Air Canada Centre: "one of the most brutally irritating places to watch a hockey game"

Blogger Howard Berger writes that the Air Canada Centre in Toronto is "one of the most brutally irritating places to watch a hockey game".

He says it's too cold and too loud:
"Perhaps as a result of housing the quietest fans in professional sport, those in charge of the game presentation pump music to levels that are patently absurd – again, the loudest and most annoying of any arena in the NHL. At least ten times each night, there is some recognizable face on the video board – from Lanny McDonald, to Alex Trebek, to Avril Levigne and Mike Myers – imploring the mundane Leaf supporters in recorded messages to “make noise on the count of three” – which, of course, the majority of the trained seals in the building respond to for five or ten seconds at a time. This season, the Leafs have chosen to copy a dozen other buildings around the NHL by installing an obnoxious, grating horn that is honked whenever the Buds score."

"I may sound like an old fart by making these observations. I am ancient enough to remember attending games at Maple Leaf Gardens in the 1960s and early-‘70s when the only music played was during the pre-game warm-up and the intermissions. And, it was offered at normal levels that never threatened to split your ear-drums. In the mid-‘70s, the Gardens employed Toronto-based organists Ralph Fraser and Joe Dungale, who took up the practice of playing music during virtually every stop in the action, but again, it was pleasant to listen to, and in lock-step with all the other arenas that featured organists."

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