Yuengling Center — Attraction in Tampa

I saw illenium here. It was my first time at this center and illenium was fantastic. There were MANY issues with this event. Now let me explain illenium for anyone who does not know this music artist: there is a lot of dancing, head banging, etc (sober or intoxicated). Nonetheless, most events I have been to for edm artists are very considerate and want less liabilities and casualties over profit. I was at the front row for over 2 hours. Most concerts I have been to give water for free to those up front no matter how early or late because they know people are unwilling to move because they do not want to lose their spots. I was refused water. I would have been fine if even a vendor came by but this was the first place I went to for this type of concert where I was denied water until half way through the main show... which is an extreme hazard. I went to FSU and not USF but I know FSU would have handed out water for free. They’d rather spend money to give out to the students attending (and this event was mostly young adults/local college students as it was on or next to USF campus) than risk someone getting hurt. A girl that goes to USF stocked up on 10 water bottles before the show and was passing them out! She said she knew their program was bad about water and bought extra because she didn’t want anyone to get hurt. Then afterwards, there was poor direction and lighting on the streets to leave. We spent 45 mins trying to meet our Uber. People were walking in the middle of the road. No one knew where they were being directed. It was a complete cluster! I was appalled. Again, I’m comparing FSU to USF but during my College experience, traffic was strategically directed, it was well communicated, streets were well lit and there were cross walks by the concert/stadium area. I felt like there were barely any cross walks. It was scary. I had a blast at the concert minus the water situation (it’s a good thing I’m good at making friends who have water). However it was horrible leaving a little drunk (which my boyfriend and I are 24 and 27, we know how to handle ourselves), and we were astonished by how dysfunctional the traffic situation was. The concert was beautiful and the employees were following orders. They were all polite and kind. However, there should have been procedures for people at the front or in any area where you hand out water no matter what. I think I was most upset about the water. That is a hazard and a liability. Based on prior experiences at many concerts and festivals, the venue will give water. Especially when you’re paying $100 per ticket to stand in the mosh pit. You just want a safe environment when you’re going to a concert. If there’s a fantastic artist, we might come here again. We might be over prepared because we will know how unprepared the venue is. But I would not go out of my way to go there unless it was an artist we really wanted to see. Your children go to this school? If they know this is an artist their students go to, they should want to make sure all their students are well taken care of. If someone says they’re dehydrated, they should be given water. A basketball game is different because you aren’t jumping up and down in a crowd, aggressively dancing, getting knocked over (I had many bruises as I am only 115 pounds). I just feel like the arena should have been more accommodating considering they made so much money and we just want to be hydrated and safe. Beautiful venue. I’m sure basketball games and more laid back events are great. The water...

I went to the WWE Monday Night Raw TV taping last night and the bleacher seats in the upper deck was torture. No back support at all for the people sitting way at the top. The sound was really good for the entrance music but everytime they got on the mic to cut a promo the sound was muffled from where I was sitting. The big black scoreboard or whatever it was got in the way of section 311 and you couldn't even see the big monitor.

The lines were stupid long for merch when I walked in so I decided to buy a shirt during the commercial break when things slowed down a bit. When I got to the stand I got a John Cena shirt and the $3 tax upcharge for the shirt alone was ridiculous!! The blonde girl working at the merch table was slightly rude when I asked if they'd take a Vanilla prepaid card. Not entirely rude but it's like she didn't wanna be there.

Oh yeah.... The cops on the way out were also A-Holes. Signaled my blinker to make a left turn to indicate to the other drivers to let me in from the traffic flowing in all directions and started turning my wheel towards the left and I eventually was going to make a right turn at the stop sign to leave the venue and the cop working started shrugging his shoulders at me for no reason. I didn't see any cop out there directing any traffic so no idea why dude had to get so angry and have his roid rage episode if they weren't directing traffic. Shrugged my shoulders back and mocked him and was able to leave the venue in under 25 minutes. 🤷‍♂️

There were also a lot of people that kept pulling out of parking spaces without even looking and almost backing into other cars all because they couldn't wait for just a few more minutes. 🤦‍♂️ Just some impatient people with no common sense. Some neanderthal literally parked so close next to my blue kia in Lot 18 that I couldn't even open my door. Not sure how people even got their licenses if they can't even properly park.

Again... No idea why this wasn't held at the Amalie Arena. I mean I understand the nostalgia factor that one of the 80s OG SNME shows was taped at this very venue, But for the other 4 day memorial weekend tapings they all should have been held at Amalie. The small college basketball arena just made the show feel like an all around glorified house show and it just didn't have a major big time atmosphere to it. I really wanted to go to SNME out of all the events held here just for getting to see John Cena alone for the final time but TKO continues to rip people off with ticket upcharges so I wasn't able to go.

They didn't even announce John Cena having his final match here until a week or two prior to the event so scalpers took advantage of that and charged people whatever they wanted. Even with a Klarna payment plan I couldn't get approved for it to be able to cover that event due to having an airBNB payment remaining. The show was fun but the venue and staff could have been better prepared. The only line that didn't take that long was one of the lines to...

Horrible venue. I attended the Katt Williams show last night and I really want a refund. This place is horribly run and ill-equipped for large crowds.

#1- The parking lot is a disaster. The payment process in the parking lot is too slow causing massive backups in traffic and delays in attendants getting seated before a show. Parking should be free especially with all of the fees that are added to the price of tickets AND the police should help get people out of the parking lots faster. People were stuck trying to get out of the parking lot for for a half hour +.

#2- Not enough food and drink vendors for massive crowds thus the lines were insanely long with very limited choices. This caused another ripple effect as people didn't get seated until the show had begun, thus interupting patrons already seated trying to find their seats in the dark with their cellphone flashlights all night long. It was incredibly annoying and distracting.

#3-The seats in the 321+ section should NOT be sold! The seats are bleachers barely large enough for an adult bottom to comforably sit on. We paid $108 for what should have cost $20 at the most. There is no back on the seats at all and this venue should be ASHAMED to sit people in such horrible,uncomforable seats. I would stay away from the entire 3rd level.

#4-The sound was awful at the top. We could barely hear the jokes or see the entertainers. They have very small TV monitors on both sides of the stage that felt like looking at a 20 inch TV from the 3rd floor.

#5-Security should be tightened. A fight almost broke out behind us as people were arriving up to 2 hours late with other people sitting in their bleacher seats. The seat numbers are not easily visible especially when the lights are off. This entire venue is truly one of the worst I've ever attended. Someone needs to truly evaluate the feedback here and make some changes. This place...