NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – It’s been two months since a massive water leak flooded Bridgestone Arena and crews have been working around the clock to repair the damage.
Water poured through the arena the morning after thanksgiving, causing millions of dollars in damage and postponing games for up to three days.
Two months later, the games go on, but the recovery is far from over.
News 2’s Blake Eason was the first reporter on the scene that morning and recently had a chance to go behind the scenes at the arena to get an update on the repairs made.
The main areas impacted by the flood were some elevators, much of the control room operations, and the Lexus Lounge, a VIP viewing experience for fans.
Jacob Lutz, the Director of Technical Operations, said getting the arena back to game day shape has been an all hands on deck effort.
“I had a guy on my staff cut his vacation short and there is hundreds of stories like that throughout the entire organization to get us back moving,” Lutz said.
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Lutz showed the scope of the damage two months later and the work-around he and his team have had to come up with to continue the season.
One of the hardest hit areas of the arena was the technical operations center, which essentially serves as the nucleus of the facility and helps drives the operations from an audio-video standpoint for the arena.
“Our server room, our main technical operations center took a massive massive massive hit were currently using less than 10-15% of the infrastructure than we originally had, we’ve offloaded on to temporary spaces to get up and running and that’s a massive project to get done,” Lutz said.
Many of the L-E-D screens, speakers, and sound systems also had water damage and needed to be repaired. In areas where ceiling tiles are missing is where water was once rushing from the roof.
Because of the damage, Lutz said temporary production trucks have been brought in to make sure the game experience still meets the Predators standards.
“We have not hindered, we have not changed, we’ve not altered the fan experience,” Lutz said. “Smashville is still a great place to come and still a great game to go to. Still one of the best experiences in the NHL. We’re really proud of what we’ve done, what we’ve been able to do with the resources and the cards we’ve been dealt.”
The repairs will continue throughout the arena for the next few months.
Lutz says the goal is to have much of the repairs complete by opening night for the 2023-2024 season in October.