Having lost its bid to host the New York state high school basketball tournament, local officials are nevertheless optimistic about the future for Cool Insuring Arena in Glens Falls.
Glens Falls this month bid farewell to one of its annual highlights: the New York State boys high school basketball tournament.
For the next three years, the tournament, the endpoint of what some fans call “the road to Glens Falls,” will be heading back to Binghamton.
Jeff Mead is Cool Insuring Arena’s General Manager.
“It’s going to go to Binghamton for a couple of years. I think the last time it was there; their attendance was pretty low compared to the historical numbers in Glens Falls. So, you know, we’ll bid to get it back the moment we’re able to and we’ll do whatever we can to come up with enough money to entice NYSPHSAA to bring it back,” said Mead.
Despite the loss, Mead says the arena is enjoying growth, hosting sold-out professional hockey games for the Adirondack Thunder and recently filling thousands of seats as Glens Falls and other Section 2 teams advanced through the basketball bracket.
Democratic Mayor Bill Collins says it wasn’t that long ago when the future of the building was in doubt.
“The city of Glens Falls ran the Civic Center for roughly 30 years, we always struggled to break even, we rarely actually broke even. In some budget years it might cost about $200,000 to manage and pay the employees and keep the lights on in the Civic Center. And those were the prosperous years. And then during other struggle years it would cost us as much as $500,000,” said Collins.
After unsuccessfully putting the building up for bid, then-Mayor Jack Diamond found a partner in the Adirondack Civic Center Coalition in 2015. Collins says he’s proud to carry on the legacy of cooperation.
“I couldn’t be more honored to work with those business leaders. And helping re-define and re-create and find new ways always to bring more business, to bring more events down to our Civic Center, and to our downtown Glens Falls. A high tide rises all ships,” said Collins.
Mead says that partnership has changed the arena’s trajectory.
“We’ve moved along very well. We’ve been fortunate to invest about $6-7 million into the building right now. Including the new roof on the building which the city did for us. But we built suites a couple years ago which have been a tremendous success. We have a 7,000-square foot conference center in the arena which we were able to re-do last summer, put $1 million into it with some help from Warren County. And we’ve put in millions of other dollars that’s been needed infrastructure upgrades,” said Mead.
Mead says the arena’s most successful tenant, the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder, had been losing nearly $1 million per year.
“And last year we made some decent money, and this year we’re on pace to have our best year ever. We’ve already had 12 sell-outs in 30 games. So, the team off the ice off the ice is doing very well business wise, and on the ice we’re first in our division and second in our conference,” said Mead.
In the meantime, according to Mead, Glens Falls is built to host the basketball tournament again — adding that the 18,000-person turnout was testament to the city’s walkable downtown filled with restaurants and businesses ready to serve fans and families.
