READING, Pa. \u2014 Santander Arena already draws big crowds.<\/p>\n
It hosts concerts, hockey games, family shows and more, but now, it\u2019s about to look and feel even better.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re coming close to finishing up on about a $20 million capital project over the last three years,\u201d said General Manager David Farrar.<\/p>\n
That includes $4 million this summer alone, on new concessions, new bathrooms, and 65 new digital screens all around the concourse.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, if a contractor changed a logo or a sponsor changed a logo, you used to have to get a new sign, and it took a week, and then you had to install it,\u201d Farrar explained. \u201cNow we can change stuff based on the event or the crowd or really any number of things.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s also a brand new security system, called OpenGate, designed to make entry safer and faster.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe new technology allows you to just walk through, and it will sense if you have a weapon or something on you that needs to be checked,\u201d he said. \u201cBut in most cases not, and it\u2019s much quicker to get guests in.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the food? Now faster, thanks to self-checkout options. Plus, local favorites like Berks Meats, Philly Pretzel, and ATV Bakery are all on the menu.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think you’re going to come in and see a building that’s up to modern times,\u201d Farrar added, \u201cand enjoyable and a good experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
The upgrades come as shows continue to sell out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2014 Santander Arena already draws big crowds. It hosts concerts, hockey games, family shows and more,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[214,279,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-17598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-berks","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}