Agganis Arena

If you are interested in purchasing alcohol here, the staff contends that a United States Passport Card issued by the US Department of State is not a valid form of identification. Evidently Massachusetts law states that an out of state drivers license is valid while federally issued identification is not. Beware.

I visited the arena for a BU-​Umich hockey game. I wasn’t super impressed…
First off the layout. I find it strange you have to go upstairs to get downstairs to your seat. And the steps going down to the seats are steep.
Im also confused what the main purpose of the facility is? Is it made for hockey or events? BU hockey has a storied history and I don’t see much about that history. The small sections with the All Americans, NHLers, and Olympics is great but there isn’t much telling the story about BU hockey. Also the store? For a modern arena I would think there would be an actual store not some stuff at the top of the steps.
I did like the padded seats and the sight lines seemed good. But overall, a hockey team with a rich history like BU deserves something better.

For being a relatively new (10 years old) arena, I expected it to be a lot more modern. We went to a Boston University hockey game and it was very underwhelming. They didn’t have a store — there was just some merchandise set up in the hallway. The food choices were weird — sushi, dried fruit, pizza, buffalo wings, it didn’t follow any theme.
On the plus side, they did have individual seats rather than long benches. That’s probably because it seems like this arena is used for concerts than hockey.

Ok event space they really should consider having more vending stands to accommodate larger events, beware parking here is cash only.

LAME! so I came here to see Cirque Du Soleil (I know the arena isn’t really meant for that type of show but still, they did it anyway) and I was annoyed from the get go. So their parking structure is really weird and disorganized. Also, they charge you before you even get inside the garage and it’s CASH ONLY. Not sure if that’s an everyday thing but for this event it was. we were almost out of luck because we barely had enough cash figuring that online it said they take cards except for Parking lot F.
That’s part one, part two, because of the parking mayhem we ended up getting in a little late (along with 70% of the rest of the audience). We had floor seating and needless to say it was very disorganized. Some of the staff couldn’t figure out people’s seats. I’m sure on a regular game this arena is fine but for this event it was highly disorganized. Also their selection of food and things is very blah and not enough shops.

First and only visit. Sorry, Cirque du Soleil, you are talented on the stage, but if you ever go there again you are not getting my $ 300. Total lack of hospitality, humanity and humor at Agganis. Venues remember: we came because we wanted to have FUN.
The pain started outside, their is no signage on the street, no arrows, no circus posters, so we just follow the massive traffic jam. It takes 35 minutes to drive three blocks from Storrow Drive to Commonwealth Ave. Then, the ridiculously expensive $ 25 garage takes another 15 minutes to get in because they want their money up front, not at exit. Then the elevator. We are next in line to get on, but the other people cut us and crowd the elevator even though supposedly some guy is being paid to run the elevator. Me and my child actually got separated by the elevator guy. Unacceptable!
Hundreds of people are late for the show because of the traffic jam and they don’t wait to start the show, yah, thanks. By 10 past all the ushers have left (or never were there) and there is mass confusion. A snack bar lady actually left the snack bar and came over to yell at us when we had to squeeze behind a trash can to find our seats. There is no room to scootch by people into your seat because there is no leg room. Had to sit in other peoples’ empty seats and yes, other people were in our seats. The concourse is so small during intermission and no employee bothers to have the snack bar line get out of the center of the concourse which blocks the whole thing. At the end of the show, we were waiting for someone in the lobby and security dressed in black paces up and down glaring and grannies and kids. Nice.

Saw a boxing match here with excellent seats. The food and drinks were quit e a bit overpriced, but that is to be expected at an arena of this size. Very clean with lots of security.

Horrible location for a concert. I wanted to be front and center for the show so I got standing room. There is no coat check so standing room had to hold their coats all night, no AC so holding our jackets while standing while it was a million degrees in the room and finally, the gap between standing room 1 and 2 was enormous! I understand there needs to be clear aisles but we could’ve parked 6 cars between there! Also, concessions was limited and you had to hike up steep narrow stairs like you were climbing the Great Wall!

I’m a bit biased being a Boston University alum however, I went to see Sam Smith at this venue recently and I have to tell you, I wasn’t happy with the arena or its staff. Security was a joke. We were patted down for two seconds and sent on our way. No metal detectors or anything of the sort. And my other gripe is about the layout of the seating. We paid good money to sit in the lower section in an actual seat instead of having to stand up on the floor all night. We were in the second row in section 105 and when we got to our seats, we quickly realized our view of the stage was completely obstructed by a sign on the floor directing people where to go. AWESOME! So ironically, we ended up having to stand for the duration of the show just to get a view of the stage. Luckily Sam Smith was so good he saved the evening but Agganis really needs to get their act together if they want to host big-​name artists in the future.

I came here for a Sam Smith concert and after reading the reviews I was really worried about how it would go. But I have to say I was surprised because everything was perfect and went smoothly! I had no issue getting through bag check and all of the employees getting us through were super nice. I had floor seats and ended up being front row! I think my biggest fear was how horrible the sound quality would be and not gonna lie the opening act George Ezra was hard to hear. Sam Smith on the other hand sounded AMAZING and perfectly clear. I took some amazing videos and the sound quality was great there too. If he ever comes back to Agganis Arena I won’t think twice before buying tickets. I don’t know why my experience was so much more positive than others but I have nothing bad to say about it!

It’s kind of a pain to get to compared to the garden only because the government center is closed. We went for Disney on ice. I really enjoyed the arena as it’s easy to get to once you are off the stop it’s NOT a block away it’s across the street. It’s nice and clean. It was expensive but all Disney on Ice shows are. It was cheap which was nice because we had nice seats and a good view for the price.

I was extremely disappointed in the way that the arena was set up for the concert. I went to see Bastille on Columbus Day this year and the only reason I had fun was because they are amazing performers. That being said when I went to buy my ticket it was sold out of floor 1 tickets, so I went for floor two. Upon showing up I was right at the front of floor 2 where I could see that floor one less then half way full even at its full capacity. For that to be sold out is ridiculous! There was literally over 10 yards of empty space between me and the closest person. If they just had one general admission i would have been in the front row, which makes me extremely upset. Rethink your general admission and maybe I’ll come back.

While new and shiny, Agganis falls short in so many facets.
It has the basics. Seats are comfortable. Bathrooms are clean and never have too long of lines. There is pretty big diversity in food spread around the concourse. That’s about it.
BU is not known for many sports outside of hockey. Due to the recent free fall of the team, attendance has been fairly low. You know they are trying to spark interest when they start giving graduate students free admission every couple of weeks. A 6,000 seat arena should not have a problem being filled at a university that has over 30,000 students.
The ticket office is part of the building, but they force everyone to walk outside again into the cold to enter the arena while only player’s friends and families are allowed to use the door that is inside. I also find it strange that ushers don’t let you go to your seats unless there is a stoppage in play. Most stoppages are only for a few seconds and it takes much longer for a crowd to make its way down to their seats anyways.
One thing this arena features that most other college stadiums have is alcohol. They have a good selection of the usual commercial brands and local crafts. Unfortunately, they have awful employees that fill a third of your glass with foam and limit you to a single beer. You’re not even allowed to get a drink for a friend or a date. Ridiculous. Even Boston professional sports teams allow two.
Lastly, the acoustics in this place suck. I agree with everyone else on here that you can’t hear anything. Everything echoes and you get an extremely jumbled sound wherever you sit. If you come for a concert, the only hope is that the visiting band brings enough speakers and can point them full blast in your direction or you have front row tickets.
Oh, I forgot to mention how absurdly expensive this place is. From hockey to music, they charge prices similar to the TD Garden.

Came here for an Arctic Monkeys concert!
Tickets were reasonably located and the entire venue was pretty well staffed — they have two entrances in addition to the ticket entrance and they were pretty efficient about making sure people were filing in based on their seating.
When I went, they separated the floor into two sections, one closer to the stage and one right up against the stage (you can definitely tell that it’s a hockey stadium). It seemed like a good way to ekk out more money in ticket sales, but the floor areas were less than half full, making for some awkward wide open space.
There are quite a few food places where you can get the usual crappy stadium food (think pretzels and icees and four dollar sodas) but they were abundant enough that you never really felt like you had to wait in line forever. Bathrooms are plentiful and overall it seems well managed and efficient.
Overall, not a horrible venue. The stadium is pretty echoy-​y, though, so the music quality isn’t great.
NOTE: The security at the venue is fairly strict. No large backpacks are allowed in, and everyone gets a pat down when you enter. Also, it opens into Commonwealth, so traffic is an absolute nightmare when you exit and everyone just spills into the street.

This is one of those venues which makes me think. «Do I really want to see this band as they are playing at the Agganis?»
I’ve seen 3 bands there. One I was behind the fence on the floor, once in front, one once there was no fence. The fence is there for crowd control,… I get that. But it’s pathetic when even the artist (in this case Josh Homme of QOTSA) is saying «Isn’t this the city of revolution? Why are you all behind that fence?» and making other sarcastic comments about how «safe» the building is. Regardless of safety measures, I still managed to crack an elbow by tripping on one of the «bumps» in the floor (hiding cables so you wouldn’t trip). No one helped me get up, instead got up by myself and then hawked by security people who thought there was obviously something wrong with ME. There was no way I was drunk because you only let me have 1 beer at a time that is served by a co-​op who has no idea what the hell he’s doing and is freakin out because there are so many people in line behind me.
Seriously, this place sucks.
Oh and 14 degrees outside and no coat check for concert goers.
Again, hate this place with all my being.

Hands down the worst concert venue in Boston. The sounds quality is horrendous unless you are on the floor. Also, you can’t see the band because you are so far back. I had front row seats dead center (section 8) for Lady Antebellum and I could barely hear and see the show.
I wrote this review becuase I want to see Haim and they are playing with Vampire Weekend, as soon as I saw the floor space is sold out, I decided not to buy them becuase of how horrible this venue is. Save your money and don’t ruin good shows/​memories with this venue.

This is the worst concert venue in Boston, which is sad because they sometimes book good artists. Please, please make it less horrible. Treat your concert attendees with respect, like they are your customers, which they are, having shelled out good amounts of money for tickets, and not with contempt. No one is making you host concerts if you don’t want to do so. The Garden, Bank of America Pavilion, Comcast Center, Tsongas Arena in Lowell, and the Worcester Centrum are all big venues that manage to do it with a smile.
Opening all of the food/​beer stations for concerts, rather jamming ²⁄₃ of them with never-​ending lines, would be a big help, as would changing the 1 beer per person rule, which guarantees that concert attendees spend well over an hour standing in line, and miss part of the concert, just to get 2 beers. I understand that the venue is owned by B.U. and B.U. wants to treat even the most responsible adults exactly the same as the most irresponsible B.U. students, but if you are going to sell alcohol, you’ve already made the only decision that matters and should at least do so efficiently. Maybe you could turn the profits into lower ticket prices for future events. (Ha!)

It took me eight years to finally make it to Agganis Arena and boy am I glad that I didn’t rush there. I was there with one of my best friends for some BU Terriers hockey action as they hosted the Harvard Crimson and were very much looking forward to the game.
We arrived to a very nice, modern and clean arena that sits about 6,300 fans during games. It only has one tier and is very well designed with plenty of entry and exit points. No one is too far from the action and frankly there’s few bad seats in the place. And despite the layout and atmosphere, we were quickly frustrated as the game started.
First off the acoustics. I know that a lot of bands perform there and I’m not sure how that’s possible. There’s absolutely no dampening of the sound waves in there and it just bounces all over the place — this ends up causing distortion which makes things way more difficult to hear. We could barely make out a lot of the things being said by the PA announcer during the game.
Another negative thing, which in many ways ruined the night for us was that they only are willing to replay the goals from the home team and not the away team. I understand that this is the Terriers’s home arena by Harvard had some of the most amazing goals last night (including one that made ESPN’s top 10 today!) and not being able to see the goals again, in slow mo, on the big screen flat out sucked. I don’t find it fair to the fans — we are here for the action and the goals — whether they are BUs or not is to be decided but I felt cheated by this. Do they expect that maybe the away team goals will go unnoticed? Karma had it’s way as Harvard won in OT on a score of 6 – 5.
All in all, the place has a lot of positive and a lot of negatives. I wanted to like the place, I really did. But then I walked around and despite it being clean and intimate, I just couldn’t find myself loving the place. The fan experience is pretty bad although they seem to have made efforts on the concessions, which even serve specials (something that isn’t the case at the TD Garden). However they also charge $ 90 for a low quality hockey jersey at the BU fan concession stand which is outrageous. And worst of all, the tickets frankly aren’t affordable. I paid the exact same amount for it on Ticketmaster as I would for a Bruins home game via my season tickets. So… thanks but no thanks. At least not for $ 35 a pop.

I’ve seen 2 very different shows here (cirque du solelil and the killers) and they made the space work well for both. Sound is good and most seats in the place are good as it’s not too large like The Garden.
Major pyrotechnics went off without a hitch and were dazzling. This venue would not deter me from an act I would want to see, and I might go as far to say as it may encourage me to see one.

As a proud BC grad, i’m hesitant to say anything nice about something at BU. That said, Agganis delivers a fairly solid experience. I attended the BC/​BU hockey game and watched the Eagles salvage the weekend series with a 6 – 1 win.
I was in school while Agganis was being constructed, but had never ventured in before this. I was surprised by how much of a ‘pro’ feel it had to it. I knew it would be nothing like WBA, but didn’t imagine the concourse would feel that much like the Garden. All of the little things (face tattoos, etc) that were offered just didn’t seem to fit with college hockey (then again, i’ve been out of college for a few years).
Good sight lines, comfortable seats overall, it was a nice place to watch a game, and i imagine it would be the same for some type of concert/​event.