With orange tier in sight, excitement mounts for live concerts, sports to return
Excitement is growing in the valley for live events to return, with Riverside County ready for a potential move into the orange tier of re-opening as soon as next week.
With some local ICU's completely free of Covid patients and vaccine distribution ramping up, the roar of a sports arena crowd or a live concert with friends might not be too far off.
Ann Piller of La Quinta is one of hundreds of country music fans gearing up to get back to the first live concert, for many, in more than a year.
Country music superstar Toby Keith has nearly sold out a May 15 concert at Coachella Crossroads, a brand new outdoor entertainment complex at Spotlight 29 Casino in Coachella.
"We have been waiting for this for a long time," Piller said. "I think I just miss singing with the crowds, and the entertainers are always so excited to be up there on stage... I'm just really excited to be at a venue like that and be around people."
Speaking of venues – the Coachella Valley is about to get a new one.
The Coachella Valley Arena is making strides toward a groundbreaking. Construction equipment and fencing appeared this week at the site off Cook Street north of Interstate 10.
It's set to be home to a new American Hockey League team, which isn't expected to play until fall 2022. But Terry Hammon of Bermuda Dunes is so excited, he's already put money down for season tickets.
"I wanted to be first; I wanted to be number 1. It was a race and when they announced season tickets came out, I put in my deposit," Hammon said. "I turned out to be number 72 and I couldn't believe there were 71 people in front of me."
After a year of sports games without fans, it's an experience Hammon says has been hard to be without.
"When you're inside an arena with all of that enthusiasm and the crowd roaring, you can feel the human spirit," he said. "That's the one thing this pandemic has probably had the greatest impact on."
The arena still has to be approved by the Riverside County Board of Supervisors. If the plan goes through, the project is expected to break ground next month.
