The arena experience at hockey games can be overloaded at times.  There are giveaways, prompted cheering from the scoreboard or loudspeakers, in game hosts, and even cheerleaders and paid superfans are entering the arena.  Some of these things are fine, and serve some purpose, but if you've ever been to an arena where this is essentially all fans do for cheering, other than modestly celebrating a goal or groaning/whining about a penalty, you can come away kind of empty. 

Some teams have songs, traditions, cheers, that allow the fans to just have a good time by their own design...  but not every team or rink has these.  Creating a tradition can be difficult, and it may take more than you and your group of family/friends to have it catch on.  I can't make a suggestion for what would work in your rink, but there is one thing I'll suggest to anyone at a game:  Have fun, and don't fear embarrassment. 

Sing.  Dance.  Cheer.  Heckle the opposition.  Make signs.  Dress up.  Paint your face.  Give players nicknames that don't just add 'sy' to their last name.  If you can, buy a drink or two.  Get your butt out of your seat on occasion.  Talk with the people around you.  Find an after game hangout to celebrate wins and overcome losses.  Bring new and different people to the game to keep the experience fresh.  Throw the snake, Travis.  Don't try and keep your cool just because your boyfriend/girlfriend is with you.  For any corporate types out there, conduct any business you need to do that night during the intermission, and tell your associate to have fun when the game is on. 

Ride the wave of completely irrational fandom.  Suspend your analytical side for sixty minutes.  You're allowed.  It's your ticket.  Be appreciative of the opposition, but don't get TOO excited over the fact you're getting a rare chance to see Ovechkin or Stamkos in person...  you've still got a team to support. 

There are ways that the fan enhance the fan's experience that are out of the fan's control, but the ability to have fun is really in the control of the individual.  Give your team, and your arena, the best you have to offer.  Don't let yourself feel cheated out by the price of the ticket (for some games/rinks, that's easier to say than do, I realize), please don't just sit there and wait for something to happen.  Help make it happen.  Give your team extra incentive to block that shot and beat the opponent to the lose puck.  Make your team want to play in their home rink more than anywhere else. 

You have that ability.  It's your choice, maybe your duty, to utilize it. 

Most of all, don't be a suck.

This is the second part (of three) in a Samsung sponsored series of posts on how to enhance the fan experience.  The first one can be found here. 

In the early 1990s through the 2000s, the NHL underwent a massive reconstruction.  Virtually all the rinks I grew up seeing on television were replaced with shiny new models, with higher capacity and, more importantly, a full compliment of luxury boxes.  The Boston Garden, Montreal Forum, Maple Leaf Gardens, Chicago Stadium, The Spectrum, and even less heralded rinks like the Great Western Forum (where I saw my first live NHL game back in 1988) and Washington's Capital Center were replaced.  The lack of new facilities was a major driving force in the moving of the Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques, Hartford Whalers and Minnesota North Stars to new markets.  It's probably the most underrated aspect of the "Gretzky effect" on the NHL:  suddenly the NHL could draw enough revenue to make the expensive rinks work. 

The arena craze is still going on:  the Pittsburgh Penguins replaced Mellon Arena with the Consol Energy Center this season, which was approved for building on threat of the team being sold and relocated.  A new rink in Kansas City has been used by NHL owners and prospective owners as a reason to move a struggling team there.  The New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers are both looking to build new rinks as well, with tons of arguments going on about the process in those cities. 

But the building of new rinks isn't really what I'm talking about here.  I'm more concerned about the surface area:  the ice itself.  When the NHL did this massive overhaul, they took away an aspect of the game that provided it's own excitement.  By standardizing the playing surface, the NHL made the rinks themselves less interesting.  More comfortable, yes, but less distinguishable.  The Boston Garden was famous for its smaller playing surface.  This lead to a more physical game, something the Bruins used to their advantage on home ice.  Playing in the Boston Garden was hell for a visiting team, and the Bruins designed their teams to make that a reality. 

Continue reading this post »

Around SB Nation's Hockey sites you may have noticed a theme today.  We've been encouraged to write pieces by our sponsor Samsung under the title "Enhance Your Experience", ways in which we think the game's presentation can be improved, either at home or at the rink.  We'll each be doing three stories, to be published on Fridays, on the subject. 

Arthur Javier of Anaheim Calling decided to write his piece on encouraging fans to get their non-hockey loving friends into actually playing the game, so that if they choose to go to a game, they'd appreciate it more.  That subject definitely struck a chord with me, not in the sense he was suggesting, but on how games I attend have changed.  I don't live in a NHL city, and have only been to a handful of NHL games in my life, so I can't speak very well for the experience at a NHL rink.  But I do go to plenty of WHL games, almost exclusively at Credit Union Centre, the home of the Saskatoon Blades.  The rink was recently 'upgraded' to a capacity of over 15,000, an upgrade that saw the arena completely filled in.  It used to be that around one of the goals, there were no seats, either on the lower or upper levels.  Now, there are no gaps in the design, it is a full arena. 

The capacity became an issue when Saskatoon and Regina bid on the 2010 World Junior Championships.  They had failed in two previous attempts to win over Hockey Canada, and the promise of more ticket revenue from the increased capacity helped bring the tournament back to Saskatoon, who had previously hosted the event in the same arena when it had about half of the current capacity back in 1991.  Considering the main tenant is the Blades, who play for between 2500-4500 fans during the regular season, the building has become devoid of atmosphere.  But there are ways to create a positive atmosphere, and it revolves around kids.

Continue reading this post »