Ted sez:
>     I have to disagree with [Jim] about Dartmouth being the finest hockey
>arena. I went to a Clarkson game at Dartmouth at the end of last season.
>I felt that the seats, especially the higher rows were too far removed from
>the ice surface. It felt like the fans were separated from the game.
 
   Everyone, it seems, has a "favorite" Arena for watching the college game,
and I suspect most people's bias will be colored by (1) memorable incidents
that occurred in a particular rink, as well as (2) how a "foreign" rink
compares to your own home rink with which you're most familiar.  If you've
spent the majority of your games in an intimate Arena like Walker where the
most distant seat is only 6 rows from the ice, of course sitting further
away at another rink will seem like you're sitting in the "nosebleed" section.
Remember though, that Carol's original question concerned sightlines in
large arenas that seat "lots of people" [like Mariucci at Minnesota]. That's
why I singled out Thompson Arena at Dartmouth, since I felt (and feel) that
they've done an exceptional job of giving large (5000+) numbers of people
terrific views of the game.  There's only so many square feet of seating
capacity "up close" to the glass - the genius in rink design is accomodating
greater and greater numbers of people without sticking them up under the
rafters or behind aisles/railings.  This latter point is why I don't
particularly care for Schneider Arena at PC, and would likely complain for
the same reason at the new Clarkson Arena:
 
>.... the [upper] seats in Clarkson Arena .... are not really distant and
>those fans can still feel part of the action. They're arranged like the
>Dartmouth rink (i.e. below grade) but there are some seats above the walkway.
 
  From all I've heard, Clarkson Arena sounds like a clone of Schneider Arena,
complete with the glaring [to me] design flaw of placing a horizontal aisle
part-way up the tiers of seats.  If you're fortunate enough to have seats
BELOW the aisle, it's great, but the suckers sitting in the first few rows
above the horizontal aisle must contend all game long with people walking in
front of them, railings that seem perversely situated at eye level, and people
stopping to talk/gab right in front of you.  By now I've got the routine down
pat: you cran your neck to follow the play, you ask them politely to move, you
ask them NOT so politely to move. It's the single most frustrating part of
being a fan. In fact, the key element of Thompson, Munn, Lynah and the rest
that's sets them apart is simply this - all the milling around and people
jostling for seats goes on BEHIND you for the most part.  I hope the Clarkson
Pep Band Members have seats BELOW the horizontal aisle - peering out to
follow the puck from behind a tuba is hard enough :-)  It also would help if
the Press Box was situated at one end of the rink [as at BU], instead of
squatting at center ice [as at PC] like a concrete pillbox that's often hard
to see around.
 
Mike sez:
>"Lacks the intimacy" is an understatement.  Yes, all .... seats [at BC]
>are unobstructed, but most are also two miles from the ice because there
>are so few seats behind the nets .... It's definitely one of the wonders
>of the college hockey world because of its size, extravagance, and so on.
>But if it were my choice, I can think of at least 5 other rinks I'd rather
>watch a game in than Conte.
 
  I agree with all of this.  As I mentioned above, however, my intent in my
earlier post was to highlight rinks that have done a good job of providing
seating for "lots of people."  Conte Forum fails in many respects because
of its size, and I'd much rather watch a game at Appleton [SLU] or the old
Gutterson Field House [Vermont] where tradition and intimacy are part/parcel
of the hockey-watching experience.  There's just no escaping that every
behind takes up a fixed square footage, and there's precious little to go
around down near the ice [and speaking of behinds - I can't remember ever
being any colder than watching a game at Hobey Baker Rink at Princeton. No
one warned me that the "seats" are just polished concrete slabs.  The Tiger
regulars were certainly comfy on their buffalo robes they brought along with
them to the game, but we "hardy" New Hampshirites nearly froze our keisters
off sitting, then standing, then sitting, then .... on those damn blocks of
granite !!  The Ivy League Ideal of Character Building I guess ..... :-) ]
 
Jim Love
Go 'Cats