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My husband and I moved to the area couple of months ago for new jobs but have struggled to find out footing or enjoy much about the area, especially as people who aren't in the outdoorsy things.
I don't want this to come off a slam post.... I'm hoping maybe some people who have lived in the area longer than us can point us towards some things maybe we've missed about the area, so we can begin to feel more like home and begin to enjoy it more. We're going to be here for at least a couple of years most likely, and want to get the most out of it.
It was a blind move here because we moved from long distance and didn't have a chance to make a trip out before moving here. The whole process of taking a job out here came together pretty fast, and in some ways it was kind of an emergency career move for us as opposed to a "lets find our way to Huntsville" thing. Neither one of us have any family around here, mine is in the midwest, my husband's is in the northeast and midwest.
We moved here from the Oklahoma City metro, which is three times the size of the Huntsville metro. Specifically, we lived in 100,000 population suburb of Oklahoma City. Before that, we lived in Omaha, which is double the size of the Huntsville metro. My husband up in a place in the northeast also about twice the size of this metro.
We're just not finding a lot to do here, and we're realizing what there is to do here, is often a hike from our place about halfway between Meridianville and Hazel Green. That, too, was a surprise just how far out this area is to parts of the metro. We thought it was a little more centralized and more suburban than rural with everything we were reading about rampant growth.
We knew we were moving to a smaller metro, but didn't think that was going to be such a huge deal. Not all bigger cities are fun and vibrant (though we liked the ones we were in) and not all smaller cities are boring. I've been to some bigger cities that were surprisingly lame, and some charming smaller ones. We read a lot of promising things about Huntsville.
I think of the things we miss the most, it boils down to a few things:
1) Sports. Our social calendar can often revolve around go to sporting events. In Oklahoma City, we had an NBA team, a Triple A baseball team, a junior hockey team, and were within an hour of Oklahoma State and the University of Oklahoma, two major sports schools. In Omaha, we were also within an hour of some big sports schools (Creighton, Nebraska), but also had a Division I college hockey team that was often really good, a junior hockey team, and a Triple A baseball team. Not to mention, the Men's College World Series each year. Where I grew up back east, we didn't have much in the way pro sports, but had multiple Division I basketball and hockey teams and downtown arena big enough to attract bigger events like the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments and the NCAA hockey tournament.
We knew we wouldn't have that kind of luxury here but we were looking forward to professional hockey, one thing our last two cities did not have. The Havoc has been a total bust for us. We can't sit in the 300 seats (heights mainly), and the few 200 seats are all tied up in season tickets. We've tried for them on Facebook but the demand outweighs the supply, and people often sell those tickets at high prices for what level of hockey the SPHL is. I even inquired about getting season tickets myself, but was told by the team that new season ticket holders start up top and there's a 3-4 year wait to get down below. The layout of the VBC is unlike any other arena I've ever seen, and lack of availability for lower level seats has been completely unexpected. Our winter would have been a lot better if those seats were readily available at decent prices because we had planned on going a few times a month.
There's really nothing of note sports wise locally outside of the Trash Pandas, at least that's proven accessible to us. That leaves big void for us that nothing has really filled. I know a place like Nashville is only two hours away, but that involves a weekend trip/hotel, and it isn't the same as having something in your own city.
2) There are not many good restaurants here, that we've found. In Meridianville and Hazel Green, sit-down restaurants (not fast food) are nearly non-existent outside of one or two Mexican places, not my cuisine of choice. The best one up this way is Ole Hickory BBQ. Downtown Huntsville has a couple good places, but other than that, we haven't found much that's not a total hike from where we're currently living. Omaha has a foodie group on Facebook with over 100,000 people in it, Oklahoma City has one with over 40,000. Huntsville's foodies page has about an eighth of that. OKC and Omaha are surprisingly vibrant food cities that have tons of great locally owned restaurants. Here, I've never seen so much fast food. I always thought the south had a lot of great food, but we haven't found much.
3) The lack of good concerts. The places we've lived before all have downtown arenas that seat 17-18K, far beyond what the VBC holds. Consequently, those arenas get much bigger acts than what we've seen here. I've heard some good things about the Orion, so maybe that proves to be a game changer, but there hasn't been one concert that's come through in our few months that we would be interested in.
4) Not only haven't we found a lot here, we aren't central to a lot of what we have found. We didn't want to live directly in Huntsville. We were shooting to live a little outside of the city but still close enough to be within a short drive of a lot of things. I think we missed the boat on that and ended up far more rural than surburban, and a little too far out. A lot of places seem like a haul from where we are, especially if they aren't on the northern side of Huntsville. We talked about going to the library sale in Madison this weekend, that would have been a 45-50 mile round trip. We're used to being much closer to things than we are.
Honestly it seems like you'll be more comfortable in a city like Nashville or Atlanta if what you've written is what you're truly interested in.
Huntsville is a city that's just starting to grow it's legs. It's probably where those places were (population wise) decades ago. Even though it's a lot farther ahead of where it was 10 years ago.
I think you understand that though, seeing that you're only planning to stay around for a few years at the most.
Honestly it seems like you'll be more comfortable in a city like Nashville or Atlanta if what you've written is what you're truly interested in.
Huntsville is a city that's just starting to grow it's legs. It's probably where those places were (population wise) decades ago. Even though it's a lot farther ahead of where it was 10 years ago.
I think you understand that though, seeing that you're only planning to stay around for a few years at the most.
Nashville (metro 2m) and especially Atlanta (6.1m metro pop) would be too big for us. Even Oklahoma City's metro pop is 1.5 million, much bigger than here, but not to the level of Nashville or Atlanta.
We wouldn't want to live directly in a city that big, but Oklahoma City was big enough and offered a lot of what we were looking for, and had some great suburbs. We lived in one of those suburbs as opposed to directly in OKC, but we could get downtown for a Thunder game in 20 minutes.
Because OKC is such a large city area wise - over 600 square miles - it never felt that congested for a city of almost 700,000 people.
Not many people think of Omaha as a great city, but it's a great midwest sports town with a great food scene. Weather was not a strong suit, however my wife's entire family is there.
Are we missing things about the Huntsville area that might make it a better fit for us as long we're here? There's got to be things we haven't found in our short time here, but the comparatively bad sports scene is a huge issue I don't know how to overcome. The Havoc situation is extremely disappointing.
Personally we love to go to the Havoc games.
Not sure anyone is going to be able to help you as you cannot put a square peg in a round hold. One cannot make an area fit specific requirements as each is unique. As one who have moved over 20 something times in our marriage, we enjoyed each and every location. That is just us though.....
Personally we love to go to the Havoc games.
Not sure anyone is going to be able to help you as you cannot put a square peg in a round hold. One cannot make an area fit specific requirements as each is unique. As one who have moved over 20 something times in our marriage, we enjoyed each and every location. That is just us though.....
Havoc games sound great, and probably something we would really love going to. We just kind of expected we could hop onto Ticketmaster a few weeks before a game we wanted to go to and get lower level seats, like we've done for other teams we've attended games for in the past. We didn't realize the VBC has so few lower level seats, and they are all season ticket holders. I've tried the Facebook group thing and asked about getting my own season seats, but that was a dead end for reasons I mentioned in my post.
We tried the 300 seats but neither of us are good with heights (particularly second levels of arenas), and those VBC eats are pretty steep angled, making it worse. The stairs up top in the VBC are also tough with my leg brace. We called about handicap seats but they were $100 for two of them, which seems like a lot for the SPHL.
Havoc games sound great, and probably something we would really love going to. We just kind of expected we could hop onto Ticketmaster a few weeks before a game we wanted to go to and get lower level seats, like we've done for other teams we've attended games for in the past.
We always bought tickets on site right before the game as we live 55 miles away. Both my wife and I have orthopedic issues, normally we sit about mid range.
It's a good resource to learn of upcoming sporting events in town. We also have a minor league soccer team that will start it's 2nd season in the next few weeks.
You can subscribe to Downtown Huntsville's weekly newsletter to learn of things like Panoply, Art Walk on the Square, Broadway Theater League, Restaurant Week, etc. https://www.downtownhuntsville.org/
The Orion is an amazing facility. So far, it does tend to be offering more country artists than anything but it's options are getting better and will continue to.
Maybe part of it is the timing of when you moved here. Our winter weather puts a damper on activities. It is either too cold, pouring rain or a mixture of the two. There are a lot more things to do during the warmer months.
As for the Havoc Hockey tickets. You are having trouble getting them because they are really popular. They are a good team and fun to watch. If the tickets were easy to get, it would most likely mean it isn't a great experience. It is one of those if no one else wanted to be there and tickets were easy to get, you wouldn't want to be there either kind of things. It could be worse. For example, Alabama football tickets you can be on a waiting list for 10 years to get the far upper level season tickets. It may take you another ten years or more to get down to better seats.
I completely agree with you about the VBC though. There has been a lot of talk about the VBC not being big enough for our population size now. Both long time residents and new comers alike agree on this. We really need a larger arena. It is getting to the point where if Huntsville won't build one, maybe Madison is taking notice and will decide to build one big enough.
As has been mentioned, the Orion Amphitheatre is new and it is very good and will be attracting better and better acts in the upcoming years.
I have to agree with you about where you chose to settle. Meridianville has only just recently started seeing some expansion. You would have probably been happier in Madison or Harvest/Monrovia area, where things are more convenient, especially with Clift Farms, Bridge Street, Midcity, Town Madison opening up. I have lived in both the Harvest area and now just east of Athens, and I find anywhere I want to go eat is very convenient. Meridianville is getting some growth lately, but I don't know that it will ever get the kinds of things you are looking for.
We aren't hockey fans. UAH has some good basketball. But we are mainly football fans, and for that you will have to go to Tuscaloosa or Auburn, although I think if you can get into USFL/XFL, tickets for Birmingham are pretty plentiful and inexpensive (Go Stallions!)
Maybe part of it is the timing of when you moved here. Our winter weather puts a damper on activities. It is either too cold, pouring rain or a mixture of the two. There are a lot more things to do during the warmer months.
As for the Havoc Hockey tickets. You are having trouble getting them because they are really popular. They are a good team and fun to watch. If the tickets were easy to get, it would most likely mean it isn't a great experience. It is one of those if no one else wanted to be there and tickets were easy to get, you wouldn't want to be there either kind of things. It could be worse. For example, Alabama football tickets you can be on a waiting list for 10 years to get the far upper level season tickets. It may take you another ten years or more to get down to better seats.
I completely agree with you about the VBC though. There has been a lot of talk about the VBC not being big enough for our population size now. Both long time residents and new comers alike agree on this. We really need a larger arena. It is getting to the point where if Huntsville won't build one, maybe Madison is taking notice and will decide to build one big enough.
As has been mentioned, the Orion Amphitheatre is new and it is very good and will be attracting better and better acts in the upcoming years.
VBC may be a little small for the area now but to me, the bigger issue with the facility is the seating layout and how about 90% of the seats in the place are in the upper bowl, which is also very steep. The facility is approaching 50 years old, and I agree with all the growth in the area plus the age of existing arena merits talks of building a new one. VBC definitely wasn't designed for hockey either. The city keeps putting money into it, so I don't know how realistic it is to expect something anytime soon.
In places I've lived before, I've had lots of teams whose games were well-attended but the difference is they all had bigger and better facilities that didn't make getting a lower-level seat just about impossible.
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