The Family Arena

2002 Arena Pkwy, St Charles, MO 63303, USA

Address:	2002 Arena Pkwy, St Charles, MO 63303, USA
Phone:	+1 636-896-4200
Site:	familyarena.com
Rating:	3.9

Location

Photos 100

Reviews 7

Christopher Moloney

Blatantly a 3rd 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. Thats 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. *** 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--its built to host the circus... how oftern do you go to that?

J.R. Shirley

We went and saw the Jeff Dunhams ventriloquist show. Trying to get into the parking lot was a cluster. It took about 45 minutes to get in to the parking lot. Then the parking lot attendant charged me $10, for what? There was no direction to a parking spot and and when we asked an attendant where we should park he said park anywhere you like. While walking up to the doors to get in, there were multiple parking spots open that were not filled. Like most smaller arenas, every seat in the house was smaller and closer together. No drink holders on the seats so you had to set your drink on the floor to be knocked over or hold it to make your expensive drink warm. Jeff and his show was just spectacular. Now, getting out after the show was horrible. We stood in the hallway for about half an hour before people even started to move out of the building. If something were to have happened, it wouldve been a horrible outcome. More doors leading out after the event shouldve been open. I really dont think I will ever come to an event here again for safety reasons. Getting out of the parking lot was just as big of a cluster as trying to get in. Only two gates opened to leave and no attendant to make sense of the chaos.

Mark Westcott

We had a horrible time at this arena. It took 45 minutes to get into the parking lot. It appeared they didnt have enough help plus we had to pay $5.00 dollars to park. Was it that important to collect money for parking to cause such a mess for people? I think the tickets cost enough without tacking on a parking fee. Then, trying to find our seats was very hard because our section was very dark. Plus trying to find an usher to help was impossible. There were to few of them. Then, the show started 30 Minutes late with know announcement to inform us of the delay. Im thinking because of the parking delay everyone faced entering the arena. Even after the show started that late people were still coming in late. Once again trying to find there seats in the dark with know usher help was very distracting. And finally we had seats where we couldnt see so we moved to the isle and stood the whole time. For the price of the tickets we had to pay they could have had more and better help!!! We will never come to a show at this arena again.

A Private User

I spent an hour in line to get to the parking lot entrance only to find that the event had been sold out and I could not purchase a ticket to get into the building where I was to meet up with family I had dropped off at the entrance while waiting in the parking line. This was an open seating, tickets sold only at the door event and many others who had paid for parking also returned to their cars unable to get a ticket. The rest of my family had to enjoy the event standing because there were no seats after they paid $ to get in. I sat in the car for 3 hours. Open seating events should not be held at this venue where it takes an hour to make it into the parking lot. I can only assume they had no where near enough people to take money for parking. When I got around the parking lot perimeter to the lot entrance, finally, there were only 2 attendants. They advised of the sold out status and let me park for free to wait. Not impressed.

progholio

This place is terrible - its basically no-frills metal building on a river bank in the middle of nowhere with captive audience parking for events (10 bucks please!!!), outrageous concession prices (8 bucks for budlight canbottle, whoo hooo!!), acoustics are deplorable. Lets talk about overall comfort, seating is ok for 90lb teenage girls but when the majority of shows appeal to a demographic of morbidly obese white people over the age of 50 you need larger seats with maybe a little area of separation between them. And finally lets talk about logistics, this is basically a one way in & out paid parking lot that is an absolute clusterfook, plan on arriving at least an hour earlier than anticipated if you want to make your event on time or better yet - skip this place altogether. At least they have flush toilets.

Amanda McGinnis

My husband and I have been here twice now, once for a great rock concert, and another time for the Jeff Dunham show - which was awesome! Road was under construction while on our way to the latter so there was a bit of traffic, but otherwise the experience was fabulous - they even held the show for just a bit to allow us all to get in and not miss anything. Staff was wonderful and snacks were great! Not sure what everyone is talking about with the parking issues. We were able to get in and out of the lot within 10 min at both shows...its all in how early you arrive to get a decent spot. These people must never go to major events with thousands and thousands of people trying to get out all at once! The Family Arena is not that bad at all!

Carla Flickinger

Went to our first concert 6/3/16. After reading several posted reviews, I was apprehensive. It is an older venue. We found parking to be adequate; access to seating easy enough. The seats are small & set very close together with not much leg room. Luckily for us we were in the nose bleed section & either the venue was not sold out or people bought tickets & didnt go. We noticed some seats missing rather armrests. At any rate, we enjoyed the concert, there were many beverages to choose from, but with premium prices $6+ for beer & $7 for a Seagrams. There was also premium spirits offered. There was also several food options at the site. I think we would attend an event there again.