Tuscaloosa City Staff Presents 10-Year, 3-Phase Plan to Upgrade Amphitheater

Staff at the city of Tuscaloosa presented a new 10-year, three-phase plan to seriously upgrade the VIP and artist experience at the newly rebranded Mercedes-Benz Amphitheater.

The plan was presented by Kay Day, the Director of Arts & Entertainment for the city of Tuscaloosa and Jamie Weir, the co-founder of WBA Architecture, the firm who designed the upgrades pitched Tuesday. They presented to the city council's projects committee.

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Weir said the first phase of the upgrades would add a new, highly visible VIP club to the right of the Amphitheater stage, featuring indoor and outdoor seating, private bathrooms and more, with a view back toward the Black Warrior River.

Phase two would replace the existing VIP Club to the left of the stage with a new green room and talent space for visiting performers - Weir said right now, guests are getting ready in "trailers" set up behind the venue.

This would add four new dressing rooms and convert amenities in today's Amphitheater to cater to performers, not guests.

The third and final stage would create two new, bigger-than-ever VIP areas by installing a large new space over the back of the venue's existing seating. The now-covered exterior seats and the interior space above would both become VIP sections.

"This is where we sort of dream big," Weir said.

Kay Day said it would create 103 new four-seat boxes to sell -- even before these proposed upgraders were announced the city has 70 people on a waiting list to get boxes at the Amp, she said.

Even with the major upgrade, Weir said the design is meant to look as if it had been planned for the Amphitheater since its inception.

There was no vote after the presentation Tuesday - Day said she just wants the council to understand what the vision could look like while staff and mayor Walt Maddox brainstorm how to fund the upgrades.

She also did not share a price tag for the proposed additions - this is only the very beginning of these discussions.

For updates on the plan if and when it progresses, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.