I've seen Red Bull Arena from the train on a regular basis for years (hard to miss the white dome as you ride past Newark), but I'd never gone inside until Saturday night. One of my noble chums got primo seats in the second row for the Red Bulls Fan Appreciation Night, so despite the fact that a) I'm not the biggest soccer fan in the world and b) this involved being in the Newark area after dark (it was totally fine), I found myself 15 feet from the pitch wearing an edgy Red Bulls scarf, bellowing any time the ball came close to our area.

I've been to my share of sports arenas, probably most often involving Mets games, and this was by far the easiest one to drive to and get into. A HUGE part of that was because these seats involved VIP parking that was a literal one-minute walk into the (get ready for it) VIP entrance. For someone used to planning out an hour-long itinerary just to get into a stadium parking lot, this was a giant but welcome culture shock. There was a bit of traffic as you crossed the Passaic River into the newly gentrified Harrison area, but it was moving and well organized. There was also an intriguing looking, now-shuttered establishment on the way called The Titanic that I gave a few lingering looks to, but based on its exterior we were at least a year too late to take advantage of whatever that place had to offer.

The best comp I can give you for this stadium is probably a higher level Minor League Baseball park. It's pretty clean and accessible with a lot of solid amenities, but it's not to the level of our most popular professional sports in this country. If you're expecting an electric atmosphere on par with the World Cup or really any European football games, you'll be disappointed. There were clearly a lot of enthusiastic fans that made this experience a positive one, but there were also a lot of empty seats (it was probably at half capacity or close to it, despite a scarf giveaway and a post-game fireworks show that we didn't stay for as it was time for bed) that you'd expect from a team that's playing sub .500 soccer. There were some interesting food options that we walked by - along with obligatory weenies and pizza, they had an Asian-influenced noodle stand - and the prices were pretty competitive in my opinion; you'd be appalled if your local convenience store was charging this, but compared to an MLB or NFL stadium, it's probably 25% cheaper.

Because we had bougie primo seats, we had access to the Audi Club, which was basically a high-end cafeteria with a number of all-inclusive food options, along with a full-service bar that cost extra. I'd accidentally gone on an Uber Eats toot earlier in the day that I'm blaming on the inclement weather so I didn't get to take quite as much advantage of this as I would have liked. Notwithstanding, I managed to consume about five or six very solid macarons and an M&M cookie. Several chums consumed some high-level Pat LaFrieda cattle as well.

This was a pleasant arena to spend a few hours in. It's conveniently located if you're in the North Jersey area, and it's low-key compared to some of its higher profile neighbors (cough cough MetLife cough cough).