It's not like me to complain about anything when I travel, but I feel that as a service to others like me I need to discuss Madison Square Garden. I've been to numerous venues for events in 9 states and 2 other countries. I've never had what happened to me this week happen at any other venue ever.
I wanted to get my husband something special for a gift. We don't spend a lot of money on much of anything, but we almost always have a good time. We've bargain traveled for decades all over the world and we've always met good people with honest offers for venues, rooms, apartments, flights, and even tours now and again. I never even thought about buying a couple tickets to a hockey game at MSG as being something I needed to look out for. I learned a lot this week.
I booked my tickets through Ticketmaster, as I have in the past. I saw the diagram of the venue. I picked the cheap seats in the most famous arena in the world. The cheap seats were the most expensive cheap seats I've ever seen. I accepted that. It's New York. It's Manhattan. It's Madison Square Garden.
We found MSG easily, and it's convenient to the subway which is how we tend to get around on our numerous visits to the city. We'd actually gotten a bit lucky with the weather which hadn't turned nearly as bad as forecast that day. All seemed to be well.
Once we found the entrance that we were supposed to use, which wasn't that clear, we went in and went through security. We did our souvenir shopping and went to the entrance and went in. That's where it got a little weird for someone who'd never been there. You didn't just go up to your section and find your seat. It was a bit of a maze to get to the cheap seats that weren't cheap.
We stopped a couple times and asked the staff how to get where we were going. I will say that the staff that work events at MSG are wonderful. My complaints have nothing to do with the staff. They were great and I never would have found my seats without them.
So, we made our way across this section, back out to the corridor to go up to another section, through a bar and back down to our seats. This is where the problem began. There was a bar hanging down in front of our seats.
This was my view when I arrived. The above obstruction mentioned nowhere when I bought the tickets is a bar and far better seating above us.
This was our view once people arrived who had tickets in the rows in front of us.
This was primarily how I watched the game that night. My television at home is much larger.
Now, I was happy that my husband's beloved Pittsburgh Penguins beat the crap out of the Rangers. I don't watch hockey much myself, but I am definitely not going to be a Rangers fan after that experience at their arena. My husband wandered around quite a bit to get a better view of the game and I thought that he was very magnanimous about the whole thing. Most people who attended the game and sat in our section left extremely early, and some of them were Penguins fans. Not a good look MSG.
I know that I booked nosebleed seats. I expected to see tiny people on the ice. I've bought cheap seats before and some of them have been to hockey games. I'm not really picky. But, for the amount I paid, I should have at least been able to see the game in front of me. My feet stuck to the floor all night, because someone had failed to clean the attic of MSG. We stayed and watched the game and my wonderful husband made the best of it. He's a real trooper when I try to do something nice for him.
I just can't help it. Madison Square Garden, you should be ashamed of yourselves. You should warn people of a seat with a 75% obstructed view of the event. You shouldn't even have created that situation, but whatever. No scoreboard in view. You couldn't see one of the goals. We weren't part of any of the festivities that the rest of the arena enjoyed. There was no way to shoot a t-shirt cannon into that tiny void. I've traveled a lot and gone to a lot of events. I thought this would be the crowning glory, going to the most famous arena in the world. I've never been so disappointed. I've never felt so taken advantage of. I've never felt like I'd failed my husband with a gift so completely. I've never felt that bad when I've been out.
I don't know who you people think you are. I may not have been a Tim Robbins or a Jason Bateman who you showed on your camera, but I deserve a little respect. People in the cheap seats deserve respect. You shouldn't have ever created a situation like that seating section. Shame on you. I'll never go there again, even though I now know where to book a seat. You'll never see me again.
I only thank God that you had a zero on your scale of 1 to 10.
https://www.msg.com/madison-square-garden
https://www.instagram.com/thegarden/
https://www.ticketmaster.com/madison-square-garden-tickets-new-york/venue/483329
https://www.msgentertainment.com/
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