About the Viaero Event Center
Located just off the highway on the south side of Kearney, NE, the Viaero Event Center is home to the USHL's Tri City Storm and has been since it opened in November of 2000. It seats just over 4,000 people and is used for much of the same events as a typical Civic Auditorium would be utilized for (craft fairs, concerts, basketball, etc.).
The Facility
Overall, this seemed to me to be a rather small facility with much of the basic amenities shoehorned in. For example, the Will Call Booth is simply a counter placed in the entrance foyer of the arena. Since there is no space in the foyer for anything resembling a line, this meant that the lines for tickets went out the door quite a ways. Since it gets as cold as a typical North Dakota winter in central Nebraska, this makes for a rather poor start to an experience.
The seats, flooring, and facilities in general though are pretty good. The building itself resembles Cedar Rapids' arena in many ways (similar roofing and ceiling infrastructure and similar seating for example). The bathrooms were clean (which is no small feat considering what you usually find in sports arenas).
There are luxury boxes in this arena, which is the first I noticed since Ralston. There's not much in the way of amenities in these boxes, just movie theater style chairs and servers. This isn't bad, if the price matches what you get. Ralston's suites are rather pricey for what you get.
Grade: B-
Ice
Well, for every good thing, there's bad. Viaero Event Center has possibly the WORST ice in the USHL. The only reason why there's doubt is because I haven't been to every arena yet. Forget the puck jumping all over the place... that happens. But when players and refs can't skate half the time and are sliding into boards and falling down just trying to turn (and even sometimes when they're not)... the ice was just dreadful. I have no idea why there is such incredible problems with their ice, but upon talking to several Kearney residents and Tri City season ticket holders, they all agreed that the ice is a huge problem. I'm just not sure why this arena, which cost approximately $10.5 million in 1999 and was built for hockey and ice skating, would have such horrible problems. Des Moines' arena, for example, may be long past its useful life, but the ice was fine. They may want to start a capitol campaign to fix this.
Grade: F
Food
I failed in this regard as we did not partake in any food, but I did notice that they served typical arena fare... and they DID serve Coke products!!! They're one of only three arenas (Des Moines and Sioux City being the other two) to serve Coke. However, because I did not partake, there is no grade for this facility at this time.
Entertainment
I went on what could only be called "Kids Night" at the arena... It was "Frozen" Night at Viaero and the first X amount of kids dressed up as Elsa from the movie get a tiara and a wand. They also had photo ops with much of the cast of Frozen and, for some strange reason, Cinderella.
In between the first and second periods, they had a relay race to build a snowman (complete with the Frozen song). In between the second and third periods, they had a chuck a puck promotion.
Most notable in their entertainment: No gimmicks, gags, or over the top nonsense. The entertainment was straightforward and not too "cutesy."
They also gave away some pretty decent prizes like DQ Ice Cream cakes, a month's supply of free car washes, and a free night's stay at a local resort hotel.
Grade: A
The Visitor Experience
As outlandish, over the top Lancer fans, my friends and I went expecting to be razzed a bit because we are loud and proud. What we got instead was friendly tolerance and even some turnabout on the part of some of the fans who sat near us (for example, they'd do our cheer to mock the goaltender back at our goaltender when it was appropriate to do so). The worst jibe we heard was "Go back to Omaha!" This is NOT a hostile crowd if you are a visiting fan... unless you decide to be abusive to them.
Since we happened to go to Kearney in the midst of a potential winter storm, no less than 3 separate fans came up to us with road condition reports and many more wished us safe drives back to Omaha after the game.
These were genuine and kind folks in Kearney. Those fans we did get to speak to were kind, passionate about their team, and great hosts.
In the end, I would NOT hesitate to return to Viaero in the future. However, I'd rather NOT visit in the same weather.
Grade: A+
Overall
The fans were great, the seats were good, the facility (except for the ice and the entrance area) was great. It's unfortunate that the ice quality prevents the Viaero from being one of the better visiting arenas in the USHL. Nevertheless, it is better than Des Moines as a fan to watch the game.
Grade: B
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