Enterprise Center

• 1401 Clark Avenue
• St. Louis, MO 63103
• (314) 622-5400
• Website

On one of our first dates back in 2007, J and I took a trip to St. Louis to see Rascal Flatts at what was then called the Scotttrade Center.

It was probably the worst concert I have ever been to in my life. The show was awful. Gary LeVox left the stage for like 45 minutes in the middle of the set and the other two guys played a guitar cover of Somewhere over the Rainbow that seems like it lasted an hour.

Fortunately, J didn’t hold it against me.

I don’t really remember anything about the arena. I just remember how bad the show was.

I was back in that arena this past week while we were in St. Louis. Western Michigan was playing in the Frozen Four.

The Enterprise Center is the home to the St. Louis Blues. It was built in the mid-90’s and originally opened as the Kiel Center named after former Mayor Henry Kiel. The building replaced Kiel Auditorium which was on that site at the corner of 14th and Clark in downtown St. Louis. The 18,000 seat arena hosts most of the major shows and events in the St. Louis area. There are parking lots all around the arena including a connected parking garage that is still named Kiel Center Parking garage. Over the years, the arena has been known as the Savvis Center, Scottrade Center and now the Enterprise Center who bought the naming rights in 2018.

The first thing I noticed when walking up to the front doors was the statues out front of Blues’ greats. I was immediately drawn to the Brett Hull statue because Hull was one of my favorite players growing up. It always pained me to root for him when he played the Blackhawks but I got over it. His dad was a Blackhawk so that made it ok.

The Enterprise Center is definitely an arena built in the 1990’s. There really isn’t a ton of space and it’s kind of bland inside.

The concourse is very much a closed loop and it’s kind of tight when the place is full and there’s not a lot of space between walking in the doors though security and walking in to the concourse.

Concession stands are built in to the walls underneath the seating bowls. Lines can extend out on the concourse which can also add to the congestion. They having ropes to try to line people up parallel to to the walkway but at some point, it spills out.

There is no way to stand on the concourse and watch the game in the lower bowl. It’s very similar design to Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, which was built at about the same time, in that there are “portals” that bring you in to the seating bowls.

The portals bring you in the arena about midway up in the seating bowl. Some ticket holders will go down while others will go up.

The seats were surprisingly comfortable and wide enough for my big back self.

There’s an escalator that will get you in to the upper seating level and it’s more of the same once you get up there. The concourse is pretty closed but this time, concessions are on the other side of the walk way as there’s not a lot of room between the concourse and the seating area. There are a few more portable concessions stands up there including some beer vendors (those are also in the lower bowl in places they can fit in).

There are some good places to stand and watch in the upper seating area. On the ends on the bowl, there are some ADA seating areas that have access to the concourse. They’ve put up some bars to stand and watch the game from and it’s not an awful view for being up so high.

I didn’t eat anything while I was there although there were some really good looking options including Shake Shack and Freddy’s. They also have some local places like Sugarfire Smokehouse.

Brett Hull even has a spot for his restaurant inside the Enterprise Center because it wouldn’t make sense if he didn’t.

As I was walking around the concourse, I saw a familiar name. The Post Entrance is sponsored by Post Consumer Brands. This is the entrance right off the parking garage on Clark Avenue.

Overall, this was a much better trip to the Enterprise Center than my last one….but to be fair, it would have been really hard to be worse.

The Enterprise Center is an…ok…arena. It’s pretty standard for the time period it was built in. I don’t like the arenas that don’t have concourse access….like an open floor plan. The portal thing just isn’t my cup of tea. It just makes me feel kind of claustrophobic. It really doesn’t have any affect on whatever is happening inside the arena though. From that point of view, there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. It’s compact enough that wherever you sit, you’re going to have a good view.