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Tennessee releases details for Food City Center offseason renovations

On3 imageby:Brent Hubbs•about 9 hours•

Brent_Hubbs

Tennessee Food City Center

At the conclusion of spring graduations at the University of Tennessee, the Food City Center at Thompson-Boring Arena is getting an interior face lift. On Friday, Tennessee released renderings and details of the renovations which is expected to cost in the neighborhood of $85 million. 

The inside face lift will feature a new center-hung scoreboard as well as four new video boards in the corners of the arena. There will be a new sound system installed as well as a new 360-degree LED ribbon board.

The new sound system will feature high-performance speaker arrays to provide an even distribution of sound levels. The new system will also expand the sound coverage in premium suite areas and include new concourse and restroom speakers throughout the venue. 

The biggest part and cost of the project will be the creation of the new Riverside Club in the lower level of the arena behind the lower bowl. That area is now an open space where for years television trucks and other production vehicles parked for events. 

According to Tennessee’s release on the project, approximately 1,500 seats in this area will now have access to a club area that will offer various food and beverage options and an area for socializing before the game or during halftime.

“We are incredibly proud to have the best fan base in all of sports,” Tennessee athletics director Danny White stated in the release, “and we will always put their experience first. We are fully committed to making continuous improvements.

“The new additions to Food City Center will modernize the arena and significantly enhance the experience for everyone attending our events.”

The interior renovations particularly the creation of the Riverside Club is a vision White has had really since his arrival in Knoxville.

“I think the facility has great bones and can have a long shelf live for us, but it needs some work,” White told Volquest in 2022. “We have some work to do aesthetically with the exterior. There’s a huge opportunity with the unfinished part of the arena. I think it might be the only arena in the country where you can drive a TV truck into it which is not necessary.

“So that huge area on the riverside of the arena in the unfinished part behind the seats I think there’s a great opportunity to do some premium stuff there and create a better fan experience. Audio/visual like we have done in football, needs to get much better there. It’s on our radar. So there’s a lot of things we can do.”

Tennessee stated that the renovations were a key part of the multi-year naming-rights agreement with longtime Tennessee Athletics corporate champion Food City in 2023.

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