Area around the arena is fine. Despite the reputation, you aren’t in any danger around the arena. It’s like any small city. There’s a few restaurants near the Dow but for the most part, not a lot of tourist stuff IMMEDIATELY next to it. There’s a concert area across the street. There will be festivities there before games. As far as hotels, there’s a slew of them on Titabawasee road just 5 minutes from the arena. Plenty in Midland (15 min away) or Frankenmuth (20 minutes) if you want to do more touristy stuff while your here.
Use to stay in that area to get the hotel room and free tickets to the game. Not sure if the hotels do that anymore and they sure won't for the M-cup.
At some point (maybe soon if I find time) I was going to put out an "unofficial" Memorial Cup Visitors Guide that will direct people to different parts of the region. For 20+ years now we've marketed ourselves as the Great Lakes Bay Region since everything is like 20-25 min from each other and then you're not just limited to Saginaw. Midland, Bay City, Frankenmuth, Birch Run, Mt. Pleasant all have great options depending on what you are looking for.
