H-E-B Center Plans Summer Improvements for Arena's Retractable Seating

(Credit: Andy Nietupski/Texas Stars)

Saturday night's contest against the IceHogs was a sellout, according to the Stars. Texas sold standing room only seats for a regular season game, and that's definitely a good thing. However, a sellout ain't what it used to be at H-E-B Center. Since early February, the Stars have been down approximately 700 seats thanks to the closure of the west side retractable seating area.

The issue occurred during a busy weekend where the arena changed over from a Stars game to an Austin Spurs game and finally to a sold-out TobyMac concert. After 10 years of wear and tear, the seats in section 111 wouldn't come out when arena staff tried to move them.

Since that point, the entire end zone area has been closed. The retractable seats are a package deal for safety reasons. If you can't pull them all out, you can't pull any of them out.

The arena is absolutely working as hard as they can to get the area fixed, but the earliest quote any company could give them was mid-April. It turns out there are only two or three companies that do this kind of work in the US. So, the Stars are taking the opportunity to improve the seating in that area and ensure that they continue to innovate on the fan experience ten years into the life of the arena.

Of course, fans who had season tickets in the retractable area had to be relocated and not all of them are happy with their new placement. Many reached out to 100 Degree Hockey wondering what was going on with the seating area. Rest assured, the arena is working hard to ensure they will have a great place to sit next season and the bar top seating there now is just a temporary way to recoup some of the lost revenue from walk-up sales in the popular section that is now temporarily gone.

Team and arena officials have told 100 Degree Hockey that they expect to have detailed plans for the new retractable area within the coming month. We expect to be able to share those plans here soon.