Re: New UNO Arena Construction Thread---Facility to open for the start of '15-'16 Sea
Thoughts on the arena.
Basically, this facility is a rebuild of the Omaha Civic Auditorium to considerably more modern standards. You walk in and if you were asked to guess the capacity, I think most people would say more than what the capacity actually is. Seems big for the size it is. The building was designed with Amsoil in Duluth as one of the several templates for it, but it is noticeably larger, particularly when you walk into the seating area from the concourse. It is visually impressive.
No escalators in the building. You are walking up and down stairs. All entry points require a trek up the stairs. Students have their own dedicated entrance to the building. The main entrance is on the South side (non-street) of the building, which seems counter-intuitive. Not familiar enough with the building yet to hazard a guess as to why this was done this way.
Concourses are tight. This was made worse by problems they had with concession (under)staffing and stocking as well as placement and staffing of beer kiosks. The lines were so long at all of these that it made getting by any of them if you were walking the concourse a huge challenge. The lines were in the way. The kiosks had only one person staffing each and that made the lines at them ridiculous as well as slow. Worse, these kiosks only take cash. Who carries cash any more? I almost never have any cash on me. We've reached the stage as a society that there is really no need to. The alcohol kiosks (read: non-beer) were tough to find (saw only one) and was woefully understocked and understaffed. One person, again. The one I went to had no soft drinks with which to make mixed drinks. Margarita? Nope, lacked the necessary things (I don't know what) to make one. I've been to frat parties that had more alcohol choices at their bar and were better equipped and stocked. I saw concessions in the building when I walked in that were not staffed nor open (but were, later).
Aisleways up and down in the seating area are a tad narrow as are the portals in and out of the seating area. Lot of congestion between periods. My seats are close to the restroom and, at the end of the 1st period, I had already used the restroom and was headed back to my seat as everyone was trying to get into the concourse. You have to walk against a tidal wave of humanity. Big challenge. The stairwells are so crowded that people were coming up or down on both sides of the aisles. Tough to be going the other way if you are. The stairwells down from the upper deck, where they turn the corner at the bottom, are the tightest I have ever seen in arena, anywhere.
The sound systems in the building needs some tweaking. Not loud enough and a lot of what was said over it was unintelligible. Dunno if because of the acoustics of the or the volume. Many times times during the course of the game could I hear people yelling "Turn it up". It was that noticeable. There was some improvement as the evening wore on but was still an issue at night's end.
Restroom's are large and plentiful. Was a bit shocked by how dirty they already were when I used one at the end of the 1st period. Can anyone say "custodian"?
Sight lines are outstanding in the building.
Boards are obviously bouncy and the team clearly already knew this as several obvious shots wide of the net were purposefully taken to get rebounds off the boards back out in front to onrushing skaters.
Getting a consistent internet connection in the building was a huge problem.
Ushers were lackadaisical in my section about allowing people to take their seats during play. Cupholders are on the seat arms, themselves, and are very chintzy. So much so that breakage of these looks inevitable.
Beer selection in the arena is very poor and (mostly) limited to Budweiser family products. Yuck.
There is less leg room in front of you in Baxter Arena as opposed to the CenturyLink Center. We had/have aisle seats at both places. At Baxter getting up for everyone coming by is now an absolute necessity.
No organ and no skating cheerleaders. Need both.
Free parking rules. Saves me almost 200 bucks per season right there.
There is no "congregation place" in this building at all. You are either coming or going to your seat, a restroom, or a concession.
I thought the seats were comfortable.
There are obviously some bugs they have to work out, yet. I plan to give it a little time before getting too upset about any specific issue.
