Hawks' renovated Philips Arena to include NBA's first courtside bar

ByDARREN ROVELL
June 28, 2017, 6:35 PM

— -- The Atlanta Hawks will have the NBA's first courtside bar.

The team announced the Hawks Bar on Wednesday as part of revealing details of its $192.5 million renovation of Philips Arena, which will take place over 16 months.

Bar areas have long been part of the perks to a courtside season-ticket holder, but those areas have been exclusively outside of the arena bowl, with no view of the court.

"People don't want to be confined to their seats anymore," said Hawks chief operating officer Thad Sheely. "That's true for our high-end season-ticket holders, as well."

The 1,500-square-foot bar space is behind one of the baskets. Sheely said that any one of the 600 courtside season-ticket holders will receive admission into the space.

The team also will sell a limited amount of standing room-only tickets to those courtside season-ticket holders so they can invite more friends or business partners to the game.

While seats by the court are extremely valuable, Sheely said the seats after the first three rows behind the basket precipitously drop in value, which helped convince Hawks management to carve out the new space.

The team will have to take out only about 200 seats to clear way for the bar, which will be up and running for next season.

Other new Philips Arena features that were the talk of social media on Wednesday afternoon include a barbershop that gives fans getting their hair cut a view of the court and two Topgolf Swing Suites with simulators in them.