In game atmosphere is probably average in recent years due to the suckage and apathy around the team, but really good in the playoffs, but not really the problem. I find it does cater a bit too much to families but that's another story. It's the commute. Ottawa is a lot of sprawl, you can only really drive there, since Ottawa doesn't have a train or subway that goes there, just the bus - and the bus f***ing sucks. As a result you can't really booze, parking is a nightmare with like 8,000 cars in the lot, and there's only one way in from the highway and one way out to the highway. February in Ottawa is routinely -30 with snow squalls so it can be a pretty arduous trek. There's nothing around so you can't really make a real night out of it like you could elsewhere e.g. dinner, drinks, game, more drinks before catching the train home.