Enmarket Arena — Attraction in Savannah

Holy smokes, Savannahians have been waiting on a new replacement for the Civic Center for at least 20 years. This new and exciting entertainment venue will be phenomenal when it's finally completed. Yes, the doors are open with a lot work needing to be done or redone. Listen, Enmarket Arena seats about 10,000 guests. There is fancy club seating, a food court with a variety of food options, and lots of alcohol pouring. Some well-known local restaurants, and breweries have successfully bid for a covenant spot in the arena. I must say the food service/bartender staff are friendly and are eager to please, so a nice tip says "Thank you" perfectly. Nothing is cheap! The average cost of a mixed alcoholic beverage is around $16. A bottled water is $6. A hotdog is between $6-9, depending on how you dress it. The box seating has a catered food offerings at a nice price ($$$$). The Enmarket Arena food is basic and it's easy to end up spending your car note or rent money on lackluster food and drinks. Moving on, the plush seating in the house are the boxes on levels 3 and 4. They are priced from an used Scion to a Mercedes Benz per year, ouch. Effortlessly, this area is sold out this year. Local corporations, companies, a college, and doctor's offices were the big winners. General population don't have access to this experience unless invited. So, smile and wave at the guests in the glass boxes. Nevertheless, the view from the regular seating is awesome no matter where you are seated, except for the floor seating. If you are vertically challenged and not holding a ticket for front row seat, you may be screwed when the person in front of you decides to stand up and enjoy the show. More importantly, FLOOR SEATS AREN'T GOOD FOR KIDS, the end. Sadly, the folding chairs are interlocked, so plus-size individuals may have an uncomfortable experience. It's not you; it's the chair's size. I have witnessed guests standing in the seats and flipping the whole row of seats. Amazingly, no one have been knocked unconscious, yet. Next, there's only one entryway on and off the floor unless you are willing to climb up some steps to Level 2. Special needs people will be more comfortable enjoying a show from the second level. There's a lot of room for wheelchairs, walkers, canes and etc... plus an escalator and elevators are available. On-site EMT service is quite impressive and perilous with the endless alcohol pouring and drug use. Security will never be perfect but they are doing their best. Importantly, read the rules before coming to enjoy a show. There are a lot of new rules that are different from the old way of doing business. Your anxiety will thank me, later. Develop an exit strategy, it will save your life. Again, security is not perfect. Heavy drinking and drugs can create an environment for crimes of opportunity There are a lot of blindspots. Always be aware of your surroundings, inside and outside the arena. Don't become a victim. In this economic climate, parking is limited and will set you back around $30-35 (the arena charges tax & convenience fee for its parking). The trolleys are available for FREE, as of now. Parking at the Civic Center is around $10. If share ride (Uber, Lyft, and etc..) is your choice, MEET your share ride in the arena's designated area ONLY, VERIFY your driver via the APP, and CHECK the child proof locks on the doors to make sure they are off before entering. Anything looks or feel strange, trust your instincts! Honestly, all scheduled shows have been a success and amazing, except the hip-hip concerts, Erykah Badu (an hour late), and Frankie Beverly's 15-20 minute set (3 songs) which left a sour taste for attendees. The acoustic sound system doesn't echo like the Civic Center arena. Badu's production team had an outdated sound system. Maybe that why no one know what she was...

Normally I'm straight to the point with my post. This will be a long one. Here it goes. The outside of the building looked nice from the main entrance area near the ticket booth. The design of the seats as you start to sit off the floor isn't safe. A person can easily trip and fall onto another person sitting (which I witnessed). The seating coming off the floor is literally starting from the floor, versus the balcony where you walk up to your seat. The inside design isn't the best. The refreshment stand seem to be plentiful for those who like to drink and would like to buy a quick snack.

Parking was AWFUL and completely unorganized!!! Not sure if it was a rush to open the arena without a parking structure or garage. Thank God it wasn't raining because a lot of customers would have had to walk a great distance from a muddy parking lot and back. There were people directing cars to a parking space when entering to make things less hectic. Upon leaving the event, it took nearly 45 minutes to get out the lot. Vehicle started forming several lanes to exit which contribute to the frustration of the drivers in clearly showed no organizational planning went into this by the parties involved. Although I didn't witness a accident, I was fearful of being a part of one, witnessing one or someone becoming enraged and starting a fight or shooting.

This place is in an neighborhood that appears to be very unsafe. I was really nervous and scared. I thought my GPS had redirected me to the wrong area until I saw a lot of vehicles heading the way I was going and started to see some barriers and VERY little police presence. I was terrified, yet felt safe because I walked from my vehicle with a large group of strangers headed to and from the event. As I was driving from the event and the neighborhood, I was praying to God that I made it out safely and thought, maybe I should send someone my location.

The comedy show itself was nice (Remorse Comedy Tour). Some people was relaxed with their face mask. 😷 I plan to return in a month for the New Edition concert. I'll feel safer because I'll be with my husband, sister and her man. This comedy show, I met up with female coworkers (we parked in different locations). Hopefully it's not raining and the parking is much organized next month.

Enmarket Arena, you have to do much better to make your people feel safe attending your events. The two stars is because of the seating arrangement, parking and the lack of safety. Maybe as things improve, I'll up my stars. I know the arena just opened about...

We went to the Brooks & Dum concert this Thursday. It was a Total disaster. We prepaid parking there for $20 but it was disorganized and it took us about 30+ minutes to get from where we exited the highway(jjust before the bridge to SC) to when we finally parked because of congestion/train/parking disorganization. Then walking to the building someone told us they don’t allow handbags so we had to take the ladies handbags back to the car. Then there were metal detectors to get in the building with lines. And they wouldn’t allow My wife to bring her vaper so back to the car again and I got separated from my party and I couldn’t find them and searched around the crowd for 10 minutes. Then long lines for beer and popcorn. Beer $10-11 for a regular can of bud light, not even a tall can. Then they don’t accept cash anywhere in the whole building and I was the only one of my party carrying a wallet so I had to buy the beer all night for the 4 of us. And the credit card machine forces you to select a tip amount on top of the rip off price. I spent over $162 on beer for the 4 of us on top of $70 seats and $20 parking my mother in law paid. The sound in the place was awful. Acoustics terrible and way way too loud. Painfully loud. I couldn’t make out any of the lyrics. Just loud noise. Couldn’t tolerate it, sat outside on the terrace during most of it. I was very thankful for the relatively tranquil terrace and watched all the busses and trams pull up happily signaling the end was near. To top it all off, they stop you from taking your beer outside when over. Felt a bit like a high school function with people telling you that you couldn’t do this or that. Oh and I’m not racist or anything but one last observation that was so obvious: 100% of the staff whether cops/security/beer/food etc were black. And 100% of the concertgoers were white. Odd. So yes it’s a nice new building and the seats were very comfortable and I must say all the staff were extremely friendly and nice but the night and whole experience was an expensive disaster. Probably Wont be going back there again any...