1ST SUMMIT ARENA @ Cambria County War Memorial — Attraction in Johnstown

If you're a fan of the movie Slapshot, you can't help but love this place. I would pay money to watch a player fire a puck up into the announcers booth/bus and take out the play by play guy. If you haven't seen the movie and don't know what I'm talking about, this is a nice, old school, facility.

My only negative comment is about the popcorn, which you should avoid at all costs. You may be thinking to yourself, among other things, "seems difficult to screw up popcorn," and you'd typically be spot on. But not this time.

I'm guessing two things are happening; first, the kernels are probably from the Slapshot era. Maybe Newman had a rider in his contract for 24/7 popcorn on the set and the production team went overboard on fulfilling that demand and we're still living with that mistake. Second, knowing the old kernels are going to be stale as hell when popped, they put enough salt on the finished product to choke a horse.

I'd say the whole experience is terrible, but that'd be underselling it. Think of the most profane word/phrase/slang you can think of, put that in front of the word 'terrible' and now you're starting to approach what it's like to eat a bag of this popcorn. In fact, save yourself the money and hassle and just ask for a handful of salt packets and shotgun them, either one at a time or all together, for a more pleasant experience.

Why am I spending so much time writing about popcorn? Well, I'm at said arena, I just made the mistake of eating a bag of this 70's vintage food item, and I have some down time waiting for my son's team to get on the ice. So it seems appropriate that I note this warning...

The arena itself is nice, parking can be crazy! If there is a concert don't bother spending the extra money on VIP tickets because they will allow all the GA ticket holders in the VIP area. Which don't get me wrong the more the merrier, but why spend the extra $$$$? Otherwise was a great time!

Update: This time without a VIP ticket you're not allowed to stand up? This is my third concert here, did not buy VIP due to my first experience. In July came to a concert here and got GA floor tickets it was a nice time everyone stood behind VIP areas without issues no seats on the GA floor, no complaints and was a very busy concert! This time? I got GA floor tickets again as not everyone likes to sit at concerts. During the first band we were all able to stand behind the VIP section at the gate which is the normal GA floor placement. When the main bands came on security forced everyone who was not VIP to sit down in folding chairs they had placed back on the floor. Nobody was allowed to stand. This was strange. A select few were able to talk their way into VIP, but most had to sit for the rest of the show and were chased back into their seats by security if they tried to stand up and even walk a few feet forward to take pics or videos. Never experienced this before at a show and I travel to lots of venues! As for the venue itself it is nice and clean, sound is great, just found this experience strange. Music was still good though! I already have tickets to two more shows purchased for this venue guess we will see...

This venue needs to teach their security & floor staff that people can not stand in the front row taking up the front row section where people have bought & paid for that front row seat! Instead of telling them yes they are allowed to stand there where their SEAT ISN'T. How about telling them they are to stand where their SEAT IS! This is the worse venue I have been too. I travel a lot to see bands play & have never had to deal with the B.S of people taking over my section until this venue. Half the front row where I was had to deal with this. Even the guests seating with us that needed assistance had to deal with it! Security kept telling these people that they were allowed to stand there. WHY? I'll never go to this venue again! I'll make sure people I know are aware of the B.S this venue allows. Breaking Benjamin should of been an amazing time for my family & I, instead we had to deal with trying to get people to move that wasn't in our row. We missed alot of the performances of Daughtry & Breaking Benjamin due to this. THANKS 1ST SUMMIT ARENA! YOUR VENUE SUCKS! YOU DESERVE ZERO STARS! You only got the 1 star from me due to Google making me...