5. February 2026
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Tucson Roadrunners at Tucson Arena

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Tucson Roadrunners at Tucson Arena

Tucson Roadrunners at Tucson Arena
3.5

Rating

 3.5/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Central location
  • Good parking
  • Wide range of food / refreshments

Flyctory.com Cons

  • Parking payment does not work for foreign visitors
  • Too narrow seats

I more and more love watching matches of the second class North American professional ice hockey league, the AHL. The level of sports, including many interesting young talents, is good. The prices are typically much more affordable than they are in the NHL as well. Thus, visiting the local AHL team during our vacation to Southern Arizona in late December 2025 somehow felt mandatory. Even though the Arizona Coyotes have been moved to Salt Lake City, the Tucscon Roadrunners stay the farm team of the franchise. Even though I loved their old, comic-style logo more, I was really looking forward to their home match in late December 2025, facing the Calgary Wranglers (farm team of the Calgary Flames). One reason for that: with Maksymilian Szuber and Julian Lutz, Tucson came with two German players in their lineup. The match was played at Tucscon Arena, which is part of the Tucson Convention Center.

 

Tucson Arena – Location & Transport

Tucson Arena is in the heart of downtown. There are numerous other attractions and sights nearby, including the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, the Museum of Contemporary Art, or the Children’s Museum. The venue is located very close to the I-10, connecting Tucson with Texas and Phoenix.

The arena is rather well connected by public transport. There are two bus lines, 2 and 12, which stop right in front of the area. Furthermore, the Tucson streetcar Sun Link is stopping not too far away as well. Public transport is free to use in the city. There are also some car parks right at the venue. I opted for the parking garage, which was very convenient and had a very reasonable event rate of 12 USD. Unfortunately, the parking provider is not too visitor-friendly. If you have a foreign cell phone, you need to use a VPN to pay the parking fare.

 

Tucson Arena – Arena & Ticket Sitatuation

Tucson Arena is a 8,900 capacity venue, which is part of the Tucson Convention Center. However, during ice hockey matches, the upper rink (200 seats), in which we were sitting as well, is used as a seated venue, reducing the capacity to 4,988. Apart from the Roadrunners, the Arizona Wildcats (NCAA basketball) and the Tucson Sugar Skulls (Indoor American Football) use the arena. We had seats right above the the center line, which gave a great view. The seat pitch was fine. However, the seat width was an absolute nightmare with my body size. Especially the cup holders, which are integrated into the armrests, take some width and lead to a challenge for bigger people. I would rather recommend opting for a seat in the lower 100’s ranks. You enter the arena from the top. This is also where most of the concession stands are located. There is also some merch and other booths in the hallway of the Convention Center, which was built in 1971 and had its last renovation in 2014.

The prices are fine, we paid some 100 USD for two tickets. The arena was well sold, but it should be easy to get ticket for the Roadrunners, even short notice. The arena is U-shaped. During Roadrunners matches, at least, you cannot walk the gallery on the straight side. There is a major screen on the straight side and scoreboard in the curve. Both don’t feel extremely modern, but get their job done.

 

Tucson Roadrunners at Tucson Arena – Atmosphere

The Tucson Roadrunners do have quite some love and pride in the city. The people were cheering for their teams even in some situations where they are not asked to do so. There are some basic chants, e.g. after a Tucson goal. A signature sound of the franchise are the cowbells. The entertainment before and during the match as well as in the intermission was limited, though, and felt a bit of boring. Likely more an AHL thing – but the match featured two very critical situations (including one long video review), which have not been shown on the screens. Our match versus the Calgary Wranglers was themed as Peanuts night. Overall, this was really funny – but I felt that the Roadrunners could have delivered more entertainment from this topic.

 

Tucson Arena – Merchandise & Food

Regarding the size of the arena and the attendance of the game, there was quite some variety of food in the arena. There are two main food and drink desks as well as smaller stands by local vendors. If you know US-American event prices, pricing in Tucson is absolutely reasonable. I had some street tacos and mini donuts, which were both really nice and reasonably priced. The waiting times were reasonable as well.

Regarding merchandise, the main vending place is located in the hallway of the convention center. Merch prices of course beat NHL teams. The presentation is not ideal in that setting. There were long lines in the arena, as people could pre-order the Peanuts-themed warm-up jersey, which was extremely popular.

 

Tucson Arena- Services

The staff was really friendly. Please note that Tucson Arena runs a clear bag policy. Especially if you are from abroad, you should likely care to get one before your trip already. Toilets are located on the flat side of the venue.

 

Tucson Roadrunners at Tucson Arena – My View

Visiting the Roadrunners was a fine experience. The rather old venue does not deliver the highest level of comfort, but the franchise tries to deliver a good experience for the visitors. What I felt is very bothering is the parking fee payment as well as the very narrow seats. If you have a larger body size, you should definitely go to the 100 rank seats on the lower tiers of the venue.

 

Flyctory.com about Ice Hockey

Here are all ice hockey postings on Flyctory.com:

 

Flyctory.com Country Music Concert Coverage

Here is a list of all concerts I covered, limited to Country Music:

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