Quote:
Originally Posted by corporatejay
No matter what shape or form this project takes, I will guarantee that families will be priced out. Families are basically priced out now, add 30% more for the flame and a ticket tax and the greens (currently 50-75 bucks) will be 100+ for a tuesday game in january against the florida panthers.
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I went to the first-preseason game and have some observations as well:
First, we went down early to walk around the whole building to take it all in. The first thing you need to contend with is that this is a very vertical building with seven levels. At Rexall, you walk in at grade and can get anywhere you need to from that level without too much fuss. Not so at Rogers but people will figure it out fairly quickly I think ..... well, Edmontonians, time will tell. The place is much bigger with wider concourses and more food and drink selection. Still not at American levels of choice and convenience, by and large, but significantly better than Rexall. One thing I noticed as a little bit odd is that there is not a profusion of signage and far fewer video screens than I thought there'd be for a state of the art building.
Next, we went for dinner at the Curves restaurant. Super expensive with average food. NY strip was $48, if memory serves, and it was one of those really thin, hard to cook accurately steaks that, sure enough, was over done. To their credit they took it off the bill without qualm. A 9oz glass of Wolf Blass Yellow Label was $19. The service was fairly slow but I put that down to growing pains as much as anything because with the limited menu and lots of staff they should be able to up their service speed with a little experience.
Our seats were in the first row of the upper bowl. At the 'Dome, and most other venue's, these would be primo seats to watch hockey. Not at Rogers. There is a large vertical distance between the lower and upper bowls due to the ring of corporate boxes and the loge level so you are a long way from the action. The loge level is really cool, gotta say, with two tiers of four-spot tables with bar stools and a ring of seats overlooking the ice. This would be a premium game or event experience. The loge level is private like the corporate boxes and it looks like they are not even available for concerts or other events.
That said, there are some serious design deficiencies in the upper bowl. First the steps are very steep, more so than the upper bowl of Commonwealth. Not good for people that don't get up and down all that well or drunken red necks in their 30 year old Pouzar jerseys, ffs. Second, THERE ARE NO CUP HOLDERS! Who spends $500M and doesn't put in a cup holder for every seat? Completely asinine decision by someone. So there you are fudging around with drinks n' #### at your feet just like Rexall. Such an Edmonton thing to do. I bet Lowe signed off on that. The seats seemed a little wider and the knee room was ok.
Third, there is a 12" - 14" high pane of glass directly in front of you meaning that the first two rows of seats have their vision impaired with the line of the top of the glass across your sight lines to the ice. This is terrible design. You have to scrunch down to see the whole ice surface through the glass but when that got too frustrating I ended up watching the game on the scoreboard. If they did one thing well it's the scoreboard. In fact, there's a bit of the ATT Stadium effect going on at Rogers where the scoreboard is so big and in awesome high def that you find you are watching much of the game on the screen instead of what's happening on the ice.
All in all, the new Edmonton arena is glitzy and new but it's noticeably more expensive. Domestic beer is $11. I was told that a hot dog at an Oil Kings game is $4.50 but $7 at an Oilers game and it's precisely the same product. May be BS but I wouldn't be surprised.
The logistics of getting to and from the venue are a challenge for anyone intent on driving. While the Oilers and the City keep repeating that there are thousands of parking spots within a ten minute walk of the venue, the City will not approve / rezone an open air 4000 stall gravel lot immediately beside the rink due to downtown business-owner nimbyism.
On top of that, the City, and a bunch of the private lots, have upped their parking rates or have extended day-time pricing into the evenings. And just to salt the wounds, the City have unleashed the by-law brown shirts and by October 21st they had issued more than $125K in parking tickets.
Probably some learning's here for Calgary Next.