Here are some pics of the area we are working in. The first picture is the rest of the space we are moving everything too. Can you believe we are having a hard time finding space for all the junk in a 12,000 sq foot building?
We still have to move the car, and tare down the little room you see in the background, but now we are focusing on the design of the walls.
The old JC arena was 50 x 40, which is 2,000 sq feet. If we just build one wall, we will end up with 52 x 59, which is 3,068 sq feet, and very close to the same proportions JC was. However, this only leaves the single long wall as an option for the entrance to the arena. This means that with most arena designs, one team is going to have to get to their side by crossing the force shield. It's not like that is a huge problem, but it would irritate me to the end of days.
Missing from this setup would be a back door to the arena. While there are two exits in the arena leading to the outside, it could not be used for war games (at least not in the winter).
If you have any ideas, the width of the space available is 59 feet. While the length of the building is 200 feet, I don't have all of it I can use. The original plan was to stay within 52 feet in length, that gives the dimensions I mentioned earlier. All other options involve building more walls, and cutting into that 3,000 sq feet.
I also plan on building a cat-walk on this new wall to give a view of the arena like XP Laser Sport does in Maryland. With a cat-walk already in place, it would be possible to expand that later into a party room(s). The cat-walk, and possible party room would be raised, but not enough to allow people in the first level. The total ceiling is only 12 feet, so having an 8 foot clearance for the cat-walk would only give us 4 feet below it. This means any future party room would take up a large chunk of space, and enable war games to be played around it.
That's all I have for now, bust out your graphing paper. Any good thoughts, leave them in the comments.
