Dunkin’ Donuts center transforms for variety of events
By Bianca Buono
@BBuonoABC6
The Dunkin’ Donuts Center is home to Providence College basketball, the Providence Bruins, as well as a wide variety of shows. There’s a ton of work that goes into making sure the Dunk is ready to go as it transforms from one event to the next.
A sold out crowd filled up the Dunkin’ Donuts Center Tuesday night as the Providence College basketball team took the floor. The game finished around 10:30 p.m. but the night was just getting started at the venue.
"Once the game ends, we go into our changeover mode where we bring in 22 workers and they’re responsible for taking the basketball floor up and prepping the building for whatever the next event is,” said General Manager Lawrence Lepore.
In this case, it’s a comedy show and after that a Providence Bruins hockey game.
"Go to a new venue that’s just a few years old that has not a seasoned work force and watch them struggle with events like this because it’s difficult work. It’s hard to figure out how to do it right,” said Lepore.
But this crew is full of seasoned pros and Lepore says they are the lifeline of the 44-year-old venue.
"There are times that we’ve had basketball on a Saturday at noontime and played hockey at 7 o’clock at night,” Lepore said.
The Dunk hosts around 125 events in a year and have about that many changeovers to complete. What many may not realize is that the ice rarely comes up.
"It comes up for monster trucks in March and it comes up if the Providence Bruins are still in the playoffs in May then it would come up for the circus performance. Everything else can go over the ice there’s no weight restriction,” Lepore explained.
As the comedy show ended, the 22-man crew uncovered the ice that technicians work around the clock to maintain.
Lepore wouldn’t tell us the Dunk’s secret to changeover mode, but he did say planning is key because at the end of the day, the show must go on.
"It has to be set up in such a way like putting a puzzle together so that there’s never any disruption in the changeover,” said Lepore.
Lepore says the most challenging changeover is going from basketball to hockey. It takes an extra forty minutes to prep the ice.
© WLNE-TV 2016
