The Family Arena

Disclaimer I have only visited The Family Arena for concerts, not any sporting events, however my experiences have been less than impressive.
Parking — Not a fan, depending on the show you may or may not pay for parking. The event staff is often clueless and not really sure where or how to park cars. My last trip I witnessed two employees yelling at each other about where to direct cars, not a professional image.
Concessions — This is probably one of the better parts of the venue, while I have never ordered and food here I have ordered some adult beverages. Prices were reasonable considering, and the lines seemed to move pretty fast. Credit Cards are accepted by vendors, so thats a plus.
Seating — By far some of the least comfortable seats I have been in. If you are over 5’9 I cannot imagine you being comfortable since the legroom is nearly nonexistent. The seats are narrow too, so be sure you are comfortable with your neighbor because the three of you are going to be pretty cozy over the next 2 – 3 hours.
Acoustics — Depending on your seat you may or may not have good acoustics, on my most recent visit I was sitting next to the stage and the acoustics where so bad that at times you couldn’t even understand what the artist was singing. I guess for the best experience you need to be sitting directly in front of the stage, not to the left or right of it.
Overall this is my least favorite venue in the St. Louis area, I would rather drive out of town than deal with this venue to see my favorite artist. Skip it unless it’s absolutely necessary!

Blatantly a 3^rd tier venue in St. Louis. NOT ideal for concerts or touring shows. Deep suburban location in St. Charles makes it undesirable for anyone living anywhere but St. Charles or deep western St. Louis County. Nearby Ameristar Casino and Old St. Charles make it bearable for food and drink before a show. But the venue itself feels poorly designed and cramped. Limited access roads mean you may wait in LONG lines to exit after a show. CABS are nearly impossible to come by (many people waited 40 minutes after a show) – which makes this show a bad choice for: a) anyone from out of town, b) anyone staying at a hotel or casino hotel, c) anyone coming from dinner, d) anyone who wants to have a drink, but not drive. That’s a bad sign for St. Charles’ view of the venue. In summer, if you are outside for more than 10 seconds – beware of mosquitos. They are bad here. ***The Bad: Deep Suburban remote location, so-​so venue, limited food/​drink options, staff not used to concerts or touring shows, prices not cheap despite being deep suburbia. Due to being by water – lots of bugs (run to your car). ***The Good: Large parking lot, at least one full-​bar and a number of beer/​snack stations, minimal restroom lines, large parking lot. Sounds was pretty good. *** Better Venues: Scottrade Center, The Pageant, Riverport/​Hollywood Casino Amphtheater, the Fox, The Peabody. Tier 2: Chaifetz Arena, RiverCity Casino Theater. ***The name «Family Arena» says it all – it’s built to host the circus… how oftern do you go to that?

My first time here and I thought it was great! Nothing modern or fancy, it reminds me of a smaller Nassau Coliseum in NY. Great sight lines for a concert, $ 6 for a beer, and very easy to park ($ 10). The sound was great as well, at least from where I was sitting and so I hope to see many more shows here, I already have a couple on the calendar. It’s also real close to the Tilted Kilt so it makes for a perfect experience!

The Family Arena is a fun place. No different from most arenas. I have been hear for all kinds of events. Graduations, hockey games, soccer games, MMA fighting and concerts. This time I was here to cheer on the St. Louis Ambush!

I came here for a graduation ceremony. The acoustics were alright and the facilities were clean. Nothing too remarkable.

The Family Arena seems pretty new to me since I’ve only been there three times and it wasn’t around until I went to college.
1 star for being cool: On the plus side, the Family Arena seems to have hired at least a few adults who have disabilities. If they have gone to special efforts to do so, I applaud that, and I thank them for making the world a better place.
1 star for pricing: Every event I have attended at the Family Arena has been reasonably priced. I think the Beatles-​tribute tickets were under $ 20, and the Happy Together Tour Groupon deal was $ 28 for lower arena seats, a small bag of popcorn and a can of soda. Great seats at a low price!
1 star for having some good events: I’ve seen a Beatles tribute band perform there, graduated from college there, and now experienced the Happy Together Tour there.
–1 star for the state of the parking lot, because I dislike paying for parking in the first place, and for the box office setup: I never paid much attention to the facility itself until I most recently went to the box office to exchange my Groupons for the Happy Together Tour in for tickets. The parking lot has some pot holes now. There are lots of rocks, or broken-​up pavement or whatever I should call it, throughout the lot. The grass is making its way through the cracks all over the lot.
While it is customary to pay for parking at such venues, I’m not all over paying $ 10 to park in a lot in St. Charles. To my knowledge, there are no parking alternatives anywhere close to the Arena. Please correct me if I’m wrong; I’d love to park for free. Let’s hope the Family Arena will use the money generated by parking fees to fix the lot.
Regarding the box office: the woman working had to go back and forth between one computer and the other. She was the only one working, so the people behind me had to wait a few minutes.
Family Arena: I like ya. Fix your parking lot if you can afford it, and keep bringing the good entertainment to St. Charles.

I was only here for my union ratification meeting so I cannot offer you how the acoustics are for a concert or a sports competition. Parking looked a little problematic, but since I wasn’t here for what is normally going on I cannot give more stars.

The family arena is a great arena, especially after the recent renovations. It’s great for concerts, Chill Hockey, Ambush soccer, Attack football. Usually parking is only $ 5, and for some reason today it was $ 10. Hopefully it’s just because the lack of games in the football season. The only thing that really sucks about this place is the parking lot!!! Whoever runs it makes you enter and exit out of the same entrance. That created a backed up parking lot. Luckily attendance for the above mentioned sports isn’t to overwhelming otherwise to would really suck getting out of there.

The arena itself is big and does what it needs to: is a big place for games and entertainment. It also has the worst seating of just about any venue I have ever been to.
Went here to see Weird Al. Al was on it, GREAT concert. You haven’t lived until you have seen a 20-​minute Top 40 Polka remake montage done by this man. Anyways, on to business.
The problem was my knees bleeding before we were 20 minutes into his set. Wish I had gotten pit tickets, they got folding chairs with glorious, glorious LEG ROOM. Unless you are 5’1″, you are not going to fit sitting in those seats. Your legs and knees will be pushing into the seat in front of you, into the person in front of you’s head. By the end of the show I was limping and dragging my feet along due to the combination of bloodflow finally returning, and my pain receptors realizing what unnatural position those legs had been in for the past few hours.
So, if you are taller than about 5’1″, be forewarned. Kneepads are recommended for comfortable seating.

Saw comedian Jeff Dunham at this craphole. If you guys think Riverport is bad– you’ve haven’t tried going here. Not only are the staff rude but the vendors overcharge you for food and drink! Forget how much you spent on tickets. They need to figure out a better way for the paying customers to get out! Rude patrons cut you off while waiting to go home. And to pay for parking is just ridiculous! This is the last time I’m coming here. This place needs soo much work!

Not a bad venue for ‘minor league’ hockey … I’m sure that there is a more accurate term. Also attended a large meeting for the electrical co-​op in St Charles County.
As noted in Dennis’ review, access to the venue is impaired by the ‘one road in and out’ thing. And, it feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere … down by the river. Wait, where’s my van?
My other complaint — the acoustics were tough. The large group meeting was difficult to hear speakers. Not sure if it was a PA system thing, or what.
I’ve only been to about 5 of 6 other games in my life, but I have enjoyed the two games that I’ve seen here for the St Charles Chill. Pretty low key. Seems like plenty of available seating. Good crowd participation stuff. Lots of kids in the audience. Concession prices are still on the steep side — I think it was $ 5 for a soda, and goes up from there. Not unusual, but not a bargain. My kids had a great time, and while we don’t have a refined understanding of the game of hockey, we could follow. Crowd not ridiculously rowdy.
Might be kind of cool to have a ‘Hockey 101: Fan Education’ seminar every so often, to get more people interested in the sport. Ticket prices here make the event more appealing than dropping a ton to see the Blues, and then understanding the play would enhance the experience … leading to more ticket sales … and so on.

My first visit to the Family Arena was a great one.
We decided to go last minute to an Ambush game. No better way to spend a cold day than indoors with sports. Parking is $ 5 and we got in line for tickets. Being as cold as it was, I was not a fan of the line moving as slow as it did, and being outside, but we eventually got our tickets (at a low price of $ 10-​$ 15 per ticket) and got inside.
Its a small arena, yes, but the teams that play here aren’t on the level of the big arenas so this is perfect. They had tons of tables with advertising giving things away. The mascots were already roaming, ready for the picture moment. Everyone was so friendly and ready to help you. The food and drinks are decent price, it would be great if other arenas would take note of what Family Arena charges for their goodies.
There isn’t a bad seat in the house. Not to mention the seats are cushioned and comfy. The atmosphere was great, lots of fans and the announcer did pretty good keeping up the vibe.
I would love to see a concert here, as its in a convenient location, right off 370, with easy access to either St. Charles or St. Louis.
If you are going to go, enjoy!

Family Arena is basically what it is supposed to be. It’s a small arena meant for medium level events.
I’ve been here for concerts, circus performances, and even a couple of hockey games over the years, and it always seems to fit the needs of the show in question.
I think the best use of the arena, however, is for the hockey games. Smaller venue equates to smaller ticket prices, and having a minor league hockey team here really makes sense. Thanks to the introduction last night of the St. Louis Chill, the area finally has a cheap alternative to the Blues, where ticket prices have steadily gone up over the years.
The quality of hockey isn’t any worse than the Blues in terms of entertainment value, and for a guy that is always trying to get new people interested in hockey, the Chill along with the Family Arena will go a long way to help that effort! Tickets on the glass are the best way to get people into the sport, and for $ 36/​seat (compared to $ 230 at Scottrade) you can afford to bring the kids or a new fan into the sport and not skip a car payment to do so.
As far as the Family Arena is concerned, there are a few concerns that I have had over the years:
1-​security-​for concerts especially, I’ve been unimpressed with the amount of security present. One concert in particular resulted in a «death wall» in which teenagers and young adults were told (by the artist) to form a wall and run at each other. (the artist encouraged the fans to «make each other bleed.») When the artist gave the cue, the wall of kids ran at each other and fists started swinging, and people started bleeding. I’m honestly surprised the venue even allowed the behavior to begin with, but was more upset at the lack of security for when it got out of hand. Security should have put a stop to it, and instead no one intervened.
2-​parking-​the lot is big enough, and I’ve never seen it 100% full. The problem is that entry and exit from the lot relies on two points, both on the same street. This isn’t the venue’s fault, but it is something to keep in mind when traveling with a group. Following each other out of the lot may be impossible, so out of town friends should be warned to ride along or bring the GPS.

Ha ha ha ha, I totally forgot that I visited this place. I am just going to give this place a solid three because while it is not the most state of the art facility, the people watching was quite funny.
I have a feeling this is one of the more smaller venues for the Greater St. Louis area. However, what it lacked in glitz and glamour, it made up with it with a solid sound system. I was there for a Rodney Carrington show and I heard all of his jokes and songs, A-​Ok. He did show up an hour late due to weather, but the arena more than compenstated by offering some good beer specials.
I did not like how I how you had to drive a mile to get to the parking lot. It seemed like it was a bit of a rat race to get in and out of the arena.

I have mixed feelings on this place. Sean H. and I went here last night to see the Moody Blues (aw hell yea!) and I am not sure if he had been before or not, but it was my first time at the Family Arena. There is ample parking and this place is BIG. Maybe same size as the SLU Arena??? I don’t know. It was cold and the line to get in moved pretty quickly, so we were happy about that. Lots of old people, but that was expected. It was actually much more awesome that way, no rowdy teenagers or anything, lol.
Inside, the seats are hella cramped. Ugh. We thought about just getting up and sitting in slightly crappier seats (we were in the nosebleeds) just to be less claustrophobic. My feet were right next to some dude’s head! Yes, this was only my 2^nd time at an arena, so sue me! But really, I get claustrophobia pretty bad sometimes and this was no exception. Also holy shit, these seats must have been designed by Satan himself, because my back felt like the crappiest crap possible after sitting in them for 2+ hours. Ugggh. Not even the best massage therapist could un-​knot my muscles. It’s been about 24 hrs since I sat in those chairs and my back still aches. :-(
Our seats happened to be mysteriously «missing» the flat top part of the arm rests so we kept poking our arms on these weird little clamp bulby things all night. Ow.
When the lights finally went off, I felt a bit better claustrophobia-​wise, but it still irked me that if I needed to get up to use the restroom, I’d have to make the entire row stand up. That always sucks!
Also the acoustics here are TERRIBLE. If you are coming here to see a concert, and you are debating paying the extra $ 10~$ 25 just to get a better seat in the lower areas, DO IT. For the love of god… I could barely hear anything up there! Every word they spoke in between songs was lost. I couldn’t even hear the recitation of the awesome poem before the song Nights in White Satin! Meh. We had the shittiest seats money could buy and that was $ 45 for two of us, plus some crap-​tarded «service fee» and they wanted to charge us another 2 bones just to print the tickets at home, so we had them mailed to us instead. Ended up spending just over $ 100 for the tickets, and the seats were just abysmal. I would have gladly paid a little more for better seats.
We left during the encore and as we descended into breathable air (airliner joke), the acoustics improved tenfold. It was like night and day. And no awful echo!
I didn’t see prices for food or drink so cannot comment on that. Staff seemed helpful enough if a little touched, to quote Sean H.

Ok — I have read a wide range of reviews. The Family arena is a smaller venue than other places in St Louis. Smaller is a good way… closer to the stage and performances. It is unfair to compare the Family Area to Scottrade. You wouldn’t compare Bush Stadium to Rascals Ballpark.
The suites are simple, but comfortable. Parking is great, food is above average and more affordable than the bigger arena.
A Ideal place for the concerts, hockey, arena football and wide range of entertainment. Easy to get on and off the highway — both from Hwy 70 and 370.
I have found the staff friendly and very helpful. Most of the behind the counter staff are PTA groups.
If you are going… enjoy the show!

I apparently haven’t been smoking the crack that other reviewers have — I think The Family Arena is only a few steps away from my Verizon/​UMB/​Riverport shit list as an entertainment venue. I’ve been here for Weird Al Yankovic, Jeff Dunham, Nirvana and Pearl Jam tribute bands, that little hockey team we used to have, that show with the dancing, prancing horses, and FIRST competitions, and they’ve all been enveloped in The Family Arena’s special brand of suckitude.
Let’s do this in bullet question form, because my brain only has the capacity for bullets today. I don’t mean that in the way it sounds. Probably. Anyway.
— Entering the parking lot: Why do you have four or more entrances to your wasteland of a parking lot if you’re only going to block three of them with police? Why force your patrons to go on a scavenger hunt to find the one entrance that remains somewhat unblocked? And why keep a police car at this entrance too, NEARLY blocking it with lights flashing, making you question if that entrance is, indeed, open?
— Parking: Why make your patrons drive around the perimeter for seven minutes like they would drive those old-​timey cars at an amusement park? Why employ parking attendants if they don’t actually show patrons where they should park or even, you know, make appearances? Why bother having lighting if half of the lights aren’t on? Why not make the «Row A» and such signs bigger so patrons can actually remember where they park themselves?
— Staff: Why have purse checkers if they’re not going to actually check purses? Why must they just stand around like smiley, gentle, old Walmart people while others scan tickets? Why are there rarely ushers around the concourse or in the little nooks you have to enter to go to your section? And why do the building people that you do happen to find simply say «Find an usher» when you ask them how to get to your seat?
— Signage: Why do doors to suites look like they lead to boiler rooms? Why not put a fancy sign up or at least make «119B» a little bigger or in a different type so that patrons know that they’re allowed to enter and actually sit down?
— Suites: Why are the suites less than sweet? Why do they feel like a cross between co-​working cubes and a doctor’s office reception room, but way less fancy or useful? Why are half of the seats under the overhang and the rest among the plebes, but still walled off by thick bars/​railings? Why have two kitchen-​island tables? And why are these suites not angled toward the stage so that you don’t get whiplash from keeping your head turned to the right all night just to view the action?
— Nipples: Why the frak is the air conditioning on in February?
So… yeah. I’m pretty much only coming here when I get free tickets from ad reps or event screeners. And even then, I’ll grumble like hell, fall asleep and probably leave early. Suck it, Family Arena.

The family area isn’t know for being clever with it’s name or overly fancy, however it serves a purpose. You can watch hockey, basketball, wrestling, boxing, concerts, comedy shows, etc there. It is a scaled down version of any hockey type area. It is a mini-​Scottrade Center… if you will.
The good is things are a little cheaper, a little easier to get to, and a little closer to the action/​stage.
It it located at a pretty good location so don’t be afraid of the family arena, but don’t expect too much either.

Went here for My Brother in law’s graduation from McCluer and it was just OK. Like any other location the seating was uncomfortable and cramped.
It was a nice venue to have a graduation. I don’t think I would go to a concert here though, it seemed a little to small.
Parking was good except that the people coming to the graduation didn’t know how to park if their life depended on it.
Just OK.

Not a bad venue! I was concerned about the sound quality since it’s a fairly big area and it was excellent.
I’ve never been to a venue where they frisk you before entering. Also, the security is super tight. A couple of people were moshing a little bit and they immediately had like 5 security guards there and they ejected them! They don’t mess around here!
Be aware that you must get wristbands out in the parking lot at a tent in order to get alcohol inside. They don’t sell wristbands inside and they don’t sell alcohol without a wrist band. We didn’t know about this, and I sure they lose a lot of alcohol business because of this weird setup.