A social media effort by Wheeling Nailers hockey fans after the team's goal horn eerily silent has made a difference.

The Twitter hashtag trend #savethegoalhorn caught on in early October when the traditional goal horn wasn't sounded at a preseason game.

The goal horn is now back, minus some vibration and modified after the hockey league took some suggestions from the outside.

"We talked to several tugboat drivers, to be honest with you, and a couple of sound guys, and we were able to come up with a module that controls the air flow. And we got it to a level we like. It's still going to be loud. The fans are going to enjoy it. But it won't blow our eardrums out anymore," said Craig Bommer, Nailers vice president of business operations.

That solved, on Thursday officials from the Nailers and WesBanco Arena also announced several other initiatives and upgrades they hope will keep the crowds coming back.

"I think the overall experience that they'll have at this building at a game is just going to trump everything," said D.J. Abisalih, Nailers director of public relations

For the fans, two new video boards will bookend each end of the arena to provide game videos, graphics, and soon, in-house entertainment. Six new flat screen monitors have been draped across concession stands on each side of the area and the in-house live feed will be shown on each.

In addition, a party box will be going up in the southwest corner of the arena. People can book the spot to entertain for a game or event and it will accommodate 20 to 40 people.

For Nailers players and fans, there will be some changes to promote the team's Pittsburgh affiliation. Like the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Nailers will pass their fans and they enter the rink going from the locker room through the Health Plan Pavilion and onto the ice. The players will enter an arena reprinted with black and gold to freshen the look and strengthen the ties to their parent club.

The improvements, a combination of efforts and funding by multiple groups as an effort to benefit not just the Nailers but other WesBanco Arena events and they said even the city of Wheeling.


Denny MaGruder, executive director of the Greater Wheeling Sports And Entertainment Authority, said, "We're all kind of putting some money into the pot, the investment pot, everybody is participating, we're figuring out finally how that's going to shake out, we're going to split that out. But the plan is if we can split some of the costs, we can share some of the revenues."

For the in-house entertainment, officials are still working to buy a camera system and hire crews to produce things like the Fan Cam and Kiss Cam. Those additions are coming soon, but in the meantime the puck drops for the Nailers home opener at 7 p.m. Friday.

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