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Best Rinks in college hockey

Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

I don't think it's really fair to hold the parking situation at Conte (which I guess may be the same at Agganis, and was probably the same at Penn and UIC when they had teams) against the rink. That's just a fact of schools in dense cities being a different animal from schools in less dense cities and smaller towns. If you're going to make that a black mark on BC's record then the fact that REA is in the middle of a frozen tundra 700 miles from the nearest city has to count against that building, doesn't it? These are issues about the rinks' surroundings, and to me they're extraneous to what we're talking about, which is the rinks themselves. Others may have different opinions on this point, of course.
 
Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

Nick Papagiorgio said:
Yea, you haven't walked around Matthews much if you think sightlines there are good. Any seat on the sides of the balconies will basically keep you from seeing anything happening along the boards below you unless you're in the front row and even then you have to lean over and look down.

Still a great place to watch a game, though!
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The view from the first row of balcony there is the best view in all of college hockey.
 
Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

Puck Swami said:
The view from the first row of balcony there is the best view in all of college hockey.
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I'd take the balcony at Alfond. I don't particularly like a bird's eye view of the game, and plus as was mentioned before, if you're along the side boards, you have to lean over the rail to see what's going on when the puck comes in front of you on your side. That in addition to some of the other seats having some of the worst views in college hockey = Matthews being a bit overrated in my book.
 
Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

I'd have to say Matthews is my favorite because of the history. Like the old Garden, if you have a great seat, you have one of the best seats to see a game anywhere. Also like the Garden, if you have a bad seat, you have a horrible seat.

Agganis doesn't have a college feel to it to me and Mullins is a ghost town. Conte is what it is, a basketball arena that a hockey team plays in. I will say the scoreboards at Conte are better than several NHL arenas Ive been to.
 
Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

unhpuckfan2001 said:
Slasher7;4987090 Rinks I hate: Whittemore Center (UNH) * Cut too many corners said:
Have you come up to a game this year? They (finally) repalced the lighting over the summer, along with some other much needed upgrades (new, seamless glass, dashers, etc). The lighting is much better, both from a fan's perspective and from skating during open skate, the shadows are gone. Not to mention the new NHL corners, and the goal lines moved so they're only 11' from the boards as opposed to 18' (that's what I was told, I didn't measure it). I am told the next step is FINALLY putting in a real scoreboard - when the building was built, funding ran out for the scoreboard that was originally intended. The hookups for a center-ice video board are there, just waiting for something to hang on them.

As for cutting corners . . . yep. They could have installed air conditioning for another $35,000 at the time of construction, and decided not to. They've lost a (conservative) estimated $250,000 is revenue from not being able to use the building for much in the summer. That's a good chunk of a scoreboard, right there.

Somebody mentioned "Whit is Agganis on a budget". I'd say that Agannis is actually the Whit with money, since it was built after the Whit. I read online that the Agannis was designed to incorportate a lot of things from the Whit.

Now, if only the Whit would incorporate the beer they sell at Agganis . . .
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I havent been to the Whitt since last March, so if they have made improvements, that's great. To me, the Whitt has always been a dark canyon.
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Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

Slasher7 said:
Rinks I hate:

Whittemore Center (UNH) * Cut too many corners, high school quality scoreboard, lighting sucks
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Have you come up to a game this year? They (finally) repalced the lighting over the summer, along with some other much needed upgrades (new, seamless glass, dashers, etc). The lighting is much better, both from a fan's perspective and from skating during open skate, the shadows are gone. Not to mention the new NHL corners, and the goal lines moved so they're only 11' from the boards as opposed to 18' (that's what I was told, I didn't measure it). I am told the next step is FINALLY putting in a real scoreboard - when the building was built, funding ran out for the scoreboard that was originally intended. The hookups for a center-ice video board are there, just waiting for something to hang on them.

As for cutting corners . . . yep. They could have installed air conditioning for another $35,000 at the time of construction, and decided not to. They've lost a (conservative) estimated $250,000 is revenue from not being able to use the building for much in the summer. That's a good chunk of a scoreboard, right there.

Somebody mentioned "Whit is Agganis on a budget". I'd say that Agannis is actually the Whit with money, since it was built after the Whit. I read online that the Agannis was designed to incorportate a lot of things from the Whit.

Now, if only the Whit would incorporate the beer they sell at Agganis . . .
 
Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

Federal League said:
Make sure you get to Matthews when you're out here.




Gotta agree with slurpees about the Matthews sightlines. They're horrendous unless you're in the balcony. It's still my favorite place to watch a game, but to say there is "not a bad seat in the house" is crazy talk. There are probably more bad seats than good seats. Of course, I'm usually in the fantastic new press box, so I can't complain. :D
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the only thing missing at Matthews are human beings..... unless it's BC or BU the place is a lot less than half full..........
 
Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

Gainzo said:
Conte stinks just like Mullins as there are railings eveywhere. How is getting to Lowell a pain in the butt? Take either 128 or 495 to the Lowell Connector and you will be at Tsongas in 5 minutes. Plenty of free parking and a rink that doesn't have a bad seat. Not to mention the Beer Works and Brewery a 1 minute walk away.

Getting to Conte on a Friday Night is freakin' horrible and I live in Burlington, MA.
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i like Conte AND Mullins but agree with the rest of your post . no problem at all with access to Tsongas and not to far from the arena are some great restaurants and bars. Lowell has it's issues but they've done a great job in a lot of the downtown
 
Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

unhpuckfan2001 said:
As for cutting corners . . . yep. They could have installed air conditioning for another $35,000 at the time of construction, and decided not to. They've lost a (conservative) estimated $250,000 is revenue from not being able to use the building for much in the summer.
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Same thing with Conte. Saved a few pennies when it was built and now it's a huge cost to put it in. BC's AD Napoleon Dynamite promised it would be put in and now he says not for a while. Now we get long trips out west and road games locally to start and our first home game a few weeks into the season to avoid danger of a fog out. STUPID!!!!!!!
 
Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

unhpuckfan2001 said:
Somebody mentioned "Whit is Agganis on a budget". I'd say that Agannis is actually the Whit with money, since it was built after the Whit. I read online that the Agannis was designed to incorportate a lot of things from the Whit.

Now, if only the Whit would incorporate the beer they sell at Agganis . . .
Click to expand...

Aggannis benefited from Jack visiting ALL of the new rinks, including The Ralph and Mariucci. I don't think it's like the Whit at all.
 
Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

slurpees said:
What Matthews Arena have you been to? The sightlines there are, outside of the front row of the balcony, are HORRIBLE. If you're not sitting in one of the front two rows of the balcony, you can't see almost half of the ice. Not to mention downstairs if you're shoved back in one of the corners, good luck trying to understand what's going on. There are numerous seats in the building that are directly behind a cement post, as in the cement post is one foot in front of the seat, and they didn't even change this when they renovated. Speaking of the renovations, with the new press box, there are now two sections that abut either side of press box that have very obstructed views of the other end of the ice. I've been to many games there and sat in a few different spots, but I can't say I've ever had a seat where I've been terribly impressed or happy with my sightline, and the time I sat in the balcony in the fourth row or so, and my view was horrible. Not to mention they sold my friend a ticket for one of the seats that had a post blocking 90% of his view of the ice.

I understand the "old barn" feel of Matthews, which is really nice, but when you walk into that place, unless you already knew what happened there, there isn't much mention of it save a few pictures in the concourse area, not to mention that through all of the notable things that occurred there, little to none of it has anything to do with Northeastern or things they accomplished. I've never seen any New England Whalers banners hanging, nothing commemorating the inaugural Beanpot, etc. So while it certainly has its fair share of history, I've never really felt walking into that place like I was walking into a truly historic venue. Nowhere near along the lines of walking into a place like Fenway, the old Yankee Stadium, MSG, even a place like Yost, or Michigan Stadium.

Of all of the places I've been, my favorites still are Yost and Alfond, with Walter Brown still as my favorite though not in use anymore by the men's team. Agganis certainly is the "nicest" facility, though Tsongas' renovations brought it up the list quite a bit. Nowhere else in Hockey East really has impressed me, the Whit is basically Agganis on a tight budget, Conte is fairly average, though the new screens are really nice, and everywhere else is either crap or just eh.
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Maybe one of us has just been lucky but I've been to a dozen or so games at Matthews over the last several years and have sat in various lacations in that building and I honestly don't ever recall sitting in a seat where I had a problem seeing the ice or following the action. I like the place and look forward to going there every now and then.
 
Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

jmh said:
I don't think it's really fair to hold the parking situation at Conte (which I guess may be the same at Agganis, and was probably the same at Penn and UIC when they had teams) against the rink. That's just a fact of schools in dense cities being a different animal from schools in less dense cities and smaller towns. If you're going to make that a black mark on BC's record then the fact that REA is in the middle of a frozen tundra 700 miles from the nearest city has to count against that building, doesn't it? These are issues about the rinks' surroundings, and to me they're extraneous to what we're talking about, which is the rinks themselves. Others may have different opinions on this point, of course.
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What's the complaint about parking at Conte? Granted, somebody mentioned getting to the campus on a Friday evening can be tough but the actual parking situation once you're there is probably one of best around. There's a seven story garage only steps from the building and it's free. How is that an issue?
 
Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

"Best rink" means something different to everyone. To me, it means the best place to experience the game, and in any sport the experience is most meaningful when it has historical context. For this reason, every NHL game I watched in the Boston Garden was a better experience than any game at the Fleet Center (or whatever it's called now) because everybody was up close to the ice and there were no suits taking up prime space in luxury boxes, Orr and Bourque played there, all the great Habs teams got heckled there, the stands always shook after big goals, people were swearing and boozing yet my parents brought me as a kid, etc. No thanks to the increase in the amount of money involved in sports, few great historical stadiums are left (in major league baseball, probably the most historical american sport, there are only two) but college hockey is lucky to have several -- Yost, Lynah and Matthews in particular, followed by Gutterson, Alfond and The Whale (that I've seen). I'd rather watch one game in old Mariucci, old Engelstad, Walter Brown or the DU Fieldhouse than ten games in new Mariucci, new Engelstad, Agannis or Magness -- to me, the old rinks and atmospheres are the college hockey experience and luxury boxes and leather seats have no place, donate them to the NBA or something I don't even want to see them. If the level of play on the ice were equal, I'd rather watch a game at Starr Rink or Meahan Auditorium than the Kohl Center -- the one game I saw at Kohl many people were more interested in watching a bowl game on all the televisions. Largely for this reason I oppose College Hockey Inc.'s mission and don't care to see the game expand. Expansion at the expense of the traditions of the game isn't worth it and the old barns are traditions. Please no more new rinks (Penn State, build a throwback).
 
Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

Natural Ice said:
"Best rink" means something different to everyone. To me, it means the best place to experience the game, and in any sport the experience is most meaningful when it has historical context. For this reason, every NHL game I watched in the Boston Garden was a better experience than any game at the Fleet Center (or whatever it's called now) because everybody was up close to the ice and there were no suits taking up prime space in luxury boxes, Orr and Bourque played there, all the great Habs teams got heckled there, the stands always shook after big goals, people were swearing and boozing yet my parents brought me as a kid, etc. No thanks to the increase in the amount of money involved in sports, few great historical stadiums are left (in major league baseball, probably the most historical american sport, there are only two) but college hockey is lucky to have several -- Yost, Lynah and Matthews in particular, followed by Gutterson, Alfond and The Whale (that I've seen). I'd rather watch one game in old Mariucci, old Engelstad, Walter Brown or the DU Fieldhouse than ten games in new Mariucci, new Engelstad, Agannis or Magness -- to me, the old rinks and atmospheres are the college hockey experience and luxury boxes and leather seats have no place, donate them to the NBA or something I don't even want to see them. If the level of play on the ice were equal, I'd rather watch a game at Starr Rink or Meahan Auditorium than the Kohl Center -- the one game I saw at Kohl many people were more interested in watching a bowl game on all the televisions. Largely for this reason I oppose College Hockey Inc.'s mission and don't care to see the game expand. Expansion at the expense of the traditions of the game isn't worth it and the old barns are traditions. Please no more new rinks (Penn State, build a throwback).
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I like both the new and the old. I like watching games in comfortable state-of-the-art facilities, but I also like watching games in historic old barns. I love Agganis, but part of me wishes BU still played at Walter Brown. I love visiting Tsongas, but I love visiting Lawler just as much. As long as there remains a balance between the two in college hockey, I'll be happy. If 30 years from now, every HE arena looks like Agganis or Tsongas, though, that would be a bad thing IMO. There isn't a single college hockey arena I've visited and left thinking, "I couldn't care less if I ever come here again." Schneider would be the closest, but even there, I like how close everything is to the ice.
 
Re: Best Rinks in college hockey

I've been to about 10. I like the Gutt, it's a classic barn. I grew up going to games at Baker. It's a great rink. My favorite in CO is the Cadet Arena. It seats 2,000 and you can really voice your opionion in there and be heard loud and clear. Hope to make it to the Ralph at some point. I've also heard that the house that Jack built is awesome.
 
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