ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ) – The Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena received one last good-bye from the community on Monday before demolition gets underway.
For many, it was one last stroll down memory lane.
Village of Ashwaubenon President Mary Kardoskee was one of the many local dignitaries in attendance and she spoke while wearing a Green Bay Bobcats jersey.
“Because that’s what I remember,” she explains. “Is coming to Bobcat games.”
She says her love for the venue remains strong, but admits that time remains undefeated.
“Sometimes you need to move on and remain current,” says Kardoskee.
Plenty of physical memories remain intact at the arena, like the seating, which is all original.
Four-seat rows of arena seats were on sale for fifty dollars and anyone could walk out with two folding chairs for free.
Ryan Borowicz, a former UW-Green Bay men’s basketball player, was one of the many residents that happily paid to come away with history.
For him, it’s a reminder of a life goal achieved.
“My dream was always to play for the Phoenix and I worked really hard and was able to achieve that dream,” says Borowicz. “To be able to come in here and really see the end of this when it was such a big part of my life.”
The seats not only remind him of playing collegiate ball, but also of tradition and plenty of early memories.
“When I was a kid, basketball was a big part of my family and we had season tickets to the Phoenix games when they really were starting to become good,” he explains.
PMI Entertainment Group CEO Ken Wachter was one of the individuals in charge of keeping the arena running as time started to catch-up.
He says for better or worse, the venue has stayed mostly the same.
That goes for things visible to patrons and also some machinery behind the scenes.
“The original ice making equipment still works, it’s down in the basement,” says Wachter. “I’m always nervous when people go down there that when they go up they are going to glow… we don’t need that.”
He also did a little reminiscing as he racked his memory to tell a story from a Bob Dylan concert, which took place at the arena in 1994.
“A gentleman came up to me and said, ‘Boy, the sound in this building really stinks’ and I said, ‘Well, what’s wrong with it?’” he explains. “He said, ‘I can’t even understand a word he’s saying’ and I said, ‘That has nothing to do with the sound, that’s Bob Dylan.’”
Demolition work on the arena is set to begin on Wednesday, but the process of taking down the venue won’t be a quick one.
Arena officials are hoping the process is completed by the end of the summer.
Taking its place will be a new, $93-million, expo hall that is expected to feature 127,000 square feet of flexible space.
If everything goes according to schedule, that expo hall should be ready to open sometime around the summer of 2021.
