On opening night, the Orlando Magic took the floor at Kaseya Center, an arena that opened in 2000 ironically with a game between the Magic and the Miami Heat.
It was a new day for the Heat. They were honoring their godfather Pat Riley by naming the court after him. But there was another sign of something new hanging overhead.
The Heat replaced the giant Chihuly-looking sun spot scoreboard with something new. Gone was the giant vertical board and in was a sleek new scoreboard with a digital sun tear drop in the middle, changing colors and lighting up the entire stadium.
As impressive as the Heat's previous scoreboard was, this was something new and sleek. It refreshed one of the older buildings in the NBA. The team may not have had an impressive debut on that floor—the Magic wiped the floor with the Heat—but an impression was made.
The Kia Center is looking kind of old these days.
The Kia Center opened for basketball on Oct. 10, 2010 for the Magic's season opener against the Washington Wizards (it did host preseason games). It was the state-of-the-art arena in the league. Something that was truly impressive. Its massive vertical scoreboard could play video through its entire length was a sight to see.
While the play on the court has often been lacking on the home floor in the 14 years since, the Kia Center always offered a fantastic entertainment venue. It was a place to be seen and the Magic created a true show.
Now that the team is so much better, it might be a bug more than a feature.
At the beginning of the season, ESPN's Insiders got together to rank the arenas around the league. They had the Kia Center ranked No. 23 with no younger arenas ranked behind it. They wrote:
"The Kia Center ranked low in almost every voting category. Despite offering affordable upper-level tickets, food prices are high and the fan experience (ranked 24th) is a standard NBA one. The atmosphere and amenities (ranked 23rd) could be enhanced. While the arena's features leave room for improvement, there's always the team's theme song to get the people going."
How much of that is that ESPN's writers are not coming to the Kia Center enough and experiencing Magic basketball? We will never know. There is something even Magic fans admit that fans can be late-arriving and a be-seen crowd— Bill Simmons even pointed this out on a recent episode of The Bill Simmons Podcast in praising the Magic as one of his favorite League Pass teams.
The Magic have done a lot of work to rebuild their reputation as a great fan environment though. Winning will do that. A lot of observers came away super impressed with the Magic's playoff crowd, including Cleveland Cavaliers forward Georges Niang.
The Magic have rebuilt their homecourt advantage on the court and their atmosphere on it.
Do not get anything wrong, even ranked 23rd in these arena rankings, the Kia Center is a great place to watch basketball and an incredible place to play. As the Magic gain notoriety again, the Kia Center will probably rise in this edition of the rankings next year.
But it is also undeniable the arena is showing some of its age. Screens around the building need replacing. The banners outside the arena need replacing and upgrading—there have been a lot of panels that are not working and the resolution of the screens are not perfect. And yes, the scoreboard is from the previous generation of scoreboards and looks old compare to the massive horizontal and halo scoreboards that populate arenas around the league.
The biggest upgrade to the building came last year when the Magic upgraded the outdoor video board facing I-4 that advertises events coming to the arena.
The Magic have also done a lot more work to incorporate local restaurants in their food offerings within the arena. There is always something new inside the arena to make it a better experience.
It is worth noting then that the Magic hear these cries too. The Kia Center will be getting upgrades very soon.
In January, the Orange County Board of County Commissioners approved the use of tourist development tax funds for several projects including improvements to the Kia Center. It is expected that those funds—potentially $226 million—will be used to make some major upgrades to the building.
That may not include a new scoreboard, but that will include upgrades to all the screens in the building and updating a lot of out-of-date technology.
That will go hand in hand with the continued development of the Westcourt entertainment district across the street from the arena. They will likely begin construction on that project early in 2025 (at long last).
The area around the Kia Center is going to look much different in the coming years. And the Magic are likely to put in a serious bid for an All-Star Game once Westcourt is completed.
When we revisit these rankings in the year to come, the Kia Center is likely to be ranked much higher.
But as the Intuit Dome comes online in Inglewood, Calif., and as we see places like Kaseya Center in Miami get a new scoreboard and a visible upgrade, it is probably time for the Kia Center to get its first major upgrade since it opened in 14 years ago.
Kia Center is home. Pretty soon, the Magic will start sprucing up the place to make it even better.