Erie Otters
Rink: Erie Insurance Arena
Capacity: 6,716
Built: 1983
League: OHL
City: Erie, Pennsylvania
Home Of: Erie Otters
Games Attended: 8
First Game: January 2, 2009 vs Brampton
Most Recent Game: December 9, 2023 vs Guelph
Another in the list of heavily renovated rinks. Erie used to be old, dank and dark. Now its well lit, wide, comfy and state of the art. Nicely done Erie. Being a downtown rink though paying for parking is the norm. I usually pay $5 in a new parking garage to the left of this picture right across the street from the rink. Next door to the right is UPMC Park home of the Erie Seawolves the AA affiliate of the Detroit Tigers. Since this pic was taken there has been even further renovations and now the rink and the ballpark share attached building space which houses the team stores for both the Otters and Seawolves. The Otters store is among the best in the OHL.
Erie still remains one of the loudest rinks in the league by far, the Otters fans can make some major noise. However, the picture above was taken during an 11AM school day game so this game only had high pitched screaming as opposed to a loud hockey crowd.
This end is usually where I like to sit for games in Erie as the seats on the side from the original building construction are quite shallow and you feel like you’re far from the ice even when sitting down low. The new renovated end seats have a steeper slope and, in my opinion, offer a better view.
The seats in this end of the building aren’t the greatest as they all face forward without any curve. Also thanks to the wall you see on the right its not possible for a fan to walk 360 degress around the building. From what I saw the path you see here behind the net is off limits for fans.
This picture is from just after my first game in Erie in 2009 before the renovations. This is what the end seating looked like back then. This whole end of the building was torn down and rebuilt in 2012-2013 and we have the layout we see today there instead.