The new arena at the Classic Center has a name, and so does a minor-league hockey team that will serve as its anchor tenant. Now all that’s left is to put the finishing touches on the arena itself.
The Classic Center announced a 10-year, $6 million naming rights deal with Akins Ford on Aug. 20. In May, the Federal Prospects League team that will play its home games at Akins Ford Arena announced the results of a fan vote: It will be known as the Rock Lobsters, after the 1978 hit by Athens legends the B-52s, defeating several other options like the Classic City Panic (for another world-famous Athens band, Widespread Panic).
But while Rock Lobsters head coach Steve Martinson is a self-professed B-52s fan via its early videos on MTV, “Rock Lobster” is not his hype song of choice. “We always play this at home,” he said at a fan meet-and-greet last month, as a DJ cued up Nazareth’s “Hair of the Dog” (“Now you’re messing with/ A son of a bitch!”). “Think of us when you hear that.”
Unsurprisingly, the man who set the Eastern Hockey League record for most minutes in the penalty box plans to play a physical style. Like any old-school football coach, he believes defense wins championships. And like every football coach in the SEC, he knows that speed kills.
While Martinson acknowledged that the Bulldogs are “the pride of the town,” there are a lot of similarities between football and hockey, he told a crowd of hundreds at Terrapin Brewery after being introduced as the Rock Lobsters’ coach in July. “People who like football like to see skill, and they like to see physicality.”
Although the Rock Lobsters are new, FPHL Commissioner Don Kirnan has said he expects them to compete for the league championship right away. “I have no intention of starting out with a losing team,” Martinson said. “I want to go into every game expecting to win every game.”
At the time, Martinson was still in the process of signing players, but even though he had never set foot in Athens before that day, he already knew the city was going to make recruiting easier. “They’re going to like living here,” he said, then joking: “That gives me a little power, too, because I can threaten to trade them.”
The arena construction project has been beset by cost overruns and other delays, so the team will play its first dozen games on the road before debuting at Akins Ford Arena on Dec. 6. Eight days later, the B-52s will come out of retirement to christen the arena’s stage.
The $151 million project’s cost has doubled since its inception in 2018. In 2020, Athens voters approved a package of sales tax-funded projects that included $33 million for the arena, which was somewhat controversial at the time and nearly left off the list. The rest of the funding comes from municipal bonds backed by private sources of revenue, such as naming rights, ticket fees, parking, concessions and leasing government-owned land around the arena (located off Willow Street near the Multimodal Center) for private development. Atlanta-based Mallory & Evans is planning a new entertainment district surrounding the arena, including apartments, a hotel, a parking deck, restaurants and bars, similar to The Battery around Truist Park in Cobb County.
Classic Center Executive Director Paul Cramer “can get blood out of a turnip, and he can get blue out of a Ford,” Akins Ford owner Brad Akins joked at the naming rights announcement.
Cramer said Akins Ford was chosen because it has a history of giving back to the community, and the 400-employee dealership’s market reach is similar to the arena’s. Akins Ford previously sponsored UGA’s club hockey team when it played at the Classic Center’s Grand Hall in a temporary rink with removable bleachers. “Brad had the courage to believe in the [Classic Center] when literally no one else did,” Cramer said.
In addition to hockey and concerts, the arena will host ice shows and other family-friendly events, large conventions and high school sports tournaments. With a capacity of 8,500 for concerts, it will not compete with much smaller local venues like the Georgia Theatre. But it is expected to draw more popular artists, as well as visitors from Metro Atlanta and as far away as North and South Carolina. The arena is expected to create 600 jobs and a $30 million yearly economic impact. “The impact of this facility will be felt in every corner of the community,” said Jennifer Zwirn, chair of the Classic Center Authority, its mayor and commission-appointed governing board.
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