Monday night the Charlotte City Council voted to spend $975,000 to buy new seats for Bojangles Coliseum.
Late last year, the City Council approved a plan to spend $15 million to renovate the 59 year old structure. The new seats are one of the first major purchases in that plan.
The contract, awarded to Michigan based American Seating Company, calls for new wider seats, but 6 percent fewer seats overall. The Charlotte Business Journalestimates a capacity crowd at the coliseum will now be 8,700 patrons.
The nearly $1 million purchase comes at a time when the city, which owns Bojangles Coliseum, is dealing with major budget shortfalls. The money for the new seats comes not from the Charlotte’s general fund, but from the hospitality and tourism tax and can only be spent by on projects such as this.
The renovation is also part of the agreement the city made with the Checkers, Charlotte’s minor league hockey team. Beginning next season the Checkers will play their home games at Bojangels, something they haven’t done since 2005.
