On Tuesday July 18, students from the Point Park University Interactive Multimedia camp toured the PPG Paints Arena to get a behind the scenes look.

The tour began by meeting Tom McMillan, the chief of communications and a graduate of Point Park University.  He started by bringing the group into the stands and giving some basic history of the building.

The PPG Paints Arena is 7 years old with specific architectural designs to pay homage to Pittsburgh.  For example, the ceiling is not finished to represent Pittsburgh’s industrial past.  

There are even representations in the small details.  The seating signs are brown to represent industry, three lines to represent three rivers, and glass to represent the ice.

The arena is color coded because Pittsburgh is one of the few cities where all three teams are the same color.  This way, the arena looks like a truly Pittsburgh arena.

When the arena was built seven years ago, to had to fit within a city block.  As a result architects were forced to get creative.  They ended up giving fans a reverse view of the city skyline.  

The media box is able to seat 175 people during the playoffs and 125 during the regular season.

Suite 66 is the lounge were companies can take their clients.  It’s located right across from the locker room so clients can see the players as the head out onto the ice.  It also provides 22 seats at the ice level.  It’s dedicated to Mario Lemieux and the display cases house his personal trophies.

The arena hosts roughly 160 events a year.  As a result the arena has to have a great team of about 400 people to be able to transform the place from a hockey arena to a concert arena in one night.