Farewell Matthews Arena

A fond-ish farewell to a true sports landmark

Two weeks ago, I went to a Northeastern Huskies hockey game at Matthews Arena. At the end of that post, I originally included this little snippet:

If you were ever curious about visiting this place, I have one word for you: HURRY. In fact, you might be too late sadly...

Unfortunately...sometimes, it’s hard to keep a 100+ year building up. Y'see, inasmuch as I did, in fact, go to that game to see hockey...there was another reason I went.

Back in 2023, there was concern that Matthews wasn't 100% structurally sound, and this led to discussions about its future. I distinctly remember how I learned about the issues: A BU Hockey blogger tweeting jokes about the arena's foundation supposedly sinking after I went to the first game. I didn't know about the issues then, but the most visible evidence from the first game was the fact that student seating in the balcony behind Northeastern’s “defend twice” goal was off limits to everyone.

As it turns out...those concerns were VERY founded: the university has announced plans to replace Matthews with a new facility on top of the current building's footprint (which means that Hobey Baker Rink in Princeton, NJ is set to become the oldest hockey arena in the United States). Tonight, the Huskies (men) will play a game against BU (which has been sold out pretty much since tickets became available)...and that will be it for Matthews Arena¹. Once the season starts back up post-Christmas, the Huskies are going to have various "home" arenas for the rest of this season², but there's no word on what they're going to do over the next few years however, as the new building is not expected to be ready until 2028, and construction hasn't started yet (for obvious reasons).

I feel like since I only got to see it three times (all for hockey), I'm not exactly the most qualified person to speak about "Matthews Memories", but I would like to talk a little bit here about it.

Originally, I was going to hold off on posting ANYTHING about Matthews until today (to coincide with the final game). However, as I mentioned in my original Northeastern post, I had been thinking about going to a game for a while (though I didn't know if I'd be able to go until literally the day before). I went back and forth on whether to post about that game then or wait until now, but ultimately, I decided to do the game post on my "usual" schedule (i.e. the day after the game), and then have this post be separate. Also, I mentioned that I got a hoodie at the men's game I went to, but didn't mention the logo on it. Well...it was a Matthews Arena "Farewell Season" logo; the main reason I got it was because they didn't have the t-shirt with the same logo in my size.

I think the best way to describe the games I saw at Matthews Arena (and Hobey Baker Rink for that matter) was that it was a form of time travel. A game at Matthews represents a visit to the past: seeing how people viewed sports back in the day in an era where the only way to watch games was to attend them. In the modern era where arenas don't even last 30 years (or get so renovated they're essentially new), it's astonishing to see something that lasted so long be largely unchanged - even if it means that some aspects of the experience are a bit uncomfortable (case in point: the viewing angle I had for the game I went to this year). It is sad to see it go, but colleges will be colleges I guess...

Speaking of which, the university is selling the seats and bricks from the arena! I won't link their sale here (and also I can't say I'm interested), but I will note that the seats are very much NOT the original 1910 seats...

(Also, it does make you wonder: Why on earth did Northeastern build Boston's version of JerryVision back in 2019? They only got to use it for six years, and a decent chunk of that time was "lost" with COVID...)