ATHENS, Ga. — A drama ended Wednesday in Athens surrounding a new sports arena which was due to open last week, but got delayed because its fire alarms weren't working correctly.
The Athens-Clarke County Fire Marshal's office gave its blessing to the arena Wednesday afternoon.
Named for a car dealership, the Akins Ford Arena is a gleaming and still-slightly-under-construction monolith that will become a working hockey arena and concert venue. It will also house the reconstituted Georgia Music Hall of Fame, which closed in Macon more than a decade ago.
"The original plan was we were going to do a hockey game last week. Another one on Saturday," recalled Paul Cramer, president and CEO of the Classic Center in Athens. The new venue is attached to the east side of the downtown facility.
The games postponed last week were to be the first home games ever played by a new minor league professional hockey team called the Athens Rock Lobsters, the team named for the breakout hit of Athens’ most well-known party band, the B-52s.
"They picked the Rock Lobster because it's probably the biggest, most familiar song when people think of Athens," said Paul Butchart, a friend of the B-52s and an occasional music tour guide in Athens. "It's upbeat and up-tempo. Gets your feet moving."
The Athens Rock Lobsters have been playing only away games for weeks. Their home venue had been unusable pending the fire marshal’s approval, which came at midafternoon Wednesday.
"We’re doing this the right way. We’re going to put safety first," Cramer told 11Alive.
There was more at stake than the start of the hockey team’s season. There’s a concert scheduled there Saturday.
The certificate of occupancy will allow the B-52s to headline the new Athens arena’s first concert – and perhaps wash away the venue’s initial occupancy hiccup.
"There have been a couple of delays here along the way. But," Cramer said, "I think this will become a distant memory."