The Athletic<\/a> turned to readers to rank all\u00a032 NHL venues, and Scotiabank Arena came in at a shocking 28th place among survey respondents, with only four arenas in the league placing lower.<\/p>\nThe 18,800-capacity NHL and NBA venue opened its doors in 1999 as the Air Canada Centre, and, despite various upgrades and renovations over its 27-year history, the arena’s amenities, atmosphere, and affordability were all cited as factors for the dismal placing.<\/p>\n
The Athletic’s survey ranked Scotiabank Arena a 7.2 out of 10 (22nd place) for amenities, while the venue was dead last in both atmosphere (a score of 4.2) and affordability (a score of 1.5).<\/p>\n
In contrast, the arena’s prime downtown location was ranked fifth in the league, situated in a walkable area close to transit and surrounded by bars and restaurants that allow fans to plan a day or evening around attending a game, earning a score of 9.1<\/p>\n
Overall, fans ranked Scotiabank Arena 30th with a score of 5.6, and beat writers ranked it 13th with a score of 6.7, which evens out at an overall score of 5.8<\/p>\n
While the results look pretty damning for The Vault on the surface, the methodology is perhaps a bit shaky, turning to several thousand of The Athletic’s readers to share comments on the best and worst of the NHL’s venues, while clarifying that not even 30 per cent of respondents were full or partial season-ticket holders at their teams’ rinks.<\/p>\n
However, some of the fan testimonials speak for themselves.<\/p>\n
The Athletic notes fans who were fed up with the experience at Scotiabank Arena, like one who stated that “The place feels stale. Overpriced. Enjoy going to other arenas to watch the team. Many are more enjoyable and less expensive.”<\/p>\n
Another said the facility was “Possibly the worst game ops in the NHL,” calling out the “dead crowd on most nights made worse by extreme loud music that prevents any potential atmosphere from developing.”<\/p>\n
The same fan added that high-priced tickets cut into the dedicated fanbase, writing that Scotiabank Arena “No longer [attracts] a knowledgeable hockey crowd,” and cites the “entire empty rows of last-row standing room tickets are unsold this season for most games because prices are way too high,” along with the “Bizarre lower-bowl crowd that leaves early no matter what the score is.”<\/p>\n
Even if fans can get a sought-after ticket in the lower bowl, they say that the phenomenon of “Platinum seat ghosts are well-documented.”<\/p>\n
“As a diehard Leafs fan, when I have managed to score tickets in the 100s, I receive eye-rolls, ’embarrassed-for-you’ and annoyed glances from the suits in response to my normal fan behaviours,” claimed one fan.<\/p>\n
With the Leafs at risk of losing out on a playoff berth for the first time in a decade, maybe disgruntled fans will at least be spared postseason ticket expenses and the arena’s subdued vibe.<\/p>\n
Lead photo by <\/p>\n
John E. Sokolowski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena may still seem shiny and new to\u00a0old-timers who grew up watching the Leafs lose at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[14987,49,48,448,11054,82],"class_list":["post-443737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-arena","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-scotiabank","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}