LEWISTON – Construction trumps marketing at the Colisee – for the time being, anyway.

City officials and television cameras gathered in the west end of the ice arena to meet the new Colisee General Manager Wayne T. Thornton. Meanwhile, workers hammered on the east end, beginning three months of renovations and repairs.

“As you can tell, work on the addition is under way,” City Administrator Jim Bennett told the crowd, pointing to the other end of the arena.

Crews will remove the east end of the ice arena, building a completely new three-story facade with offices and conference space.

When it’s done, Thornton will have something special to sell, he said.

“I’m really looking forward to making this the destination in central Maine, the No. 1 stop for families and fun,” Thornton said.

The Colisee Board of Directors signed Thornton, a York County resident, to a three-year contract Friday.

“The board spent several months trying to find the right candidate, someone who can rock this place and fill it with events,” Bennett said. “Not just hockey, but the other kind of events people expect.”

A former Boston Red Sox promotion director, Secret Service agent and sports marketing manager for Reebok International, Thornton will get $47,500 per year for the Colisee job. His salary will increase to $57,500 after 18 months, and he qualifies for a $10,000 performance bonus each year.

Thornton said his lack of experience managing such a facility made it all that much more attractive. The center already has a dedicated operations staff.

“My biggest challenge is going to be making it pay for itself,” Thornton said. “The idea all along has been to make the Colisee self-sufficient so that it doesn’t draw tax dollars. That’s going to be my job, and if we can get the people of Lewiston in here and excited about this facility, I think we’ll have met our goal.”

Phil Nadeau, who managed the Colisee while the city looked for a full-time director, won’t resume his assistant city administrator job until the work is done. He’ll continue working as project director for the renovation.

Nadeau’s first priority is to finish the rink in time for the first game. That means no summertime events at the Colisee this year.

“We have to put the ice down in August, so we will be ready for that,” Nadeau said. “We should be substantially complete well before the team needs it, but we’ll probably have a few cleanup items to do.”

The floor of the arena was still littered Monday with balloons and programs left over from the last major event at the Colisee, Saturday’s Edward Little High School graduation.

That should be the last major event for the next couple of months. The Colisee won’t open again until sometime in August, when most of the work on the arena should be complete.

That’s just about the time when the Lewiston Maineiacs hockey team will be ready to take the ice for practices. Their training camp is scheduled to begin Aug. 12.

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