January 18, 2014
Carnesecca Arena (Capacity: 5,602)
Queens, NY
St. John’s Red Storm vs Dartmouth Big Green
Final Score: 69 – 55
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St. John’s University is a small, private catholic school with a big city following. The school’s basketball team has had a successful history and is the 7th winningest program in NCAA Division I. The Red Storm have reached the tournament 27 times with a pair of Final Four appearances. Led by beloved coach Lou Carnesecca for 24 seasons, the 1980s and 1990s was the pinnacle for the program. Since then, the Johnnies have struggled in the 21st century, having reached 20 wins on only three occasions. Off the court, athletes and administration have got themselves into trouble plenty. New York City essentially leans on St John’s as their college team and the school from Queens often plays home games in Madison Square Garden. Early season contests and games with smaller crowds are held on campus, where the Red Storm play 8-10 times per season. Originally known as Alumni Hall when completed in 1961, the building was renamed after Carnesecca in 2004. Though it is still a tight arena, renovations made not long after the renaming have brightened the place up and provided some character.
Prestige Ranking: 2.5 out of 5
Location
Within the New York City borough of Queens, St. John’s resides on the border of the Jamaica and Hillcrest neighborhoods. It’s not a bad spot near middle-class residential units and it has a commercial strip along Union Ave that is common sight in Queens. Aside from some local restaurants and bars down this street, not much else entices the visitor and campus isn’t anything special to walk around in. Flushing Meadows and Corona Park is about a 15-minute drive away, while the attractions in and around Manhattan take 20-40 minutes to reach depending on traffic or train schedules.
Location Ranking: 5 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
Given my other ventures to NYC facilities, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get to this arena. Several expressways and parkways can be used, but the easiest is I-295 (Clearview Expressway). I used this off the Throgs Neck Bridge and got off at Exit 2 for a very easy arrival to campus. Though St. John’s does a bad job giving any parking information on their website, entrance Gate 3 leads into a large parking lot next to the arena. Even traffic coming in and leaving on a Saturday Evening was not bad at all (of course, this is not always the case, especially on a weeknight). In a city that relies heavily on public transit, it is surprising that no subway station has direct access to campus. While there is a Long Island Rail Road station in Jamaica, it is a 20-minute walk to the arena. Bus Service does run back and forth.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 5.5 out of 8
Exterior
It’s too bad most fans approach from the side as the light brown brick building is not exactly eye-catching on first glance. It’s not even clear that this is a sporting facility. However, after following the crowd, the entrance becomes apparent and it does have a nice little entranceway with the arena name spelled out in silver lettering above the doors and red lights from the inside glow a bit. On each side of the front entrance, there is a cross and dedication to St. Paul the Apostle, along with an excerpt from the Bible.
Exterior Ranking: 4.5 out of 10
Concourse
I don’t understand how St. John’s thinks their entrance configuration works well. Instead of having tickets scanned immediately after passing thru a security screening and metal detectors, the scanners are on the side entrances to the arena. While the initial foyer is well decorated and it is a nice, newly created space, the ticket-takers’ position makes it awkward for fans wanting to return to this area during the game. Anyway, a hallway on each side leads right into a corner of the gym. There is another concourse on the other side, but this is much more like a tiny hallway and lines quickly bottle up for the lone primary concession stand. Another thing pointing to the limited space of the arena: only 2 bathrooms for each gender were available and these were not exactly spacious.
Concourse Ranking: 2 out of 5
Food
Items are quite limited to standard dreck (hot dogs, pizza, pretzels). They did have something called a Jamaican Beef Patty, but I was not really in the mood to try it out. Funnel Cakes and Churros were also offered.
Food Ranking: 2.5 out of 8
Interior
Seating mostly consists of two sideline sections broken down into three ‘levels’. The lower one pulls out and features chairback seats, while the top two are bleacher style with individualized bottoms. Sitting up here (which I did) is very cramped and the worst part is when someone tries to get through, as the legroom to let someone squeeze by is minimal at best. Also, at the top, the view of the center video is restricted as the ceiling is low. Both of these points show the building’s age. Court level seats are optimal. Behind each basket sits a stand-alone set of bleachers reserved typically for students. A decent amount of walkways and stairs to each section help to spread out crowds a bit. It did strike me upon entering how nicely presented the place appeared. Walkways feature a sort of carpeting, the lighting is bright and the school color of red could be seen in many forms. While the design is not great, the refurbishment makes the arena look good and not appear to be built over 50 years ago.
Interior Ranking: 6 out of 14
Scoreboard
Hanging just beneath the ceiling above center court are four video screens that present decent graphics and live game video from the feed on TV (that feed is a little grainier than it should be). It’s a nice touch, but the strange thing was when FS1 showed replays, the in-house scoreboard immediately cut to a logo graphic. Why could they never show any replays??? On the wall at each end is a traditional black board featuring score and game information. It was flanked by ads, along with a “St. John’s” script logo at the top.
Scoreboard Ranking: 2.5 out of 4
Displays
The displays section is fully visible to fans as they walk in with the back wall of the lobby complete with a whole range of things to look at. On one side are all the basketball honors. Various cases include a wide range of memorabilia and this includes sections reserved solely for Lou Carnesecca (and one of them has a famed sweater of his!). The other side shows off the remaining Red Storm athletic accomplishments as Big East and National trophies can be found for different sports. I also loved the wallpapering mural at the top. Inside the arena, banners hang on each end wall. At one end are simple white banners reserved for championships and NCAA appearances for basketball and volleyball. The other end features individual honors as there are 10 red “legacy” banners for players and coaches.
Displays Ranking: 4.5 out of 6
Cost
Tickets cost between $30 and $40 with only a few crappy seats available for $25. Given the conference and level play, the pricing is on par. It was a little odd though that when I went on to their website to buy a ticket, a few levels were available for purchase, but then when I tried to go through with it, they said “Not Available”. Other prices are really good as the parking is free (that’s right, free parking within the confines of NYC!) and concessions are cheap.
Cost Ranking: 7 out of 8
Fan Support
Fan support certainly has dropped off since the team’s heyday in the 80s and 90s. The opponent dictates attendance at the Garden, while back on campus, the arena is typically 2/3rds full, which it was during the game I attended (translating to about 4,000 or so). A notable exception occurred when the Johnies hosted a postseason NIT game later in the 2013-2014 season and the on-campus attendance of 1,027 was the lowest out of the 16 teams that had a home game.
Fan Support Ranking: 5.5 out of 8
Atmosphere
The crowd was subdued on the night I attended and maybe it was because the team had lost five in a row. They also were in the middle of conference play when this oddly-scheduled game against Dartmouth occurred. Most fans were attentive and the cheering was there after each basket, but it really was no more than that. Watching a game later in the week on TV against Seton Hall, it was a similar atmosphere and only in the last 10 seconds did the crowd get on their feet and become more vocal. There is a pep band in the corner and students do fill a good amount of the seats behind the basket, but for my game, they were just getting back from winter break.
Atmosphere Ranking: 6.5 out of 14
Other Stuff
For decades, the school was known as the “Redmen”, however that nickname was dropped in 1995 as it was considered discriminatory…..How about the eclectic names on the Red Storm roster this season: God’sgift, Sir’Dominic and JaKarr…..A little more on Lou Carnesecca, a name synonymous with the program: He coached the Johnnies for 24 seasons and made the NCAA Tournament in 18 of them. Not only did he win, but he was an all-around good guy and quite the popular man around the city.
Game
Dartmouth hung around for a good portion of the first half and a three-pointer at the buzzer by Alex Mitola made the score 38-34 at the break. In the second half, poor shooting did in the Big Green as they were held to 27% and only 10 points thru 15 minutes of play. The Red Storm took advantage and pulled away for a 69-55 win. Phil Green led St. John’s with 16 points.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
I have been here before. But I want to win a bag of prize