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| - Umm, no. This has got to be one of the worst arenas I have ever been to. Let me get all the negatives out of the way because for damn sure it outweighs the positives.
Have you ever wondered what it felt like to be a cow, goat, sheep, etc being in a herd? Well thats exactly what you feel like when you make your way to the lobby of the arena. Feeling like a sardine in a can is another way of putting it. The walkway going through the metal detectors and then having the ticket takers scan your tickets is a very slow and unorganized process. If you are claustrophobic, you will suffer. If you are not claustrophobic, then you just might be after an episode at this arena. This is also the point where you know who has not showered and does not have deoderant on. The same goes for when you exit. You are one of many going in one direction like mindless zombies.
I have always heard about the great music artists and famous popular sporting events like boxing and MMA go down here so that alone should tell me that the arena itself should be top notch right? WRONG.
Since this was my very first event here and it just so happens to be the Billboard Music Awards I was very ecstatic of what I was about to witness. Taylor Swift won 4 awards and no, Kanye West didnt do or say anything stupid this time around although I wouldnt have been surprised if he did. He got booed when he was introduced.
Oops, sorry for the little rant there. The very first thing that horribly stood out was the audio quality or lack there of. You can barely hear what the hosts and award presenters were saying. A lot of times I had to ask my seatmates what was just said and vice versa. As for the singers, it varied but the main theme was that there was no consistency due to just bad sound quality all around. The only thing that might be construed as positive were the subwoofers. The bass was really good on just about every performance. But then again, the overall low decibel levels of the vocals practically cancels that out.
Where we sat was basically the nosebleeds towards the back of the arena. You can see the stage meaning the people on it looked like a flea circus. Of course I expect that sitting so far away but they tried to alleviate that by putting 1 big projection screen right above the stage and 1 to the right and left of it. Only problem was that some of it was being blocked by the lighting fixtures strewn about hanging down from the ceiling.
If you plan on getting any kind of concessions here, I recommend you eat before coming here because basically they legally rob you.
Which brings me to another disappointing observation. Anywhere you went inside the arena whether in your seat or going up and down the stairs the floor was consistently sticky. Probably from all the beer and sodas that people spill. I was thinking that they had people assigned specifically to clean the floors. Either they dont do that or people were spilling beverages left and right just before we got there. Here's the kicker though. There are railings you can hold on to assist you while moving up and down the stairs. These things were sticky too! After touching the railings I was afraid of getting a staph infection!
Another bummer is that the ventilation and cooling system was virtually non existent. I was pretty much sweating the whole time just sitting there and I was wearing cargo shorts and a plain t-shirt. From my recollection I know they usually blast the AC in these big arenas for obvious reasons but it doesn't seem to apply here.
Now for the couple positives from this experience. First one I noticed plenty of security guards and law enforcement all over the place so at least you know you will be safe. Not sure if they can protect you from staph infections though. Second one was that the bathrooms were pretty clean and kept up pretty well not to mention easily accessible. So from these two positives you can feel safe while taking a leak.
In closing, I am hoping that the new arena that is almost done being built across the street in between New York New York and Monte Carlo has taken the bad design of the Grand Garden Arena into careful consideration since it is the same company that is involved. The Grand Garden Arena should have a documentary titled, "How to design and build a poorly constructed arena". What I witnessed should have been an awesome experience based on the star studded line up but all the negatives pretty much ruined it for me. As a side note, I have been to the Mandalay Events Center, the Orleans Arena, the Colosseum at Caesars Palace, and the Thomas and Mack Center. Whatever negatives these places I have experienced are nothing compared to the Grand Garden Arena in terms of bad logistics.
Yelp 2015 Review #25
523 overall
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