By ANTHONY PICINICH and SEAN HANNIGAN
Professional hockey games at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. look and sound different to start 2021. Instead of a full capacity crowd, a limited number of fans are spread out in a socially distanced fashion around the arena.
From arena entry to the final whistle, the Covid-19 sports experience is unlike any other. With New Jersey’s large indoor venues capped at 10 percent capacity, fans are in for quite a change of experience. From the ticket buying experience to the in-arena experience, everything is different in a Covid-19 world.
When the New Jersey Devils started the season in January, they were playing their first games since March of last season. New Jersey did not qualify for last season’s Stanley Cup Playoffs in the National Hockey League’s bubble and began this season without fans in attendance.
Ticket Availability and Pricing
Given the limited seating at the arena during the current pandemic, how hard is it to score tickets to a Devils game? It depends on whether fans have season tickets or not. Those without season tickets visiting sites such as Ticketmaster.com would find every game through March 20 listed as sold out. Fans visiting the Devils organizations website can sign up for alerts when tickets are available but buying a single-game ticket is going to be difficult.
Per the Devils’ website, their season ticket holders, also called Black and Red members, have access to tickets 48 hours prior to public sale. There are also no tickets available for resale as tickets are non-transferable which is hindering the secondary resale market.
Those lucky enough to find tickets available also face challenges, such as needing to buy tickets in pairs or groups of tickets even if a fan is going alone.
Tough loss to the Isles but it felt great to be back @PruCenter watching my @NJDevils for the first time in a hot minute (had to buy 2 tickets to get in though…yes…even to go solo ??) @PruCenter Box Office: thanks for helping me get in at the last second.#NHLReverseRetro pic.twitter.com/sozoO6IxnP
— Alfredo (He/Him/El) (@Waluigi10K) March 3, 2021
So far this season, the Devils have only made tickets for March available. The team sells tickets through Ticketmaster and the purchaser must agree to Covid-19 based terms and conditions. One of these terms and conditions is that the tickets cannot be transferred to another person or sold on a secondary market.
This gives the organization the specific knowledge of who will be attending the game. The purchaser of the tickets must purchase the tickets in groups of two or four and is only permitted to bring household members to the game.
For season ticket holders, the price of these tickets are 15 percent off of the general public’s price. Tickets to attend one of these games would cost a season ticket holder around $45 for upper bowl seating and $65 for lower bowl seating.
Fans wanting to join the Devils’ Black and Red can place a deposit down, and gain immediate access to all member benefits. The Club/Restaurant deposit will cost $225, the Lower level deposit will cost $200, and the Upper level deposit will cost fans $150.
Fans that join one of these clubs will gain access to lower priced tickets, single game ticket purchasing priority, complimentary seat upgrades when available, parking discounts, and other benefits.
“The games are different but I’m glad that I’m back,” said season ticket holder Tyler Dies, 22, “I already bought my season tickets for next year and I’m hoping the arena will be full.”
The Devils have not made any season ticket plans available for the 2020-21 NHL season because of the potential for changes in arena attendance. Aspiring season ticket holders can place their deposits for the 2021-22 season where larger capacity crowds are expected.
Arriving at the Arena
On a typical game day in Newark, Broad St. is usually packed with cars trying to get to the parking lot closest to the Prudential Center’s Lafayette St. entrance. This particular lot is usually at or near full capacity right before the game begins and only prepaid customers are allowed into the final spots.
In today’s world, the lot on Lafayette St. is only 25 percent full with only 10 minutes before the beginning of the game with plenty of spots available close to the arena.
Getting into the arena is also a different experience from a typical season. Each ticket has an assigned entry point based on the seat’s location in the arena. A fan must enter through assigned entry points to enter the arena smoothly. Also, to avoid crowding, the Prudential Center has placed markers on the ground outside of the arena’s three entry points to designate six feet of separation between parties.
Upon entry into the arena, there are several hand sanitizer stations. Once an attendee travels past the metal detectors, an employee is waiting to scan in a mobile ticket with as little contact as possible.
In-Game Experience
From a television broadcast, the crowd may look more filled out in the lower bowl of the arena. The Devils have strategically placed cardboard cutouts around the arena to give off the look of a more full arena but, in reality, 1,600 fans are spread out around the arena.
“On TV, the crowd doesn’t look spread out because of the cutouts between fans,” said Zack Riley, 21, “However, at the game you can tell that it is only 10 percent capacity”
Fewer people in each section leads to less people standing and getting in the way of other fan’s sight lines. The Prudential Center has also removed the puck-in-play policy for this season to prevent any kind of crowding in aisles or at the top of sections. “The lack of interaction and crowdedness makes me feel safer,” said Riley.
From a hearing perspective, a smaller crowd also makes a large difference on a fan’s perception of the game . The most noticeable difference is the sounds of the game ; the players’ shots are clearer to a fan’s ear. Fans can now hear the chatter of the players on the ice as well as the smacking of sticks and carving of skates.
The team tries to make up for this lost layer of sound by piping in artificial crowd noise through the arena’s sound system. This noise, which can only be described as the dull roar of crowd, is kept at a volume that is noticeable, but not overpowering.
With cardboard cutouts and artificial noise included, the game looks, sounds, and feels like a regular weekday crowd that is less than capacity.
@FriedgeHNIC Looking sharp at Prudential Center last night, though no turtleneck is disappointing.
Go Devils. pic.twitter.com/Sg2PqXhzsG
— Devils Insiders (@DevilsInsiders) March 3, 2021
To have as little contact as possible and avoid crowd gathering, all arena payments are cashless and the arena has provided contactless pickup which is available at select concession stands and stores around the arena.
Fan Impact on the Game
Former Devils’ goaltender and current color commentator Chico Resch believes having a limited crowd is a good first step but games are not the same. “What are you going to say,” said Resch in an interview. “It’s better than no fans but not nearly as good as 16,000 fans.”
Resch says the on-ice product is also different because of the empty building and the impact that fans can have on a game. “The players are effected by it because if they’re not then what is the point of fans,” said Resch. “When I played, it was the activity and loudness of fans after the whistle that gave you some external energy.
After battling his own case of Covid-19 back in October of 2020, Resch credits the work the Prudential Center has done in making him as well as fans feel safe in returning to the arena. “I am cautious and careful but I’m not paranoid because of the protocols implemented by the team and arena.”
There is always some good that can come out of a bad situation. Resch believes that the Devils and the NHL can learn from the entire experience and see what fans mean to the team and sports as a whole.
Gov. Phil Murphy has not closed to the door on possibly raising the Prudential Center capacity limit later in the season. Because of this possibility, the Devils have chosen to make tickets available for purchase on a monthly basis. The team is expected to make April tickets available for purchase towards the end of March.
- A full capacity crowd of around 1,600 fans at Prudential Center
I found this article to be very well done, especially the way in which you both illustrated in detail the safety protocols the Prudential Center has put in place to keep fans safe. I thought the audio clips of the artificially pumped in crowd noise was a really great touch and that along with the slideshow at the end helps to show just how radically different the gameday experience is now.
I really like how this article gave an insider view at how much has changed at the Prudential Center due to COVID. Especially for any non-sports people, giving the ‘what it was like before’ and ‘what it is like now’ is extremely helpful.
The image gallery showing all the COVID safety/precautions is nice to look at as well. I also like how in the story when the crowd is been discussed, the artificial crowd noise isn’t just explained/discussed, but sample audio of it is given to listen to what is being described as well.