The Greater Wheeling Sports and Entertainment Authority is getting ready for its busiest time of the year in the coming months, with a full slate of events taking place at WesBanco Arena and the Capitol Theatre.

Members of the GWSEA board gathered for a regular monthly meeting Tuesday at WesBanco Arena, where Executive Director Kelly Tucker presented an operations report to get everyone up to speed with the latest events and behind-the-scenes happenings at Wheeling’s two major indoor entertainment venues.

“Coming up in March, it’s really busy,” Tucker said. “We only have seven days in the entire month that we don’t have an event to execute. So everyone is going to be at the top of their game this month.”

Next week, the Mountain East Conference basketball championship starts at the arena, and shows by musician Aaron Lewis and comedian Vicki Lawrence at the Capitol are nearly sold out.

New concert bookings are always being finalized, and three new shows were announced this week: Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening will celebrate 50 years of Physical Graffiti at the Capitol Theatre on May 7, Brantley Gilbert will bring The Tattoos Tour to WesBanco Arena on May 22, and blues and rock’n’roll legend Buddy Guy will take the stage at the Capitol on July 16.

Tucker said a lot of announcements on summer shows are coming up soon, and the gears are already turning for concerts and events for this fall.

February has also been a busy month, Tucker noted, with visitors migrating to downtown Wheeling for several events at the arena and the theater. Officials applauded the partnership with Wheelhouse Creative, which spearheaded a successful state hockey tournament at the arena earlier this month.

“It was really a great weekend,” Tucker said, adding that it has been an active time on the ice as the Wheeling Nailers’ season is in full swing with a flurry of home games ahead in the coming weeks. “We’ve got the Linsly Extravaganza on Friday and three Nailers games this weekend.”

Topping figures for both attendance and for concession sales this month were both nights of the Toughman contest, although there were fewer fans in the seats this year than in years past.

“Toughman was down a little bit, attendance wise, and I think it was because unfortunately it fell on Valentine’s Day this year, so it was a tough sell for us to get couples to come and watch people get beat up! But still, it’s always a great weekend for us.”

As a special promotion for Valentine’s Day, an in-ring proposal took place, and one of the fighters actually proposed to his girlfriend. GWSEA board members joked that it was probably good that she said “yes,” which may have likely avoided another fight.

The Capitol also recently hosted Dirty Dancing in Concert for “Galentine’s Day” and very well-received shows by country star Ashley McBride and classic rockers .38 Special, along with a bluegrass concert by Keller Williams and a Masterworks concert by the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra.

“The interesting thing is, we’ve been opening the ballroom an hour before the shows, which is nice because we’ve been getting to talk to a lot of people who are coming in,” Tucker said. “Just from those two shows at the theater last weekend, we talked to people from Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, New York and New Hampshire. And actually for a lot of them, it was their first time in Wheeling, they had never been to the theater – so it’s been great.”

April and May are shaping up to be almost as busy as March, Tucker said, with the arena floor set to change from ice to hardwood to dirt a number of times for different events coming up.

Operationally, cameras are being installed at WesBanco Arena, and a high priority for this summer will be to address the venue’s safety rigging system. Currently, large and expensive boom cranes have to be rented when events – such as the upcoming Brantley Gilbert concert – with big productions use the arena and need to hang equipment, officials said.

One recently hyped event that recently made national news in the wake of the Super Bowl may not materialize, Tucker added. The Rough and Rowdy event that was being targeted for WesBanco Arena in April was receiving widespread attention when former baseball star John Rocker was scheduled to fight Pat Mahomes Sr.

“I’m not sure it’s going to happen now,” Tucker said, noting that Barstool Sports has publicly indicated that this marquee matchup has been called off after Mahomes’ son, NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and his wife, Brittany, intervened.

Without the high-profile main fight on the card, it may be difficult to promote the event for April, Tucker noted, indicating that they may try to reschedule a Rough and Rowdy in August if the April event does not materialize.