Bridgeport Sound Tigers

I’ve been to a bunch of Sound Tigers games over the years to see my hometown WB/​S Penguins play. I will say that I really like the hockey results here. The Pens have been super fortunate to win here quite often. A personal highlight was a few years back when we visiting WB/​S fans outnumbered the Sound Tiger fans… good times.
Anyways this arena is fantastic. AHL hockey is fantastic. Why is the arena always a ghost town?!? I think that has a lot to do with how expensive the tickets are here. You can sit lower bowl center ice for ~25 in Hershey, WB/​S, Lehigh Valley, and Binghamton. Here ~25 only gets you corner seats. Moving closer to center ice the ticets go up to 48 and 58 to sit on the glass?! That’s crazy for the AHL. It’s even worse, that they are the Islander’s affiliate, and you can regularly get into most Islanders games for 30 – 40 dollars.
This building should really try having 20 $ tickets, or maybe consider general admission since the crowds are so small. Someone in ticketing should really go visit Hershey or Bingo to see how they sell tickets and price their tickets accordingly.
The half empty building really takes away from the game environment too. People in CT love hockey, just not at these inflated prices.

I attended a Sound Tigers game last year and I had a great time. They played the Connecticut Whale and the Sound Tigers won in overtime. The Arena looks great on the outside as looks nice what’s you get inside. The crowd was real enthusiastic. The only minus is that I did not see a fight break out. It was my first hockey game so it was a great experience. I will definitely be going again.

A great fun time for family outings. Just about as inexpensive as sports gets. Not the pros, but it’s fun to watch the kids move from to the islanders. A good outing for groups and families. Great prices.

I’ve played hockey for the past four years and I’m always looking for new hockey experiences. I’ve been to two New York Rangers games, but they’re so expensive. If you want great seats at Madison Square Garden, prepare to surrender a fortune. As a long time hockey fan, I feel like the best perspective is around the corners and the ends of the rink, no deeper than ten rows. On Ticketmaster, I got a seat in the second row, just right of the goal at Harbor Yard Arena. After fees, my ticket cost about $ 34, which is not cheap, but way way better than NHL prices.
Harbor Yard Arena (officially called «Arena at Harbor Yard») is a very nice facility. Lots of food stands, kid friendly, clean, no wait at bathrooms. The Sound Tiger organization did a great job of keeping the fans entertained during TV timeouts (at least I think the stoppages in play were TV timeouts!) I would not hesitate to bring kids to a game, as long as you’re okay with them seeing a fight or two.
The level of play was good. The Bridgeport Sound Tigers are an AHL team, which is just one step away from the NHL. Many of their players are prospects for the New York Islanders. But I felt like there was too much fighting and rough-​housing. I would have liked to see a faster-​paced, European style game with lots of puck possession and crisp passing (think the Detroit Red Wings).
A better alternative to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers is the Yale men’s hockey team. They have a top-​ranked group right now and they play the European style game that is so exciting to watch. Plus, Yale tickets are over 50% cheaper and you get to see the same kids play for a while. There’s a lot of roster movement on AHL teams. I can see two reasons to watch the Sound Tigers over the Yale Bulldogs. One is to follow Islander prospects. Unfortunately, in the salary-​cap era NHL, more and more outstanding prospects are skipping the AHL and juniors and leaping directly to the NHL. The second is that the Bridgeport Sound Tigers are a pro team, so they play three times as many games as a NCAA squad like Yale.

I’ve lamented the lack of professional sports entertainment in CT a couple of times already on Unilocal,so I’ll spare you that nonsense again and just get right to the good stuff.
The Sound Tigers are a blast. They’re usually not too crowded, so you can get a good seat for a little more than it costs to go to the movies nowadays. Regardless, no matter where you sit, you’re close to the ice, and that’s cool.
In addition to beer, they also serve hard liquor, which is cool if you’re not feeling the beer thing. Otherwise it’s pretty standard sports arena food & drink at pretty standard sports arena prices.
It’s relatively easy to park nearby, and if you have any kind of intuition, you should be able to find free street parking a short walk from the arena, which is also a bonus.
Plus, it’s hockey. Which means it’s awesome.