UPDATE 3/8:

Tickets are on sale today for the Lady Antebellum concert, which will open the U.S. Cellular Center on June 1.

• Tickets available at Ticketmaster.com, by phone by calling 1-800-745-3000 and at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena Box Office between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
• Tickets start at $36.50. There are also tickets at $56.50 and $76.50 or $150 for a limited quantity of Pit Passes that include tickets to the general admission pit at the front of the stage and a pre-party cocktail reception.

We’ve been hearing rumors that lead singer Hilary Scott’s pregnancy will affect the tour. It’s true that Scott is due this summer, but not until July. The band has been upfront about taking a few months off after she has the baby and they’ve cancelled a few previously booked shows. The first cancelled show is June 21 in Nebraska, three weeks after their scheduled concert in Cedar Rapids.

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It’s been just about two years since the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids hosted an arena concert.

It’s been even longer since the venue’s management could have lured big name contemporary acts, says Gene Felling, executive director for VenuWorks, the company that manages the arena and its adjoining convention complex.

“We’re attracting much higher caliber acts that haven’t played this city in six to eight years,” Felling says. “Most acts jumped over this city and went to Moline.”

That changes on June 1.

Today, Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett announced at a morning press conference at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Cedar Rapids that the arena would reopen with a concert by Lady Antebellum.

The group is one of the bigger names in country music today with six No. 1 hits and seven Grammys. They aren’t strangers to the region either. They last played in Eastern Iowa in 2010 and 2011 to sold out crowds at the Great Jones County Fair.

The details

• Lady Antebellum
• U.S. Cellular Center
• Tickets go on sale on March 8
• Tickets available at Ticketmaster.com, by phone by calling 1-800-745-3000 and at the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena Box Office between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
• Tickets start at $36.50. There are also tickets at $56.50 and $76.50 or $150 for a limited quantity of Pit Passes that include tickets to the general admission pit at the front of the stage and a pre-party cocktail reception.

The remodeled U.S. Cellular Center will have a capacity of 7,700 reserved seating and 9,000 general admission. That’s 700 more — a 10 percent increase — from the old layout which was accomplished by moving the stage back 40 feet and adding more room for seating on the floors and sides.

“That’s huge,” Felling says. “The fact that we’ve increased capacity has really made us more competitive.”

By comparison, the only arena larger in the state of Iowa is the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, which seats around 16,000. Across the river in Moline, Illinois, the iWireless Center seats roughly 10,000.

“This is just the first of many,” Felling says.

The second act will likely be announced in two to three weeks, followed by the remainder of the summer lineup.

In his opening remarks at the Thursday morning press conference Felling said he was pleased to be back in the “memory making business.”

“The U.S. Cellular Center is not just an event center. It’s a facility where we make memories. People come to our facility because of it being a special occasion. They are there to have the experience.”

The reopening of the U.S. Cellular Center is just another step in the continued redevelopment of the downtown core, Corbett says.

Since the Paramount Theatre — operated in part by VenuWorks as well — reopened more than 33,000 people have attended various shows and concerts there. Those people, he pointed out, have also had dinner, drinks or shopped in the surrounding businesses before or after the show.

Along with the arena itself, the Cedar Rapids Convention Complex includes a new exhibit hall, ballrooms, meeting rooms and pre-function space, plus a state of the art Double Tree by Hilton Hotel. The Complex is projected to attract more than 375,000 visitors annually, resulting in $22.8 million of direct spending per year. The total economic impact of the new convention center is estimated to be more than $34 million per year.

Related:

Lady Antebellum wows the Jones County Fair
Need You Now: An interview with Lady A