Gilly's Sports Bar, the open-access hangout on Rocket Arena's upper deck, is being converted into an exclusive members-only lounge called Gilly's Clubhouse. The Cleveland Cavaliers are turning the space into the arena's eighth premium club, according to Crain's Cleveland Business, marking the latest step in a years-long push to squeeze more hospitality revenue out of the Loudville level.
Gilly's Clubhouse is planned for that same Loudville level, but the experience inside will look nothing like the old walk-up bar. According to Rocket Arena, the new club offers an all-inclusive game-day setup with complimentary food, beer, wine, and soda served from buffet stations, accessible only through a dedicated private concourse entryway rather than the general upper-deck walkway anyone could previously use.
What's on the Menu, and Who Gets In
Food service inside the clubhouse will be run by Aramark, the venue's primary food and beverage vendor, with a rotating game-day menu that blends elevated dishes with fan favorites — including the signature mac and cheese the original Gilly's space was known for, per the same Rocket Arena listing. Access will not be available to the general public or standard ticket holders. Instead, entry runs exclusively through Cavs United, the Cavaliers' year-round ticket and fan-engagement membership program, which bundles the clubhouse perk with other benefits beyond simply attending games.
The Gilly's name itself carries weight well beyond concessions. The original sports bar concept honored Nick Gilbert, the late son of Cavaliers Chairman Dan Gilbert, who became a beloved franchise figure after representing the team in a bow tie at the 2011 NBA Draft Lottery, as detailed by Forbes. Nick Gilbert died in March 2023 at age 26 from complications of Neurofibromatosis Type 1, and his bow tie and lottery luck remain woven into Cavaliers lore.
A Venue That Keeps Trading Seats for Suites
This is not the first time Rocket Arena has traded general seating for premium hospitality. During a two-year, $185 million renovation completed in September 2019, the Cavaliers removed more than 1,000 seats from the upper Loudville concourse to build open-concept hospitality spaces, brew houses, and social gathering areas, Forbes reported at the time, part of a project that ultimately added eight destination hospitality zones across the building. The Gilly's conversion continues that pattern of shrinking general-admission footprint in favor of exclusive club real estate.
The Cavaliers' appetite for private clubs hasn't slowed since. Ahead of the Gilly's transformation, the organization spent eight figures opening the HIPP Club in late 2025, a 100-member private supper club built inside Rocket Arena in partnership with Los Angeles hospitality group The h.wood Group, according to Crain's Cleveland Business. That club drew its inspiration from Cleveland's historic 1907 Hippodrome Theatre.
Finding Your Way Around a Changing Arena
Navigating an arena with an ever-growing list of premium spaces has become its own challenge, which is part of why the Cavaliers and SeatGeek launched interactive mobile concourse maps inside digital tickets in January 2025. The tool, built on SeatGeek's Rally platform, helps visitors locate concessions, amenities, and premium club spaces like Gilly's Clubhouse without wandering the concourse blind.
The arena itself has gone through its own identity shift recently. Rocket Arena formally shortened its name from Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in February 2025, during the building's 30th anniversary year, as naming rights owner Rocket aligned the venue with its unified corporate brand, per Axios Cleveland. The building opened as Gund Arena in 1994 and was later known as Quicken Loans Arena before its most recent renaming.
Private Investment Meets Public Funding Fights
These private club investments are unfolding against a tense backdrop of public funding debates. Cuyahoga County leaders proposed a 0.15 percentage point sales tax increase in July after state officials declined to authorize a sin tax increase for Gateway sports facilities, Hoodline reported in its sales tax showdown coverage. Gateway Economic Development Corp. manages repair funds for both Progressive Field and Rocket Arena, and the sin tax proposal had already stalled once before, as Hoodline detailed when the Ohio House speaker benched the measure in May.
Meanwhile, Rocket Arena's calendar keeps expanding. The building is set to add a newly awarded WNBA expansion franchise to its multi-sport roster in 2028, joining the NBA's Cavaliers and the AHL's Monsters, according to Pollstar News. The arena already hosts more than 175 ticketed events annually, a schedule that only grows the incentive for the Cavaliers to keep building out premium spaces like Gilly's Clubhouse for members willing to pay for the exclusive experience.
