(CelebrityAccess) Lists, lists, everybody loves lists, especially those who want internet traffic. SportsBreak.com launched an audacious one yesterday: The Top 20 Worst Sports Stadiums Ever Built.
The list kicks off with the longtime standard barer of all bad stadiums – the detested and famously windy/bland Candlestick Park of San Francisco. The 55-year-old stadium, demolished in 2015, is easy pickings for this list. SportsBreak.com did not include another doozy, which is used to introduce the 20 bad venues.
“It’s funny that possibly the worst stadium ever built, especially among those constructed in the last 20-30 years, would be in Toronto,” the website introduced the piece, noted on the byline as a staff collaboration. “The Rogers Center (formerly known as the SkyDome) was supposed to be a state-of-the-art facility with a full-fledged hotel and a fitness center attached to it that no other sports franchise could rival. It only took about five years for the Rogers Center to become obsolete.”
However, that’s not the No. 1 on the list. That prize goes to a pick that could be considered controversial, although there have been quiet complaints lobbed against it (more on this below).
No. 19, for example, is Edward Jones Dome, the former home of the NFL’s Rams that has gone through several renovations over the years to only be deemed an effort in futility in the long run with nothing to alleviate its “parking and traffic nightmares.”
“The Dome, now officially known as the The Dome at America’s Center, continually received low marks from the media for affordability and atmosphere, not to mention that it was absolute eyesore that didn’t attract any peripheral business (restaurants, pubs, stores) to its general vicinity,” SportsBreak said.
Another standout: The longtime arena of the Sacramento Kings that clocks in at No. 15. The Arco Arena-slash-Power Balance Pavilion-slash-Sleep Train Arena opened in 1988 but has looked worn for so very long with a smattering of bathrooms and bleachers that literally have wooden floors. The team, and the city, have finally moved to the spectacular Golden 1 Center that not only has a charismatic personality and technologically advanced amenities but exists near the Sacramento River and its entertainment resources.
Moving past a number of other selections, the list has the BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee as its No. 2 choice.
“There’s nothing wrong with the outrageously named BMO Harris Bradley Center in Milwaukee that a massive can of Febreze and a little warmth wouldn’t cure,” Sports Break says. “Just like the Target Center in Minnesota (which in its defense has been renovated), the arena in Milwaukee is decrepit and smelly.”
Unlike many on the list, the top choice isn’t some ancient facility teeter-tottering on the brink of demolition. Sports Break left the honor to the pride of Brooklyn, the Barclays Center that still has a whiff of new-car smell. To be fair to Barclays, Sports Break appears to focus on its difficulties as a sports venue and does not mention its value as an musical entertainment hub or host to awards shows and other attractions.
“We will preface this by saying that this is a decent venue for basketball and a not unattractive building,” the website said. “However, the NHL’s Islanders left the far flung and old confines of the Nassau arena for a rink that has terrible ice, horrid sight lines, and the brutal traffic that Brooklyn is known for. It doesn’t take a genius, then, to figure out why the Isles are dead last in average attendance in the National Hockey League.”
Sports Break dubbed it a “total fail … so far.”
The full list is available here.
