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WHO-AM's Van Harden completes arena trek in under 16 hours
(Des Moines, IA- July 9th, 2005) - Van Harden, one-half of WHO-AM's "Van and Bonnie" morning show, can attest to the fact that there are no bad seats at the soon-to-be-opened Wells Fargo Arena. Harden personally sat in each of the building's 12,460 permanent seats at the new state-of-the-art sports and entertainment facility, which is a part of the Global Spectrum-managed Iowa Events Center.
Harden's voyage around Wells Fargo Arena, which began at 5 A.M. on Wednesday, July 6, lasted 15 hours, 43 minutes, and 18 seconds. He completed the majority of his "sit-in" on Wednesday, and returned to the arena at 5 A.M. on Thursday to finish the challenge.
"I've never been more sore," laughed Harden, "but I've never been more happy. It was a great way to help introduce the community to Wells Fargo Arena - it's a beautiful venue this city will be very proud of."
Harden, who had previously completed a similar project by sitting in every seat at the Iowa Events Center's Veterans Auditorium, made a promise to listeners earlier this year that he would test every seat in the new arena as well.
Giving live status reports on-air, Harden turned the event into a contest for his fans. The two callers that could most closely guess the exact amount of time it would take him to sit in every seat were invited by Global Spectrum to help hold the 1/3-mile long ribbon that will encircle the arena during the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on Tuesday, July 12. The two winners were impressively close, coming within 42-seconds and one minute, 42-seconds respectively. Listener guesses ranged from under eight hours to just over 168-hours.
Global Spectrum, the fastest growing firm in the public assembly facility management field with more than 45 facilities throughout the United States and Canada, manages the Iowa Events Center. The Philadelphia-based company is part of one of the world's largest sports and entertainment firm Comcast-Spectacor, which also owns the Wachovia Center and Wachovia Spectrum, the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association, the Philadelphia Phantoms of the American Hockey League, Flyers Skate Zone, a series of community ice skating rinks, Comcast SportsNet, a regional sports programming network, Ovations Food Services, a food and beverage services provider, New Era Tickets, a full-service ticketing and marketing product for public assembly facilities, and Front Row Marketing Services, a commercial rights sales company. Comcast-Spectacor owns three minor league baseball teams - the Bowie Baysox, the Delmarva Shorebirds and the Frederick Keys - all affiliates of the Baltimore Orioles.
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