"The fact we're hosting a game tonight is pretty remarkable," Predators president and CEO Sean Henry said Tuesday. "A lot of people were disappointed we didn't host a game Friday or Saturday … but there was some thought we wouldn't be able to host a game for a month.
"It would have been really easy to shut the building down for 20, 30, 40, 50 days, relocate the games, work a deal with another city, temporarily postpone or cancel concerts, but we sat together on Friday night, Saturday, Sunday and said, 'How do we host all those events, because it's an important thing that we do?'"
The break occurred around 5 a.m. on Friday on Sixth Avenue South, just outside Bridgestone Arena. It sent water pouring into the main concourse and flowing down to the event level.
Before the water was shut off a couple of hours later, it had pooled approximately 4 feet near the loading dock on the event level. There was several inches of water in the locker rooms and adjoining areas as well, leading to the postponement of the Predators' game against the Colorado Avalanche that night
By Saturday, most of the water had been pumped out and about 1,000 box fans were set up to hasten the drying process. Temporary ductwork and dehumidifiers were also put in place, but Nashville was still forced to postpone that night's game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Not everything has been repaired at Bridgestone Arena, though. Henry said only about half the building's elevators are working, and many of the building's electrical systems were impacted.
"We're probably going to remediate from this for the next three, four, five, six months," Henry said. "Every single electrical system, every piece of video, will either be replaced or taken apart to be dried out and cleaned.
"We don't know the full extent of the financial damage. It's extensive. But you know what's great? We're going to host an event tonight, and we'll have 17,000 fans come in and say, `Wait, was there really a flood?' And that's a good thing."
Predators players said they were excited to be back on home ice. They have not played since a 3-0 loss at the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday.
"It was obviously a ton of extra work for a lot of people around here that did an amazing job getting this place back up and going," Nashville center Matt Duchene said. "We were thinking tonight might be canceled as well. It's great to be back in our building. I know it shook a lot of us. We love this building. It's one of the most special places to play in the League."
