Great day for hockey: Consol Energy Center open house
Sunday was the day I have waited for since it was announced the Pens would remain in Pittsburgh. Sunday I finally walked into the Penguins new arena, the Consol Energy Center. I had pretty high expectations, I won’t lie. I wanted the absolute best and the Penguins blew me away! As a ticket holder we were only able to walk around as if it were a game day and the Party Suites were open also (anyone have $10-12,000 for a suite? ).
I didn’t take many pics or videos since you can find them all over the web but if you want to check out my flickr stream head over here.
What I Loved
When you enter at the Trib Total Media gate there is an interactive area for the Penguins Greats and a virtual Stanley Cup. using a touchscreen you can browse through videos and stats of players plus zoom in on the Pens sections of the cup. Pens Gear is the new Pens Station and quite frankly if I had credit cards with me I would have maxed all out.
I walked around the lower bowl and suite areas with much pleasure seeing that there is not one obstructed view. in fact you are always walking down to your seat to arrive and up to leave. After soaking in seats i’ll never sit in I made my way up to nosebleed which is where I sit. Along the way I noticed many more concession stands and each had quality arena food, not those generic things they threw on bread and overcharged for at the Mellon Arena.
Kids Zone looked fun from the brief moment I was in there. You can pose on life-like bodies of Sid and Fleury and also take shots at Sid’s washing machine. It was packed so I left fast.
A nice tribute that you probably wont see in many other cities was high school/youth hockey jersey wall. Granted I was partial to this one I did think it was a nice tribute to the schools who provide kids with a chance to play hockey. Just around the corner from there also is a wall made from the bricks of the old Duquesne Gardens and still standing Mellon Arena.
View from the seat – I was worried that I would have an obstructed view but that wasn’t the case at all in fact I LOVE the view and I’m close to the exit for fast runs to the bathroom and nacho stand.
Food – the first thing you must do when hunting food is get yourself a Kielbasa Grinder from the Smokehouse on the 200 level. I met up with my bud AJ there and he clued me into the culinary masterpiece that is the grinder. We also tried the pulled pork and Erie’ own Smith’s Hot Dogs.
Jumbotron – words can’t describe the levels of badass this shot past. the picture is unreal. UNREAL!
What I Hated
The ONLY letdown I had of the entire experience was the beer situation. The arena was boasting how it was built around local ties from food to design but yet the beer selection is your standard macros. PNC Park, home to the team which has lost for 18 years has Erie, Penn and Dogfish Head products in great supply but Consol the most adventurous you’ll get is Corona. *yack*. I’m writing an article about the travesty this is for Examiner but since this is my blog I can say it, its fucking embarrassing. There is a section called The Brewhouse, this is where I expected to find the goldmine. Yeah that didn’t happen. There are 5 stations to get a draft and they’re all macros. I can understand that since they are your main draw but when I looked in the coolers of bottles I saw… well take a look. The name BREWhouse should tell people you can get craft beer then. Its a step above what is available everywhere. Complete FAIL. I have an email out to Consol and Aramark to find out how this can get fixed.
What’s Next?
I’m hitting 1, possibly 2 pre-season games before the home opener October 7th vs the Flyers and then my big event will be the RMU Hockey Showcase. I plan on spending the whole day stuffing my face with grinders, watching college hockey and enjoying our new arena.
