WALA<\/a>) – The skyline in downtown Mobile is changing quickly as the new Mobile Entertainment Arena continues rising beam by beam. <\/p>\nSteel beams now outline the massive structure, and concrete is being poured across multiple levels. Mobile Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis has been closely watching the arena take shape from his office. On Friday, he invited FOX10 News to join him for a bird\u2019s-eye view of the construction zone.<\/p>\n
Cheriogotis says the city is preparing for the next big steps, including installing more pre-cast seating sections and beginning work on the roof.<\/p>\n
\u201cI expect next week they\u2019ll start on the roof trusses which I\u2019m happy about but I\u2019m sad because when the roof comes up, I won\u2019t see as much of the progress because I always peek in there and see what\u2019s happening,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n
This week, Oak View Group also announced the arena\u2019s leadership team: General Manager Erik Hudson and Assistant General Manager Willie J. Williams \u2014 both with extensive experience managing large entertainment venues across the country. OVG already operates several Mobile facilities, including the Mobile Convention Center and the Saenger Theater.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey partner with Live Nation and they book tours, people, and events throughout the country,\u201d Mayor Cheriogotis said.<\/p>\n
The arena will also become home to Mobile\u2019s first hockey team in two decades. The City Council is set to vote Tuesday on purchasing dasher boards \u2014 the lower wall of a hockey rink that players and pucks bounce off.<\/p>\n
As for the team\u2019s name, the mayor says an announcement could be coming soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hear there might be one name that has received a mass majority of the votes so hopefully we\u2019ll have an announcement on that soon but I\u2019m lobbying the GM with my favorite team name,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Despite the tight timeline, the mayor says construction remains on schedule and on budget. The arena is expected to open in January 2027. The mayor says dry weather in November helped keep the project on track.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to build this fast but right. We have a timeline that\u2019s tight \u2014 with Mardi Gras being early in 2027, we\u2019re trying to get it open and ready for the public before Mardi Gras season next year,\u201d Cheriogotis said.<\/p>\n
People who work downtown say they\u2019ve noticed the arena rising quickly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really cool how quick it came up. Sometimes construction in Mobile can take a little bit longer,\u201d said Hunter Afzalirad, who works in the area. \u201cAnything that brings more people downtown \u2014 it\u2019s livelier here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Cheriogotis says the city hopes to reveal the hockey team\u2019s official name sometime this spring.<\/p>\n
The arena project is budgeted at approximately $300 million \u2014 making it the most expensive construction project in Mobile\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Click here for the latest renderings and updates.<\/a><\/p>\nCopyright 2025 WALA. All rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.fox10tv.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) – The skyline in downtown Mobile is changing quickly as the new Mobile Entertainment Arena continues rising beam by beam. Steel beams now outline the massive structure, and concrete is being poured across multiple levels. Mobile Mayor Spiro Cheriogotis has been closely watching the arena take shape from his office. On Friday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2197067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2197067"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197067\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2197068,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2197067\/revisions\/2197068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2197067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2197067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2197067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}