This picture was taken from the last row (21st row).
Here's the front door entrance area.
Tonight was the opening night for a new 6,125 seat stadium for the Seattle Thunderbirds, in Kent, Washington. It's called the ShoWare Center, and I would venture to say that there are very few, if any bad seats in the house. I purchased a ticket from a scalper in section 108, row 7 just above where the Seattle players come out of the tunnel. For the opening night, there was pyrotechnics, unveiling of banners, and a home team win. Final score was 4-3 for the home team. It was actually 4-0 at one point in the third period, and the Everett Silvertips made it close with three late goals, two of which were on the power play, and with the goalie pulled. Here are a few pictures I took with my crusty old cell phone.
Overall, the stadium seems cool, but not quite as cool as the Everett Events Center, to be honest. There were some things that would lead you to believe that finishing up the building was a bit of a rush job, such as the scoreboard, which counted the "shots on goal" where the "score" was supposed to be, and the "score" was labeled "fouls". The signage also says www.seattlethunderbird.com (instead of "birds" plural). Oops on that one. The netting that goes around the ends of the rinks kept getting caught when they opened up the Zamboni doors. It's also weird that the teams don't have a direct tunnel to their dressing rooms from the bench, which would make most sense in a modern rink. The concourse is too narrow, and was a crazy traffic jam in between periods. The bathrooms are too small as well. It's like they built the building for 3,000 people, not 6,125. I also though it was odd that the radio and TV announcers booths are not at center ice, they are down towards the goal line. Anyways, to watch a game, it's great sight lines for the fans. It kicks the heck out of The Key Arena, which was a pain for many of us to get to, and seemed like a coffin of an arena most nights for hockey.
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