Joey's Ongoing Sporting Event PTR Thread

It's not a New York football experience without a fight between drunks.

fluffy, fluffy bunny filled with medicine and goo room

Now that's kinky.

Got to love our word filters!

Yeah, Metlife looks pretty uninspiring for the most part, and I bet the atmosphere for a college game in that NFL Stadium was pretty dull.

^Depends on the teams, I think. Navy/Notre Dame is occasionally held at the Raven's stadium, and it's almost as good as watching at game at ND.

dt

^True, but Notre Dame is big enough of a draw to fill a pro stadium. Now that I think about it when Florida/Georgia plays at the Jaguars stadium it's way more exciting than any Jaguars game ever is.

I think the real problem with this game was that Syracuse isn't actually close to NYC, so their fans probably didn't care as much for the trip as USC fans making a vacation out of it did. I believe they play ND @ Metlife as well...I'm sure that one will draw more interest from ND fans too.

I've never seen a billion dollar stadium I had less interest in ever visiting than MetLife. I know it's technically in Jersey, but for argument's sake it's in New York.....and for a city that likes to stand out, they have the absolute worst collection of modern pro sports arenas/stadiums of any major city I've ever seen.

Anyway, good stuff, Joey. Love to see this thread alive and kickin' again. Maybe I'll find time to revive mine one day as well!

^I've heard some pretty solid reviews of the new Barclay's center in Brooklyn, that's supposed to be a very cool new venue.

Joey, go to the Barclay's Center immediately and let us all know what you think .

^ Yeah, forgot about that joint. It does look pretty cool from what I've seen thus far.

What a coincidence...my old boss happens to be the director of guest service there, so it is definitely on my list of places to visit soon!

It's a Purim miracle! This thread is back! I took in a *gag* Ducks game earlier in the season, since the price was right for a glass ticket ($125). The Pond feels like an arena stuck in the twilight zone. It's nice, but but in the era before arenas were super sized and got all the latest amenities. However, that makes it a good hockey arena---it's big, but doesn't FEEL big. Though the concourses and arena layout are a little weird as a result.

I might dislike the ducks, but hockey is still hockey and a glass seat is still a glass seat!

Obligatory concourse photo. I dig the marble. I don't dig the not very wide concourse when full!

Welcome to the Pond, which is 10000x cooler than it's actual current sponsored name of Honda Center

This season they built a new premium club (separate ticket from the normal club seats) in their failed attempt to lure the Sacramento Kings...

…so of course I had to buy a ticket to this club too! It has a nice outdoor terrace with seating, fireplaces, and...

…then you can go inside for some gourmet food...

…like this delicious pork dish I had...

…Or Sushi if it is your thing...

...Two bars with some decent beers on tap

…Or even more great beer!

Obligatory arena overview photo!

Here's the full, not what you normally see at a Hockey game menu...

Here's the club level concourse. I like the marble regular concourses better! This feels so bland.

Can't go wrong with a display of classic hockey gear!

Here is the other club restaurant, open to all club seat holders. It's really less a restaurant/bar, and more of a "crap, lets keep up with newer arenas who build in restaurants by throwing a bunch of tables around a bar with a food menu/buffet in the concourse, clean it up a little, and call it a new club!" The space was definitely not designed for this, but kudos to them for finding a way to monetize what used to be a concourse.

Thanks for the report! I've been there about 7 times, but only running around it for the DL 1/2 marathon. Now I'll know what it looks like the next time I run around.

If you can get a meal like this . . .

. . . why bother watching the game?

Since it's a Ducks game, I agree with that sentiment!

This is an awesome thread! Thanks for sharing.

It's alive! I suppose with this years college football season underway I should finally get around to doing my next PTR: the Las Vegas Bowl. Say what you will about USC, but despite the worst NCAA sanctions ever and a revolving door of head coaches last season...they still never finished below .500. Last season culminated with a dominating performance in the Las Vegas Bowl, which is conveniently just a 4 hour drive from LA...

The stadium itself is very bare minimum. Probably all UNLV needs, but really the best way to describe it is an overgrown high school stadium. There's nothing special about it at all.

Soon I should also have a report from an Angel's game last season as well. Just have to get those photos off my old phone.

Welcome to Sam Boyd Stadium....located about 20 minutes away from the strip

For the Vegas Bowl, across the street in a park they had all the sponsors set up trying to sell you stuff...it wasn't that exciting.

Here's what the concourses look like. Very minimal. Almost like an overgrown high school stadium.

The locker rooms...again, very bare minimum.

The scoreboard. Very crappy video board. Good thing all I needed to see was the final score! The tent below was set up as "on field suites."

No bowl game would be complete without giant American flag and a flyover (since the stadium is close to Nellis AFB)

An overview of most of the stadium. Press box/suites on one side only.

That stadium looks on par with Reno's, and that's definitely not a good thing.

I've been to a few games there over the years and overgrown high school stadium describes it about right.

Figured now is as good a time as ever to bring some new life into this thread!

When I visited Orlando back in November, it just so happened to coincide with the Laker's visit to Orlando as well. It was bittersweet, since Kobe didn't play and the Lakers lost (one of many....), but a Trojan won the game on a buzzer beater!

It's a nice arena with what seemed like great sightlines and all the bells and whistles you would expect from a new arena. It also has a giant attached parking garage, which is convenient but not so fun to exit out of.

Here's the concourse. Nice and Spacious, as you would expect for a new arena

An overview of the building...didn't really seem like there was a bad seat in the house

...Can stand at the locker room tunnel and high 5 players....

Protip: buy a cheap ticket and use the orlando magic app to upgrade to the ultimate lounge on the event level because...

...you get a delicious all you can eat buffet AND all you can drink (alcohol included)...

As a Laker fan, I always have to close by making a joke about teams having more banners than the Clippers...

A map of all the levels

...Where you can get great views of one of the best center's in the league (who happens to be a USC alum), and all the other players too I suppose.

,,,And slide right into an empty courtside seat without anyone saying a word (Like Kobe, who sat this one out)...

A neat little display on the arena's construction

Great report! That's an awesome upgrade, especially with the nice seats they left empty for you!

I went to NCAA an regional and a concert at Amway and it's a pretty nice arena, can't imagine there is anything much nicer out there anywhere.

Joey you goin to the USA/Bama game in Jerry World in September?

^Of course. It's a birthday gift to myself!

And also a perfect transition to my next TR: the Pac-12 championship game at Levi Stadium. It's basically met life stadium with open corners. I can't imagine it being a great home field advantage. Very corporate, with the best fan amenity being that they were nice enough to build all the suites on one side so the upper deck isn't in a different stratosphere. Oh, and really good WiFi. Security checkpoints were also ridiculously slow moving, so the stadium was half empty at kick off. There is at least a VTA train stop too, so we parked for free and took the train.

...Here's the aforementioned suite tower from the outside. Every level of it had a corporate sponsor.

...It felt like every seating section also had a sponsorship

View of the stadium from our section. Stanford fans don't really care about football, so they were ridiculously cheap on stub hub

The suite tower from the inside.

The stadium did have great video boards on both sides

Plazas on each open corner.

The escalators had historical photos above them. That was kind of cool.

As a life-long Trojan fan, I appreciate you posting the pics without mentioning the actual game.

Fight on!

Yeah Levis Stadium has never really been that impressive to me on tv or in pictures, but I do like the "suite tower" concept. It will be interesting to see how these new wave of next generation NFL stadiums compare when finished but I got a feeling when it's all said and done S.F. is gonna rank WAY below Atlanta, Minnesota, Dallas, and LA.

I can't imagine it being a great home field advantage

Is there really such a thing as great home field advantage in the NFL anymore outside of maybe Green Bay and Seattle? I feel like that's one of those things that has been diminished over the years with the in helmet radios and other aspects of the game. I mean I'm sure statistically some teams win a higher percentage of game they play at home than they lose but I bet on average that percentage is lower than you wold expect, like probably closer to a 50-60% home winning percentage than an 80%+ percentage.