Aldrich Arena

[BlueLineSpecial]

What does Wakota Arena seat these days? Some of you old-timers might recall that WAY WAY back in 1974 the demand for tickets to the Section 4 final between Henry Sibley and South St. Paul was so great they had to move the game from Wakota to the old Civic Center. They ended up with a crowd there of over 12,000. Sibley won and advanced to the State Tournament.

You mean the DOUG WOOG arena?

I'm sure it's not over 1,000 capacity.

[SEC Scotty]

I walked right up to the window about 1:30 Thursday and bought Tickets for Fridays Game. I must have picked the right time.

[WestMetro]

Have to agree, I have always liked Aldrich for many reasons,

But the lobby capacity and entrance optics need to be improved as somebody said earlier, particularly evident at section time where huge early crowd outside has a giant surge with too long wait once doors open to get past the ticket takers..

But once you are inside, seated and watching the game, its great. I hope they always keep the low glass above the boards. Far as I know,its the lowest glass in the metro, I dont know about up north. At Aldrich, if you sit down in approx row 6-12 right behind the bench, you can have the fun of being close up to watch the kids come in and out all game as well as the coaching staff actions, and also see most of the game with great sightlines with no high glass in the way.

The times Ive sat up high, Ive also felt the sightlines were decent.

And you cant beat the energy of the full 3000 crowd.

[East Side Pioneer Guy]

You know, in the 70s and 80s, A LOT of section finals--and semi-finals--were played at the Met Center. They drew big crowds, too, regularly over 10,000. I seem to remember folks sitting in the aisles in the upper level. I don't recall whether the end sections up there were blocked off, but that's possible. They had awesome section double-headers for years, until they blew the place up. So....why not consider using the X for these section games on the St. Paul side of the river? Couldn't the St. Paul teams pull off big crowds? And I have to wonder if the simple act of holding those games in that building wouldn't add to the attendance....

I don't know...just a thought....

I can give you a few reasons the X won't work for that. Four days of girls hockey. Three days of wrestling. And four more days of boys hockey. And the Wild do need to have a home game in their own building once in a while.

The Met Center was great for section in the 80's and just into the 90's. But that was the single class era, and times have changed. Crowds just aren't what they once were.