Q&A: A closer look at the impact of Macon’s new arena

Macon officials recently unveiled renderings of the new Macon arena, a roughly 10,000-seat venue intended to replace the Macon Coliseum as Bibb County’s premier sports venue for events like high school basketball championships, hockey games and more. Construction on the venue is set to begin this month, with the arena’s completion date slated for summer of 2028. 

The Melody sat down with Visit Macon CEO Gary Wheat for a deeper look at the arena’s expected impact and purpose.

These responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Q: How many events was the Coliseum facilitating? How many people did it draw?

A: “We’re probably seeing the combination of the convention center and the Coliseum probably doing 150-200 events annually. With the new arena, and the flex space, we’ll be able to do probably north of 400.”

Q: How will this new arena help Macon?

A: “It puts us on a level playing field with our other destinations in Georgia, who all have built or are either building new facilities. We’ve had (the Coliseum) since 1968. … Now having a modern facility with upgrades and the ability to host multiple events at one time or larger events, that allows us to be very, very competitive, not only with our location, but with the modern amenities of this facility, which will be unlike any of the others in the state that have been constructed since.”

Q: What were some of those problems with the current Coliseum that led to this decision to build a new one?

A: “Not necessarily problems, but the challenges that come about with the age of a building — obviously a building constructed in 1968, advances in not only technology, but construction requirements through the state and federal levels. Basically, (promoters and planners) ask and expect certain amenities that a building built in 1968 just doesn’t have and can’t provide. With each passing year challenges with maintaining the facility, challenges with being able to sell it to new planners, new events that can get much more modern facilities elsewhere, the time had come for us to make that transition.”

Q: Do you anticipate that this will draw more events and conventions? What kind of events and conventions might come to Macon that wouldn’t have before? 

A: “It allows us to do more events. It allows us to do larger events. It allows us to get on the schedule for things that normally might bypass Macon, like big commercial shows or trade shows or things like that that need expanded space, that need those amenities. On the concert side, we’ll allow for larger acts to be booked because we’ll have premium seating. We will have suites, we will have more expanded space to be able to sell more tickets. So for us, this opens the door for a new audience, a new opportunity as far as the type of events we can go.

“We have hosted the Georgia high school state basketball championship, state wrestling championships, cheer game day for years, and this allows us to go not only to them to be able to say, ‘Hey, we’ve heard you. We’re building a new facility to meet the needs that you have for your events.’ For example, the past two years with the state basketball championships,we’ve had to turn away people because the crowds were so big. We needed more seating. We needed more available space. Having the flex space will also allow us an opportunity with some of the other facilities in our state that may not have that flex space to be able to do warm-ups for basketball or additional tournament space. So for us, it’s allowing us a new avenue to business and new business.”

Q: What will it help Macon retain?

A: “It’s our legacy clients that we’ve had. Christmas made in the South, a trade show there. There’s the GHSA. Jehovah’s Witnesses have their annual events here, which are what we label as city-wides, which impact all our hotels and restaurants. Being able to say to them, ‘We listened to you. We heard,’ allows for them to have expanded audiences. Especially for these large Jehovah’s Witness conferences or GHSA, where in some certain instances we have to turn people away because there’s not enough capacity. So being able to expand that and say that, ‘hey, we heard what you need. We know what you need and we’re here for you and we’re going to provide that for you so that you can continue to make Macon your home.”

Q: Was the Coliseum used more when it was first built?

A: “Historically going back then, you probably saw a lot larger acts or more popular acts, just because there weren’t big stadium shows yet there. A lot of the popular acts at the time that were on the charts, selling big and were huge worldwide were visiting smaller communities that had these venues. So, from a concert standpoint, yes. There were also opportunities to do consumer shows and trade shows. Back then, what Macon had at the time was one of the largest in the state. With the location, this was a prime location for people to come because everybody in the state could get here in four hours and that can’t be said for a lot of places, including Atlanta. For us, back in the day, they were able to do some things at the time because it was a modern facility for its time and that helped it garner a lot more attention, and people were wanting to bring their events to a new facility.”

Q: Where are we seeing events in Macon hosted now? And how is the new Coliseum going to fit into the current venue landscape we have in Macon?

A: “When we do city-wides, which again are the events that impact our entire hotel landscape as well as our restaurants and businesses … The Coliseum right now and the Amphitheater are our only venues that can really host a city-wide event because of the volume of people that they can host. With the convention center attached to our Coliseum now — in the new facility that space will double with the addition of the flex space — I think those right now sit as our current city-wide opportunities and venues.

Q: Anything else?

“This building has been designed for the visitor, the consumer and the people who will be attending events here or holding events here. I think it speaks to a lot of their needs. … With the location right there adjacent to I-16, it becomes a billboard for our community. People driving back and forth on that stretch of interstate will be able to look and go, ‘Hey, we need to make a point to go to something there,’ because it’s a beautiful facility.”