Amica Mutual Pavilion

^{February 11, 2011
Dunkin’ Donuts Center (Capacity: 11,940)
Providence, RI
Providence Bruins vs Hershey Bears
Final Score: 3 – 4}

* The arena was renamed to Amica Mutual Pavilion

.

A decent stretch of mid-February weather allowed me to make a nice trip to Rhode Island for a quick doubleheader. The first stop was Providence, the capital of the Ocean State located in the northeast portion of Rhode Island. The city of 171,000 experienced a wonderful “renaissance” over the last few decades (specifically in the 90s), that turned the city around and I found it to be a nice place to visit. Formerly known as the Providence Civic Center, the Dunkin’ Donuts Center has been home to Providence sports since 1972. The main tenants are the Friars basketball team from Providence College (who get excellent support in the area) and the AHL’s Bruins. The Providence Reds were the AHL team here for nearly 50 years, before moving in 1977. In 1992, the Bruins came in and have been a popular mainstay ever since. They have won one Calder Cup (1999) and the relationship with the parent team in Boston makes this a popular squad. The Dunkin’ Donuts Center is a decent mid-sized facility that underwent a significant $80 million renovation in the mid-2000s, which transformed the building.
Prestige Ranking: 2.5 out of 5

Location

The arena is located right in downtown Providence, attached to the adjacent Convention Center. Nearby is the large Providence Place mall and more interestingly is the beautiful Waterplace Park, which includes a riverwalk and other pleasant spots to relax. They also have a cool event a few nights per summer, called Waterfire, where bonfires are lit on the water. A short walk from there is the architecturally-inspiring state capitol building. Also located very nearby (even within walking distance on Atwells Ave) is Federal Hill, which is Providence’s famous Little Italy section and home to a ton of great Italian restaurants.
Location Ranking: 8 out of 10

Accessibility / Parking

There is decent highway availability from most areas as I-95 is the main access road through the Northeast Urban Corridor, while other country roads connect to Worcester and Hartford. Getting to The Dunk is easy as its right off of Exit 22A on I-95. It is signed well and there are a few turns before arriving. The convention center’s two garages are the easiest parking options, but there are other nearby lots. The only odd piece of driving is the split between Broadway (where the garages are, along with the Westin Hotel and Convention Center) and Sabin Street (where the arena is). Traffic was spotty, but tolerable as I-95 was busy on a Friday evening. Getting out after the game onto Exchange and then to 95 was expectedly congested, but not overwhelmingly so.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 6.5 out of 8

Exterior

The elongated octagon shape of the arena is fronted with a concave entranceway that is full of windows to the interior foyer. Steps from the street are needed to get to the entrance. The rest of the front is a flat, light colored brick that is also complete with windows. Signs for the “Dunkin’ Donuts Center” are written in silver, metallic-like letters in a two spots near the entrance. The arena exterior has a smaller appearance because the main part of the building isn’t too visible from street-level.
Exterior Ranking: 6 out of 10

Concourse

Fans enter into a wide open main foyer, which includes the box office and places to congregate. The arena name is written out before entering and on the walls are pictures related to the arena and area. It’s a good and spacious entryway before getting to a tighter concourse. At least this space is inviting in terms of bright colors, plus it wraps around the entire building. There are a couple spots on the sides where food stands are set further back allowing for more space. The team store for both the Bruins and Friars is near the main entrance.
Concourse Ranking: 3.5 out of 5

Food

There was an excellent assortment of food options. Specialties included Calzones, Meatball subs, Chicken Caesar Salad Wraps and Fish & Chips. Doughboys were also available along with the various Dunkin’ Donuts stands around. I also loved seeing Fenway Franks available here. Beer featured a nice touch of Rhode Island as they had microbrews Newport Storm and Narragansett, along with a decent variety.
Food Ranking: 8 out of 8

Interior

Inside is a clean, standard design that features a two-level bowl that rounds the rink. Seats are black and there is an even amount between the 100s and 200s. In many spots, there are three rows of seats that seem out of place at the top of the 100s and where a walkway looks like it should be. That also makes it awkward traversing the bowl inside. Luxury seating is tucked away nicely as above one of the end seating sections is the Providence Players Club, with an overlook down onto the ice. There’s also some loge seating high up in the corners between the club. Yellow-colored suites are located on the sides, sandwiched between the top of the bowl and the lower-hanging ceiling that stretches out over most of the upper-level. Throughout the entire building, renovations made this feel like a new arena, as opposed to one built in the 70s. The place is kind of generic, but there’s nothing wrong with it.
Interior Ranking: 7.5 out of 14

Scoreboard

The four-sided, center scoreboard is all video, but nothing to write home about. The top half is generally reserved for in-game video and replays (which were used well), while the bottom half is for the time, score and shots on goal, all in kind of an awkward large font. A couple small, scoreclocks were located at the ends.
Scoreboard Ranking: 2.5 out of 4

Displays

At one end of the rink are all of the Bruins vertical banners, with the ones on the left in yellow, denoting division championships. Banners hanging on the right side are black for a regular season championship, while the white one is a bit separated and represents their lone Calder Cup. There’s also a banner for the championships won by the old Reds teams. Horizontal black banners are for the Friars and these are three rows deep as they include Big East titles, NCAA and NIT honors and some retired jerseys. Nothing else for the team or city was found in the arena.
Displays Ranking: 2 out of 6

Cost

Parking was quite expensive as it cost $10 to use the garage next to the arena. Not sure if other lots were comparable. I’m also curious if those rates are higher for Friar games. Concessions were a bit high, but average for most AHL buildings nowadays ($7 for a 16oz beer, $6 for a sausage, $4 for a hot dog). Overall, tickets prices were $18, $24, $28 which was a bit higher when you compare it to my last game in Worcester, a city similar in size. For Friar games, there is a massive, color coded structuring of prices, however most are under $40.
Cost Ranking: 6 out of 8

Fan Support

The Friday Night game I attended had a paid crowd over 10,000 (t-shirt giveaway induced?), which is pretty good and the place was indeed mostly full. Providence has been top 8 in league attendance rankings for a while and this season, the Bruins are doing very well as they rank third in AHL attendance with the numbers getting better each of the last four seasons. However, it’s a misleading stat as playoff attendance is not great with the team numbers decreasing year-over-year. This is a more accurate metric because it doesn’t include giveaways, group sales or no-shows. In fact, recently Providence was near the bottom of AHL playoff attendance. Perhaps it speaks to the city mainly being attached to the Boston Bruins and not so much their Providence Bruins. It also indicates that games are for a night out of entertainment as opposed to having a vested interest (not totally surprising).
Fan Support Ranking: 5.5 out of 8

Atmosphere

The atmosphere for the game I attended was much more reminiscent of minor-league baseball with a ton of families and kids. There was a lot of general buzz or talking during play and I heard almost no applause for the non-big plays (killing off a penalty, making a big save). Also, the amount of people (mainly parents with kids) walking up and down the aisles during play was ridiculous. It really led to an annoying viewing experience. At least it was nice to attend a game with a mostly packed house and noise after goals was decent. The common chant here was “Let’s Go Bruins” and the goal horn was the same as the parent B’s.
Atmosphere Ranking: 8 out of 14

Other Stuff

I liked how the building was equal parts Bruins and Friars….One thing I hope they fix are the signs for the sections. For the 200 level, when I was walking up the stairs it said “214”. However, the section was actually “215”, as it said that on the back wall. I looked like a douche as I sat in the wrong seat and thought for sure I was correct. After I moved to the right spot, somebody else came up and did the same thing. Somebody screwed up when putting those signs on….The other thing that needs fixing is the game-day operator. When a Hershey player was hurt badly on the ice (so bad, a stretcher was brought out), they decided to have the fan-cam up as fans were cheering with dance/pop music blaring. C’mon man.

Game

In the game, Hershey’s precision on odd-man rushes and breakaways allowed them to beat the Bruins 4-3. The Bears jumped out to a 2-0 lead and then the game went back and forth as Providence kept cutting the lead to one. The killer goal was from Keith Aucoin as he picked up a loose puck and scored on a breakaway with 5 seconds left in the second period to go up 4-2. Providence scored one in the third and then had a 6 on 4 for the last 1:10 of the game, but could not convert several good chances and ended up losing by one. The Bruins peppered the Bears as they outshot them 22-6 in the final two periods. Boyd Kane of Hershey had two goals.

Stadium Experience Ranking: 66 out of 100