My wife and I (alumni '73 and '71) went to a game at the new rink
recently but I have to say we were not overly impressed.  Yes,  the new facility
is large, clean and impressive, and the additional seating capacity is welcome.
Tickets are reasonably priced at $10 and $12.  There is something, I can't quite
put my finger on it, that seems very sterile about the place.  You have to
understand I went through my four years at UNH watching games at Snively Arena.
My freshman convocation was there as well as my graduation ceremony.  That place
had a certain warmth or coziness about it that Towse just can't touch.  To see
Snively reduced now to the status of a treadmill warehouse is a bit much to
endure.  The place deserved better than that.  I don't know what, but it should
have been better.
        It took me a while to realize it, but IMO the lighting is a problem.  At
Snively the lights hung and shone straight down.  At Towse, they have installed
what amounts to an industrial grade track-lighting system, in two banks, one on
either side of the rink.  Musta been some yuppie engineer.  Because they shine
down at an angle, and are farther away,  they have to be much brighter to
illuminate the ice surface as well as Snively.  The problem is that fans on the
sides now have the lights in their eyes much more than at Snively.  Clearly this
is not an improvement.
        When I called for tickets, I was told that only the $12 tickets were
available.  That was fine.  In the official program it states something to the
effect that the $12 seats are located between the blue lines.  Now I was
thinking boy we're gonna have great seats.  Wrong!  We were seated in a corner
section in the very back row.  What can I say? I screwed up - I trusted them.  I
called the ticket office the following Monday:  they said the program is wrong
and that we were indeed given the $12 seats.  Their reasoning was that we had an
unobstructed line of sight on all parts of the ice surface.  This is not quite
true, for any seat.  Maybe the gal who told me this really believes this but I
have been going to hockey games way too long to buy that baloney.   Apparently
distance froim the ice surface doesn't count in their estimation.  I have always
found that the closer you are to the ice surface, the better the view -  you
feel more like you are really in the game.   By their "logic", if people were
allowed to stand in the doorways at either end, with unobstucted limes of sight,
they  ought to be paying really big bucks.  I'll go again sometime, a wiser
consumer this time.
 
Craig Knowles/UNH '71 LET'S GO BLUE!  LET'S GO BLUE!  LET'S GO BLUE!......
 
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