Arena Review: LVSportsBiz’s Assessment Of Dollar Loan Center In Henderson After Saturday’s Packed House For Minor League Hockey
(Publisher’s Note: This story was corrected to reflect the fact that the city of Henderson owns the arena, not Bill Foley. Foley’s business group has a 20-year lease on the building.)
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
The packed house for the Silver Knights minor league hockey game at the new Dollar Loan Center arena in Henderson Saturday night was a “stress test” to see how the 6,000-seat venue would hold up when people filled the place.
It was the Silver Knights’ maiden game at the new arena in suburban Green Valley Ranch after the VGK feeder team played in Orleans Arena while the $84 million venue was being built in Henderson at the former Henderson Pavilion site. Here’s a candid LVSportsBiz.com review of the arena when it was filled to the brim.
For a new arena, I was surprised at how narrow the main concourse felt with all the people inside. You can never tell whether a main concourse is the right width until the joint is packed. At several areas, there were pedestrian traffic flow problems, especially around those grab-and-go concession points-of-sale.
Speaking of these concession sites, there might have been a “grab” part but not too much on the “go” part because the lines were very long and not “going” before the game, which affected the pedestrian flow on the concourse.
For simple chicken fingers and brats, the food was overpriced for the value. But that’s food at most sports venues these days — overpriced.
The sound system was very loud. It was hard to carry on conversations with people because of the arena system’s noise volume. I was only able to chat with someone when we went into a hallway on the upper level.
Yes, we get it — it’s about knights and medieval times with the Foley sports brands.
But the medieval theme shtick is overboard in this arena. Can we please call it an elevator and not a hoist. And what is a tiltyard? Sell the naming rights and stick the company name in front of the word, “plaza.”
It’s the minor leagues and there’s nothing wrong with being corny and offbeat. In fact, irreverence can be a refreshing and a welcome alternative to the Hollywoodish and ultra-serious tone of the big league games. But using a medieval term for every last thing in the building is played out.
Harold the town crier character has been around and he gives the Silver Knights a slice of their own identity from the big league Golden Knights.
The town crier shtick is basically yelling and minor leagues are all about hokiness and offbeat characters. The new female knight, “Elaine,” also gives the Silver Knights their own identity and is a good idea.
The security outside the arena was clueless and confused. It was obvious there was a breakdown in communication between arena managers and security workers. And the security staff was also poorly trained. This has to be cleaned up immediately. LVSportsBiz.com will be writing about this topic this week.
Props to the Foley Group for installing the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame display along the concourse. It was a nice presentation and there was ample space to check out the hall of fame member bios. The local people highlighted gave the arena a sense of place. The Knights organization contributed $42 million to help build the publicly-owned venue. While a billionaire team owner has his sports restaurant in the Henderson-owned venue and his wines to be tasted along the concourse, where are the visual and overt connections to the fast-growing city and its identity/history? Arenas used to be called “civic” centers, but now they’re entertainment hubs with high-tech scoreboards and nice suites.
The outdoor space in what I believe was the “tiltyard” was excellent for the kids’ activities and activations. It was good to see so many kids out there before the game. The Silver Knights’ average ticket is about $40 — much less than the average $120 Golden Knights ticket. There were also kids’ activities inside the arena like making signs, pictured here:
The arena’s outside architectural style reminds me of that of the Las Vegas Aviators’ baseball park in Summerlin in this regard — while there’s nothing distinctive or groundbreaking in the exterior architecture styles of both venues in Henderson and Summerlin, they’re both inoffensive, which seems to be a very desired quality in both of these upscale suburban communities.
I left Saturday’s game early because the internet was slow and I filed last night’s story from home. When I went to the parking lot to leave, there were cars parked in non-spaces everywhere and I carefully drove out of the parking lot with the traffic flow heading away from the direction I needed to go.
Every new sports venue has issues and wrinkles to work out after its first packed house. Remember the traffic and parking problems at Allegiant Stadium last summer when the Raiders’ venue opened to capacity crowds for the first time?
The Foley folks will figure it out and make adjustments.
PSA
