Want the best seat in the house for Pratt Community College events, every time, without having to arrive early to hold it? Want a convenient parking space guaranteed? And a place to relax, enjoy some refreshments and perhaps catch up on whatever game is being televised on Beaver home game nights?
All those amenities will be available with a Personal Seat License program being unveiled within a few weeks. Athletic Director Kurt McAfee outlined the general points of the plan to market individual seats in the new bleachers at Lesh Arena at a meeting of the PCC Board of Trustees Monday night.
Two options are available. An individual can purchase a license for one of 36 floor chair back seats for $400. The package includes a season pass, parking pass and access to a Hall of Fame room on game and event nights. Forty-two arena chair back seats are available for $200 with a season pass and access to the Hall of Fame room. One year or longer-term agreements will be available. The program is tied to buying a season pass.
The program will help offset the cost of new bleachers in the arena, McAfee said, and is similar to that utilized when seats were replaced in PCC’s Carpenter Auditorium. Local businesses that contributed to retrofitting the arena, First National Bank, The Peoples Bank and Stanion Wholesale Electric, will be allotted a specific number of floor seats for the next three years.
PCC will make an announcement when seats are available for selection.
The new bleachers are on target for completion by Nov. 1, according to Kent Adams, vice president of finance and operations.
The arena is pretty bare right now, except for a couple of bleachers that have been retained for the volleyball season, McAfee said. He is working on a campaign inviting fans to “come stand for volleyball,” noting that a number of patrons do enjoy standing along the sidelines.
The trustees approved a policy change that makes PCC a tobacco-free campus. The new state law that prohibits smoking in public buildings would have allowed smoking outside of buffer zones around entrances. On the recommendation of a healthy lifestyle advocacy committee and concern that enforcing the no-smoking areas would have been difficult, PCC President William Wojciechowski spoke in favor of the tobacco-free plan.
Fewer than 10 percent of employees smoke, he said, and nothing will prevent them from smoking in their cars. An announcement of the policy will be made at the beginning of every public event.
