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Take A Look: $189 Million Proposal For The Future of The Pensacola Bay Center
January 21, 2026
Friday, Escambia County Commissioners will discuss a $189 million plan for the future of a Pensacola Bay Center, including constructing a new multipurpose event center and building a practice ice rink on the current property with projected regional economic impact of $60 million annually
The current Bay Center, which opened in 1985, has a capacity of 8,050 for hockey and 10,000 with a center stage. It currently averages 123 annual events with and attendance of 352,700.
To see the proposal, click here.
The three-part proposal from Legends Global includes:
Pensacola Bay Center (PBC) Improvements $71 million
Exterior upgrades & façade enhancements.
New club seats (between 400 and 600).
2 new club rooms/areas.
Expanded concourses.
Expansion & improvement of F&B and retail spaces & offerings.
New/expanded LED signage offerings.
Back-of-house & central plant improvements and upgrades.
Seamless connectivity to new Practice Ice Rink and Event Center.
New Practice Ice Rink $29.8 million
Attached or connected via enclosed walkway to PBC and Event Center.
one permanent ice sheet (NHL size, 200’ x 85’) with fixed seating for between 600 and 1,000.
4 locker rooms with toilets and showers.
2 coaches/officials rooms.
2 party rooms/flex rooms.
Pro shop/first aid.
Concessions & vending space.
(Optional) Physical therapy/weight room/fitness space.
Small allotment for dryland training space/other amenities (i.e., esports, golf simulator, stickhandling station, etc.).
350 incremental parking spaces needed.
New Event Center $84.4 million
Attached or connected via enclosed walkway to
PBC & Practice Ice Rink.
55,500 net square feet (185’ x 300’), column free, concrete floor, 2 moveable airwalls allowing for subdivision into 3 halls, minimum of 35-foot ceiling height.
6,000 square feet of breakout meeting space.
Warming/prep kitchen.
Enhanced FF&E:
Portable retractable seating for 2,000.
Rollable carpet for one subdivided hall (approximately 18,500 SF).
Portable SportCourt-type athletic surface.
(Alternate) Portable hardwood courts plus climate-controlled storage on-site.
Athletic netting systems & game equipment.
Approx. 105,000 gross square feet (2.4 acres) for facility footprint.
1,200 incremental parking spaces needed.
Comments
31 Responses to “Take A Look: $189 Million Proposal For The Future of The Pensacola Bay Center”
It looks beautiful and all sounds very exciting I hope this works out can’t wait.
There used to be some good concerts there back in the day. All the major rock bands started their tours in Pensacola. Good times…
What about the Vacant group on the south side of Chase St ?
I mean the empty ,useless Tech Park.
Are these improvements going to get a larger selection of acts or is this putting lipstick on a pig ?
It’s ugly. Waste of taxpayer money. Plus there is no parking.
Luigi, you are right. The taxpayers will have to pay for these monstrosities and who profits, the architects and hockey owners. The price of tickets will skyrocket but there will be people still paying the high price to go drink beer and listen to LOUD music.
When the Civic Center first opened it was nice. I worked the concession stand with the Rainbow Girls. It was fun, but a lot of beer drinking going on. It’s gotten way out of hand, and the parking will be even more of a problem.
Then there are others place that to be fixed (like Henry Randall’s road). We put money into unnecessary BIG projects when smaller (maybe) projects need addressing. Up in the northern part of Escambia (the forgotten land) needs more roads to be repaved. More police officers to stop the speeders. The road in front of my house is like a raceway. We don’t improvements on this venue, just more improvements on roads around here.
Why not use the $189 Million to rebuild the roads and bridges in Escambia County ?
Looks great! Just gotta to throw in some kind of parking structure and it looks golden.
The last time I was in the center it smelled bad and that doesn’t make people want to return. Tear it down. Try building something new that makes sense for Pensacola and a parking garage needs to be attached to whatever is built. We cannot afford to throw so much money at such a worthless building. The plans are absurd.
Maybe they can buy some cash registers and insist that the vendor accepts US Currency. Currently they only take credit or debit cards. It takes forever to get a drink or snack at the hockey games.
NO PARKING; YOU IDIOTS!!
Why is it downtown when there is no parking? Looks like the new plans want to take more parking away.
The taxpayers will end up paying for the project and the venue tickets will triple in price . The team owners and politicians PAC are the only ones benefiting from a sports venue like this . See what has and it’s happening with sport complexes around the country . Vegas , buffalo NY etc where tax payers ended with higher taxes for years to come to pay for the projects . Mobile Alabama has a bigger industry tax base and bigger population yet they will end up paying for a similar project going on right now .
@Henry Randall…. Would you have made that suggestion to the owners of the baseball team? If the Pensacola Civic Center is operating in the red it is not due to the Pensacola Ice Flyers and it was not because of the Pensacola Ice Pilots. Would you blame me Pensacola Blue Wahoos for that stadium operating in the red? These are what draw visitors and tourists to the area and provide entertainment for locals. If you are not a fan of the event don’t go but be a good neighbor and support those of us who enjoy the activities that are available
There is no view of the old hotel building, no view of the cemetery….
Nothing to show any respect for all of the old stuff in the immediate area that will have to be worked around.
Also, why do we need all of this anyway when this venue doesn’t bring in anything remotely big enough to even warrant this.
Why are we letting non-locals make these decision for us ????
They truly need to consider the inadequate roadways around the center; already poor traffic considerations will become a nightmare. The Center is nestled between I-¹10 access and egress ramps, and coming and going from the parking area through the one gate, that is in the middle of the block, onto 9th Avenue between lights, is bad enough already.
Between this and the “new and improved” Palafox makeover, it seems as if the city council is doing their best to keep people away from the downtown area.
Poor planning when there already isn’t enough parking yet they don’t include a parking garage.
I have read all of the negative responses and some concerns are valid. Others may need more information. Several years ago the hockey game attendance was not very high, but today the attendance at the games seem to be around 4-5000 a game and some games are sold out. This is a good thing, the interest in hockey in the area is growing. The proposed ice rink that may be built in Pace from my understanding, from a family who sees a need for year round ice for things like youth hockey, figure skating and recreational ice. The kids in the area who play hockey have to go out of town for most all games and their home games are not in Pensacola. There is something g drastically wrong with that. So a place for the kids is awesome. Hopefully recreational ice skating. The lines of people to just ice skate after the games are long and sometimes crowded on the ice, so yeah that would be good. I assure that the season ticket holders who have handicap parking spots also have legitimate handicap plates/parking placards. You would be surprised how many there are. There is only one owner of the Pensacola Ice Flyer Team. And he has put a lot of money back into the community with the help of fans. The Ice Flyer Foundation does a lot of things for the community. Pensacola does need an upgraded facility, not just for hockey but other events and entainment events. Better facility, better shows. You want Pensacola to be a tourist hotspot year round. Lots of money yes, future revenues if handled properly could be great. Remember the Bay Center hosts other events than just bought hockey. The figure skating club and classes would love to be a year round activity, not just seasonal. Not all kids are into baseball, soccer and football.
It started off at 71 million!!! Where is all this money coming from and what’s the real reason? Somehow believe WE will all be paying for this crap. What a huge waste of money and how many pockets are being lined? It’s the same deal, good for some but not for us.
How about finishing repaving CR 164 in the north end of the county. Only paved part of it , still waiting to be completed.
The event center addition would be nice for Pensacon, but I see parking would definitely be a problem. There is not enough parking currently. I think a parking garage would be more beneficial and useful.
And the paved road in my subdivision, built in 1978 and has never been resurfaced, is falling apart. The county resurfacing department is saying they only receive 2 million dollars annually for resurfacing and officials are already trying to redistribute future 2027 taxes for other issues. If the hockey team owners want a venue, let them build one, don’t waste taxpayers money on further failure by spending tax money on a ridiculous idea. Demo the existing building and sell the property.
Is the solution building more on an already cramped piece of land suffering from inadequate parking since inception. I find it hard to believe attendance doesn’t suffer just due to its current location. Can’t this be done somewhere in the county with room to hold everything, including parking. The area bounded by I-110, Briskey Court, Walton Street, and Airport Blvd is almost 50 acres with great access and mostly vacant residential and commerical property.
Just demolish it snd build ridiculously expensive houses like yall do everywhere else in pensacola
Architects draw pretty pictures. Wait to you see the cost over run.
NO NO NO LOST MONEY BEFORE WILL LOSE MONEY NOW VOTE THEM OUT
Yes need to build a parking deck where the old hotel is.
Aren’t they building an ice rink in Pace? So we are going to dump an extra $30M to build something already being built. That makes total sense! Cmon people, a conference center yes, a “spare ice rink”? Makes no sense.
I ice rank why ?
I am guessing,NO,THE FACTS
WHERE WILL THE NEW PARKING SPACES COME FROM?
MY FAMILY HAS QUIT GOING SINCE HANDICAP SPACES IN FRONT ARE GIVEN TO SEASON TICKET HOLDERS,EVEN IF THEY ARENT HANDICAPPED. MY WIFE IS!
What really is needed is a multi level parking garage