State Farm Center — Attraction in Champaign

Always alot of room for large events, been coming here for years. The food and drinks are always over priced but that is expected.

What wasnt expected were some of the new rules/policies. I couldn't understand why purses that are not the size of a clutch where prohibited. The purse I carry is just enough to carry the essentials (5 1/2 x 7). The first day of the event I was told my purse was too big. I opened it to show the contents of what was inside in addition to the fact there wasn't any room for another item unless it was a kleenex, none of that mattered.

There were no clear bags to purchase as that was stated for an alternative solution. I was left stuffing everythng into my pockets. The entire day was very unsettling and unnerving with the constant paranoia and trying to not walk to close to others (in a crowded venue mind you), with every stranger that brushed against me triggered an immediate pat down assuring no one just snagged something from my pockets

My purse was over the allowable size by 1inch. My glasses, keys, mask, wallet do not fit in the allowable clutch size as described with in the rules (4 1/2x 7).

This request didnt hold any logic from a safety perspective. The only motivating factor that I could come up with as to why this new rule was implemented was for the opportunity to bring in more revenue by practically forcing patrons to purchase refreshments from the center and only them. You weren't allowed to leave, you werent allowed to go outside (without reentry) until a specified time frame had passed. You being at the event, purchasing the tickets isn't enough.

Enforcement of this new policy during a time of extrodinary economic challenges that a large percentage of the popluation has been impacted by in addition to record breaking crime rates of which continues to rise none the less, illustrates avaricious motives. It's a shame more thought wasn't put into the other side of things.

After the first Day of my buldging pockets and being on edge, I decided to not bring anythng (besides keys and phone) the remaining days. Me opting out of brining anythng also meant I did not make any purchases there. That is unfortunate since we typically do purchase all our meals and drinks during the event including souvenirs for all family memebers. On the flip side I suppose that was the silver lining in my case... spent less this year verses prior years. Instead I ended up purchasing from the local restaurants before and after the events took place.

I understand the reason behind the metal detectors from a safety perspective, but wouldn't that have been enough? If making more money was your motivating factor and your goal was to assure that patrons weren't sneaking in water/snacks in but instead had no choice but to buy your food/drinks...maybe that is the only way someone (on a budget) can manage. I think in these challenging times you should finds ways to be more empathetic to those that are not as financial secured as...

If you're disabled.... DO NOT EXPECT HELP! I was really disgusted with the security & ushers. I have a cane & so I brought a VERY small purse because it is hard to carry things with one hand. Security walked up to me while I was waiting & basically told me I had to walk all the way back to my car which was on the OPPOSITE side of building to put it back in my car because it doesn't fit in their "box" which is tiny. I've been to shows in Chicago with security that would search your bag, and the security absolutely refused to do so in this case. Luckily, my daughter was with me, but they didn't know that & they didn't offer to help me in ANY way to get it back to my car. There were also no signs for the elevator so I walked right by it. The woman sitting next to my daughter had a walker. An usher helped her to her seat & put her walker way behind the rest of the seats. There was no way for her to signal to ushers when she needed her walker back. The woman next to her on the other side actually retrieved it for her when she needed to use the restroom. She actually found a very nice usher who allowed her to use one of the locker room restrooms, otherwise she would have had to go up the elevator & walk a really long distance for both the elevator & the restroom. Personally, I tried to walk up to an usher & ask a question & he was so busy talking to a coworker that he completely ignored me, even though I know he could see me. So basically, if you have a disability, do not go here!! Also, I understand that security is for everyone's safety, but they were also fairly rude about the purse/bag requirements. When you have someone like me, that has to use a cane & is already down one hand, a small bag is extremely helpful as an extra hand basically. I understand having policies for safety, but also have something in place that, if a person has a reason they may NEED that purse, do a search of it so that...

Went to Garth Brooks 4/29/17 3pm show, here's our experience. Purchasing tickets was not a good experience. The site crashed several times, and when it was working, we got error messages about the tickets we were selecting and it only showed that there was one show available, when there was four total (only one was sold out), and the only show it would give us was the second nearly sold out show with very few seats available. So we had to use a secondary seller and pay extra fees. There is lots of parking close by in their lots, at $9. Here's the problem with parking: they don't have it "together". It was literally a free-for-all to leave the lot, we were at our car and "in line" to leave less than 10 minutes after the show was over. It took us almost 30 full minutes from that point to get out of the lot and onto the street. A venue this size should have people directing traffic leaving the lots and getting away from the streets around it. I've been to smaller venues in better locations that had this and everything went very smoothly. The venue itself was great. There were a lot of entrances to get in and out of. Finding seats was easy, although we parked on the opposite side. The seats aren't very comfortable, but it's a stadium; but they are right on top of each other. Everything else about the show was great. I'd recommend parking on Oak Street north of Kirby to get out quicker, we would've done that if we knew we could get in and...