Houston Chronicle: Rocket's downtown arena starts to take shape

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/1586164

Sept. 23, 2002, 1:00AM

Rocket's downtown arena starts to take shape
By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle

There have been days when George Postolos has had to strap on a hard hat and climb inside the skeleton frame that will become the Rockets' new arena. Some decisions require an up-close vantage point.

For formal occasions, he has happily played chief operating officer/tour guide. When Yang Jiechi -- or to be more precise, His Excellency Yang Jiechi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of the People's Republic of China to the United States -- came to town to visit his new favorite team, Postolos could have handed him the usual 10-gallon hat and boots. Instead, he placed him in the slightly less clichéd construction worker's headgear to visit Yao Ming's future home.

But eight days ago, Postolos did not need to be anywhere. He could have hit the snooze alarm or a golf course. But Postolos found himself on his bicycle, pedaling through downtown before the sun could rise above the arena's taller neighbors to watch the workers move the Rockets' future home a day closer to opening.

"I like to see it as frequently as possible," Postolos said, not the least bit embarrassed to have his eagerness found out. "If we had a house with a view of it, that would be even better."

Mrs. Postolos need not begin packing. If he plays Lance Armstrong going through downtown next September -- by Sept. 1, he is certain -- Postolos will be heading to work behind his desk in the new arena. In roughly a year, the lights will go on, a crowd will cheer, and the $202 million arena will host its first event. (The exact date depends on concert tour schedules.)

"We have a real strong desire not just to finish -- not just to finish on time and on budget and with the right minority participation -- but to see the downtown arena as our crown jewel of our three new arenas," Harris County-Houston Sports Authority chief operating officer Oliver Luck said. "Minute Maid Park and Reliant Stadium came first. The downtown arena is different because this will light up downtown 175, 200 nights a year."

This month, Postolos said, marks the start of the "second half" of the construction of the last of Houston's three sports venue "jewels." By October, an arena general manager will be in place. By the end of the year, the exterior and roof will be complete, allowing the work that must be safe from the weather to begin.

A title sponsor will give the arena a name. The Rockets will move from outposts at Compaq Center, Greenway Plaza and Westside Tennis Club to offices and training facilities under one roof. The years of politicking, planning and building will have ended, and a new era will begin.

But for now, the Rockets watch almost obsessively as their future home moves from ideas and plans to an increasingly easy-to-picture reality.

"Things are going great," Postolos said. "What we have left to do is basically the second half of the construction project. That's great, because we've accomplished a lot of things. We know what the building is going to look like and how it's going to take shape. Now, we have to finish."

Postolos and Luck said the project is on time and on budget. Much of the concrete work was completed ahead of schedule. Work on the arena's exterior began last week, providing a greater sense of how the building will look from the outside.

The project has moved past the skeleton to the skin, with the flesh and finally the nervous system to follow. But as Postolos' weekend rides attest, as much as those closest to the project revel in each step, they don't need to see the concrete and girders transform into an arena to grow excited.

Still, every examination offers confirmation that the ideas that looked good on paper will show up as planned on the east side of downtown.

"When you go to the design process, you tell the architect we want the bowl as tight as possible," said Rockets vice president David Carlock, who oversees the project. "These are the design objectives. When it comes to how the bowl feels, you can look at drawings for hundreds of hours -- and believe me, we have -- but it's not until you put on your hard hat and walk through there that you get a sense of whether you succeeded. A couple of weeks ago, we were able to do that for the first time. It was very gratifying because the bowl feels even tighter than I at first had hoped."

Carlock and Postolos often talk about that lower bowl. With the 92 luxury suites between the upper deck and lower bowl, rather than in the middle of the lower deck as had become vogue in the previous generation of arenas, a larger percentage of fans than those in any other NBA arena will sit in the lower bowl.

The Rockets were determined to place the main concourses on the street level. And by digging into the ground and placing the court level 32 feet below grade, money could be spent inside the arena rather than on a towering exterior facade.

But that much was determined in the design process. The next steps might better determine the long-term success of the arena. Many arenas earn raves on opening night. No matter what the place looks like, raves turn to complaints if the parts of the arena that affect the customer are not right.

"What I get the `wow' from right now is not the one thing, but it's explaining to someone what we've done to enhance the guest experience," Carlock said. "It's a large lower bowl, but the geometry is such we pulled it in as tight as we can. We approached this by asking, `What are the most important things when someone comes into an arena? How convenient is it? Do I have to do anything arduous to get in or out of the building? How comfortable is my seat? How wide is my seat? How long a line do I have to wait at the restrooms? How long a line do I have to wait to get a hot dog?'

"Those are the things we prioritize. Those things are not necessarily sizzle. We have a lot of sizzle to talk about. But those are what's important to us."

For the promised "sizzle," Postolos points to the scoreboard planned for the center of the arena.

"One of the biggest differences in attending an event at Compaq Center and attending an event at the new arena is going to be the center-hung scoreboard," he said. "All the things you can do really change the experience of watching a game. It gives you a reference point to deliver and frame and really present the game.

"We're going to have a scoreboard that will have twice the resolution (and with only a few exceptions, three or four times the resolution) of any scoreboard in the NBA."

But Carlock said to make sure the arena more than just looks good, he and his staff have sought to examine the details that make a big difference to everyone from the guy who washes the uniforms to the promoters who put on rock concerts. A meeting in Chicago determined the loading-dock ramps would make setting up concerts far too difficult and put the arena at a disadvantage in competing for the top acts. The ramps were redesigned.

Meetings with other team officials warned of mistakes. One arena did not place cooking facilities throughout the arena. Another warned about having too many entrances and exits to man. In Dallas, the team had no convenient path from the locker room to the court and has taken to ducking and snaking its way under the stands.

The Rockets borrowed the idea of ledge dining, offering food service with a view of the court, from Boston and Miami. There will be "bunker suites" underneath the stands similar to those in Atlanta. Like Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, the practice court will have street-level windows to allow fans to watch workouts.

"We've been able to go out and look at what everybody else has done," Carlock said. "There are other great organizations out there, the Astros and Texans included, and we want to take advantage of what they've done well and what they tell us they wish they'd done differently."

Said Postolos: "Much more than other facilities, we've been able to get details in place, settled early. That's been an advantage. I think it's always the case that the more time you have, the better the facility gets. As we've gotten closer, we've continued to make some improvements."

Postolos said even the pursuit of a title sponsor can be helped by the time during which the Rockets had to wait to build their arena -- and the lottery luck that will bring them Yao and a new spotlight.

"The drafting of Yao Ming and the impact that has had and the way people think about our assets has added an international dimension we didn't have before," Postolos said. "People think our audience in Asia could add significantly to whatever any traditional naming-rights opportunity could deliver. Our team will receive incredible attention not only in China but all across Asia. We've already had people that a year ago would not have had any interest in any NBA team express interest in us.

"It's the last major naming opportunity in Houston probably for three decades and one of the few major markets with a new building launching and an opportunity to name an arena. You've got people interested in naming an arena in general. But I think it will end up a company that is interested in the international aspects."

Postolos could not give a timetable for christening the arena, but it will have a name before it has a schedule. He said he did not necessarily favor opening the arena next September with a concert featuring an attraction with local ties or with the biggest act making the rounds. He would rather settle on both, and everything in between, over the course of weeks of grand openings.

"You want to be opportunistic," Postolos said. "It's often driven by what's out there. What's even more important is making the broader point to the community that this is for everybody. It's much more than sports. It's much more than any particular type of music. We want a broad array of events in the first month. You need some way to show it off as well as possible."

By then, the Rockets will be starting the business of basketball. The move is scheduled to begin during the summer. But like Postolos, the team is not waiting to check out its new digs.

"For all of us to be in the same building is very exciting," general manager Carroll Dawson said. "(Westside) has been a huge help. It's been a lifesaver. But this is going to be great. I go downtown a lot. And I always make sure to drive by and take a look."

At intersections, chief operating officers on bicycles get the right of way.