Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center — Attraction in Knoxville

The handicapped accessible seating I paid for is an absolute joke. First of all, nobody could tell me and my spouse where our “seats” were, so we were sat at their best guess of where we were supposed to be. I am a wheelchair user and when purchasing these seats I figured there would be a spot for my wheel chair and a normal seat for my “companion”. No. The seat I paid for for my “companion” is a literal plastic patio fold out chair. I paid $300 for concert tickets with accessible seating. I could not see the screen at all, there is CONSTANT foot traffic behind you, garbage cans right next to you, concessions behind all the people and the merch booth so we could barely hear what anybody was saying that had a mic. Yes, you read that right, there was so much noise going on behind us that we could not hardly hear. Because there are no speakers in where the “accessible” seating is. People would stop and linger over our shoulders the entire 4 hours we were there. About 2 hours in we were told we had to move because we were in someone else’s spot, we said that was fine but they needed to put us where we should be because we didn’t want to have to move again. The man was extremely rude and said that if we wanted our correct seats they weren’t together so we wouldn’t be able to sit together…. I BOUGHT A HANDICAPPED ACCESSIBLE AND COMPANION SEAT WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY ARENT TOGETHER? SEATS THREE AND FOUR?! we went where they sat us and were able to stay without being asked to move again, but it was extremely frustrating to know that if we had been asked to move again that there was nowhere for us to go together, which would’ve caused a whole other problem. They were generous enough to give a lady in front of us floor seats because she couldn’t sit in the seats and accessible seating was all gone when she bought her tickets, which I thought was generous. However, I paid for the correct tickets and was treated so poorly that I’ll never return here for another concert. If you’re handicapped and thinking about attending something here, don’t. Me and my spouse made the best of it but I’m pretty upset that I paid as much as I did for tickets and couldn’t actually...

90% of the staff we interacted with were clueless on where anything was including the proper exits. Instead we were told to exit the wrong exits in the pouring rain and on the very opposite side of the arena. But here was the worst part. Our tickets were in 218, so we had only been there three times in our lives so we saw a group of 4 police officers and they were standing around in a huddle laughing and joking so I figured it was ok to asked if we were heading in the right direction. The answer " I don't know, look at the signs!"

Then we walk up some stairs and find this lady maybe in her 70's and she said let me seat you. I said ok, these steps are too steep for me so this is a one shot deal. She seats us and yes Thank God the glass was as high as it was, I fell and if the glass was lower I most likely would have went over to it into the lower section had it not caught me. The lady was pretty adamant about she knew where we were going and pointed to our seats. So we went and sat down. 1.5 hrs later less than 5 min before the concert was to start a VERY RUDE blonde employee came and very rudely said let me see your tickets and you need to get up. I was so stunned at her rudeness I kept fumbling with my phone and couldnt get signal for our tickets. Instead she gets nasty and belligerent and says come up these stairs and we will get this figured out where you belong. Then walks away and down into the lobby area and starts chit chatting with two other guest. Mean while the concert is now going on. So my grand daughter and I sat on the steps to watch the concert figuring she would be right back. After three songs, I was so pissed I went back to the original lady that sat us. Explained what "Bimbo" had done and how rude she was.

She apologized and brought us back to original seats. Then she disrupted half of a row. We were three seats down. And if this was a Monster Jam or Bull Riding Show or something it wouldn't really matter but we are talking Andre Bocelli. Perhaps giving the staff a printed map of the arena if they are going to tell people where to go for directions or perhaps how many seats are in a row of the section they are working would be...

I purchased tickets more than 2 months ago and paid almost $400 to take my fiancé (as a surprise) to see TSO whom she had never, but always wanted , to see. After a nice dinner in Market Square we left with 35+ minutes to spare to go 1.5 miles to park and go to the concert. Traffic was immediately backed up so we followed to the parking garage at Thompson Bowling Arena…got there and paid the parking fee. Went up 3 levels and turned right to what we thought was another level and there was a person there directing and told us to go straight. Turns out we were lead out of the parking garage and back onto the highway for another few miles to a another parking area over a mile away with absolutely no directions to how to walk back to the arena for the show. By this time it was 7:20 and the show began at 7pm. There was no way to walk more than a mile in the dark and pouring rain to make it even for the majority of the 90 minute show. Words cannot describe the anger, frustration, disappointment, and sadness I feel for not being able to attend the concert that I have been waiting so long to surprise my fiancé with. I was forced to pay for parking and then forced out with NO EXPLANATION! This is unacceptable. Aside from fact that my fiancé’s gift is gone, I am angered that I also was taken for parking fees when they should have known they were full or re-directing traffic. We were not able to see the show I have been waiting so long to see. Shame on you at Thompson Bowling Arena….shame on you! I would give this review a zero if I could. Sadly, there were hundreds of cars behind us who were obviously facing the same issue. Why was there no one preventing cars from entering the garage when it was full? These were expensive tickets to a show that was meaningful to my fiancé and me and I am livid that we are now driving back home without even stepping foot into the show. The worst experience I have EVER had with a venue and I will NEVER attend any events there in the future. We are new to TN and this is our first experience….not impressed at all with the venue for entertainment. Again,...