Prism Palace
Prism Palace is a multi-purpose sports arena in Santa Ana, California. The arena has a seating capacity of exactly 18,000 during basketball games, and is located next to the Santa Ana Convention Center.
The arena is owned and operated by OMEN Technologies and it's primary tenant is the Santa Ana Spectrums of the Furry Basketball Association (FBA). Prism Palace is also host to over 300 events and over 4 million guests each year.
History
2004-2010
Constructed in only one year, the Prism Palace was the brainchild of arena master planner, Spink Futzner from the summer of 2004 to full completion by the end of spring, 2005 on the edge of downtown Santa Ana, California, adjoining the Santa Ana Convention Center. With the primary focus of being the home arena for the Santa Ana Spectrums, Futzner engineered both the stands and internal layout to maximize useable space, yet still provide for excellent, uninterrupted views from every seat and box.
In an attempt to compete with other large venues to the north in Los Angeles, the Prism Palace was also designed to be an incredibly versatile venue, with a hard-packed red clay tennis court beneath the hardwoods, and the ability to be converted into a hockey rink, as the arena also plays host to the SoCal Sledge, Southern California’s FHL team. Acoustics were originally designed and installed by the Austus speaker company, making it also a great location for live stage shows and arena concerts, as well as playing host to numerous boxing, wrestling and other ring events.
2010-Present
With the purchase of the Spectrums in mid 2010, OMEN Technologies also acquired the Prism Palace, and while the arena was still in good condition, the supermassive electronics and equipment company immediately contacted Spink Futzner with plans for a nearly complete interior overhaul. While Spink talked them out of replacing the seating, he wholeheartedly went to work redesigning every display and the entire sound system using cutting-edge technology from OMEN which had not even hit market yet. Gone are all of the arena’s static, printed signs, with the American, Canadian and U.K. flags being the only constantly-visible items inside the entire arena, the rest replaced by OMEN’s new Spectrumvision active clear-glass display monitors capable of being switched immidately from one event to another by digitial control.
OMEN’s enhancements did not stop there, as the entire broadcast control booth and recording equipment was replaced in order to handle a more active interface allowing for smoother broadcast control, as well as to be able to properly process signal feed from the arena’s new OMENscope 3D HD cameras, a first for any FBA arena.
While many expected OMEN to rename the arena after themselves after purchasing it, Nick Oldson, the company’s CEO stated that the Prism Palace name would remain, as it was a vibrant and important part of the city of Santa Ana and its sports culture.
Specifications
Capacity
Designed with an original capacity of 18,430, Spink Futzner revised the seating layout to allow for better overall access, bringing the total number of seats down to 18,000 exactly.
147 Executive suites span three levels, with the glass on the OMEN executive suite being mirrored from the outside after the purchase of the arena. When asked what the reason for this was, OMEN declined to comment, though it is speculated that the company’s elusive president chose to do it in order to maintain his privacy.
Concessions and Merchandise
The Prism Palace boasts food and drink concessions on every level of its construction, with the addition of the a new wine bar, The Refractory, on the executive level, and a wholly revamped series of tap rooms for beer and cider distribution.
Merchandise stands and stores have also been revamped with OMEN’s new glass-panel display screens, making them able to wholly swap out their merchandise and signage between events for more targeted sales.
With the buyout in 2010, OMEN Technologies announced lower concession and drink prices, with cuts bringing them down to become one of the most competitively-priced of any sports arena in the FBA. Merchandise prices, however, were not affected.
Santa Ana Convention Center
Owned by the City of Santa Ana, the SACC often acts as overflow for large events unable to be housed solely at the Prism Palace, and both it and the arena share a large parking structure.