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Bad attendance and atmosphere


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#16
adam22

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Driving out of Prudential is the worst out of any sporting event i have ever been to. RBA included. 


Its been awhile but I think the best way to leave quickly would be to park at one of the farther lots on Mulberry Street or park north of the stadium and drive in the opposite direction (if you can) avoiding the pileup along McCarter Hwy.

Leaving that arena from one of the main lots will take forever sadly.

#17
break516beatz

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This is nonsense. There was nothing wrong with the Meadowlands Arena. I was there for the first concert when it opened, and the last one before it closed, as well as dozens, if not hundreds, of events in between. It also had a major upgrade at one point.
The biggest problems were the outside setting in an industrial wasteland, lack of mass transit, the poor crowd atmosphere inside due to oppressive management, and crowding the single concourse with kiosks.

You also cut off the part where I said I didn't have the first clue as to why the Devils couldn't get people to show up to the Meadowlands in the 90s. 


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#18
ldandria

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Error- meant to post in the game day thread. I will try and come back with something clever later.

#19
General Robles

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This is nonsense. There was nothing wrong with the Meadowlands Arena. I was there for the first concert when it opened, and the last one before it closed, as well as dozens, if not hundreds, of events in between. It also had a major upgrade at one point.
The biggest problems were the outside setting in an industrial wasteland, lack of mass transit, the poor crowd atmosphere inside due to oppressive management, and crowding the single concourse with kiosks.


Exactly. It was a fine place to watch a game. It had good acoustics and good sightlines. As you said, it's just located in industrial swampland and there was zero public transportation to speak of when the Devils played there.

#20
hurricane1091

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Devils never have good attendance, even when they were always winning and tickets were cheap. NYR are DEEPLY rooted in this area, and to a lesser extent the NYI. NJD will never see the fan base NYR has, not in a 100 years. This is coming from a Devils fan. Prudential center sucks getting in and out of, and the game day experience is in the gutter for a variety of reasons.

 

RBNY has a good game day experience but also suffers with traffic difficulty. I still say there's just not a great sports culture in this area, but whatever. You'll be waiting a long time before RBA sells out on the regular.



#21
Eleazar

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I used to go to watch some Seton Hall hoops at the Pru. I had great times there, quick PATH ride from Manhattan and walk through that entire concourse that lets you be within a block of the Pru. SHU just tarped off the upper deck, but both bars are open and fully staffed. 

 

I don't know anything about what the NHL experience is like there. 


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#22
hurricane1091

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I used to go to watch some Seton Hall hoops at the Pru. I had great times there, quick PATH ride from Manhattan and walk through that entire concourse that lets you be within a block of the Pru. SHU just tarped off the upper deck, but both bars are open and fully staffed. 

 

I don't know anything about what the NHL experience is like there. 

Well aside from the team being horrendous for 5 straight seasons, they did some of the following:

 

1) Changed the goal song. Was traditional, made some people mad. Whatever, times change I guess. It was the HEY, YOU SUCK! song.

 

2) To combat the changing of the goal song, a vuvuzela player would play it to the tune of the previous goal song and everyone would say HEY, YOU SUCK! It was cool, he was removed (or his vuvuzela taken away).

 

3) Got rid of the Devils dancers. Hockey is mostly average guys, and I can see why they would like these dancers. Not in the budget or something, removed. Not a big deal I suppose, most men in the arena probably aren't single anyway.

 

4) Changed the food. The food still isn't great, and is just now even more expensive.

 

5) Constantly devalue season tickets with promotions. I guess you have to do these when the team is so bad, but it's been a problem for awhile.

 

6) Added "membership" which meant depositing $2500 and spending it on games as you wished. Got you the perks of a STH without being one. Sounds good, but if I wanted to drop serious cash I would probably just be a STH.  I think you had to do it all at once too. Should just focus on more flexible partial plans.

 

7) As noted, the commute in and out of the arena is bad. If you know your way around, you can make it a little better though. But your average person or new fan would probably complain about the traffic.

 

8) Ruined the fire/ice premium lounge experience. I never sat there, but know people who had and it was a good experience. It's been changed and it's not good I've been told.

 

9) Cheap giveaways. Always need to be "first 9000 fans" or something. I feel like this was not usually the case, and it's just cheap.

 

10) Same music for YEARS. I hear lots of complaints about this.

 

The arena itself is still nice and the price of tickets is probably the cheapest in the North East for the sport. If the team was still good, maybe the above problems just get overlooked?



#23
Footie17

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Going to throw this idea out here about the poor attendance at regular season NY metro area sporting events in recent years. Is it possible that the metro area has become more of a transplant region, thus reducing the number of people who are fans of the teams/grew up as fans of the teams? I haven't looked into any of the recent censuses to see if this is true, but as a guy who grew up in the region and moved to Brooklyn after undergrad I was stunned at the number of people I came across through work or mutual friends that weren't from the region. 

 

I know New York has always been a draw, but I do wonder if the continued reduction of crime and how Brooklyn has basically become a "brand" that the number of transplants has increased significantly. Again, just an idea as I have no hard facts to proof this one way or the other. 



#24
SatansHockey

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I think a lot of people are bandwagon fans. You see it in all of the big 4 sports around here. When the teams are really good the places are a lot more crowded. Even the Rangers during the late 90s-early 00s when they stunk didn't have the best crowds. The Mets and Yankees don't have sellouts when they suck either. The general population around here are bandwagon fans whether they admit it or not.

The MLS is a whole different scenario because people believe the product is inferior and they would rather watch whatever European team that they picked on tv instead. It's going to take a lot more time before people are convinced otherwise.

#25
JBigjake54

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Decades ago, when hockey was barely on the sports radar, critics would say about the packed houses at the Garden, "Yes, but it's the same 18,000 people every night!" 
This was not completely the case, but the fan base was viewed as small, compared with baseball & football, and even basketball.
It was a similar story for the Knicks.  College basketball was king in NYC.  Double-headers drew far better than the NBA.  The NIT was bigger than the NCAAs.
MSG also booted the Knicks & Rangers for several weeks annually, for the circus, which was a bigger money-maker!  

We are good enough to beat the best teams, and bad enough to lose to the worst teams. 


#26
RiverEnergyDrink

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Yes it is. You just have a to give the people a team to give a shit about.

AKA a lot of people here are bandwagon fans and just support winning teams.  As a ranger fan, I can easily say that these are most of the people that fill up the garden. 



#27
break516beatz

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AKA a lot of people here are bandwagon fans and just support winning teams.  As a ranger fan, I can easily say that these are most of the people that fill up the garden. 

That's a good part of it too. Yankee Stadium was packed when the Yankees were winning all those titles. Now there are plenty of available seats on a nightly basis.


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#28
JBigjake54

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Dupe

We are good enough to beat the best teams, and bad enough to lose to the worst teams. 


#29
General Robles

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That's a good part of it too. Yankee Stadium was packed when the Yankees were winning all those titles. Now there are plenty of available seats on a nightly basis.


While this is true, I still believe the Yanks are near the top of the league in attendance. Save a few outliers throughout the league (like Boston - although their stadium holds significantly less people), MLB games do not pull great draws on a nightly basis, specifically weeknight games. Without looking at hard facts, I'd be willing to bet the Yanks are in or very close to top 5 in terms of attendance. Both in terms of total attendance and % capacity.

#30
JBigjake54

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Yanks again sold more than 3 million tickets last year, average 37,820. They're not hurting, even if some of those sold tickets were unused, and the total was the lowest in the new stadium era.
http://www.baseballp...eague-2016.html


We are good enough to beat the best teams, and bad enough to lose to the worst teams. 





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