My former college roommate Godfrey A. and I took a train ride from New Brunswick to Newark, for a tour rather personal visit of the New Jersey Devils state-of-the-art Prudential Center on Sunday.

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon, and if you were not at the arena, you were most likely watching or attending the New York Giants game as their defense laid the smack down on the San Francisco 49ers asses.  They recovered two fumbles, sacked quarterback Trent Dilfer six times, and intercepted two of his passes, en route to a 33-15 victory.  The Giants are playing well and look forward to the winless Dolphins in a home matchup in London, England next weekend.

Surprisingly, there was a large turnout at the Rock, nicknamed for Prudential’s corporate logo.  Many of the fans were waiting on lines to see Devils players in attendance, including injured Colin White, John Madden, Jay Pandolfo, and Paul Martin. There were other players signing autographs and taking pictures as well.

G. and I were definitely amazed at the spectacle, even before entering the establishment.  They say money can’t buy happiness, but $375 million can sure as hell build a phenomenal arena and ridunkulous seating arrangements.

Without bothering you further, here are the pros and cons from today’s visit.

Pros: logos, designs, capacity, titantron, all the magnificent things one can expect in a new facility.  The more expensive seating arrangements are comfortable, with their leather and HDTV television sets spread all over the place.  The ice, fire, and bar lounges are magnificent with their views, potential gourmet food, and seating structures, enabling those corporate assholes to enjoy their filet mignon or penne ala vodka and smoked salmon. If you have money, this is the place for you. The parking lots are within a few hundred feet of the arena, and you get your own parking space.  What else can a rich person ask for!

Additionally, the potential access to the arena by car, train, bus is much more convenient than the Meadowlands.  I expect this to be a huge difference in fan attendance, even though my friend vehemently disagrees with my observation regarding the Devils’ poor attendance numbers.  I sure hope that the Devils place more signs in the train station directing fans to the stadium.  I only knew the ideal walking direction from attending with someone familiar with the area.  Otherwise, I would have gotten lost for sure. I also expect there to be much more security on game days.

Cons: One escalator in the entrance closest to Newark’s Penn Station… there might have been more entrances, but the one we entered had one escalator going up and one coming down.  The upper deck seats are spaced too close together and I am only 5 foot 7, 160 lbs. For those persons larger than I am, God help them.  I had problems sitting in the nose bleeds, which are much farther from the ice than in Continental Airlines Arena.  I was very upset finding the seats so bunched together, with no leg room for the average person attending a sporting event there.   I understand that arenas are now more corporate-based, but the average fan makes up for at least half the attendance and enthusiasm in the building.

Unless they expect us to stand for the entire game?  How many Rutgers fans will be in attendance, at least when the Scarlet Knights are not in action?  This Saturday you can actually get a double dose of Rutgers football at noon and then recover and catch a train to the New Jersey Devils first home game at 7:00 p.m.

Two others interrelated problems I had with the new arena included the setup outside the upper deck seats.  There is a bar maybe four feet from the ground protecting someone, especially young children and intoxicated individuals from God forbid falling over. Similarly, smokers have a railing outside that is not more than four to five feet high, while they are standing hundreds of feet off the ground.  These two railings need to be fixed immediately.  I am going to contact the Devils organization this week and I sure hope that everyone follows suit.  This needs to be changed before Thursday night’s Bon Jovi concert.

Overall: I expect the Devils game to be at full capacity throughout the season.  If they are lacking fans in the new building, they can be in for a long, money-losing campaign.  Right now, Prudential’s 20 year-$100 million dollar deal looks juicy and the Devils organization does not want to fuck that up by losing games or fans, that’s a certainty.

Dude Joel will be at the home opener while I will live blog that game, with a preview and many interesting thoughts during and after the game.  I hope that the Devils air the pregame ceremonies on-air for all those not in attendance, watching from their tubes instead.  Either way, the arena is fucking sweet, I am not trying to bash it, or dissuade fans from showing up.  This is just my perception, of a person who has been to many Devils and NJ Nets games at the former CAA, since the early ‘90s.  If you went for the tour this past weekend, feel free to give me feedback on your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity…  I am also enclosing (sometime this week) a variety of pictures and video/s of my experience.  Feel free to check those out as well.  Inlouwetrust, Star Ledger’s Steve Politi and Fire and Ice’s Tom Gulliti all have pieces about the Prudential Center, Politi’s very informative as always.

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