I just wanted to share with you a bit more insight into what we have planned for our innovative Sonic Rings. As we highlighted in our blog post that accompanied the initial renderings, the thought process behind the Rings was really twofold:
1. To create flexible capacity that would help insure the feeling of intimacy in the building and
2. To create a superior experience and viewing angles for our lower priced tickets
As can be seen in these first four pictures, the design of these levels will allow us to open or close each Sonic Ring separately and thus modularly add capacity for events as needed, while effectively hiding the empty space and making the building feel super intimate given the steepness of the building and vertical stacking of the rings. Again, each Ring will have approximately 800-900 fixed seats, with drink rails and standing room behind them to accommodate another 700-1500 patrons per level.
This second set of pictures show what we picture the atmosphere to be like up here. As many sporting fans would attest, it’s a little tougher to drag ourselves out to a game in this era of HDTV and the fun and casual experience offered by bars, restaurants, and even our own homes. With this in mind, we have tried to create a unique game-watching experience that combines a fun, social environment with stellar viewing angles not offered in any other arena upper deck.
In addition to what is shown in the pictures here, we also plan on having several different themes on each ring, ranging from sports bar style environments and areas dedicated to “super fans” craving few distractions, to family-themed areas catering to young Sonics fans that still have a hard time sitting in their seats for two hours.
But most of all we just really hope our fans appreciate the thoughtfulness that we put into trying to create what we think will unquestionably be not only the most unique building in the NBA… but also one specifically tailored to our unique culture and fans.
And I would just like to take the opportunity to encourage all of you who have not done so already to take the time to sign up for our Priority Ticket Waitlist. We will be closing the Waitlist on April 1 at 1pm, and announcing the results shortly thereafter. While we really appreciate all of the support and are thrilled with the success thus far, we just want to make sure all of our true fans have taken the opportunity to sign up and get their name on the list before we close it.
I really can’t say thank you enough for all the support. As we head toward what is hopefully the finish line, I would just like to say what an amazing experience this has been. It’s your passion that has inspired me to press ahead as hard as I have, and it’s something I will be forever grateful for.
— Chris Hansen