From ice to concert stage to basketball court, T-Mobile Arena is an elegant machine

By Jesse Granger

Monday, Aug. 14, 2017 | 2 a.m.

On Sept. 28, the Vegas Golden Knights host the Colorado Avalanche for a preseason NHL hockey game starting at 7 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena.

The next night, thousands of fans will be dancing to Imagine Dragons only an inch above 10,000 gallons of frozen water. Less than 24 hours later, Depeche Mode will take the same stage to entertain a new faction of fans.

Then the following day, the Golden Knights will be back on the ice as they take on the San Jose Sharks in the final preseason game of the year.

T-Mobile Arena will be the site for four events in four days, with three completely different floor setups, seat configurations and light fixtures, and it’s all in a weekend’s work for the stage hands at one of the busiest arenas in the country.

“They are the unsung heroes,” said Dan Quinn, vice president and general manager of T-Mobile Arena. “On event day, we’ll have upward of 1,000 people working on an event from food service to arena conversion, to cleaning, security and ushering. Most of them are never seen or acknowledged, but without them, none of the great experiences happen.”

That particular weekend in late September is only one example of the obstacle course of a schedule T-Mobile Arena workers will run through this fall. The arena houses the Professional Bull Riding World Finals in November — for which crews will drive 65 dump trucks into the arena to deliver 1,430 tons of dirt — as well as concerts, fight nights, hockey and basketball games.

Here’s how the state-of-the-art, $375 million arena transforms.

Crews

The employees who make all this magic happen are broken into two crews: the conversion crew and the stagehands.

Converters deal with structural items such as chairs, bleachers and guard rails, while the stagehands deal with more specific changes, like setting up stages, speakers and lights.

For simpler switches like one concert to another, it takes 30-40 conversion workers and 50-75 stagehands. More extensive changeovers take 50-60 conversion workers and up to 150 stagehands.

The crew’s speed will be tested again on New Year’s Eve. T-Mobile hosts UFC 219 the night of Dec. 30, and the Golden Knights face the Toronto Maple Leafs at 12:30 p.m. the following afternoon. The arena will have about 12 hours to make the switch.

Hockey

1. The boards around the edges of the rink are assembled, comprising 120 pieces of acrylic glass and 103 pieces of dasher boards covered in advertisements.

2. The cement (or ice slab) beneath is chilled to 16 degrees, and water is hand-sprayed in thin layers.

3. The first few layers are painted with the correct markings, then 8-10 thin layers are added on top.

Concert

The ice is covered with a 1-inch surface made of polymer and fiberglass — 530 4-by-8-foot slabs — but not until an extra layer of ice is added. The extra layer is in case beer or any other substance is spilled on the concert floor and seeps through to the ice. When it’s time for another hockey game, a Zamboni shaves off the top layer and the rink is ready to go.

Basketball

The court is made of a 266-piece wood puzzle stored in a climate-controlled room to prevent warping. Along with the hoops, basketballs, Gatorade buckets and shot clocks, the pieces are always kept at 70 degrees and 30 percent relative humidity.

Moving bleachers

It’s not just the arena floor that changes based on the event each night; the bleachers also transform to fit the occasion. Each row in the lower bowl has a hydraulic lift so the bleachers can be as steep or gradual as the arena requires.

For hockey, the rows are much steeper, while a basketball layout calls for a more gradual incline so the seats can stretch to the baselines. For concerts, the bleachers can fold completely vertical behind the stage to maximize floor space.

“We want to be a busy venue,” Quinn said. “We want to accommodate as many different types of events as possible, because it’s Vegas and we are the special event capital of the world. We never want a show to come in and say, ‘Oh, our show won’t fit in that venue.’ ”