A few stats for week two of Construction at the Pepsi Center –

15,000: Members of the media expected at the Convention
600: Construction workers handling two shifts per day
120+: Blogs that will occupy the Blogger Lounge in the former Nuggets weight room
4: Pepsi Center suites completely “white boxed” (read more to find out what that means!)
3: Cable bridges, 16 feet high, to connect cables from the arena to the media pavilions and satellite trucks
2: Weeks of construction
1: fully erected media pavilion, complete with plywood flooring, a roof, and exterior walls

…And that’s just the beginning. Touring the Pepsi Center today, it was absolutely incredible to see the dramatic transformation that has happened in just two short weeks. 

Starting in the Pepsi Center bowl, I stopped by as Governor Dean was giving a special thanks to a group of workers. Toiling around the clock, their hard work will ensure that construction in the sports arena stays on schedule.  Making his way through the crowd, Gov. Dean learned about the different projects that everyone was working on, from tent construction to suite remodeling to cabling.

On a mission to track the construction progress, I didn’t need to go very far. Right inside the bowl, thousands of seats have been removed to make way for the stage. Even all of the railings have been completely detached. 

In search of more renovations, I headed to the suites.  Dozens of suites are being remodeled as broadcast studios, and first I peeked into an unaltered one to get a better sense of all the changes being made. (Although doing so made me want to sit back and enjoy a basketball game in style -- Nuggets versus my New York Knicks perhaps.)

Moving over to a “white boxed” suite I couldn’t believe it was the same room. At the request of each media outlet, the carpet is covered, drywall is put in place, and furniture, plexiglass barriers, kitchen appliances, and seating, removed to make use of all available space.

Next I stopped in the Denver Nuggets basketball practice court. The floor has been lined with a protective covering to prepare for the press briefing and media filing center that will be put in place, complete with desks, telephones and lots of Internet connections. The former weight room has also been completely gutted to make way for the Blogger Lounge, home to the over 120 credentialed blogs (a record number for a Convention).

Lastly, I ventured outside where more progress was standing right in front of me – the media pavilions. All four pavilions are completely framed by a metal infrastructure, and the largest pavilion is already fully erected. It has plywood flooring, a roof, and exterior walls -- not to mention the overhead lighting and cabling for telephone and Internet access. These media pavilions, which serve as makeshift workspaces for the 15,000 members of the media, will be fully functional and will even have air conditioning.

Thanks to the dedicated teams working tirelessly on the Pepsi Center construction, each time I visit -- although I try -- there are just too many changes to count. Take a look at the progress from week two of construction: