Toscano Family Ice Forum Impressions | Page 4 | The Boneyard

Toscano Family Ice Forum Impressions

CL82 said:
I'm glad it's finally finished. It felt like that front façade was being manufactured on some pacific island somewhere with one guy hammering out one piece of steel at a time on an log and shipping it back to Storrs.

It looks terrific.
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Yeah, the ice hockey arena's version of Patoni tiles.
 
The Viking said:
You know what we need to jolt this program back in place?
A game at the XL Center. Yeah I said it.
Toscano is nice and all but it’s been a lot of bad vibes since we moved there. Certainly no home ice advantage.
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Hot take but I think Tuscano sucks. 75% of the fan base was alienated when they moved.
 
CTBasketball said:
Hot take but I think Tuscano sucks. 75% of the fan base was alienated when they moved.
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And the sound system is once again too ridiculously loud. They seemed to correct that last year, but just because you can deafen the crowd, doesn't mean you should. If you want the crowd to make noise, don't drown them out - cripes. The UConn Band sounds good though - new tunes to boot, and are at the right sound level - still wish they were up on risers instead of right behind the goal where heckling students should be. The plastic seats aren't comfortable, but I guess that means just watch from the student deck for awhile to work off the numbness. Food options only slightly improves with Bears BBQ offerings, but fairly lame. The arena portion of the facility was over designed and does no one thing well. Honestly even thought the XL is 50 years old the experience when there are 4k+ fans there is significant better than at the sterile TFIF. Of course if the team does well and crowd starts to become part of the game then some of this can be excused, but for now it's very disappointing.

I hope the players are having a better experience there...
 
DblCrossbar said:
View attachment 92116

And the sound system is once again too ridiculously loud. They seemed to correct that last year, but just because you can deafen the crowd, doesn't mean you should. If you want the crowd to make noise, don't drown them out - cripes. The UConn Band sounds good though - new tunes to boot, and are at the right sound level - still wish they were up on risers instead of right behind the goal where heckling students should be. The plastic seats aren't comfortable, but I guess that means just watch from the student deck for awhile to work off the numbness. Food options only slightly improves with Bears BBQ offerings, but fairly lame. The arena portion of the facility was over designed and does no one thing well. Honestly even thought the XL is 50 years old the experience when there are 4k+ fans there is significant better than at the sterile TFIF. Of course if the team does well and crowd starts to become part of the game then some of this can be excused, but for now it's very disappointing.

I hope the players are having a better experience there...
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Completely agree. Toscano Ice Forum is not fan friendly, has no soul, no vibe. Seems to be a palace for big donors to entertain……..IF they deign to show up.
 
DblCrossbar said:
View attachment 92116

And the sound system is once again too ridiculously loud. They seemed to correct that last year, but just because you can deafen the crowd, doesn't mean you should. If you want the crowd to make noise, don't drown them out - cripes. The UConn Band sounds good though - new tunes to boot, and are at the right sound level - still wish they were up on risers instead of right behind the goal where heckling students should be. The plastic seats aren't comfortable, but I guess that means just watch from the student deck for awhile to work off the numbness. Food options only slightly improves with Bears BBQ offerings, but fairly lame. The arena portion of the facility was over designed and does no one thing well. Honestly even thought the XL is 50 years old the experience when there are 4k+ fans there is significant better than at the sterile TFIF. Of course if the team does well and crowd starts to become part of the game then some of this can be excused, but for now it's very disappointing.

I hope the players are having a better experience there...
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It lacks character. Feels like a temporary place to go watch hockey moreso than a “home.” Again I realize these are hot takes the building itself is nice, but it lacks so much.
 
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Some random thoughts after Saturday's night game, a lot of which echoes what others are saying:

- They seemingly learned nothing about concessions - even the Bears stand is worse than what they have at XL or Rentschler Field, and I was really hoping that might be a decent option for folks.
- The sound system is notably louder than XL and triggered the loud noises warning on my Apple Watch a few times.
- I do not understand the ice level lounge - are there really people who are willing to pay for that but can't afford the club level seats? That lounge could be replaced by much needed seating behind the net AND I bet the back side of that seating could be a merch stand that you'd see right when you walk in, which could open up options for additional food carts on the upstairs level.

Overall I'm kind of looking forward to returning to XL on the 28th, which is a damning indictment of Toscano - better parking situation, better food, better drink, etc.

I will give credit where credit is due - it's almost startling how close you are to the action at Toscano, and I bet when we're back at XL we're all going to feel much further away.
 
ableton04 said:
Some random thoughts after Saturday's night game, a lot of which echoes what others are saying:

- They seemingly learned nothing about concessions - even the Bears stand is worse than what they have at XL or Rentschler Field, and I was really hoping that might be a decent option for folks.
- The sound system is notably louder than XL and triggered the loud noises warning on my Apple Watch a few times.
- I do not understand the ice level lounge - are there really people who are willing to pay for that but can't afford the club level seats? That lounge could be replaced by much needed seating behind the net AND I bet the back side of that seating could be a merch stand that you'd see right when you walk in, which could open up options for additional food carts on the upstairs level.

Overall I'm kind of looking forward to returning to XL on the 28th, which is a damning indictment of Toscano - better parking situation, better food, better drink, etc.

I will give credit where credit is due - it's almost startling how close you are to the action at Toscano, and I bet when we're back at XL we're all going to feel much further away.
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Farther away, but with better sight lines., not looking through two or three levels of plexiglass to the "corners".
 
ableton04 said:
Some random thoughts after Saturday's night game, a lot of which echoes what others are saying:

- They seemingly learned nothing about concessions - even the Bears stand is worse than what they have at XL or Rentschler Field, and I was really hoping that might be a decent option for folks.
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It isn’t a learning issue- the building is not wired up to cook food on site. It doesn’t have grills or ovens. Everything is made off site and brought in already done, in warmers.
 
CTBballfan243 said:
It's almost like we need something to complain about here in the Boneyard to make us happy.
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I agree with the first part of your sentence.
 
Viet Vet said:
Farther away, but with better sight lines., not looking through two or three levels of plexiglass to the "corners".
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Yeah...I so don't get that...how could they have designed an arena where so many of the seats literally do not allow you to see the entire ice surface..especially corners....it's hard to get into the game when the play keeps disappearing into area's that can't be seen....it's like a hockey magic trick..the puck suddenly appears and you have no idea why...never thought I would say I enjoy game experience more at xl center but so far I have.
 
zls44 said:
It isn’t a learning issue- the building is not wired up to cook food on site. It doesn’t have grills or ovens. Everything is made off site and brought in already done, in warmers.
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It's an arena built in 2023 for - this shouldn't be that hard.
 
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As much as I hate this place (make no mistake..........I do), if we win consistently it could be forgiven. If not........it will be a white elephant, and may become the laughing stock venue (supplanting Merrimack's) of Hockey East.
 
Viet Vet said:
As much as I hate this place (make no mistake..........I do), if we win consistently it could be forgiven. If not........it will be a white elephant, and may become the laughing stock venue (supplanting Merrimack's) of Hockey East.
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$70m for “it’s better than nothing!” is a heck of a thing.
 
I haven’t been to sacred heart but since they were essentially built at the same time and what you can tell from pics is that our private school neighbor got it right while UConn appears to have missed the mark. Haven’t heard many glowing reviews other than students are more into it but sheer location took care of that…
 
scotty0330 said:
I haven’t been to sacred heart but since they were essentially built at the same time and what you can tell from pics is that our private school neighbor got it right while UConn appears to have missed the mark. Haven’t heard many glowing reviews other than students are more into it but sheer location took care of that…
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looks very nice

Martire Family Arena

The Martire Family Arena is the crown jewel of Sacred Heart’s robust, multi-year building and expansion program reflecting the institution’s significant growth and national status.
www.sacredheart.edu www.sacredheart.edu
 
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John said:
looks very nice

Martire Family Arena

The Martire Family Arena is the crown jewel of Sacred Heart’s robust, multi-year building and expansion program reflecting the institution’s significant growth and national status.
www.sacredheart.edu www.sacredheart.edu
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Tour Builder

Create immersive 360° experiences with Concept3D Tour Builder
tour.concept3d.com
 
Waquoit said:
I don't think it's a very comfortable place. It seems every seat has an obstructed view.
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This is what happens when you hire an architect with little or no experience with building hockey arenas. For roughly the same money, Sacred Heart's arena works a lot better. Their arena was designed by an architect that had much experience designing (you guessed it) college hockey arenas...
Changes can made, like deleting the tall table lounge at the entrance end of the arena. It is pathetic and could be replaced with about 150 good seats.

Slight lines are screwed up, but that will be tough to change.
 
Sea Goat said:
This is what happens when you hire an architect with little or no experience with building hockey arenas. For roughly the same money, Sacred Heart's arena works a lot better. Their arena was designed by an architect that had much experience designing (you guessed it) college hockey arenas...
Changes can made, like deleting the tall table lounge at the entrance end of the arena. It is pathetic and could be replaced with about 150 good seats.

Slight lines are screwed up, but that will be tough to change.
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This is what happens when built under public sector, union, prevailing wage constraints.
 
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Duncan Idaho said:
Ice level lounge is also up for naming rights too. its was turned into a white elephant for naming monies.
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I dont even think they need to get rid of it- they clearly could’ve fit at least a couple more rows of seating above it and not lost anything of note.

Access to the lounge is heavily regulated now. I can’t imagine anyone actually buying regular tickets at high prices to sit at a high top at ice level.
 
Viet Vet said:
This is what happens when built under public sector, union, prevailing wage constraints.
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It's not that simple. There are spectacular public buildings all around our state. I am sure union labor built most of them.I am also sure the architects designed a number of them. College hockey arenas are unique in that the focus of the action is a 200' x 85' sheet of ice with the code requirement of protective glass/netting around all of it.

Then you have to maximize seating with a vertical component that necessarily brings the glass/netting into the sight line. But, go to other arenas and check out and compare. One thing for sure is the tall table lounge is a loser.
 
What kills me about the lounge is that while the other 90% of the arena is great because the lowest floor of seating is above the glass, in the lounge, the floor is at actual ice level. So you actually have the WORST view in the place. They should’ve put the lounge at board level.

It’s little things like that which reveal either a lack of planning or a lack of care.
 
zls44 said:
What kills me about the lounge is that while the other 90% of the arena is great because the lowest floor of seating is above the glass, in the lounge, the floor is at actual ice level. So you actually have the WORST view in the place. They should’ve put the lounge at board level.

It’s little things like that which reveal either a lack of planning or a lack of care.
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They should've put the lounge in Downtown Storrs...
 
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