Right away, all I could think was the T-Mobile Arena was built for the NHL. In particular the Toshiba Plaza as you walk into the park. I was visualizing Las Vegas jerseys instead of Killer T-shirts, TV pregame anchors previewing the game, and stadium hawkers selling game programs. It’s a perfect place to meet before games, eat some street meat, and buy a souvenir. The Toshiba Plaza reminded me of the Staples Center plaza; it was built for fan interaction with the TV broadcast, as well as a place for fans to rally before and after games. It’s really becoming obvious… Stick rooms, quotes from The Creator, the NHL ready arena. We’re not idiots here.

Another great feature was the amount of space inside the arena. NHL arenas across the country are jam-packed with little room to move around. Intermission traffic can be tough to navigate for fans going to the bathroom or getting snacks. These problems won’t occur at the T-Mobile Arena. The arena’s concourse was wide and luxurious, like Kramer painting over highway lane dividers. It was a two-lane comfort cruise. I’m guaranteeing fans will have time to go to the bathroom, grab a soda and nachos, call the wife, grab more nachos, and sit back down with 10:00 minutes left on the Intermission clock. If for some reason it takes longer, don’t worry. The smarty-pants developers opened up the concourse so fans won’t miss any action while in line. Perfect for a sold out NHL game.

But enough with the words, lets get to the pictures and observations.

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Observations (from Ken Boehlke)

  • If we haven’t made it clear enough, the arena is WIDE open both inside and out. You’ll never feel cramped entering, exiting, or at any point inside the arena.
  • There are plenty of food and drink options including Shake Shack, Pizza Forte, and a bunch of the usually suspects like hot dogs, nachos, and such.
  • I was almost as impressed with the outside concourse as the inside one. Pre-game and post-game entertainment will have people hanging around there even if they don’t have tickets to the event.
  • Last Call came at 10:40 PM, almost an hour before the show ended… in Vegas… where they serve free alcohol at 6 AM.
  • The triangles in the sky were off limits for us normal peons at this show. I was told by stadium officials during the tour they will be open to anyone with a ticket unless someone rents out the whole triangle. Must have been the case last night.
  • The sound system is out of the world. Whatever we choose as our goal song will be LOUD, and it’ll be awesome.
  • The arena itself is quite loud as well. Hard to truly tell from a Killers concert, but I have a feeling the crowd noise acoustics are going to be impressive.
  • There is a ton of standing room available. It’s not going to be necessary to buy an actual seat to enjoy a hockey game there.
  • Really isn’t a bad seat. I was in Section 206 Row J and could see without any issues. And this was a concert, those seats would have been incredible for hockey.
  • Parking and traffic were not a problem at all.
  • The free WiFi was almost unbelievable. Pushing 50 GB download speeds before the concert and well over 20 at peak times during.

Videos

After the concert ended, they had a little “thank you for coming” concert on Toshiba Plaza

Viva Las Vegas encore.

Blue Man Group joined the Killers on stage to play “Human.” Also making on stage appearances were Imagine Dragons lead singer Dan Reynolds, Wayne Newton, Carrot Top, Jeff Civillico, and a whole bunch of Cirque du Soleil performers.

This was the scene on Toshiba Plaza at about 7:30 PM for the 8:00 PM show.

Picture Gallery

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