Big things in Brooklyn

So the Nets opened up their shiny new home in central Brooklyn this past week. The team was supposed to play the Knicks, but Hurricane Sandy came through and pushed back the home opener to the Minnesota game tomorrow. The team has played a few preseason games, but nothing that counts

The arena has a weathered rust look, which I heard was actually stronger than a non weathered one due to the layers of metal(or something). I kind of think it's ugly, but it's a modern ugly. Also I love Brooklyn, so it's fine. All these scoreboards take up the nooks and cranies of the stadium.

BUT THATS NOT IT. The Islanders announced plans to move to Brooklyn in 2014. They figure, since their arena in Uniondale isn't good, moving to a place where current fans could still go is better than shipping to Seattle, or Kansas City. They didn't build the arena to fit hockey, so it'll be a bit weird. But this stadium will be a landmark in Brooklyn soon enough, and it looks way cooler than MSG. If anyone is in Brooklyn and goes to a game, feel free to do a report card. I would love to hear about it.

Ancient Hockey

In June, Erste Bank Hockey League (Austria) team Medveščak Zagreb announced that it would play a pair of games in September inside the Pula Arena, a Roman amphitheater in Croatia built between 27 B.C. and 68 A.D. At one time it seated about 20,000 spectators as gladiators did battle until emperor Honorius banned the fights in the 5th century. 

I mean, just look.

Permanent Outdoor Hockey!

It was bound to happen eventually. Here is the article from Yahoo

If you're in the crowd of people who believe the idea of playing outdoor hockey games is overdone, you're not going to like what the Williamsport Outlaws of the Federal Hockey League have planned for the 2012-13 season. 

Having just relocated from New Jersey to Williamsport, the Outlaws are currently without a rink and needed somewhere to play their home schedule. While local officials are working out those details, the Outlaws announced on Tuesday that they plan to play their entire 30-game home schedule outside at Historic Bowman Field, home of the Williamsport CrossCutters, a New York-Penn minor league baseball team. 

From WNEP16: 

Williamsport's city council still has to approve the lease with the new hockey team that won the league championship last year in New Jersey. The Outlaws' coach says the team hopes to get about 2,000 fans per game. If you are wondering if there is a chance warm weather or rain and snow could postpone outdoor hockey games. The answer from officials is yes but they said they are prepared to deal with whatever comes late Fall, early Winter. 

From when their season kicks off on Oct. 24 until their final home game on Jan. 21 (Williamsport ends their season with a 15-game road trip), the Outlaws will rent the rink at Bowman Field, which is owned by the city. No word on what happens should the team qualify for the FHL playoffs to defend their title. Public skating will take place when the rink isn't in use by the team, according to WNEP. 

The rink will reportedly cost the Outlaws between $200,000-$225,000 to build and operate, $15,000 to rent the field from the city and between $12,000-$15,000 to fix the infield once the season is over. The team will need to average around 2,000 fans per game in order to make the venture economically feasible. The possibility also exists of renting the rink out to local high school and college teams to help off-set costs. 

Meanwhile, the Crosscutters aren't too happy having to share their facility with another team and have filed a Right to Know request to get all the details of the agreement between the Outlaws and the city.

I feel like it was going to happen eventually, but the fact that they relocated there without an arena is pretty stupid. I really hope it's cold enough, because this summer has been so hot.

New Redwings Arena?

The Detroit Red Wings are moving ahead in their hopes of building a new downtown arena and have selected an architect, according to a report by Sports Business Journal.
SBJ's Don Muret cites three sources in saying the Red Wings have hired HKS, an international firm headquartered in Dallas. HKS will work with Chan Krieger NBBJ, a Boston architect specializing in urban developments, according to Sports Business Journal.
HKS officials did not comment and Karen Cullen, a corporate spokeswoman for the Red Wings, told Muret there was nothing new and added "our organization has been on record saying we’d like to have a new arena in downtown Detroit."
HKS was co-designer of American Airlines Arena in Dallas.
According to Sports Business Journal, the Red Wings would like their new arena to seat 18,000 and the team has explored multiple sites downtown.
Joe Louis Arena, owned by the city of Detroit, is 33 years old.

 So finally the Redwings can move into a new shiny arena, on the day I post a Redwings concept on my other blog. I posted about it before, so I'm happy they might move out of their old arena.

I copied the story from here.
http://www.mlive.com/redwings/index.ssf/2012/05/report_red_wings_choose_archit.html

New Scoreboard for the Bolts

The Lightning signed off on a new arena scoreboard at the Forum. In addition to the 42 million dollar renovations last summer, the Lightning will introduce a Jerry-World esque scoreboard for 5 million dollars. The length of the board will run along the ice, and the ends will have their own.

The system, developed by renowned industry-leader, Daktronics, will feature the largest high definition center-hung video displays in any U.S. or Canadian arena. The 28 foot high/50 foot long board will include a state-of-the-art control room, and allow for a true high definition signal with 1,296 lines of resolution.

The only other arena I know that has this is the Tulsa basketball arena, so this might be the future of scoreboards!

Read more here

New Detroit Red Wings arena part of mall complex?

With a ton of real-estate activity at the rumored site of a new Detroit Red Wings (NHL) arena, the talk is a new facility could be part of a larger mall complex. The area between Woodward Avenue and Cass near Temple, a blighted area, has emerged as a hot real-estate market in recent months, with several properties changing hands or in the midst of negotiations for a sale. Red Wings coach Mike Babcock may have let the cat out of the bag during a radio interview with the local 97.1 The Ticket station:

 “If you want the city to come back, you got to revitalize downtown. A big part of that’s going to be the new arena, and the mall and the stuff going around it,” he said. “And that’s very important. That’s why we need the state to jump onside, and the sooner the better, if we’re going to revitalize Michigan. It’s got to start right here in Detroit.” 

 With developer Al Traubman rumored to be looking at a downtown shopping center, the outlines of the plan become clearer: a new arena as part of a much larger development. And this is the same site where a stop was added to light-rail plans several months ago, despite the lack of any current need for a stop.



I think that would be a great move. Detroit's downtown would get a boost with the best team in hockey for the last 20 years having a shiny new arena in the middle of downtown. I also think it would do justice, because Joe Louis Arena seems pretty crappy. It was opened in 1979, and Detroit is home to one of the nicest stadiums in the MLB and NFL. Also, the Pistons play about 25 miles away from downtown. Who knows? Maybe they can have all 4 teams together downtown.

2012 Winter Classic

Today is the 2012 NHL Winter Classic! The game will take place at the Phillies' Citizen Bank Park in Philadelphia. The picture above is from the Legends Game on Saturday between the Rangers' legends, and the Flyers legends.

The game is today at 3 on NBC after being pushed back a few times due to weather. Here is a post about the previous Winter Classics.

Renovated St. Pete Times Forum

Last month, I went to the newly renovated St Pete Times forum for the Tampa Bay Lightning-Philadelphia Flyers. Here is some photos, starting with banners!

 View from the new party deck

 The new pipe organ bar

 A view from the bar

 Just a picture from down low

 Post game

 And the piece-de-resistance, the Tesla Coils!

IT WORKS.

The Tesla Coils at the St. Pete Times Forum got hooked up last weekend when the Buffalo Sabres came into town. Here is a sweet picture of one of them going off.

On a related note, since the St. Pete Times is being renamed to the Tampa Bay Times, the arena will have a new name starting early next year.

MSG Looking sharp

Madison Square Garden's $850 million second renovation will take place mainly over three offseasons. The more significant portion of it was set to begin after the 2009-10 hockey/basketball seasons, but was delayed until after the 2010-11 seasons. New features include a larger entrance that will include interactive kiosks, retail, climate controlled space, and broadcast studio; larger concourses; new lighting and LED video systems with HDTV; new seating; two new pedestrian walkways suspended from the ceiling to allow fans to look directly down onto the games being played below; more dining options; and improved dressing rooms, locker rooms, green rooms, upgraded roof, and production offices, among other upgrades.

The in-arena walkways will be eliminated, and portals will be installed between each section. The lower bowl concourse (to be known as the Madison Concourse) will remain on the 6th floor. The upper bowl concourse will be relocated to the 8th floor, and will be known as the Garden Concourse. The seventh floor will house the new Madison Suites. The upper bowl will be built on top of these suites. Existing 300 and 400 level seating will be combined to create the new upper bowl.

Construction of the lower bowl (Phase One) was completed for the 2011-2012 NHL and NBA seasons. An extended off-season for the Garden permitted some advanced work to begin on the new upper bowl, which is scheduled to be completed for the 2012–2013 seasons. This advance work includes the West Balcony on the 10th floor, taking the place of sky-boxes, and new end-ice 300 level seating.

 Plans are underway to relocate systems in the periphery of the arena to permit city views. Renovation will be done in phases with the majority done in the summer months to minimize disruptions and will remain operational throughout the NHL and NBA seasons. While the Rangers and Knicks will not be displaced, the summer-competing Liberty are playing at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey during the renovation. Because of the renovation, the Rangers will start the 2011-12 season with seven games on the road before playing their first home game on October 27.

I just copied that from Wikipedia, because I just wanted to get it out there. I did notice some differences about updates that I knew about. Just the atmosphere is better on TV. I remember watching Lightning games and the arena just seemed bleak. Here, compare last night's video

To this game last season.

So lets see, they redid the lower bowl, fixed the lighting, and redid the concourses!

St Pete Times Forum Update

Monday is the Lightning's home opener against the Florida Panthers. Well, other than being my team, the renovations are looking like they're coming along nicely. There's more to it on the inside, but where the ice is, that whole part should be done. They replaced every seat, redid the boxes, and took out a few sections for a pipe organ. OH YEAH. They also have f'ing Tesla Coils that will shoot off lightning every home goal.

They were saying how they might not be ready, and they want it to be perfectly completed instead of risking safety. The video above is a test. Imagine the goal horn and lightning going off at the same time. It should be a great atmosphere.

Stadium Report Cards: Consol Energy Center

Tex from hockeyconceptcentral.blogspot.com contacted me and offered to do some report cards. He said he could do Pittsburgh's stadiums, and the Horseshoe at Ohio State.

Team: Consol Energy Center
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
League: National Hockey League(Atlantic Division)
Built: 2010
Capacity: 18,087
My event: Regular Season game, New York Rangers

1. Outdoor Design

The CEC has a beautiful, modern glass front and is in a very nice, well kept area of Pittsburgh.
9/10

2. Indoor Design

Inside, the concourse is larger than two at the Mellon arena. The open design is a welcome change. Great view almost anywhere, even in the upper bowl, you have a great view of the game. The Mario Mosaic was really cool, and the rest of the arena was very high-tech.
10/10

3. Prices
About normal for a hockey game, candy was a rip-off, but other than that pretty average.
6/10

4. Food
Great selection of food, from normal stadium food to The Smokehouse, and Primanti Bros. There is a wide variety of choices.
8/10

5. Staff
The staff was friendly and helpful, as should be expected.
8/10

6. Cleanliness
Extremely clean, inside and out, even the sidewalk outside was very clean. Not one speck of dirt, the cleanest stadium I’ve been to.
10/10

7. Parking
It took a long time to find a place to park, and when we got there it wasn‘t cheap. Wish they would put in a parking deck close to the arena.
6/10

8. Atmosphere
An incredible atmosphere, very loud and passionate fans. The building shook when the Pens scored, and the chanting for Fleury was great.
9/10

9. Playing Surface
By the time I got there, they had fixed all the ice problems, so the ice looked great, and there were no issues.
8/10

10. Scoreboard

One of the best scoreboard in the league, HUGE display and phenominal graphics. Provided an excellent look at replays n'at. Awesome screen!
8/10

So that gives the Penguin's new arena an 84, up their with the class of the list. Look forward to more report cards soon.

St. Pete Times Forum Renovations

Since the Bolts' season is over, this is some plans that I never posted.

At one point in his presentation announcing at least $35 million in renovations to the St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa Bay Sports & Entertainment CEO Tod Leiweke said, "This building needs help. It hasn't been properly maintained." What is planned, most of which will be done, Leiweke said, by next season but will all be done by the time the Republican convention is in town in August 2012, is a massive makeover.

While Leiweke acknowledged TBSE has had discussions with the county about reimbursement through the tourist tax, he said the team and owner Jeff Vinik are prepared to finance the renovations. Leiweke did have a message to the county, though: "When and if the tourism tax returns, help us safeguard this investment into the future."

The renovations include:

A rebuilt "grand" entrance on the plaza.

Elimination of eight of 28 lower suites, two in each corner, so that fans ion the concourse can see down onto the ice.

Renovating every suite.

Eliminating two entire sections (323 and 324, totaling 574 seats) for the construction of a bar and stage area that will be home to the new pipe organ.

Adding an 11,000 square-foot outdoor deck and party area with a stage that overlooks the plaza.

A new air conditioning and heating system inside the arena.

New lighting inside the arena.

Resurfaced concourses.

All seats replaced; all seats will be padded.

Modernize restrooms.

More concessions areas on the terrace level.

Combining Icons and Medallions restaurants into one venue.

Finally, Leiweke said the renovations will not spark ticket increases.

"This is not a ploy to achieve a double-digit price increase," he said, and added, "At the end of the day, this arena is going to have a great sense of space."



I just copy-pasted this article. http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/lightning/content/tampa-bay-lightning-announces-35-million-renovations-st-pete-times-forum

2011 Heritage Classic

Up in Calgary, the Flames and Habs had a little version of the Winter Classic themselves. In the first Heritage Classic since 2003, the two teams played at McMahon Stadium.

The arena was set up football style, which is no surprise. The game sold out, which is also no surprise. The CFL capacity is 35,650, with possible expansions. The hockey game had 41,022 people in attendance. Also, the Flames looked sweet. They had fireworks, concerts, and air hockey outside.

Seems like a party. No way one is held down here, but what ever, if I wanted to go I'd go on a vacation!

The flames won 4-0 in the first NHL outdoor game to end with a shut out.

Email me for any scoops on local stadiums or something!

Stadium Report Cards: Xcel Energy Center

I got a chance to attend a Minnesota Wild game at the Xcel Energy Center a year ago after crossing paths with a bar owner from Brainerd, Minnesota. The seats were amazing, but the arena was even better. Here is my report.


Team: Minnesota Wild
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
League: National Hockey League (Western Conference)
Built: 2000
Capacity: 18,064
My event: Regular season game, vs Ottawa Senators

1. Outdoor Design

It has a typical arena/event center look outside. The large window section in the front is pretty cool, though. The building fits in nicely with the beautiful city of St. Paul.
8/10

2. Indoor Design

I don’t think it gets much better than this. Everything is perfect. The view from inside is incredible, both from the seats and the concourses. There are so many cool things around the arena, it is a very unique experience.
10/10

3. Prices
The prices were fine for an NHL game. Not as cheap as St. Louis, for example, but respectable.
7/10

4. Food
The food around the arena was great. I ate in the restaurant at the main entrance and it was excellent. It was above average for stadium food.
8/10

5. Staff
The people at the Xcel were great. Everyone was very helpful and friendly.
7/10

6. Cleanliness
It was very clean and well kept.
7/10

7. Parking
There were numerous parking garages around the arena, but there was a good deal of walking to be done from our spot. That isn’t the greatest in freezing Minnesota cold.
7/10

8. Atmosphere
The atmosphere was incredible. The fans proved why Minnesota is the state of hockey, even though the Wild lost. Everyone was into the game the entire time, every detail end everything.
10/10

9. Playing Surface
The ice looked great and the logo at center ice was nicely done.
8/10

10. Scoreboard

The hanging scoreboard at the Xcel Energy Center is great. Multiple high quality screens with great graphics. Plus the cool trees around the bottom. It is easy to see all around the arena. I’d say it was an excellent scoreboard for a hockey arena.
10/10

According to my calculations, that is an 82.

The Finnish Winter Classic

The Finnish SM-liiga hopped on the bandwagon with the outdoor hockey games. In February two Helsinki-based teams, Jokerit and HIFK, are going to play a league game at the Helsinki Olympic stadium.

I think the promotional poster is quite nice

They even have the seating chart in the same style.

The game was played yesterday with HIFK winning 4-3. Here are a couple of pictures...



And here is video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxhBGAXB5No

It seemed like a good game. Go NHL for something pretty much every hockey league could do. The KHL did it, I know. But its neat seeing rowdie fans, like a soccer game, at an outdoor hockey game in Finland.

A look back at the Winter Classic

Here are pictures of the history of the Winter Classic
2008 Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 Buffalo Sabres (SO)


2009 Detroit Redwings 6-4 Chicago Blackhawks


2010 Philadelphia Flyers 1-2 Boston Bruins (OT)


2011 Washington Capitals 3-1 Pittsurgh Penguins

A look at the Winter Classic

Last night, Pittsburgh hosted the 4th Winter Classic. But it was almost not going to happen. Leading up to Saturday, Pittsburgh has weather fore casted as rainy and in the 50s. The game was moved from 1 to 8, in order to miss the storm, but it still was pretty slushy on the ice.

For the first time since the first Winter Classic in Buffalo, the game was held in an NFL stadium. Also, the first played at night since that game. Both of which the Penguins played in.

Here is a time lapse of the rink being set up.


The Capitals won the game 3-1.