OT: Phoenix's US Airways Center

[WEFFPIM]

Good evening, Bucks fans, WEFFPIM is back. Some of you may have known that I made a trip down to Spring Training this past weekend. However, my weekend did not just have baseball in it, but we managed to squeeze in some basketball as well. My father and I managed to grab some tickets for Sunday afternoon's Spurs-Suns game, and there was so much right with the US Airways Center that I just had to give my account of my time there so that those lovely Bradley Center and Bucks execs can see how an NBA game should be done.

-US Airways Center is on the outskirts of downtown Phoenix, but that doesn't stop the city from giving the area some atmosphere. Bars, restaurants and lounges surround the arena and nearby Chase Field, making it the place to hangout before games.

-Believe it or not, the game experience can start BEFORE you enter the arena. Outside they have a setup called the Bud Light Paseo in which there are exhibits and games to play and see. Bands and hip hop dance troops are also present. This also occurs right in front of the main entrance, including my favorite, "Shooting A Free Throw With Drunk Goggles On."

-When you walk inside...there's still even more before you have to actually enter the arena. Another indoor plaza awaits you with more stands.

-The concourses are small, one of my two complaints. They are very skinny and a lot is crammed in there. But it's all neon lit with concessions that actually branch out once in awhile. When it's not neon lit, it's because giant pane glass windows looking outside provide the light. The Fan Shop is also a legitimate building, not a hole in the wall of the concourse.

-We were sitting in the upper deck corner, 11th row, a truly terrible seat in the Bradley Center. But wait a minute! The US Airways Center's upper deck is approximately 14 rows big, and all the seats are angled to the court. It's the same distance away from the court as in the BC, but you actually still feel as though you are watching the game.

-Dark purple everywhere really added to the atmosphere.

-The lighting was interesting. It was dark and accentuated the court without completely blacking out the lower bowl. The upper deck sections in the corners and along the baseline were underneath what looked to be technical stuff, making a ceiling for those sections. Weird thing, they had lights on underneath the ceiling, pretty much making the sections look like little Home Depots. Not sure if I liked that aspect.

-My other complaint, in the upper deck, the sound system is barely audible. But the music they play actually got the crowd into the game, a novel thought for the Bradley Center folks.

-The crowd was electric from the opening tip on. So much so I couldn't help but cheer for the Suns down the stretch. I mean, it was that infectious, even in the upper deck. They have rhythmic clapping down to a science.

-Noticed something interesting, the seats in the lower bowl surround the court. This was once a hockey arena, and still is for some minor league team, but you wouldn't know it. All the seats are brought in to enclose the court, making every seat a good one.

-Muhammed Ali was there. That was...wow. John McCain was there as well. That was...meh.

-Shaq flew and managed to miss pretty much everyone, which is hard to do.

-Well, the Suns won, but another little thing happened that impressed me. As we were walking out, I was handed one of those car window cling stickers that said "Planet Orange" and had a new logo the Suns are promoting on it. It's nothing major, not even big or medium-sized. But what they are doing is spreading merchandise around the community, something the Bucks don't like to do.

Well, there ya go, my trip to the US Airways Center. I sat there watching two of the best teams in the league square off, while a scoreboard to my right kept reminding me that the Bucks were just blown out at home by the Sixers. I think I made a good choice.

[trwi7]

Sounds awesome. Much better than our dump. Got to see some good Brewers baseball as well. I hate you.

[schweig]

Cool, sounds like a fun weekend.

[fam3381]

I was there the Saturday before last (I went on my spring training trip earlier) and also enjoyed the arena experience. They lost to the Sixers that night, but whatever.

- I sat in the very last row of the upper deck, but it was right at midcourt at least. As WEF mentioned, the concourses are narrow up there but there don't seem to be nearly as many rows in the upper deck so it's not too crowded. The lower bowl seemed much bigger, which jives with what MD mentioned once about the BC bowl being very small.

- They have a huge play area in the upper level that seemed like a basketball Chuck E. Cheese type thing.

- Not sharing the building with another major-league team has its benefits, as the walls of the concourse have HUGE profiles of the Suns' players with retired numbers...timelines of their careers, favorite plays, stats, etc. The arena has the distinct feel as the "Home of the Suns" rather than "A building where the Suns happen to play."

-Cedric Ceballos is the in-game MC, along with some random chick and a dude with dreads. Plus you've got the Gorilla, who rules. They have a separate group of cheerleader-types and sign-wavers who patrol the upper deck exclusively (at least that's what it seemed like).

[Siefer]

I am incredibly envious of you right now. Arizona, Suns vs. Spurs, and Brewers baseball...sounds like you had a kick ass time. I'd love to see what the insides of a real NBA arena looks like.

[WEFFPIM]

This was my first time visiting another NBA arena and boy, it's amazing what a little thought and dedication can do. We were actually gonna go out to the Senators-Coyotes game on Saturday since I'm a hockey fan, but the time difference effed us over. That actually lead to us getting into the Suns game, so I think I'm okay with missing the Yotes game.

[Kerb Hohl]

I was in Phoenix I believe in 2002 and didn't get a chance to go to a Suns game, but I was in that area quite often. We were somewhat limited to sporting events because we were visiting my aunt and my mom was along so we didn't want to drag them to much more than the D-Backs game even though they both enjoy watching sports...plus the Suns sucked back then. Anyways, the area around the arena I will agree was terrific. Bank one right next to US Airways provided for a great sporting area and they had plenty of room for temporary events around them. Some of that has to do with the fact that the weather is awesome there and they can utilize the outdoor area much better.

You'll think this is crazy but we got tickets to the D-Backs home opener the year after they won the world series only a few days before the game occurred. We sat in the last row but like most people say, Bank One Ballpark is very similar to Miller park. We got plastic World Series rings as well. The 3rd piece of the stadium triangle at the time was a fairly large temporary band stage sponsored I believe by their Hard Rock Cafe. Sugar Ray was playing right after the D-Backs game(I was somewhat of a fan) but it was a great combination of a nice concert after the game. They were at their 14:59(pun intended) mark of their 15 minutes of fame at that point, I believe.

I will also agree on the surrounding bars/restaurants. I think we ate at a few great places in the area while I was down there(I was a frosh in HS at the time so couldn't really take full advantage of the bar/club scene...but they seemed pretty cool).

Definitely the highlight of my trip, though, was when we were walking in that area one night and walked past a restaurant called "Majerlies". It took me about half a second to put 2 and 2 together and realize it was Dan Majerlie's joint...but that wasn't the end of it...A man was talking on his cell phone outside on the sidewalk and when he turned towards us it was none other than the great Jeff Hornacek. My brother and I flipped out.


ETA: I had an elaborate spring training trip planned for my break as well(next week) but everything fell through.

Definitely would have hit up a Suns game if it would have worked out.

I had to settle for getting student tickets and following the Badgers wherever they play in the first/second round(except Anaheim) and possibly the sweet 16/elite 8 the next week(if they are in Detroit).

[WEFFPIM]

My dad and I stopped in Majerlie's on Friday afternoon, that was one thing he wanted to check out in downtown, real nice place.

And I don't think that stage is there anymore. Hard Rock is, but now the Phoenix Convention Center is expanding to epic proportions and is spanning about three blocks.

It's jawdropping how big this city is. There's Downtown with the arenas and museums and such, and then about 20 blocks north there's Uptown with all the Arts and Entertainment stuff (think Third Ward), but it's just as big as Downtown. And then it expands outwards for miles. And every direction you look, there's mountains.

Speaking of which, we drove past ASU and Sun Devil Stadium, and you never see it on TV, but the place is built into a mountain. Really neat driving by it. Didn't get a chance to see the Cardinals Stadium though, that's pretty far west of Phoenix.

[MickeyDavis]

Yeah the Suns have a nice place. And there are some that are even better. For all of those who think the BC is just fine, they need to go to some other places to see just how much of a dump we have.

[paulpressey25]

Phoenix has two advantages we'll never have.....

a) Things just seem better there because the weather right now is perfect. It will turn to an oven shortly.....

b) It is a new city with plenty of flat, buildable land. You can put all those things in one location with plenty of room because nothing was there. There are no 100 year old buildings to work around....no river....no lake....no hills.....no swamp where you need pilings.....

I'm not excusing what we've done in Milwaukee, but it is a much tougher situation to develop.....as is any east coast or northern city on the great lakes. You just don't have 200 acres of flat buildable ground one mile from the downtown city center like these guys had.

[THE DINJ]

Yup, we've got lake, we've got river.

[jordan06]

Of course the outside experience of US Airways Center is going to be better than the Bradley Center. Let's think, during basketball season the average temperature in Phoenix is about 55-60 while in Milwaukee we are about 15. I don't think many fans would enjoy freezing their a$%@# off to shoot free throws with some "drunk goggles" on!

[battier31]

Yup, we've got lake, we've got river.

Exactly. See, we do have an advantage over Phoenix! Just ask Yi