Veterans Memorial Coliseum — Attraction in Portland

I'll start with this is my first time doing a review and making a complaint about my experience somewhere, but because of the horrible service I had I feel I must share. I work at US Bank and as a district we all attended the Portland Winterhawks game last night. Now who doesn't want a beer while at a sport event? I then went to the nearest concession stand next to area JJ. Of course they asked for my ID and handed it it the young girl. She looked skeptical and went in the back to show her manager my ID. He came out and said he couldn't accept my ID because of the "feel" of the card and said he didn't feel comfortable serving me alcohol. This was the first time my ID had been denied. Since it was a work event I tried to control my tone but I was still extremely upset and aggravated. I went back to my seat and about 30 minutes later I went back with 2 of my co workers to get the mans name and his managers name who was actually next to the stand at the time. I was calm and shook her hand. I told her situation and she asked to see my ID (which is slightly damaged at the top but the man who first saw it said nothing about it) and she said she wouldn't have accepted it either because of the small damage but nothing about the "feel"....which makes no sense! During this conversation I had one co worker standing next to me and the other a little ways back. So while we were walking away the woman manager physically made a kicking motion with her leg towards us that the co worker not standing with us saw. Unbelievable. I was steaming. I went back to my seat where my branch manager was sitting and she offered to get a beer for me. She stood in line for a good 20 minutes and once she got up front, which was around 8, they said the stopped serving beer. What kind of service is that? At least let the people in line know that so they don't continue to stand in a long line.

As someone who works at a bank, customer service is so important and I always do my best to be as professional and kind as I could be towards customers. I hope what I experienced doesn't happen to...

I'D GIVE ZERO STARS IF I COULD. STAY SAFE AND STAY AWAY.

This used to be a good venue, but it's run by an inept management company that hates concertgoers and play security theater games to pretend they're protecting customers when they're endangering them. I will NEVER buy tickets for a show at either the moda or coliseum, and I don't care if they fix their problem - they wrecked my night. AND MY DATE WAS ASSAULTED 5 FEET FROM CONCERT STAFF THAT COULD HAVE CARED LESS.

Horrible, horrible, horrible. The staff were so inept we weren't even allowed to see one of my favorite bands come on stage. The venue opened a 100 person smoking area for a 10000 person arena and then were surprised when patrons were upset they couldn't smoke. Never mind that the floor patrons had several smoking areas. We were told to buy a floor ticket if we wanted to smoke, despite the venue advertising that they would have smoking areas. When a fight eventually broke out near the tiny smoking space they guarded like fort knox, they rounded up the first few people outside the area, like us - none involved in the situation except as victims, and threw us out. I guess if they throw someone out, they're doing their jobs, never mind if those people had anything to do with it. I had simply asked if there was another smoking area and that got my date and I a spot outside the venue because apparently they were sensitive to having messed up the whole thing and created a violent situation my date and I should have never been exposed to. This was by far the most disappointing concert I've attended, and I've been to a lot of them. I hope people affected by the disaster that is Veterans Memorial Colisium challenge their credit card payment and set them back a lot of money. DISGRACEFUL...

Went to see a Winterhawks hockey game. It's been a few years since my last visit. I never enjoyed my visits here. I used to look for the games in the schedule where they would play instead at the Moda Center, since that it a better facility...where the Trail Blazers play.

At this visit, I was pleasantly surprised to see a lighting upgrade, so the game play was more enjoyable. I know the scoreboard has been upgraded for a few years now, but I can't fully express how crappy the old one was. So, it's just nice to reiterate how good this upgrade is. You can actually see the replays! That's it for visible upgrades at the Coliseum. Seats still are the original 1960s seats. And there are only 4 sections of seating where you can sit right at the glass. Huge disappointment! I purchased some Row A seats, but was still 15ft away from the glass! One highlight was that I could buy a beer in a can for $5.50. There were still draft options for $10, but just saying...

It's been listed as a Historical Place, so hard to create modern upgrades, while trying to preserve its historical appearance. There are planned upgrades starting in 2024 and so I hope those actually happen and that they enhance the spectator's experience.

Tonight, the Winterhawks had more goals than the opposing team had for shots for most of the game! It was fun to celebrate...