#13

RBC Center – Carolina Hurricanes

Convenience/Access - Getting here from our hotel in Cary (W hy Cary? Good question) was easy. Without knowing much about the travel patterns in North Carolina, apparently it’s quite convenient.

Location/Scene - With few exceptions and allowances for instances where it isn’t feasible, we prefer rinks be located in a downtown/central/core area of a city. Even if that city is small or barely qualifies as one to us big city folk (see: NJ, TB, NAS, etc.). Carolina loses points here, as RBC is in the middle of a lot of nothing near the NC State campus. However it does redeem itself with excellent tailgaiting. Basically if the rink is in a damn parking lot, it had better have a tailgate scene. Carolina does, and we expected as much in the south.

Outside Appearance - Another in the line of large white ovals with moderate amounts of glass. It isn’t unattractive, but its certainly lower-tier as looks go.

Inner Aesthetics - The inner look of RBC elevates it to a ranking it would never get if we didn’t care so much about this category. The seats are all red. This looks cool. The setup of the seats is very simple yet effective and the luxury boxes are barely noticeable. It’s a bit worn and not a fancy-looking place, but we all liked it quite a bit.

Concourse - Your basic oval concourse. Lots of width and even with a sellout did not feel cramped at all. Beyond that it is very bland and even comes close to being that unforgivable trait, ‘sterile’.

Sightlines - Fantastic. We had among the worst seats in the house and felt close to the action. Good seat angles too.

Concessions - More blandness. We saw a few BBQ/sticky rib type kiosks, but little else to enhance the feeling of being in the South. American, macro-centric selection of beers.

Fans/Atmosphere - This was the first game we all hit up together in a “non-traditional” NHL market. It was also in the season the Canes went on to win the Cup. The atmosphere here was very, very boisterous. This place got LOUD, and at times in the game usually reserved only for crowds in Canada (i.e., times other than the Noise Meter, power plays, and goals.) For that alone, it gets high marks. Also cool: after goals a fan waves the flag of the home country of the goal scorer. Once the Cup Finals rolled around in ‘06, everyone got to see for themselves how awesome the atmosphere was. Granted that was a Cup final, but anywhere that can produce the noise level we experienced for a random game in March is ok by us. As for the actual hockey/overall acumen of the individual fans we encountered, well, that’s a different story.

History/Banners - The Hurricanes, due to legal squabbles, do not have any acknowledgement/link to their Hartford days on display. They also have (especially when we were there prior to their Cup win) very little history or success to acknowledge. So instead of doing what far too many other teams do and litter their rafters with cheap logo pennants of all 30 NHL teams, or worse, raise an inane banner commemorating “Fans #1”; Carolina had banners honoring the international success of its players- small tasteful banners with a player’s name and home country for the at the time upcoming Olympics (and presumably gone now). We liked this a lot. We also liked seeing Tom Gugliotta honored.

Cool Stuff - Besides those banners, there was a nice mural of the team’s first Cup run.

Bars - We stopped at one small but decent bar in the concourse. If there was much more, we didn’t see it.

Store - The Eye! Great name. Very small store but it had a very good selection.

Value - Probably better than average. Nothing seemed crazily priced, and the tickets were reasonable.

Overall – It’s pretty damn hard to write a long, interesting review about the RBC Center. Sorry. In short, we all had a very good time there and it probably beat expectations. But, paraphrasing EP, red seats will only get you so far.

#14

HSBC Arena - Buffalo Sabres

Convenience/Access – Central location and walkable from pretty much anywhere downtown. Getting a cab outside of the arena was not difficult.

Location/Scene – Its not exactly surrounded by things to do, but the walk to them isn’t long (or scenic).

Outside Appearance – A lot of the newer rinks look the same, and while HSBC may not be the most unique exterior around, it is still great looking. Big and imposing while not looking completely gargantuan or out of place.

Inner Aesthetics – This is a good time to divulge an important detail of our overall ratings. In general, the way the rink looks when you first walk into the seating bowl and take a glance around is the most important thing for us, combined of course with the look of it while you are sitting in your seat. It is why this rink (and others) is comparatively low despite being great in many other regards. HSBC in particular ranks very low on one of our lists (JP) specifically because of this (JP is the inner look czar). It’s unfortunate, and for some it may not be as important as, say, a gaping concourse with 20 microbrew bars. Anyway, the inner look of this rink is not great. The luxury boxes are pretty intrusive, it feels very open and cavernous inside, and the layout is boring and not especially appealing visually.

Concourse – Fantastic, massive, clean lobby upon entry. The concourse is one of the best, although also an example of a rink that makes their lower, primary concourse a thing of excellence and then skimps on the fans who use the one up top. The good one is slightly asymmetric and has plenty of room and stuff to see. The upper one has a bunch of carts selling Canadian beer and gets muddled with bathroom lines.

Sightlines – We have made visits to this rink and sat in good seats, which had great views. The views from the worst seats is not good, and not comfortable.

Bathrooms – Clean, but there were some long lines and a lot of loitering going on in there.

Concessions – Not as cheap as we’d have liked, but outstanding selection and JP still drools over the beef on weck consumed here. In general this is an underrated food city, and this rink does Buffalo proud.

Fans/Atmosphere – Sadly for a city and an area known for awesome people, there was a high jackoff quotient experienced on multiple trips here. A bunch of college kids sitting in cheap seats makes for a good atmosphere…sort of. It also can be really annoying when said college kids are non-hockey savvy d-bags. We have to be fair here. We know that Buffalo fans are legit and there's a good vibe in this rink. It just so happens that on our trips here, the overall experience wasn’t optimal. The inverse of this will show up later in other rinks.

History/Banners – Terrific French Connection banner. That’s pretty much it. Sporadic at best in the displays of tradition and history, and then of course there is the blatant ignoring of most fans’ wishes with respect to their logo and jersey.

Cool Stuff – The Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame greets you when you enter, and has a lot of interesting items to check out. Beyond that there isn’t that much to stand out in our memory.

Store – The best store in the league so far, without any close competition. Big, with everything you might want, and an absolutely awesome and unparalleled selection of ready-made jerseys of all styles. God damn shame about that new logo though.

Value – For a team that uses one of those stupid tiered-pricing structures based on date/opponent, forty bucks for horrible seats against Florida really cant be considered good value. Concessions/store/etc. were average, although for WNY some may consider them overpriced.

Overall – One of a small group of rinks where one of our ranks probably alters its consensus rating. It would be a spot or 3 higher under different circumstances. But this is a 3 man crew, and we’d all agree that while this is a very nice, attractive, and totally acceptable rink, it definitely doesn’t threaten the upper-crust of our hierarchy.

Random - Wonder what Olli Jokinen's agent/handler/hanger-on is up to these days.