Welcome to Stadium Review, a new column that I'll be writing on a sporadic basis (yes, there will be a Rewatch out tomorrow or Monday). Basically, this is only going to be written when I go to a stadium or arena that I've never been to and I'll write a review of the stadium based on my day’s experience. The scale will be out of 50 with points given out of 10 in the following categories.
Atmosphere: How were the fans? Were they loud, did they make a difference, were they even there? By the way, a Marlins game at Sun Life Stadium would be dead last in this category.
Did it live up to expectation? The points given for this one are going to completely vary and probably be the most questionable because it's based on what I expected it to be like in all 4 other categories. If a stadium lives up to exactly what I thought it would be it would be a 5.
Quality of Facility: Is there anything immediately wrong or awesome about this place? Does it look like it's falling apart from the outside? Is there a cool feature that isn't there in other places (think Green Monster-esque)?
Quality of the Game: Like the expectation category, this one is also entirely based on my personal experience. Although it may not be fair to judge a stadium based off of the game that you saw there, it certainly affects your personal experience there. Therefore, we're judging the stadium based off of that.
Other Things to do in the Neighborhood: Can you conceivably go to a game here and make a day out of it? This can be a restaurant, tourist attraction, or anything else that you can spend some time at before or after the game and have fun. As long as it's close, it counts. Now let’s get into the review.
So earlier today I was at the Islanders-Blues game. Although I hadn't heard great things about the Coliseum, other than cheap seats, it certainly was pretty good in a lot of ways. In other, not so much.
Atmosphere: 7/10: I didn't expect a lot here. It was a Saturday afternoon game, and the tickets on StubHub were dirt cheap. Also, the Coliseum doesn't give off the best atmosphere on television. However, the place was nearly sold out. The fans were loud when they needed to be, and into the game. Maybe it was because it was Bob Nystrom Night, despite it being the middle of the day, or because people jumped at the chance to see Martin Brodeur play (although he didn't start, he came in after the first period. More on this in the section about the game). However, the fans were only loud when they needed to be. The cheering came only when encouraged by the PA announcer, and there were more Blues fans there than there should have been. The distance between St. Louis and Long Island is big enough that if you took every Blues fan in the stadium and put them into one section you shouldn't be able to fill it. But you could have filled up a section pretty easily here. Also, too many fans left after the Blues scored their 6th goal to go up by 2. The fans that left should have learned from earlier in the game when Paul Statsny and Patrik Berglund scored within 2 minutes of each other to cut down an Islander lead from 3-0 to 3-2. Although unlikely, it's always possible.
Expectation: 5.5/10: Nearly everything was as expected except for in 2 categories. The fans were better than expected, the facility worse. I toyed with the idea of giving a 6 or even a 6.5 here because the fans defied expectations, but the facility was just so bad that anything even above a 5 was probably generous.
Quality of Facility: 0/10: There's a reason that the Islanders are moving to the Barclays Center after this season and Nassau Coliseum is it. From the outside, it's unimposing and boring. You wouldn't even know that it was a sports arena if not for an Islander logo on a poster outside. On the inside it was worse. First off, the video board (I'm not giving it the compliment of calling it a Jumbotron), hadn't been replaced since at least 1980. I don't think I've seen a video board that wasn't in HD since the old Yankee Stadium. But I did today. The biggest problem in this category is something that shouldn't even be an issue in any stadium ever. The hallways aren't big enough to accommodate a big crowd. Instead of multiple levels, Nassau Coliseum has one level with hallways in it and to get to seats on a higher or lower level, you just take the stairs that are out in the arena. This would be fine, if those hallways could fit everyone. However, when the end of regulation came, even without a sellout crowd and with a lot of people leaving early, walking through that hallway was like driving in bad traffic in the city of Los Angeles. No one was moving because there wasn't enough space on the highway for the amount of cars that were on the highway. The worst part was that this was the stadium without even being a sellout crowd. What are they going to do when the Islanders are in the playoffs later this year and the crowd is over capacity? It's going to be a complete disaster to the point where you wonder why they didn't move away sooner.
Quality of Game: 8/10: After the 1st period, the score for this wasn't looking good. Despite 3 goals, they were all for the Islanders and the game looked to be over. Despite having 10 shots, the Blues had nothing and Jaroslav Halak was a brick wall in net. However, when Jake Allen was pulled after one period, two things changed. First off, going to this game was automatically worth it. I hadn't seen Brodeur live before and will likely not have a chance to again. Secondly, it stopped being so easy for the Islanders to score. The Blues were able to control the puck, and pull the game back to 3-3. Although the Islanders scored at the end of the period to go back up, the momentum had shifted and the whole building knew it. When St. Louis scored 3 more times in the 3rd period, no one was surprised. However, the game was good, had lots of goals, and a living legend. What more could you want?
Other Things to do in the Neighborhood: 6/10: Although there is a restaurant that was on Food Networks, "Diners, Drive ins, and Dives", within a few miles that's really good, there's nothing else in the area at all. And, since the Coliseum itself is most likely out of the way unless you either live in the area or feel like a day at Jones Beach in the middle of December, it scores low in this category. My advice is to go to the restaurant for lunch or dinner but allow yourself enough time to do only that. Spending a day in the area would be a waste of time.
Total: 26.5/50: The facility really hurt it but this score is pretty accurate based on what you'd probably get if you went for the next Islander game. Unless you're a big hockey fan, or an Islander fan from out of town who may not get a chance to go to a lot of games, I wouldn't recommend it. Just wait until they're in Brooklyn. Judging off of what I've seen at the lone Nets game I've been to there, pretty much everything will be better.
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