BRIDGEPORT — There’s a lighthouse atop Webster Bank Arena, and if the management had its way, there would be a light in there every night.

In 14 months since his Bridgeport Sound Tigers staff took over the arena’s operations, Howard Saffan has constantly said he wants more events.

He’s happy with the progress.

“The biggest achievement is the community accepting us as a regional entertainment venue,” Saffan said, “and coming back in record numbers. It’s been wonderful to see.”

Saffan, president of Harbor Yard Sports and Entertainment and of the Sound Tigers, said the former Arena at Harbor Yard had been doing around 90 events a year before they took over at the end of March 2011.

“The goal is for us to host 180 events a year,” Saffan said, figuring they’re approaching 150 now. “At Nassau Coliseum (operated by the New York Islanders, who own the Sound Tigers), we hosted 138 events, so we’re asking a lot of the arena, but in a perfect world, we’d have 18 concerts a year, other assorted shows, for families, individuals.”

The Sound Tigers and Fairfield basketball, which just extended its agreement with the arena for five more years, remain the anchor tenants for the 11-year-old building. Part of the new management’s goal is filling in events around those dates, as well as continuing to improve the facility.

“I think they’ve been aggressively promoting the arena for a wide variety of events,” said Patrick J. Dilger, director of public affairs for Southern Connecticut State University, which held its commencement ceremonies there last week.

“It’s a versatile place. It doesn’t look worn.”

Connecticut promoter David Miller, who’ll be bringing the Boston Pops back for the first time in four years this Dec. 8, said he was impressed with the enthusiasm that Saffan and senior vice president of operations Charlie Dowd showed him.

“I’ve been doing the show for 36 years throughout New England, and there are only so many dates to go around,” Miller said.

Saffan and Dowd called when they took over, Miller said, but because the holiday concert tour is booked a year in advance, it was too late for 2011.

“I haven’t worked with them in the past, but they seemed very enthusiastic that it be successful this year,” Miller said. “They have new relationships, a new building name, and they felt their sales staff, with the other contacts they have through their hockey franchise, will help publicize events.”

The show has been popular in the past.

“The Boston Pops loves to play Bridgeport,” said Dennis Alves, director of artistic planning for the orchestra. “We love playing that facility.”

Building business

The more events come to the arena, the better it is for downtown, Mayor Bill Finch said.

“A lot of restaurants tell me there’s always more business on (event) nights,” the mayor said.

It’s not easy. With the resources of a casino behind it, Mohegan Sun Arena has a long list of concerts through the summer: pop starlets, outlaw country artists, 90s nostalgia, Latin stars and Ringo Starr.

Not counting hockey or basketball, Webster Bank Arena has seven events listed on its website between now and the end of the year (one of them, Cirque du Soleil, includes seven shows), with the Pops concert not yet on display.

Hartford’s XL Center, home of off-campus UConn basketball and the Sound Tigers’ archrivals, the Connecticut Whale, has the same.

Saffan believes recent successes will bring even more events to the arena.

“It’s all due to national promoters seeing people come to this building,” Saffan said. “Sponsorship numbers have increased fivefold.

“We’re in the entertainment business. Numbers are reported through various publications,” he added. “Concert promoters know you have events, like Avicii, even Rick Ross (well-attended). People find out, you sell out American Idol, an Islanders exhibition game, people take notice.”

Saffan said they’d love to pursue bigger events but are limited by having 10,000 seats.

They have tried some different events; Freestyle motocross didn’t go over so well, Saffan said, so they’ll try professional bullriding next season.

Finch said he attended the Avicii show in April without knowing what to expect from the 22-year-old Swedish DJ.

“I have to tell you: I’m 56. I had no idea what Avicii is,” Finch said.

But he was impressed with the number of fans having a good time, “mobbed with kids jumping up and down.”

Looking up Dowd said he took a group of Bridgeport Regional Business Council leaders up to the suite level on a recent tour.

“People couldn’t fathom that we’d gone from one suite (sold) to 32,” Dowd said.

Selling the suites was important for all events, but it’s also a reason that the Sound Tigers’ announced attendance was up 18 percent, from 4,140 over 40 home dates in 2010-11 to 4,875 over 38 home dates this season.

“With the increase in suite sales, that brought around 400 new Sound Tigers fans a game,” Saffan said. “In addition, sponsorship increased dramatically for the Sound Tigers.”

Managing the building meant that the team could give itself some better dates. Saffan said there were some strong walkup crowds. The AHL revamped its schedule as well, cutting from 80 to 76 games and imposing regulations that cut out many midweek dates.

Season sales for next year are up. Group sales were up dramatically, Saffan said.

“The staff has done an amazing job.”

Running out of inventory, the arena plans to divide two large suites to make four. Loge suites will become “family suites.”

Making changes

The arena’s nautical theme extended to light-blue walls for its first decade. When fans arrived for the Sound Tigers’ home opener last October, they found a different theme: yellow walls, carpet ripped up in favor of tile floors on the concourse.

Something as simple as a paint job — the “trip lines” painted onto stairways to alert patrons to steps, which got a new coat this winter — is important, the mayor said.

“The place looks brand-new again,” Finch said.

“I’ve been to a lot of hockey games in a lot of places,” he added. “There’s a modern feel (here). You’re this close to the action.”

Saffan won’t spill details of how much money the team has sunk into the building; he says Islanders owner Charles Wang gets mad when he talks about it. Multiple millions? That, he concedes.

They plan a year-round restaurant to open in the fall, Saffan said. A fourth-floor lounge area is planned to become a Fairfield University-sponsored club.

“This offseason is going to be really busy,” Dowd said. “The club is something Howard and I are really focused, really pushing to work on.”

The space behind the box office, once the team’s office, is expected to include a wine-and-cheese bar, and Saffan said they’re considering a ground-floor private club, along the lines of Toronto’s Air Canada Centre.

The management plans to feed high-definition video throughout the building within a year and a half; new televisions on the concourses and in suites were put in place last year.

It also plans a 55-by-45-foot billboard, “to let people know what we’re doing,” Saffan said.

Oh, and Saffan plans to replace the light in that lighthouse atop the arena. A light will mean there’s an event that night, and his goal is to keep the bulb burning.

mfornabaio@ctpost.com; http://twitter.com/fornabaioctp; http://blog.connpost.com/fornabaio