DCU Center

^{November 14, 2010
DCU Center (Capacity: 14,800)
Worcester, MA
Worcester Sharks vs Norfolk Admirals
Final Score: 3 – 1}

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The city of Worcester is the second largest in Massachusetts with an estimated population around 180,000. It sits right in the middle of the state as the landscape becomes hilly. We spent time here over a weekend and with little to see attraction-wise, sports was the focus. Worcester’s arena is the DCU Center, built in 1981 and home to the AHL’s Sharks. This is the only tenant in the building and the Sharks began play in 2006, after the city went a year without a team (the IceCats were there from 1994-2005 until moving to Peoria). The Sharks have made the playoffs three of the past four seasons and capped last year with a division title. The DCU Center sports a large capacity and bright entrance, then the building gets rather boring from there.
Prestige Ranking: 2 out of 5

Location

Worcester’s “attractions” include an Art Museum and other fairly typical things seen in mid-sized cities. Not much interested us, except we did stop into the the city’s History Museum, which was a small hodgepodge of historical stuff. Worcester Common in the heart of the city isn’t a bad spot to sit on a nice day and that is located just a few blocks from the arena. The immediate surroundings around the DCU Center include a hospital, a parking garage and a couple office buildings. The area is not booming with restaurants, but you’ll manage to find a few within a short walk.
Location Ranking: 5 out of 10

Accessibility / Parking

The main interstate through Massachusetts is I-90 (the Mass Pike) and a branch of that goes off into Worcester. That road is I-290 and it is Exit 18 that leads into downtown. Worcester has its fair share of twisty roads and while the street grid downtown is not straight lines, navigating wasn’t too terrible. Right across the street from the arena is a very large parking garage and that is sufficient for game parking. Traffic wasn’t a problem on the weekend.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 7.5 out of 8

Exterior

The white-colored arena has an octagon shape to it and the green “DCU Center” logo is on each of the corner walls. It’s a clean look and the white paint job is holding up. The main section of the arena that faces Major Taylor Boulevard has a three-tiered set of windows, broken up by teal trim. Also attached is a convention center and that makes the entire complex quite long.
Exterior Ranking: 6.5 out of 10

Concourse

Fans enter into a common area full of “DCU Center” flags and Sharks banners. After the ticket collectors, the concourse is a fairly standard one that circles the arena. Not much to get excited about here. The one neat area was the Charter Zone, which is a bar built pretty much into the hallway concourse. It’s mainly standing room, but the 5 TV’s were nice to check out other sports (NFL games on this day) and you can get a drink. Scattered around were a few merchandise stands and make-shift stores for Sharks apparel. There were also other monitors in the concourse showing the game if you leave while play is ongoing. Bathrooms seemed to be small and not enough of them.
Concourse Ranking: 2.5 out of 5

Food

A good chunk of the food offerings were sweets as there were a lot of stands selling Snocones, Dippin Dots, Frozen Lemonades, Ice Cream and movie-style candy. Other typical food items were available along with Grinders, the New England term for a sub. Paninis were also available. Beer was standard
Food Ranking: 5.5 out of 8

Interior

Let me start by saying, I hate when an arena curtains off the top level to make it seem more intimate. Drives me nuts, because I can’t see the whole arena, plus it just gives off a negative vibe by saying ‘we don’t have enough fans to ever fill this place’. So, if you haven’t guessed, the top level here is broken by a curtain, but it’s odd because the first three rows are open for fans and then the curtain begins. DCU’s seating surrounds the rink in fairly standard form, though it’s not exactly uniform as the corner seats seem to be oddly fit in between the end and sideline rows of seats. There’s no gaps, but just kind of a cut-and-paste job as it’s placed in. Be careful sitting in the first few rows of a section as a railing can get in the way of a view. I do like the opening from the Charter Zone bar allowing for standing rails and a nice overhead view 5-6 rows above the ice. Seats in the lower deck are gold, while higher up they are teal. Each side has one “superbox” for luxury seating and it’s surprising to see the lack of higher-end / corporate options.
Interior Ranking: 6.5 out of 14

Scoreboard

The four-sided center scoreboard has a large video screen on each side with live game video and replays, while at the bottom is the digital score set-up. Video isn’t the highest of quality, but it works fine. I liked the simple, set-up as everything I needed was there. The DCU logo was at the top. In the corners, were digital score displays and the time of day.
Scoreboard Ranking: 3 out of 4

Displays

A young team does not have much to display, so the rafters looked a little naked. The Sharks try to make up for it by using large banners for the U.S. and Canadian flag, their team logo and the all-star game logo (hosted in 2009). Facing the sides, is the team’s lone achievement, last year’s Division Title.
Displays Ranking: 1.5 out of 6

Cost

Nothing out of the ordinary here, with parking at our garage $6 (the ones right next to the building were $10). This is reflective of a mid-sized city downtown parking. Tickets were $16 or $20 and concessions were a tad high ($4.50 for fries, $3.50 for a water and $5 for most of the candy.
Cost Ranking: 7 out of 8

Fan Support and Atmosphere

Judging purely from the game we attended, the atmosphere was dismal. A sparse crowd led to a continuously quiet arena and fans barely generated any noise. After goals, maybe a handful of fans stood and only a few other game events led to cheers. Do take into account however, that this was a Sunday Afternoon game on the weekend (NFL still rules), which likely had a lot to do with the announced attendance of 2,404. Actual fans were less than half of that. Just the night before, the team drew double (5,002). Some better support when timing is convenient. I would have liked to seen what the atmosphere was on those better drawing games. Still, Worcester has ranked in the bottom third of the league the last few years for average attendance, which typically ends up around 3500 – 4000.
Fan Support Ranking: 3 out of 8
Atmosphere Ranking: 3.5 out of 14

Other Stuff

The DCU Center has hosted the NCAA Basketball Tournament, last doing so in 2005, but the tournament has likely outgrown the building. It still is a viable venue for the NCAA Hockey Tournament and Worcester has been 11 times since 1993. Geographically it also is a great fit for college hockey….The former name of the arena was The Centrum and many people still refer to it as such.

Game

In the game, Worcester won 3-1 with a goal in each period, however Norfolk outplayed them in the last two. After the Admirals cut the lead to 2-1 in the 2nd, Worcester scored with under a minute left in the second, but the goal was correctly called off as it was batted in. The clincher came from Defensemen Mike Moore six minutes into the third. It was his second of the night, while Andrew Desjardins had two assists.

Stadium Experience Ranking: 53.5 out of 100