Rimac Arena – UCSD

These assholes are putting plastic flyers on my brand new car and by the time I get to it it’s stuck on the windshield and left paper all over it that I’ll have to scrape off. Douchey move. I will absolutely not be attending any events here for that reason.

We had tickets for the Neil Young concert, drove around for an hour looking for a place to park, needless to say there were none available !!! We ended up driving home. What a big disappointment !!! No traffic control, no one there to help, horrible experience !!!

First this is a review for this venue as a concert venue. This was our first time going to this venue for a concert. We just saw Neil Young there on Tuesday night. Ok so we were a little worried about this venue from all that we had read but for us this was so easy and civilized and we did not find any of the problems talked about. We were coming from Laguna Beach and all the directions offered were easy and perfect. When we got to the actual campus there were signs directing you to the concert that took us directly to a parking structure. From one review we read that to get out of the parking structure you need to go to the 7^th floor in the elevator and that was correct and helpful because when you are in the elevator there is no information to direct you. When you get out on the 7^th floor go right over a walking bridge and go right and you will find it. There are places to get food and craft beers etc. right by the entrance so if you arrive early you can relax and have a bite and wait it out. All the staff were polite and helpful and we would come back here. Our ticket said general admission and when you got inside it was so great you could either find a seat or go to the open floor move around so fun so old school concert. The sound was perfectly balanced and loud and clear. The size is semi small I thought they said 5000 but the full room was not used due to the stage anyway not huge. A great place and a new venue for us to look forward to another great time. Now Neil was so strong and spectacular and he personally played over 3 and one half hours there appeared to be no venue time limit set and all the freedom about time restraints and be quiet for the surrounding neighbors so more great news. Finally you are in a parking structure so no stacked parking or crazy try to get out just pull out get in line and flow out on your way to the freeway… we loved it and feel the entire team of people putting on this event did a great job great concert experience and Neil was on fire!

The bench seats at Rimac are absolutely the most in uncomfortable I have ever experienced in any event. I can’t imagine ever wanting to go back here to see a show. Save your money!

This is a terrible concert venue. Parking is a joke. We arrived on site 45 minutes before shoe time. After driving around and around (staff will give NO direction) we ended up with a 20 minute walk to the arena breathless and sweaty. The show had already started. Skip this venue and attend a show where the venue knows how to handle accriwd.

This review is for Rimac Field as a concert venue. Watched Jack Johnson here in August.
First off, parking is the worst. Even though it’s free, we had to park about a mile away and had to trek through some maze that went through the school. They didn’t even have a parking lot. We parked in an area with beach acesss so you’re parking on sand and dirt with no designated stalls. Getting out was the worst. We probably waited about 45 minutes before I even tried backing my car out because the line to exit moved at 2 mph.
I wish I had known that this venue required you to bring your own blankets for sitting. The options are low for food and drinks. I had been here for Sun God many years ago but that felt more organized than this event. Thankfully, the show was awesome and it is great to enjoy live music under the stars.
If I ever come back here, I know to come early because parking is terrible and you have to walk a mile to the venue. Also, I’d bring something comfy to sit on because the grass is not great!

I am absolutely in love with this gym! You wouldn’t know what kind of cool stuff Rimac has until you actually go inside.
There are a lot of different things that you can do here. They have a gym where you can pump some iron, a dancing room, cardio equipment, racquetball courts, and basketball courts. My favorite part of Rimac is their weight room. It has «a pit» where there are platforms with bumper plates, squat racks, and a crossfit kind of contraption where you could do a number of things you could think of. On their outer edges, they have machines and free weights that you can do whatever your heart desires.
The basketball court on the top floor and the bottom floor are both available depending on the time of day and what other event they have going on. Their courts and kept up well so no issues with grip, unless your shoes suck.
I don’t see how you could go wrong and not enjoy yourself here. You can do a number of things here and have a lot of fun with yourself or your friends. Do your thing and have fun at Rimac!

Came here for the Foster the People concert ⁹⁄₂₇. As far as the venue, its basicly inside the basketball gym where the games take place. As far as for concert the gym/​venue has a good spot wherever you sit since it was GA. You can either stand for hours or have a seat (which was more comfortable in my opinion). They also sell the basic food at the concessions stand (popcorn, soda, nachos, pretzels, chips, etc) If another of my favorite group performs here I would not mind coming again, especially since parking is FREE!

Rise Against. 9÷18÷14 This was IN the arena area inside, not Rimac field which is outside it appears. After all the terrible reviews I was expecting the worst. Not only was it hassle free, it was a pleasure seeing the show there. After seeing RA in the Honda Center and the sound was horrific I didn’t have much optimism about the evening at Rimac. I sat (I’m getting old and was front left standing at the Wiltern the night before so damnit, I wanted to chill) in the center bleacher area about ¾ of the way up. The sound was clear and awesome… a perfect view of the stage and the best pit I have seen since my youth in Chicago in the 80’s. Parking was free and my only complaint was the length of time it took to get out of the parking garage after the show. Unavoidable when you have the people who drive park in one garage. So that doesn’t affect my rating. Just either leave early or leave late… or be prepared to hang out waiting to leave. Bathrooms were clean and ample enough for the crowd there, no wait. I would see a show there again. On a side bonus note… I brought a blanket, reading the genius review that posted about it being outside (now I realize they were obviously talking about Rimac Field and posted in the wrong section) so of course, blankets not allowed inside… Not wanting to walk all the way back to the car, I stashed it in some hedges and yay! was safe and sound there when I returned on my way back to retrieve it.

PSA — THIS IS A DRY VENUE. I think this information should be readily available. Otherwise, it was a perfectly fine venue.

I suppose I did the review in the wrong area. I did it in the basketball court and my event was at the RIMAC field. Either way my original review still applies if it’s at this college. My main problem was parking.

This is for RIMAC Arena as a concert venue. It’s normally used as a basketball arena.
There are some outdoor concerts at RIMAC Field, so I started a separate listing here:
I have been to one concert here a few years ago… Rise Against on 4−8−11. The show was fun if you were down in the very front. That was the only place where the acoustics were good, but of course SUPER LOUD. Sitting in the seats or standing on the floor in the back made the band sound horrible.
Would I come to another concert here? NO, definitely not. They get an extra star for having plenty of restrooms that were decently clean.

This is an outdoor venue, it looks like it could be indoors from the Unilocal pics, but no do not be deceived. Bring a blanket or a mattress (lol), but it is pretty chill at least for the Jack Johnson concert we went to.

If it was an option I’d put zero stars lol.
This place had over 10k people with bathrooms located only on one side. 1 alcohol line ! That is if they r serving alcohol that night. No food !
There was one single stair case that lead u down to arena, so u leave way early bc u r terrified u will die leaving thru the single narrow passage. And last if you if u find where u park they create a maze thru the school that geographically doesn’t make sense. I mean its madness lol

I was so excited to go see Dirty Heads and Pepper a couple weeks ago. Well, we missed the majority of Dirty Heads due to the complete lack or organization. The only way you could possibly find your way to the arena was if you were a student or familiar with the campus. No signs on where to park or what direction to go until you were almost at the garage. So, we’re still stoked and ready to walk to the show. But what level do we get off on the elevator? The one with the star? No, that would be too obvious. We tried all 7 floors before we gave up and went outside to ask a parking attendant. Really, how hard would it be to put up a sign saying «Concert 7^th Floor»?This did not just happen to our group, we ran into many frustrated people aimlessly walking around, some ready to give up and go home.
Once we finally got off the elevator on the 7^th floor, we finally saw a tiny 8“x11″ sign a good 30ft away which read «UCSD Auditorium.» We assumed this was our indicator to follow the sign (even though it’s a sports arena definitely not an auditorium), and eventually found our way. An hour after parking, and with 3 songs left from Dirty Heads, we finally got in. Ended up leaving early because Pepper sounded nothing like what they sound like on their albums. It was a very bad experience, and I will not be going back.

Interesting venue.
I’ve only seen one concert in here and it was one of those concerts with like 7 different bands.
I loved the bands and I loved how much room there was and how you could either sit or go dance and there was room for it all.
The only reason I give it a 3 star is because there’s no real room for intimacy with the band and there’s nothing individually exciting about the venue. That being said, I’d rather see bands here than see them at the sports arena or in an ugly and oversized stadium.
This is nowhere close to the best venue in the area but it beats a lot of them out of the water just by being clean and having space.

I attended The Unbelievers screening on April 2, 2014. I felt that the event was disorganized and the employees were unhelpful. Eventgoers were struck by confusion as it was unclear which line (will call, etc.) we needed to wait in to enter. The will call line was also very disorganized. Furthermore, we were informed that we would not be allowed in and out of the venue, which made no sense as some people may need to come back out to provide tickets to other eventgoers or run to their cars for forgotten items.
To add insult to injury, I brought a very nice dinner and was informed that I would not be able to bring it into the venue. I thought that, at the very least, I could return to my car to drop it off. After I returned within 10 minutes to pick up the food, I was dismayed to find that security had either 1) taken it for themselves or 2) thrown it away.
Also, $ 4 for a paltry bag of trail mix? Methinks not. I will never return.

Hmm, sounds like the negative reviews for Rimac Arena say that this is not a great venue for music shows.
But for a talk (like the one given by the Dalai Lama here), it is an amazing, small and intimate venue where you can be so much closer to the stage than you would be, say, at the Viejas Arena at SDSU.

The address on Unilocal will lead you to the campus, but NOT to the arena so if you GPS it, it will just get you lost. in the middle of the campus. Rimac is on the north part of the campus and not that easy to find.
Here is a map in case you need it (probably will):
Use this address to get you to the right area on GPS:
9730 Hopkins Drive, San Diego, CA 92 121
That addy will take you the the Hopkins parking structure which is one of the closest parking to Rimac. Rimac is just the next building over.
Its a big campus and though theres a few signs pointing in general directions, they should be much more clear for people visiting the campus. I followed some arrows and then they disappear and from the roads, its not very clear which building is Rimac. Specially during the night, it was a effing nightmare.
They really need to put some sort of «special event» signage. There was all kinds of temporary signs around, but none for things that benefit those who don’t go to school here or came from out of town. I assumed we were in the right area as I remember something about it being near a soccer field and we just waited to look for people. Once we saw some straight hoe outfits then we knew were near a concert.
We were almost late to the show.
The venue itself is just okay. The sound was fine as Bassnectar always makes sure he sounds great, but the bleachers werent the most comfy to actually sit for more than 10 minutes. (Yeah, we’re those assholes who want to just sit sometimes) specially since we saw Bassnectar (YAY!) so my seat was buzzing hard and just make for a really numb ass.
There’s a concession stand outside but $ 3 for a cup of water from a fountain with ice? Well, I guess it supports the school… They do search your bags and pockets and you can’t bring in a bottle…
The thing though is they wouldn’t allow gum, mints or chapstick… what?! So leave that in your car so you don’t have to throw it or walk all the way back to parking! I don’t know what that has to do with «safety» but I suppose I could over mint and moisturize myself in the excitement.

Eh.
I’ve never really been a fan of seeing shows at Rimac Arena. I mean, when you wanna check out a hot show and you’re REALLY excited about it… it’s hard to get upset about the venue. You just wanna catch the performance. This was the case last night for the big Flight of the Conchords show at UCSD. Been wanting to see those cats for years, and finally, they brought their tour through San Diego. The show could have been at the Miramar Landfill for all I cared… I just wanted to see the best musical comedy duo since Tenacious D up close and personal, and it happened to be on this particular college campus.
The show was great, but I despise the layout of Rimac. It’s primarily used to house the UCSD basketball teams (both men and women), and it doubles as a large concert venue for bands and artists with a big draw. Unfortunately, the space yields some terrible acoustics. I don’t think shows were necessarily top of mind during construction of this venue, and it’s apparent by the vast amount of metal pillars and various other adornments that cause the sound to bounce all over the place. I think they could spend some of that trust fund loot to throw some egg crates on the walls to absorb the sound, but that’s just me. You know when you see a show in a gymnasium, and for a moment, you totally forget that you’re in some sweaty sports venue? Well, that’s not the case here. You’re well aware that you’re in a basketball arena, for sure.
You really have to commend the staff at UCSD for doing so many great things for the students enrolled here, though. Seems like they have a different music festival going on every month (Sungod, for example). However, I just wish they could warm up the arena somehow. It’d be like doing yoga in the middle of Time’s Square. Sure, the yoga would awesome… but it’d be really tough to get the full experience because you’re in the middle of a bustling intersection. Like that yoga comparison, it’s hard to fully get into ‘show mode’ here.
But coming full circle, sometimes you have to make sacrifices to see some of your favorite bands. It’s unfortunate that our city doesn’t have more ‘real’ music venues in town for an act of this caliber. Uncomfortable bench seating in a college sports hall hardly does the trick for me.