AMSOIL Arena opened its doors on December 30, 2010 as a shiny new addition to the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, becoming the home to University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldog hockey. Its opening also ushered in a new entertainment experience to the Northland.

The 20,000 square foot, $80 million dollar arena has already hosted a college hockey National Championship banner, wowed symphony lovers with a Cirque du Soleil performance and rocked out with Elton John - all before its first anniversary.

“Our goal was to serve as many people as possible. The difference between the DECC and the Target Center is that we’re a community center and we know that,” said DECC Executive Director Dan Russell.

According to Russell, planning for the arena began 10 years ago, with the knowledge that UMD wasn’t going to play in a 50-year-old arena that could barely seat 5,000. AMSOIL can seat 6,600 patrons for a hockey game, and nearly 8,000 as an entertainment venue.

Adding the new arena allowed the DECC to renovate the old rink, paving the way for more simultaneous events thereby opening up opportunities for more Northland residents to enjoy the center.

“Its turned into a world where you build a big sporting facility, use it for 20 years, blow it up and build a new one. Duluth should be proud that we haven’t done that,” said Russell, “It is very easy to build an arena in a town that hasn’t had one. It takes guts to build one 100 feet from an old one that has served the community well for 45 years.”

AMSOIL was built to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, earning its Silver LEED Certification in late November. The arena consumes 50 percent less energy then most other arenas, and has cut water consumption by 42 percent. The building also was built with recycled materials from the old Globe Elevator of Superior.

Russell says it is no accident that the new arena was built this way, “it’s the right thing to do. The DECC has a reputation of being very environmentally friendly with everything we do. We had the opportunity to build a new arena, and we wanted to take full advantage to bring that message over to AMSOIL.”

In order to fund construction, Duluth passed a referendum in 2006 that allowed for a ¾ of 1 percent increase of the city’s food and beverage tax. That tax provided 27 percent if the funding. The state of Minnesota provided $40 million dollars in bonding support, and Superior-based AMSOIL agreed to a $6 million naming rights contract. UMD and the DECC paid the remaining balance.

Since its groundbreaking in April of 2009, local contractors from Minnesota and Wisconsin worked to bring the arena to reality.

“We had legislation that allowed us to go with best value rather then lowest bid. It was very important to us to put as many local trades people to work as possible,” he said.

The project logged nearly 300,000 hours of trade labor, without one work related loss.

And, the good news kept coming. In March, UMD men won the NCHA Championship. Later that spring, Elton John’s show sold out in less than a minute, that night generating $80,000 of sales tax for the City of Duluth by the DECC alone. More sold out shows occurred throughout the summer, and this fall, the U.S. College Hockey Online announced UMD had the 6th highest ongoing attendance rate in college hockey for the 2011-2012 season.

What made AMSOIL such a hit with Northlanders? Russell says that the aesthetics of the building create a unique experience.

The building was built to, “just give it a real sense of; I’m at an event in my area, this building was built by my neighbors, this is what Duluth is about,” he said.

Concession stands are named after local landmarks such as the Enger Tower Grille and Wisconsin Point, each placed in their geographic locations in relation to the arena. Also, pictures and quotes of past Northland legends, including Bob Dylan, line the halls. The inside is decorated with rocks from the Iron Range.

“Our biggest fear was that (customers) would walk in and go ‘why?’ We had to have them walk in and say it was a totally different experience,” Russell said.

The new experience worked, with per capita concession sales doubling over the past year, and ticket revenue up. According to Russell, the arena has already superseded the $750,000 in sales tax the DECC has collected in the past.

The new venue also has a place for everyone. Included in AMSOIL Arena are 130 seats for full accessibility for fully accessible disability seating, which includes electricity, seats that Russell says are the best in the house.

“Its all those small things, environmental, design of the facility, disabled seating, that were very important to us. Our staff has dealt with our guests over the years, and we had the opportunity to do it right for years to come,” he said.

For Russell, the greatest reward from the new building came while working the Elton John concert,

“After working all those years to put the funding package together, going through construction, and planning, to see it used and see 8,000 people absolutely having a great time, it was very cool.”

It’s a feeling he hopes will continue.

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