Marquee Sign at the Independence Events Center will hightlight what’s coming up at the events center and community ice

By Michael Glover - michael.glover@examiner.net

The Examiner

Posted Mar 01, 2010 @ 11:47 PM

Independence, MO —

The Independence City Council Monday approved a funding bill that will pay for a marquee sign and more parking spaces at the Independence Events Center.

The council unanimously passed an emergency ordinance that will issue $2.9 million in bond payments. It will be the final bond issuance to fund the $68 million city-owned facility. The city had to issue a series of financial obligation bonds to finance the construction of the center because of the unstable situation in the financial markets.

The bond payment includes $500,000 to $600,000 for creating additional parking and a marquee sign, according to city manager Robert Heacock.

The marquee sign will be located on Interstate 70, Heacock said. Specific details about the sign were not available.

The marquee sign will act like a beacon for increased marketing opportunities for the center, alerting drivers of what’s going on at the events center.

Both the marquee and additional parking have been “communicated to us as great needs by our fans,” Missouri Mavericks General Manager and President Brent Thiessen told the council.

“It has been communicated to us from the fans that they would love to be able to see what is happening at that center as they are driving by,” Thiessen said.

Mike Young, events center general manager, said when he interviewed for the position, one of his questions was “where’s the marquee and where’s it going to go?”

It will be the first facility he’s worked at that would have a marquee.

“I’ve received e-mails after e-mails that say ‘hey, we would like to have something on the highway or on the building to tell us what’s going on,’” Young said. “It’s that important.”

About parking, Young said he gets many inquires about parking, specifically about adding more spots.

Events center employees park at the Lowe’s store up the street from the facility and are then shuttled to the center. This frees up more parking for visitors.

But Young said adding 200 parking spaces “would be an amazing thing.”

“It’s not a huge lack of parking but it’s just that little bit, that extra 200 spaces, I believe, that will really affect the entire population that comes into this facility,” Young said.

Global Entertainment Corporation, which manages the facility, fully backs adding the parking spaces and marquee.

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