Guide to the Scottrade
Center: An arena as popular as ours relies on an outstanding team
and streamlined systems to keep everything running smoothly. From Guest
Services to Concessions, we have thought of every last detail in our strive
to make the Scottrade Center a top-notch destination. Explore our history,
read up on our latest developments, and learn all the details necessary
to make sure your trip to the Scottrade Center is the best possible.
To make ice, the floor is chilled to
24 degrees and then a thin sheet of water is poured over the
floor. This process is repeated every 20 minutes until a ¾"
sheet of ice is made. It takes approximately 12-18 hours to
make a ¾" sheet of ice. When 1/3 of the ice thickness is
completed, white paint is coated over the ice. When 2/3 of the
ice is frozen, the lines and logos are painted onto the ice,
then the final 1/3 is laid. During hockey season the ice is
left down and is covered with a Styrofoam insulated plastic-coated
floor and the basketball floor or concert is placed on top.
For the circus the ice is removed and then re-made after the
final performance.
Icy
Facts:
An average of 50,000 gallons of water
are used annually to form the ice floor.
This is more water than is contained
in four standard-size swimming pools.
The ice rink floor features more than
13 miles of one-inch steel piping.
The floor has over 2,200 welds in the
solid concrete slab.
WHAT
IS A CHANGE OVER?
A change over is the physical alteration of the building from
one event to another. The change can be simple or it can be
dynamic.
For instance, the most difficult change over is from hockey
to bullriding and back to hockey, due to the dirt inside the
building. If the hockey ice is left down, a layer of insulation
is placed on the floor over the ice. Plastic is placed on the
insulation to cover the floor and the first two rows of seats.
Next a wooden floor is placed on top of the plastic. Seventy
to eighty dump trucks bring in seven to eight hundred cubic
yards of dirt. A hay spreader is used to insulate the floor
with hay underneath to stop the dirt from sticking to the boards.
The track, pens and shoots are built and installed. The track
is ready for competition in six to eight hours.
After the two-day event, cleaning the dirt out is a time-consuming
process. Loaders come inside the building to push the dirt into
piles, with dump trucks carrying the dirt out one load at a
time. Then fire hoses and scrubbers are brought in to wash the
dirt down the drains. Next, a contractor makes sure all the
drains are clear. This process is done overnight with the drain
cleaning lasting two to three days.
Many times St. Louis Blues Hockey games and non-hockey events
fall on the same day. These quick change overs allow approximately
three hours between events. Changing from hockey to basketball
is more difficult than the reverse because the basketball
floor is more difficult to lay down than it is to pull up.
It takes a minimum of two hours to complete a hockey to basketball
changeover, using 13 maintenance workers and 40-50 call-in laborers.
Over 100 cleaners are employed to clean the building during
the 2-3 hours between events – a job that normally takes eight
hours.
