The Chevy’s ‘Super Bowl’

Chevy Centre Prep

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Preparing for the upcoming Pavlik vs. Rubio fight presents a challenge while the Chevy Centre will also continue playing host to the Mahoning Valley Phantoms.

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By David Skolnick

Center staff will work feverishly to get arena in shape for fight

YOUNGSTOWN — The staff at the Chevrolet Centre will do its best impersonation of a quick-change artist in the upcoming days.

Hosting Kelly Pavlik’s middleweight boxing championship fight Saturday in front of the center’s largest crowd — as well as thousands of others watching it on pay-per-view — and pre-fight events on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday post a big enough challenge.

Throwing in Mahoning Valley Phantoms hockey games on Thursday and Friday nights requiring the staff to install and dismantle the center’s ice hockey set-up a number of times, and at a much quicker pace than usual, leaves little room for delays.

“This is our Super Bowl, and it’s sandwiched between several other events,” said Eric Ryan, the center’s executive director. “The preparation is unlike anything we’ve seen before and may never see again. It’s fun. I wish we were always this busy. This event is the buzz of this town.”

The Thursday press conference with Pavlik, the WBO/WBC champion, and Marco Antonio Rubio, his opponent for Saturday’s fight, is supposed to end around 2 p.m.

Shortly after the press conference, center workers will get the floor ready for a Phantoms’ game and a 5:30 p.m. “learn to skate” program with the team.

About 700 sheets of compressed fiber board, each weighing about 30 to 40 pounds, that cover the ice as well as dozens of much smaller pieces that fill in gaps between the larger boards, will be removed, said Brandon Bucar, the center’s assistant director and its director of facilities.

The crew will also install the hockey boards around the rink as well as the goals and safety nets.

A regular crew of 12 workers normally does this work in four to five hours, Bucar said. Not having the luxury of time, the center will have 50 working on the job that he hopes will be done in two hours, he said.

Also, the center typically uses one Zamboni to clean and repair the ice; a job that takes about 90 minutes. The plan on Thursday is to use two Zamboni machines to get the work done in 45 minutes.

If all goes according to plan, transforming the arena from a press conference set-up to a hockey rink should take 2 hours and 45 minutes.

That’s only 45 minutes before the “learn to skate” program, assuming the press conference ends at the expected time.

“We’ll be working diligently,” Bucar said. “We love the challenge. We want to do our best because this is prestigious event for the Valley and the arena. This is the largest event we’ve ever had.”

After Thursday’s Phantoms game, expected to end around 9:30 p.m., the center crew will cover the ice with the fiber boards, take down the nets, remove the hockey glass on the west side of the arena, and get the facility ready for Friday’s official weigh-in.

That includes placing a stage and setting up about 100 chairs on the west side of the arena, as well as hanging a curtain behind the stage and additional lights above it.

Top Rank, promoting the fight and selling it on pay-per-view, arrives at 5 a.m. Friday to put together the 40-foot by 40-foot light structure that will hang over the boxing ring. The 16-piece structure with 200 1,000-watt bulbs takes seven hours to install.

Also, Top Rank will erect camera platforms in Sections 210 and 215, and two giant-screen televisions, on the west and east sides of the building, that will show the Pavlik fight as well as the main event at a Madison Square Garden boxing card that night, Bucar said.

Once the weigh-in is complete, the floor will be lifted again and the facility will be prepared for Friday’s Phantoms game.

After that game, a great deal of work will be done to get the center ready for Saturday’s boxing event, Bucar said.

The ice again will be covered.

The hockey team boxes and penalty boxes will be removed.

That work should be done by 3:30 a.m. Saturday, Bucar said.

Top Rank employees will begin constructing the ring at 6 a.m. and finish it in about two hours.

Then center employees will place the 1,600 ringside seats on the floor, as well as remove portions of the hockey dasher boards that will allow those with ringside tickets to get on the floor, Bucar said.

The set-up for the fight will be done by a staff of about 12 to 14 workers.

“We have more time and there’s the burnout factor with people working here for their third straight day,” Bucar said.

The seats will be cleaned as will the locker rooms used by the fighters and the community room, site of the post-fight press conference, he said.

On Saturday afternoon, center officials, along with members of the Youngstown fire prevention department, will inspect the center to make sure the set-up is in compliance with local and state fire codes, Bucar said. Also, Dana Drissen, the center’s event coordinator and head of group sales, will check that every seat that’s supposed to be in the arena is where it should be.

The center should be ready for the fight card at 5 p.m., two hours before the doors open to the public, Bucar said.

Bucar expects to be at the center around the clock.

“I probably won’t sleep until Monday,” he said.

The center will employ 25 ushers, 30 security workers, 10 uniformed police officers, six ticket takers and two guest-service greeters, Drissen said.

In comparison, a typical event at the center has 10 ushers, eight to 18 security workers, two to four uniformed police officers, three to four ticket takers and one guest-service greeter, she said.

Those attending Saturday’s event won’t have to go far for food, liquid refreshments and Pavlik merchandise.

The center has four permanent concession locations and typically has four other free-standing stands, said Mark Daigle, the facility’s food/beverage director.

For Saturday’s card, there will be about 30 free-standing concession stands, he said.

“In this town, this is the biggest thing in the world,” Daigle said of the Pavlik fight.

During the fight, Drissen will “make sure everyone is happy with where they’re sitting, addressing complaints and making this experience as enjoyable as possible” for fans.

“It’s long hours, but that’s the nature of the business,” she said. “We’re up for the challenge. ...This is definitely a lot more intense than normal, but we’ll get through it.”

When that first bell rings around 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Bucar said he’ll finally relax, somewhat.

“When you see the expression on a fan’s face, you feel you’ve done your job,” he said. “It’s going to be really rewarding to see this event come through. Youngstown will shine that night.”

After the show ends, the 1,600 chairs have to moved, which will take 45 minutes, in order for Top Rank to get the ring, overhead lights and the two giant-screen TVs out of the arena, he said.

“In a perfect world,” all the disassembly work will be done by about 5 a.m. Sunday, Bucar said.

It’s then back to hockey.

The center will start getting the center ready about 2 p.m. Monday for hockey. The Phantoms are playing a game at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

skolnick@vindy.com