The LCA in Detroit.

I saw the new Little Caesar's Arena for the first time last night. A buddy of mine had tickets to the Wings/Flyers game so I did him the favor of taking one off his hands.

I wish I could say I saw a hockey game but I don't feel like I actually did. Philly won 3-0 and the Wings just looked off tempo the whole night. I know they're pretty bad this year. But they're staring at Detroit Tigers bad, a phrase it pains me to utter because I love my Tigers best of all. I don't think the Wings had a single decent shot on goal. The Flyers carried the play the whole 60 minutes as near as I could tell.

The Arena itself is nice, although the bowl sure seemed dark to me. Compared to the Joe Louis Arena where they played before the LCA was built, the lighting just didn't seem to me all that good. The upper level stands sure were steep too. We were in the last row of the upper bowl on a nice flat surface, but it didn't feel that far away from the action. I've sat darn near at the top of the Joe too. It was noticeably farther from the ice.

The amenities were nice and not all that unreasonable. I paid $5.50 each for a hot dog and a 20 ounce Sprite, which is at least comparable to major sports venue prices. Jerry's beer was $13 bucks though. Ouch.

Would I go there again? Sure. It is a nice arena, all said.

This is Charles Martin Cosgriff reporting on the state of the LCA.