Pensacola’s survey on residents’ opinions on the future of the Pensacola Bay Center showed strong support for adding a convention center but weaker support for adding a dedicated ice rink facility.
The survey is part of the city’s own feasibility study into the future of the Bay Center and surrounding area that Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves commissioned as the city and county consider partnering on modernizing the 41-year-old arena.
The online questionnaire had 1,907 responses that showed 72.95% of respondents supported adding a convention center to the Bay Center complex, with 48.09% saying they strongly support it and 24.86% saying they support it. The convention center had the smallest opposition as well, with 12.27% of respondents saying they opposed it. The survey said 14.79% of respondents were neutral on the idea.
Adding an indoor sports complex also had majority support, with 54.11% saying they support it, with 28.21% choosing “strongly support” and 25.9% chosing “support” in the survey’s responses. The indoor sports complex also had higher opposition, with 18.04% saying they opposed the idea.
The ice rink was the most polarizing of all the options given in the survey. The ice rink only had 46.67% in support, with 35.19% strongly supporting it. It also had the highest number opposed at 30.57%.
Pensacola hired WT Partnership, an international project consulting firm, for $110,000 to conduct a feasibility study into the future of the Bay Center and the surrounding area. The study, which included the survey results, was released on March 10.
The survey isn’t a scientific poll, but rather the answers of the 1,907 people who chose to respond. Only about 16,000 email accounts associated with city residents initially received the link to the survey. The city later put the link to the survey out on its social media accounts.
Demographics released with the survey show that the majority of responses, at 52.54%, came from millennials and younger, with 28.84% aged 35-44, 19.4% aged 25-34, 3.99% aged 18-24 and 0.31% under 18.
Reeves said at his weekly press conference on March 10 that he was surprised by the clear preference shown in the survey for the conference center.
“If I was predicting before it came out, I probably would have guessed that order, but I was actually kind of surprised by the significance of the difference between the clear one, two, three,” Reeves said. “If you look at that, any way you cut those numbers, I don’t think you can debate that that’s the order.”
Escambia County is considering renovating and expanding the Bay Center to include modern amenities and potential additions such as a convention center, an indoor sports facility and an indoor ice rink. Altogether, the updates would cost an estimated $189 million.
Escambia County wouldn’t be able to fund the complete project on its own. Commissioners have discussed the possibility of bonding at least $75 million from the tourist development tax.
The Escambia County Commission and the Pensacola City Council are expected to hold a joint meeting to discuss how they could partner on the future of the Bay Center.
The WT Partnership study will be presented to the Pensacola City Council on April 6 ahead of the joint meeting with Escambia County on April 16.
Reeves said he believes it’s possible for a conference center and indoor sports facility to share the space in some way, as envisioned by the county’s concept.
Reeves said the survey is only a small part of the entire study.
“(WT is) bringing lots of expertise and best practices and different formats from all over,” Reeves said. “They don’t make a recommendation that I’ve seen and there’s a lot of pages, but they don’t say this is the way you should do it. All they’re doing is presenting the results and letting, the city and county decide how they want to interpret.”
While the study doesn’t make a recommendation, it does conclude that a convention center would have the highest economic and tourism impact, followed by an indoor sports complex and an ice rink, bringing “limited regional draw and highest subsidy requirement.”
The study also suggests looking into whether incorporating the Technology Park being offered for a hotel lease would generate more interest from developers.
Reeves said he’s open to the idea and believes there’s a way to continue to use the Tech Park for its original purpose, but also incorporate it into a Bay Center expansion.
“That’s city and county-owned property over there, and so the decision of the direction of that ultimately lands with the city and county,” Reeves said. “So looking forward to talking to county commissioners about that and city council members, and see where that goes.”
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola residents want convention center, not ice rink, at Bay Center
Reporting by Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
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