ATHENS — Finally, the Athens professional hockey team can play in front of the home crowd.
Akins Ford Arena, at the Classic Center downtown, was issued a temporary certificate of occupancy on Wednesday, said Doug Hansford, director of the Athens-Clarke County Building Inspection Department.
The hockey team, the Rock Lobsters, is set to play its first home game on Friday, a week later than planned. The B-52s, the band whose hit song inspired the team’s name, are slated to play a show there Saturday.
The Rock Lobsters are off to a 9-2 start in their first season despite playing every game on the road. The team was also forced to practice more than an hour away in Cumming as construction on the arena dragged on.
Frustration mounted last week.
The arena was not issued a certificate of occupancy because the fire alarm system installation was not completed and could not pass safety tests, Athens fire marshal Richard Vaughn said. The home-opener, scheduled for last Friday, and two games were postponed.
“To have to turn away a sold-out crowd and postpone what was to be a defining moment for our organization and the city of Athens is heartbreaking,” said Scott Hull, the team’s vice president, in a statement last Friday. “This delay doesn’t just affect our operations; it compromises the trust we’ve worked so hard to build with our community. With almost half the season now impacted, the implications of this delay are deeply troubling.”
The 30-day temporary certificate of occupancy will become permanent when repairs or changes are finished, Hansford said.
“The things left are not life-safety items, so it’s safe to occupy,” he said. “In the case of the arena, they’re putting solar panels on the roof, so things like that are not yet completed.”
Originally, the cost of constructing the arena was estimated at $90 million. By 2022, when construction began after multiple delays, inflationary labor and the price of raw materials raised the cost to $151 million. The money came from public and private funding.
The arena will have a capacity upward of 8,500 for concerts and 5,500 for hockey games.
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