Want a piece of the old Matthews Arena? Here’s what’s up for grabs
Before the historic building goes down, Northeastern is going in and saving as much memorabilia as possible to sell to fans.
Matthews Arena will close out 115 years of history on Dec. 13 with a men’s hockey game between Northeastern University and Boston University.
However, before the lights dim for good, Northeastern will empty the building of memorabilia so fans of the Huskies, and the public in general, can purchase a piece of history.
Prior to the deconstruction of Matthews Arena, a company will help the university salvage pieces in the arena, from the seats to sections of the floor. These items will become available for purchase from Northeastern for the next several years, until the new state-of-the-art, multi-purpose athletics and recreation complex is due to open in fall 2028.
“You never know what means something to somebody,” said Carla Morelli, a capital project manager at Northeastern University. “We’re looking around and saying ‘What would I want if I graduated from Northeastern, was a Huskies fan or played in the arena? What would mean something to me?’”
Bricks and stadium seats are already available for purchase. A commemorative brick from Matthews, featuring a plaque on the side with the dates the arena operated, sells for $150. Stadium seats go for $600, but for $1,000, buyers can have an exclusive commemorative base added to the bottom. Lockers cost $1,910 while seating ranges from $825 for branded press box seats to $115 for a folding chair from Matthews. Section signs are $150.
Bricks and stadium seats are already available for purchase. A commemorative brick from Matthews, featuring a plaque on the side with the dates the arena operated, sells for $150. Stadium seats go for $600, but for $1,000, buyers can have an exclusive commemorative base added to the bottom. Lockers cost $1,910 while seating ranges from $825 for branded press box seats to $115 for a folding chair from Matthews. Section signs are $150.
Jack McCorkle, executive director for advancement operations, said the university has already sold 60 chairs and over half of the available bricks. Also for sale are men’s and women’s hockey lockers, Northeastern-branded seats from the press box, folding chairs and stadium section signs. There will also be an auction for a chance to buy a Bruins banner, a Celtics banner, the “DogHouse” banner and the first commemorative brick.
To save these pieces of Matthews, Northeastern is using CollectU, a company that specializes in salvaging and preserving memorabilia from university facilities. CollectU will send a team into Matthews with the goal of identifying and preserving items to save.
After the final game is played, Northeastern will take over the building from Dec. 15 to Jan. 5. During this time, the university will relocate staff who work out of the current building as well as focus on salvaging memorabilia.
McCorkle said the university hired CollectU to help determine what to salvage, and to go through the process of properly saving and preserving these pieces. Some of the pieces will be cleaned, but not fully restored, to preserve the history behind the item. CollectU will work from floor to ceiling, removing the stadium seats and installing a hoist to take down banners from the rafters.
When the exterior demolition of the building begins in February, Suffolk Construction, the contractor for the new building project, said it will have a team of masons preserve 1,000 bricks from the arena. The historic archway will also be dismantled piece by piece, preserved and reinstalled in the new building.
McCorkle said his team was originally uncertain about whether people would be interested in buying the memorabilia, but the initial reception to the chairs and bricks for sale is strong. As of midnight on Dec. 8, 327 of 1,000 bricks and 38 of 120 chairs were sold.
Fans can purchase Matthews Arena seats (with or without a commemorative base) as well as a commemorative brick from the building. The bricks are numbered 1 through 1,000 and interested parties can bid on brick #1. The items will begin shipping in February.
The idea to sell pieces of the arena was inspired by the demolition of the old Boston Garden. Pieces of that building were also sold, from the seats to the signage, which inspired Northeastern to do the same, especially considering that both the Celtics and Bruins once played there, said McCorkle.
“This is not just for Northeastern fans, but also for Celtics and Bruins fans,” added Morelli. “They played their first original games in the building before the Boston Garden was built.”
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What exactly will be sold in the future depends on what CollectU finds during its final sweep. But McCorkle said the company expects to save a lot of signage around the arena, including section numbers and signs from the locker rooms, hockey lockers, chairs from the men and women’s basketball benches, branded wall art, Husky statues, some of the glass locker room doors and cut-up pieces of the basketball court and hockey locker room carpet featuring Northeastern’s Husky.
“We know we’ll have the bricks (and) the chairs,” McCorkle said. “(But) some of the stuff is old. We don’t know how it’s going to come apart. It may fall apart in hand. So we don’t want to promote something and then we can’t sell it. … It’s really anything and everything we can get that’s not damaged that we’ll try to sell.”
Some of the equipment from Matthews will be reused, said Tyler Hinckley, design architect for Perkins&Will, the firm behind the new project. The arena’s existing lighting system was recently installed and still has lots of life left, so it will go up in the new building, as will pieces of the scoreboard and audiovisual equipment currently used in Matthews.
There’s also personal memorabilia, like banners, that might first be offered to the athletes or teams who won them.
Northeastern will continue to release more items and CollectU will manage the sales and storage of those items. Pieces like the basketball court are already waiting to be sent to the warehouse to be broken down for sale.
“We’ll sporadically release stuff and sell right up to the opening,” McCorkle added.
