tombarnes, the arena in Pearl will not be built - the deal fell through, the guy did not have the finances after all. Considering the flack they caught for requiring the guy to submit financial records and proof of financial backing before demolishing Smith=Wills stadium, the Jackson city council is looking pretty good right about now.
re: the new downtown arena - I know it's relatively small, but for now I believe it's the perfect fit. I'm torn between the locations proposed though. I've always thought the area on Jefferson street at the site of the old city works yard on the bank of the Pearl River would be a great place for an arena. But, that was before the new convention center (serious site work has started in earnest, by the way) and the fabulous Telcom center. Now, I would like to see the arena located in the convention district and in the proximity of the King Ed and Standard Life buildings. The SL bldg will likely be devloped by the King ED developers as soon as the police headquarters are relocated to their nearly complete renovated building. The convention center, telcom center, and arena could all be used in conjunction with some huge gatherings. Plus they say they are close to announcing a new large hotel across the street from the cc and tc.
I'm a hockey fan. a few years ago when we still had our team here (the Jackson Bandits), one of the most fun things I've ever done was when my wife and I took the train trip with other Bandit fans to New Orleans to see the Bandits play New Orleans' team at the New Orleans Arena. with our beautiful Union Station train depot, I can see lot's train passengers coming to town for convention district events, (including hockey). By the way, we lost our team because of the coliseum - no alchohol sales and, get this, no home games during most of January, all of February, and most of March, because of the gigantic Dixie National Rodeo and state high school basketball tournaments during that time.
As for as a larger arena is concerned, I believe that should be a joint effort by the metro area governments, with all entities involved in funding, etc. And I believe the perfect location would be somewhere inside a 1/2 mile circle with the center of the circle at the stack (I55-I20 junction). That is not only close to downtown Jackson but is essentially the center of the state if not the crossroads of the south (Jackson's old nickname).
A perfect area, in my opinion, for that large joint metro arena, is the area just west and north of the "stack" , on the east bank of the Pearl river on highway 80, where currently a trucking company, a truck parts type place, an adult bookstore, and an adult motel/massage parlor are now located. that location is highly visable and horribly underused at present. the land is flat, plenty adequate for a large stand alone arena, and all the parking necessary, on a kind of peninsula between the 'stack' and river.