Barclays Center (Brooklyn, NY)
The Barclays Center is beautiful, from the concourses to the arena itself its fresh and new. The main entrance and lobby are quite impressive architecturally and with their custom LED displays. The concourses were dark with a modern architectural style which made them feel a little small. Throughout the concourses you there were numerous mobile charging stations. This is the only arena that I’ve been to where they thoroughly go through evacuation procedures before the game starts. The arena itself is obviously not built for hockey but I'll get into that later. This is the only preseason game that I'm reviewing for the obvious reason which is that the Islanders haven't moved here but will next season.
Seats:
The seats physically comfortable and the staged very vertical which makes for great viewing of the ice surface even in the nosebleeds. The vertical rise is a little scary when you're carrying your beer to your chair and especially when you slide past people to get into your seat. At $30 a seat (including all the tacked on bs) the price was reasonable but again this was a preseason game so there shouldn't be an expectation that this will remain the same when the islanders actually get here in 2015. Also if you have money to drop it looks like there are a fair amount of premium seats like those in the Honda Club or a large rink facing restaurant area.
Concessions:
There is a fantastic variety of food around the arena. Along with the standard fare they have the cheese steaks, premium style hotdogs, Greek food, and “Brooklyn” everything. Knowing Brooklyn fairly well there wasn’t any actual local establishments servicing the arena. A fair amount of premium bar items are placed in carts around the arena, so if you’re into Stoli Vodka you’re in luck. They did have Brooklyn Lager on tap along with Bud, Bud Light, Heineken, and Stella. They continued serving alcohol until the 12th minute in the 3rd period which is the longest I’ve hear of alcohol being available.
Here are a few numbers I noted for concession prices:
Nachos: Just Cheese - $7 Fancy Nachos - $11.25
Premium Eats (chicken sandwiches, tenders, “Brooklyn” prepended foods) $13
Beer: Sm - $8.5 Lg - $10.25
Regular Dog: $6
Pretzel: $5 add cheese $1.25
I’m not sure where the best place to share details about the bathroom but since food and drinks are the subject here might as well include the place you get rid of them. Women as with most sporting arenas you don’t really have to worry. As for the men there was always a crowd but the bathrooms had enough toilets to keep people circulating. The one downside was that the entrance was the same as the exit so you constantly had people bumping into you on their way out and you kinda had to fight your way out when you were done. Also if it bothers you the urinals had dividers between them for urination privacy.
Game Experience:
Staff member lead me to the seats from the entrance from the concourse. When the lights go down during the action your only focus is the rink which is brilliant. There's not a lot to distract you from the game itself.
The team introduction left a lot to be desired, two ice girls waving flags wasn't the greatest introduction to the game, hopefully a preseason flaw or because they’re not playing in the arena full time yet.
The sound was great as you would expect from the newest addition to the NHL. Admittedly I don't really have an ear for sound but you hear the music as you would from a decent pair of headphones and you could feel the base but it didn't knock the wind out of you. The announcements were very clear and easy to understand as well.
The ushers didn't stop people from finding their seats during play, I really hope that this was a preseason or new-to-hockey event staff because it is a hockey fan’s biggest pet peeve.
During the intermission they had Mini-mites doing a shootout as they do at many of the arenas and also had t-shirt cannons from the Ice. Fans not overly loud unless there was a cheer against the Rangers and of course during the the shootout. The fan base was very mixed with Jersey fans which makes sense cause it's just a stones throw away.
Remember how i said the arena was obviously not built for hockey. Well the Jumbotron didn’t hang over the center of the rink which for me was bothersome for some reason. The other reason is rather hard to explain but the rink pushed one of the ends of seats under another so you had two sets of rink-side seats on at the player level and one at the top of the glass. I’m not sure if this should be a feature or a downside as I was not sitting there but I think it would be interesting to watch from this vantage point. Maybe arenas in a few years will start having two sets of rink-side seats.
Other Notes:
Finally an important note was that all of the TVs in the concourses were turned into transit boards telling you about public transit from the arena after the game.
New York Islanders 3 - New Jersey Devils 2 (SO)
