Yes a single star because there are no zero stars (hmmm, ironic, my score matches the name of The Star). To summarize, I am sure this is one heck of an outstanding PRACTICE field for an NFL team, but it needs a lot of work to be a concert venue. I also am taking into account this was the first concert played here. The ownership of this facility has access to people that could have eliminated all of these issues up front. With all of that said, strap in and tighten your helmet chin strap.
Information to help the patron before the concert was absolutely missing and lacking. Issues on which direction to approach, where to park, what refreshments are available and what you need to get in (purse and bag size, tix on phone not working, etc...) were serious.
Parking is an absolute failure at this point as Police and attendants are playing conflicting songs at the same time for this concert. I heard about people being turned away from the parking garage as it was full; it wasn't. There was little direction on where to park in a very large and confusing parking garage. I wandered to the left and found a whole row that none could see of empty spaces. There were many, many empty parking spaces up front. Of course getting to the garage was insane as you slowly meandered around the complex with officers not really sure of should you go left or right. Once out of your car, no signage to tell you where to go. It was my lucky day, I guessed which way to go and that was the shortest route.
Getting INTO the facility was the next obstacle. They had well marked organized lanes to proceed down on the artificial turf mini football field. These lanes reminded me of a football obstacle course. Many people got roughed up and tackled before they made it through or so they felt. What really happened were they were turned back after standing in line as they had back packs, large designer purses or their tickets were on their phones and the service bandwidth couldn't keep up. The venue entry point is not the place to learn of these issues. We got lucky and made it in (despite having wrong purse size and cell phone tix took over 3 minutes to come up on screen).
Once inside, I was greeted by a row of drink sellers selling lukewarm beer and hot water bottles recently plunged in ice that were being touted as COLD DRINKS. Glad we only waited in the sun for 20 minutes to get in and had time to let the water cool down to room temperature. I was flabbergasted by this act of concession management skills.
The signage is good telling you where your sections are, if you have tickets off the floor. We were easily able to see our section. We opted to hit the concession before the concert. Keep in mind, we are seeing top rated performers who play in some of the finer venues all over the world. The food and drink offering at this venue is below what you will find at a college sporting event although they did have some mixed drinks. The prices were reasonable. No gourmet food offerings inside (I did see some outside the stadium, however). Once you get your food and drink, there are no tables or benches to enjoy it. There was a person assigned to hand out napkins and flatware (I guess they were rationing them and afraid I might grab an extra fork.)
The seats. Well; not for hearty NFL linebacker built individuals like me. They work pretty good for thinner less taller people. They are stadium seats in a practice field. I think they may be some of the best football practice stadium seats anywhere. But four plus hours in one for a concert is a bit rough; at least for me. I was cheering for the standing ovations as much as for the performers.
The video screens and sound system, for a concert, also needs some work. I bet they are fantastic for the football practice sessions. The concession areas act as echo chambers and distort the sound. The bare, hard stadium floor also distorts the sound. The sound technicians were able to do some magic, but the echoes were disappointing for an acoustic sound performer.
The performers were amazing and almost made me forget these issues.
I'll be at this venue again this fall for another concert and hoping all of these issues will be solved so they can rename it to The Stars. read more