By Tyler Penney [1]
BELLEVILLE – It’s time for hockey fans in Belleville to get excited; renovations to the Yardmen Arena [2] to accommodate the Belleville Senators [3] are well underway.
The main upgrade to the Yardmen will be increased seating. The renovations will bring the arena’s capacity up to 4,400 from 3,217, withe majority of the new seats int he arena’s north end.
Much of the seating expansion was made possible by reducing the ice surface from Olympic-size to a narrower NHL size. The Olympic-size ice that Yardmen had in the past was 12 feet wider than an NHL ice surface.
Other improvements include a 9,000-square-foot home-team dressing room, a 1,000-square-foot dressing room for visiting teams, a new refrigeration system and a new score clock.
The work is being done by Ball Construction of Kitchener, Ont. City council awarded the contract to the company in November, and construction work started on Dec. 5.
Members of the media will get their first look at the renovations during a tour Friday morning. More to come.