The new building will cost taxpayers at least $300 million.
Mobile, Alabama residents are the next group of taxpayers that will reach into their collective pockets and fund a municipally-owned arena. Mobile’s present 60-year-old Civic Center is considered outdated and Mobile elected officials have concluded that it would be cheaper in the long run to build a new facility than pour more money into a facility which the politicians think needs to be bulldozed. The new facility will cost at least $300 million to build and should be opened by January 2027 which coincides with the city’s Mardi Gras celebration that includes masquerade balls that could take place inside the arena. That takes care of a few bookings but what else can go into the planned facility given that Mobile and its population of about 185,000 people in the city and a population of around 1.3 million people when the Pensacola and Fort Walton Beach, Florida areas are factored in means that Mobile is never going to get a National Basketball Association or a National Hockey League franchise.
Mayor Sandy Stimpson is hoping the new building can lure a minor league hockey team. The East Coast Hockey League, now known as the ECHL, had the Mobile Mysticks franchise as part of the circuit between 1995 and 2002. The franchise’s owners suspended operations after the 2001-2002 season ended because of financial difficulties. The ECHL has an affiliation with the National Hockey League and some ECHL players have ended up in the NHL. Another league, the SPHL operates as an independent league and has teams in Pensacola, Birmingham and Huntsville which are in close proximity to Mobile. Stimpson wants concerts in the new building and that could be a problem as nearby Biloxi casinos can pay performers more money than Alabama which has no casino gambling. Mobile will have a new taxpayers funded arena.
Mobile Civic Center
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