few weeks.
Tickets for the grand event had to be sold from somewhere, right? The box office at the Cross Insurance Center was open for business for a total of 110 hours, selling over 5 cases of tickets to patrons attending the tournament games. Fun fact: 5 cases of tickets weighs about 175 lbs!
With nearly 45,000 people in and out of the venue for 10 days, it’s no surprise that some people came hungry. Concessions during the tournament pushed out more food and beverage than imaginable. 2,097 boxes of candy, 7,469 buckets of popcorn and 1,087 whoopie pies make up a few of the more popular items sold. 1,943 hot dogs were purchased; fun fact: that’s over 31 times the height of the Paul Bunyan statue that resides on the Cross Insurance Center lawn. And to wash it all down, 20,966 soft drinks or a total of over 3,000 gallons of soda, juice and water were sold during this year’s tournament.
“People have fond memories going back to 1955 of the Bangor Civic Center. With all the basketball tournaments and many other events, those fond memories are entirely justified. This year we had record attendance at our most recent basketball tournament at the Cross Insurance Center. Imagine the decades of cherished memories to come for crowds larger than could be accommodated at the old Bangor Civic Center. What a wonderful gift to the citizens of our region,” says Bangor Council Chair, Sean Faircloth.
With tournament weeks behind them, Cross Insurance Center staff can’t slow down just yet. With 17 public events taking place at Cross Insurance Center in both the arena and convention center during March and April, keeping the momentum will be important in the next few months as staff dive into their busy calendars.
For more information about Cross Insurance Center or other events taking place at the venue, visit crossinsurancecenter.com