Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins
Rink: Mohegan Arena at Casey Plaza
Capacity: 8,300
Built: 1999
League: AHL
City: Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
Home Of: Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins
Games Attended: 1
Only Game: January 4, 2025 vs Hartford
Unique Arena: #102
AHL Arena: #14
Mohegan Arena sits just off of I-81 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania in the middle of big box hell like so many arenas of the 90s tended to be. It’s also surrounded by a massive (and thankfully free) parking lot. The exterior of the building reminds me slightly of the WFCU Centre in Windsor with its oval shape, except for the back end which is squared off for loading bays and whatnot. The sides are clad in aluminum siding, with just a few small windows at suite level. The front of the building has a large glass facade reminiscent of so many arenas across all leagues of hockey. The building would look much more spartan without it.
Mohegan Arena is laid out in a U shape with two separate seating bowls, but only one concourse for them both. The concourse isn’t particularly large and wide, but was fine enough for the half-full crowd we had for this game. If you’re in the lower bowl you enter from the concourse and walk down the aisle to your seat. If you’re in the upper bowl you go from the concourse up a flight of stairs that spits you out about 2 rows up in the upper bowl, which only has about 10 rows or so to it. At the top of the U the lower bowl seats curve into the corner before ending. Meanwhile for some reason the upper bowl does not curve into the corner at all but just juts straight up to the end wall. If you have seats in the upper bowl at the far end, your seat isn’t facing the ice surface or arena floor at all but at the other seats across the way. While this affects a very small percentage of seats and I’m sure it was somehow cheaper, it’s just strange they wouldn’t curve off the ends of the upper bowl to make those seats just as good as the rest in the upper bowl.
The top of the U has no lower bowl seating but has plenty of space for it. This space along the glass has been turned into a bar/lounge area like many other mid-sized rinks across North America. The concourse level at the top of the U runs flush along the wall, and has some exposed makeshift “suite” style seating with tables as well. All the proper suites in the building are not located between the two bowls like normal, but are up at the very top of the building. Also, notably the press box isn’t located at centre ice, but in the end at the bottom of the U. An extra makeshift open area near centre ice between the two bowls has been made up for the TV announcers though. Seats are all molded plastic but comfortable enough (except for the padded black club seats) and the views from where we sat up top are great. A quick sit in the lower bowl during warmups had me thinking the lower bowl was a tad on the shallow side. Not near some of the worst examples I’ve seen like the Rosemont Horizon or Van Andel Arena, but not ideal either.
The centre ice videoboard is used well enough but only uses the score bug from the tv/internet broadcast to show the score. Thankfully there is a big scoreboard hung on the wall at the top of the U, which was much clearer to read. The building I found myself comparing Mohegan Arena to the most was the Spokane Arena of the WHL. However, I liked Spokane a bit better. Wilkes-Barre just felt a tad more spartan and drab; just a little less interesting. The game we saw in Wilkes-Barre was only about half full, but the crowd noise was pretty decent. In the past the AHL Pens have managed to sell this building out on a regular basis, and they even have a banner boasting 39 straight sell outs at some point in the past. 25 years is a long time for an AHL team to not only stay in one spot but keep the same identity and affiliation with a single NHL parent club. While the crowd we saw wasn’t overly impressive (perhaps due to the lack of team success, especially in the last decade) it seems the twin cities of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton have been a great spot for the AHL this last quarter century, and will continue to be into the future. They have a fine building to watch hockey in, and while it may belong right in the middle of most ranked lists, it’s probably not a bad one to go to week in week out if you’re part of the Pens faithful.
Side note: I forgot to take my usual panoram shot of the rink during warmups and had to do it at intermission before the lights went down, but this was as close as I could get to centre ice as most seats remained occupied for the chuck a puck. It annoys me that this wasn’t dead on centre ice, and post-game the lights went down so I couldn’t try again. Luckily it’s bright and clear at least.
