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This is a cut and paste of something I posted on Tripadvisor, but IG wanted a review so here goes....
Went to see Paul McCartney there last Saturday night.
I thought the show was great but really any musical review of Paul is going to be influenced by if you like his music or not. If you like his career you definitely enjoyed the show. If you don't care for his music, WTF were you doing there?
This is a review of the experience at the venue.
Anyway the thing I found most interesting about this arena is they had to fit it into a very small footprint... and some of the consequences of having to fit in add to the benefit and detriment of the place.
As far as the staff is concerned, they were excellent. No problems whatsoever there. Everybody was cordial. There was the typical security checkpoint thing but over all things were well managed.
Inside, the whole place is really monochrome. Black, grey and white are the colors.
Food selections appeared decent to me, at least for an arena. I had a brisket sandwich from Fatty Cue and it was good. I give the place credit for trying to accommodate local places.
Not a lot of tables (they are tables to stand and eat) available for people who wish to buy food and away from their seat. But on the other hand things like that are non existent at football stadiums like Lincoln Financial Field.
Now, to the seating and getting around the place. As I mentioned, the place is on a small footprint of land for an arena like this. This means there are lots of compromises they had to make to build the place.
The lower level concourse seemed spacious enough... but we got there early and might not have been subject to the max crowing situation there.
Getting to the upper level is a bit of a trip. We took the elevator up... again because we were there early it wasn't a problem. I imagine it's not so easy if you arrive later.
They have at least one escalator but it seemed like it was getting backed up. It was unclear to me if there are any ramps or stairs you can takeo the upper level. You can definitely take stairs down after the show.
The seating: This is an arena built on a small footprint. That means they had to jam as many seats as possible into a small area. The seat width was more than adequate but the pitch in the upper level was very steep... maybe as steep as I have encountered in any venue. But this insured the view was good. We had an unobstructed view of the stage and I was very happy with it. In my opinion the biggest problem with the seating was there was very little room for people to pass down the row. You had to stand up to let people by and even with the best effort it is precarious for the people walking by like a tightrope.
Finally, the location. This is an arena in a great location. Central Brooklyn deserves a spot like this. Very easy to get to via mass transit. This may change for Long Islanders after they finish the East Side Access project and LIRR trains to Brooklyn run from a different terminal in Jamaica.
I took the subway and it was fine, but they do not appear to have a lot of trains in reserve waiting to carry passengers home after the event like they do at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. But I guess it's not as necessary here because so many subway lines cross here
They also have a lot of bike racks surrounding the arena. That's good but keep in mind the area is basically traffic mayhem. Lots of cars and lots of wide roadways with cars wanting to travel at high speeds.
All in all I gave the evening an A. Nothing annoyed me which is somewhat rare. Ok... one thing. I don't like that they take the tops off of water bottles you buy. But the vendor informed me of that in advance.
Went to see Paul McCartney there last Saturday night.
I thought the show was great but really any musical review of Paul is going to be influenced by if you like his music or not. If you like his career you definitely enjoyed the show. If you don't care for his music, WTF were you doing there?
This is a review of the experience at the venue.
Anyway the thing I found most interesting about this arena is they had to fit it into a very small footprint... and some of the consequences of having to fit in add to the benefit and detriment of the place.
As far as the staff is concerned, they were excellent. No problems whatsoever there. Everybody was cordial. There was the typical security checkpoint thing but over all things were well managed.
Inside, the whole place is really monochrome. Black, grey and white are the colors.
Food selections appeared decent to me, at least for an arena. I had a brisket sandwich from Fatty Cue and it was good. I give the place credit for trying to accommodate local places.
Not a lot of tables (they are tables to stand and eat) available for people who wish to buy food and away from their seat. But on the other hand things like that are non existent at football stadiums like Lincoln Financial Field.
Now, to the seating and getting around the place. As I mentioned, the place is on a small footprint of land for an arena like this. This means there are lots of compromises they had to make to build the place.
The lower level concourse seemed spacious enough... but we got there early and might not have been subject to the max crowing situation there.
Getting to the upper level is a bit of a trip. We took the elevator up... again because we were there early it wasn't a problem. I imagine it's not so easy if you arrive later.
They have at least one escalator but it seemed like it was getting backed up. It was unclear to me if there are any ramps or stairs you can takeo the upper level. You can definitely take stairs down after the show.
The seating: This is an arena built on a small footprint. That means they had to jam as many seats as possible into a small area. The seat width was more than adequate but the pitch in the upper level was very steep... maybe as steep as I have encountered in any venue. But this insured the view was good. We had an unobstructed view of the stage and I was very happy with it. In my opinion the biggest problem with the seating was there was very little room for people to pass down the row. You had to stand up to let people by and even with the best effort it is precarious for the people walking by like a tightrope.
Finally, the location. This is an arena in a great location. Central Brooklyn deserves a spot like this. Very easy to get to via mass transit. This may change for Long Islanders after they finish the East Side Access project and LIRR trains to Brooklyn run from a different terminal in Jamaica.
I took the subway and it was fine, but they do not appear to have a lot of trains in reserve waiting to carry passengers home after the event like they do at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field. But I guess it's not as necessary here because so many subway lines cross here
They also have a lot of bike racks surrounding the arena. That's good but keep in mind the area is basically traffic mayhem. Lots of cars and lots of wide roadways with cars wanting to travel at high speeds.
All in all I gave the evening an A. Nothing annoyed me which is somewhat rare. Ok... one thing. I don't like that they take the tops off of water bottles you buy. But the vendor informed me of that in advance.
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