(Seguin) — It may soon be easier to find the best seat in the house in the Seguin Coliseum. All of the chairs, in the city’s largest indoor event space, will soon be replaced with new and more comfy seating.
Seguin Parks and Recreation Director Jack Jones says the hard plastic chairs will soon be replaced with a more comfortable option.
“The Seguin Coliseum has been in existence since 1977 so it’s 47 years old and in that time, you remember the original orange chairs that were there? Those were replaced with the gray chair about 25 years ago. So, in the 47 year history, we’ve had two chairs and we are proposing that this be our third chair. To go from plastic to fabric is a great deal,” said Jones.
Jones says updating the chairs is just about maximizing the comfort level for people who visit the Coliseum, but he says it will also help to attract new events to that space.
“We know that people choose facilities on chairs. It gets to that level especially when you are talking about weddings and receptions and things like that,” said Jones.
Facilities Director Randy Kell says the new chairs will replace some worn and outdated chairs. He says people will notice the difference in the seating.
“These are 25 year old chairs. They are stained as you can see, faded, discolored — they have a foul odor. They’ve got broken feet, broken gang clips which are a safety hazard so it’s time. We’ve discussed different chair options, different styles, material, stackability, mobility and storage were all things considered when we were looking through these. We’ve met with different facilities. We had three or four different facilities that we visited and we talked to them about pros and cons of each of the chairs considered.
We consulted with party planners as well as potential clients on style, color and material just to see what it is wanted, what is needed and what was going to work with the use. So we’ve done our due diligence. We were able to negotiate price. Discounts have been applied and we were also able to negotiate warranty from two to 10 years on the structure of the chair. They’ve got a 500 pound capacity so they are very sturdy and a very good quality chair,” said Kell.
Mayor Donna Dodgen says she’s looking forward to the new chairs. She says the old chairs are not easy to get out of, and this will add more comfort and accessibility for people who visit the Coliseum.
“So has anybody recently been able to get out of those chairs? asked Dodgen. “No seriously, it’s hard. I had the privilege of looking at these chairs. I was there for something else and got a preview of how they went in depth looking at these chairs. It was quite a process,” said Dodgen.
The replacement costs for the chairs will be a little over $76,000. That will provide the city with 1,050 new chairs, plus the chair dollies that will allow the chairs to be easily moved around the facility.