Prudential Center Arena in Newark, New Jersey - a Logistical Nightmare

When my sister-in-law announced that she'd gotten her hands on Hannah Montana tickets, I was thrilled to hear that the show was going to be at the new Prudential Center Arena in Newark. Newark is fifteen minutes from my house, the city is on an upswing, and I was eager to see the new home of the New Jersey Devils hockey team.

Unfortunately, after experiencing the logistical nightmare known as Prudential Center Arena for myself, I can only report that the Devils' new home is the ninth circle of hell.

I can't say I wasn't warned before going-my husband told me it was located in the most trafficky section of the city, being close to both the county courthouse and Penn Station. My future brother-in-law is a Devils season ticket holder, and he warned me that the parking was difficult to find and far away. Armed with this knowledge, I decided to go to the Prudential Center Arena's website (www.prucenter.com) to scope out the parking situation ahead of time.

I was greatly relieved when I found a link to a site that allowed you to prepay for a parking spot and print out a permit to be displayed in your window the day of the show. There were spots available in a lot that appeared to be right across the street from the arena. The price-- $26-was a bit disconcerting, but I decided to put up with it in exchange for the convenience of knowing I had a good parking spot waiting for me.

All was well until the afternoon of the show, when it took us the estimated 15 minutes to get from my home to the highway exit for Newark, and then an hour and a half to get from the highway exit to Prudential Center. My husband was right, the traffic was terrible, but we'd left ourselves with plenty of time, or so we thought.

We made it to the corner of the street where my designated parking lot was, only to find it barricaded by the police due to traffic. When we pulled over and showed the officer our parking permit he shook his head, telling us we had to go back out to Broad Street and go around to approach the street from the opposite direction. This was the equivalent of the route we'd just come from that had taken over an hour, so we were concerned. Nevertheless, we followed his directions and managed to make it in half an hour this time, only to find the road was also blocked off on that side. Our prepaid parking was useless because we weren't allowed to enter that street.

We ended up parking in another lot two blocks away from Prudential Center that charged $30, so before we even set foot in the arena we were down $56, a price that would be exorbitant even in midtown Manhattan.

The bottlenecking did not stop once we entered the arena; the entrance (where the security checks are performed) is on street level, so thousands of people were jammed into a small area that was effectively the base of an escalator. When we got to the top of the escalator and reached the main level, we found evidence of more horrible design-the fast food service and souvenirs were right across from the escalators, which meant we had to push our way through a standing crowd just to find our seats. The last straw was when we learned that our section had two men's restrooms and none for women. They may have done this thinking there are more male hockey fans than female ones, but it was a disaster at a rock concert aimed at teenage girls where most of the chaperones were women.

I do not know what the powers that be were thinking when they planned this venue and placed it right in the middle of the most crowded part of a large city and then failed to provide adequate parking. I also don't know what they were thinking when they designed an arena with a tiny ground floor entrance and placed concession stands at the top of the escalators and stairs. I especially don't understand why they would intentionally skimp on the women's restrooms.

It's a curiosity to me, but it's a tragedy for the people of the city of Newark. I have endured a lot of less than par conditions for rock concerts over the years but this is the first venue I've ever been to that I vowed never to set foot in again, and from the comments I overheard leaving the arena, I was one of many who came to that conclusion. The Devils season ticket holders I know intend to let their subscriptions lapse after this year, and there aren't enough people in New Jersey to keep filling rock concerts with first time visitors. If there's one good thing I can say about the arena, it's that most of the staff there were very friendly and accommodating. I fear for their jobs because I can't imagine this place staying open for more than a year or two. The Prudential Center Arena should have been a triumph for the city of Newark, and instead it is driving people away.