Grading the Rutgers Basketball Gameday Experience as a fan
This Fall NJ.com's Steve Politi attended a Rutgers Football game as a fan and rated the experience.
So we here at The Knight Report decided to do something similar, but instead of a football game, we attended a recent Scarlet Knights basketball game and graded every part of the experience.
PARKING.....
There are plenty of spots outside of Jersey Mike's Arena and the parking attendants do a good job of showing you where to go and what to do, although at one point it did feel like I was going through a corn maze with all the random left and right turns just to park at a spot that was 50 feet in front of where I started.
Now the kicker here is the price to park, $30? YUCK. Obviously if you're a season ticket holder you probably already have a parking pass, but if not you're paying $30 two or sometimes even three times just to park. Yeah, yeah I get it as prices have gone up just about everywhere over the past year, but man $30 before I step in the door hurts a bit especially when there are no houses around to charge me $20 to just park on their lawn like there is with the football stadium.
FINAL GRADE: C-
PREGAME.....
Unfortunately there really isn't much of a pregame scene near Jersey Mike's Arena as the closest bar would be the Applebee's about 2.5 miles up the road. However there were some people who ended up tailgating out the back of their cars throughout the parking lots.
Personally I think Rutgers needs to consider bringing back the Winter Village type of tent setup that they had in front of Jersey Mike's Arena last year, as the front side of the arena seems to just be a lot of wasted space and would be a great Pregame meetup spot in for all Scarlet Knights fans.
FINAL GRADE: D-
CONCESSIONS....
There’s a wide variety of concessions now available at Jersey Mike’s, as they have both hot and cold subs along with the typical game day things such as hot pretzels, hot dogs, etc. Also there’s a huge variety when it comes to the different beers available throughout the concourse too. The prices overall are pretty normal as it’s $14 for a tall boy, you can save a few bucks by going with the $9 Miller High Life pounders aka the 16oz cans, but in the end it equals out to about the same.
I ended up taking my girlfriend to the game and she was even impressed with all the options, but end of the day just like when we go to the mall, Auntie Anne’s won her over pretty quickly with the pretzel nuggets. However my biggest gripe with the concessions was the $2 extra for the cheese cup on the side! Maybe it’s just me being a bit cheap, but sheesh for $2, I thought I better get two or even three cups of cheese. Regardless for an older arena that hasn’t been updated all that often, there are some great options for game day snacks and beverages.
FINAL GRADE: B+ (Could've been an A, but the expensive cheese really got to me)
BATHROOMS....
As an educated Rutgers Athletics individual, I know how bad the bathroom lines can get inside of Jersey Mike’s Arena. You have to leave your seat with about two or so minutes left before the half to avoid the craziness that erupts in the concourse. Now if you didn’t know that you’d probably miss the start of the second half for most of the big games as those lines can be brutal. Not really sure there is any way to fix this other than to add more bathrooms, but I did always wonder if they could make a temporary port-a-potty setup somehow through one of the side entrances just to take away the parkway esque traffic jam at the front of the arena.
Probably could’ve went with an F here, but it wasn’t too bad considering it wasn’t as packed as usual facing off against a lowly ranked opponent in Long Island.
FINAL GRADE: D-
APPAREL STORE....
Now there’s only one location on each side to purchase apparel and both have several different options. They have a couple of the traditional things like hoodies, t-shirts and even some NIL apparel. I thought it was pretty cool to see those NIL shirts out there for sale with the guys faces on it like Mawot Mag and Cliff Omoruyi, but there wasn’t a huge selection to pick from either. Also I’ve heard it from a lot of people in the past, but the lack of Adidas / Rutgers gear out there is a little maddening for some. I know this offseason this released Rutgers themed Ultraboosts shoes, but even on the Adidas website there isn’t much to pick from.
Now with that being said, there appears to be a new Team Store as a part of those JMA renderings that we’ve mentioned before, so if they make that similar to the store inside of the RWJ Barnabas APC building it would make things a whole lot better. Also I always wondered why Rutgers doesn’t partner with a local brand like Knight And Day to allow them to sell Rutgers themed merch throughout both SHI Stadium or Jersey Mike’s Arena. The New York Mets do it with the The 7 Line company at Citi Field and it seems to be a big hit, so why not make it happen with a local Rutgers backed company.
FINAL GRADE: C-
ATMOSPHERE....
I have a bias a bit covering as many games as I have, but even against Long Island a team that not many people care to go see on a Saturday afternoon during the holiday season, the arena was still packed. The crowd, although far from the loudest I’ve ever heard, was still pretty rowdy and into the game despite the convincing win. At one point, my girlfriend looked over at me early in the game and said “is it always this loud?”, little does she know.
I sat in the 100 section for this game and despite what people say on the boards and social media, those people do indeed get out of their seats for big moments during the game. However I’m still in favor of putting the students along the first two or even three rows as shown in the Jersey Mike’s Arena renderings and mentioned by Pat Hobbs on the TKR podcast, as it would bring the entire atmosphere to a whole another level.
FINAL GRADE: A
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