The ESA needs to be completely renovated. It's one of the oldest arenas in the NBA, which says something because it still isn't all that old. When Sacramento either builds a new arena for the Kings, or moves to Seattle, and the Warriors open their new arena in San Francisco, it'll be the fifth oldest - and Milwaukee is seriously in jeopardy of losing the Bucks because their arena, which is only three-years older than ours, is considered too outdated.
Sooner or later, we'll either have to radically renovate the arena or plan on constructing a new one to placate the NBA, which loves 'em some luxury boxes (and the ESA only has a solid floor of 'em, nothing near the level of current NBA arenas).
My guess is that we'll renovate before constructing a new one because the ESA is still in fairly good shape. But the renovation should also include bringing part of the arena up to the street. I hate how it sits back in a plaza doesn't interact with the street at all.
In Phoenix, at US Airways Center, which opened the same year as the ESA, they made some heavy renovations that I'd love here:
A nice plaza, but you can see they brought some of the arena up to the street. Imagine the ESA fronting 300 West like that - with a huge enclosed concourse with new restaurants and bars (that could be open at night, even when a game isn't happening).
So, I'd like to see something like this (and ignore the shoddiness, you get the idea):
Granted, you'd have to move the Stockton & Malone statues, though move 'em to the area off North Temple, which could act as a true entrance to the arena. Then build a new jumbotron that is actually at the level of a NBA team.
But I'm not going to lie, I hate the ESA. I love the interior, the way the fans are on top of the court, but the exterior is absolutely ugly. It's always been ugly. It's cold, boxy and doesn't interact at all with the area.
I'm jealous of the arena they built in Orlando (replacing their old arena, which was not much older than the ESA):
But the Miller Family can do renovations that changes much of the boxy shape and allows for it to feel like, you know, a basketball arena and not some suburban office building.
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