by Redwing77
Ok, I'm true to my word in reviewing as many USHL arenas as I can get to in person, so why not review the one located in my parents' backyard?
I went to the Fargo vs. Sioux City tilt on December 27th, 2015 and, well, the arena was fairly empty so some of my review won't be as accurate as if it was a game held when schools were in session.
Anyways, the Scheels Arena is the home to the Fargo Force. It was originally called the Urban Plains Center, but changed its name due to Scheels sponsorship in 2010. The 6,000 seat arena (5,000 for hockey) opened in 2008. It is a multi-purpose venue that also houses NDSU basketball, curling, high school hockey, concerts, rodeos, and MMA fights (I'm sure among other things).
The Facility Itself
When walking through its halls I was reminded in many ways of Omaha's Ralston Arena. However, there are plenty of differences. Most notably is the concourse. The concourse is rather dark and not too well decorated. Other arenas tend to have famous alumni (such as Cedar Rapids and Lincoln) and the like but not really here. I also noticed a rather unfortunate side-effect I'll attribute to the North Dakota weather: cracks. There were cracks in the concrete EVERYWHERE. Like I said, I do not believe this could be helped and is certainly not something I'd hold against the arena, but it was quite noticeable.
The concourse is actually situated at the top of the bowl, so one has to go down stairs to get to the top row of seats. The seats are black, hard plastic seats very similar (in fact probably identical) to Ralston Arena. The sight lines were pretty good from where I was sitting. I noticed that each end of the arena featured the seats raised well above the level of the boards and that availed itself to specialty areas such as the Coldstone Area. There wasn't much in the way of activity in these areas so I'm not quite sure of the purpose.
There were convenience areas, such as places to stand and bathrooms in the concourse area everywhere. It really made me feel like the facility was made to accommodate more than just a few hundred people at a time (unlike, say, the Baxter Arena).
The entry foyer of the facility is really large and is well set up with decor and custom tiles. The foyer area was quite nice.
Grade: A
The Ice
I thought the ice was very good at the arena. I noticed no players randomly losing an edge... if you don't count the little 5 or 6 year old kid of the game trying valliantly to skate out with the Force flag. He fell just about 2 dozen times before being helped by the Fargo Force mascot.... "Kid Bobble" (More on that in a bit).
Grade: A+
The Atmosphere and Technology Use
Scheels Arena has some of the oddest mixes of technology I've seen in arenas that have been built in the last 20 years. On one hand, they have video screens like Ralston (though they are smaller), they have old school black background/red light shot counters in the corners ala high school basketball scoreboards.
They had speakers everywhere in the arena bowl and they turned it up only enough so that intros could BARELY be heard. However, they put up more information about their starters than Ralston does for theirs.
The atmosphere as far as fans were concerned was hard to gauge. The game I was at was during holiday break so that crowd (2,973 per the announcement... more like 1,500 to my eyes) was more subdued. Or maybe that's how it is... or maybe that's just what a fanbase of a losing team sounds like. I'm not sure. The Force aren't that good this year, sadly.
I did not notice many fans of the opposition at the arena, and I was not decked out in any USHL attire (Fargo or otherwise) so how I was treated was rather irrelevant. That being said, I'm not sure opposing fans would be treated poorly here anyways. Almost everyone kept to themselves.
Grade: B-
Food
Scheels Arena serves Pepsi (BOOO!!!). Other than that, I saw a nice variety of food and potential food spaces (many were closed due to the break). Prices were about what you'd expect. The presence of walking tacos aka tacos in a bag was a nice touch.
Grade: B+
The Entertainment
The sound system was not set very high so, at times, it was hard to hear what the announcer had to say. This went especially true during intros and for goal announcements.
This arena had the ODDEST selection of downtime music selection I've ever heard. I'm not saying it was bad, but... there were a lot of oldies (The Zombies "Time of the Season"? Really?) and even such wonderful "classics" as the "Whip/Nae Nae" song. Sorry, any arena who plays that song WILLINGLY is going to get dinged.
They had very good entertainment between periods with a sled race between the first/second periods and a chuck a puck in the 2nd intermission.
Also, their sponsors were nice. My ticket's back offered 7 cents a gallon off of gas at a local gas station. Others offered buy one get one at McDonalds. I though that was very nice (especially the gas coupon).
Grade: C+ (Would've been a B+ if not for Whip and Sweet Caroline)
Overall
I think this arena would be amongst the best in the USHL had I seen a game during the school year and if Fargo wasn't near the bottom of the USHL. That being said, most of my complaints (if not all of them) are very easily fixed. If they fix them (which they have no reason to based solely on my opinion), they'd be top 3 material as far as my travels thus far.
Overall Grade: B+
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