The new Pinnacle Bank Arena will feature seats that are 20 inches wide, making the seats slightly roomier than the seats at Omaha's Qwest Center.
The seats at the Qwest Center are 19 inches wide.
The increased size will provide arena visitors more comfort, but the extra inch is also intended as part of an overall effort to improve on the experience offered at the Qwest Center.
"We are always looking for ways to make the experience at the new Pinnacle Bank Arena as good as it can be," said Dan Marvin, project manager for the West Haymarket Joint Public Agency (JPA). "Creating roomier seats is just one of the many ways we plan to do that."
Dan Marvin also said that planners were looking into increasing the tread depth of all upper seating to 35 inches. Tread depth refers to the distance between the front edge of a seat to the front edge of the seat in the row in front of it. If you've ever had trouble moving through rows of seats at a theater or stadium, you've experienced the problems with low tread depth.
Unfortunately, the City couldn't justify the additional $2 million of investment that a change to 35 inches would have required, which would have added an additional 8 feet of length to the arena. Instead, tread depth will be 33 inches, which is in line with other new arenas and far better than standard bleacher seating tread depth, which is only 24 inches.
