Back on November 24, 2009, the AHL (American Hockey League) announced it was going to have a hockey game outdoors. They followed the lead from the NHL who has had overwhelming success playing an outdoor game on New Year's Day. I remember hearing rumors about this possibility in the past.
Well on February 20, 2010 it became a reality. I didn't know it was happening until Friday, February 12th. I reacted quickly and arranged for Royalty to take part in this unique event.
As for our visit, it went as follows: The game was scheduled to start at 1PM. So I planned to arrive in the area around 11:30AM. We did get in the area around 11:15AM but as we fast approached the NY State Fairgrounds, which was the site of this event, I noticed signs saying there's congestion ahead.
Sure enough, cars were lined up for a mile just to get off the exit in the right lane. The King and our friend, Larry Peim and I decided we'll stay on to the next exit and find an alternate route. After driving a few miles past the Fairgrounds we found some local streets in the area to try and get as close to the Fairgrounds as we could. We needed to park the car somewhere. Based on what we saw getting off the highway, we wanted to avoid the parking lot at all cost.
Since we were looking to head to Elmira right after the game we didn't have time to waste sitting in traffic afterwards. Luckily for us, we circled around the area and we finally found a place to park on the street for free no less. They were charging $10 a car to park in their parking lot. We wound up walking over to the Fairgrounds and the fun was ready to begin. As we got closer the traffic was a lot worse than when we first arrived in the vicinity. With that being said, I think they did a very bad job organizing this event.
They did know at the end of November that it was happening. Fortunately mother nature was cooperative. The temperature was in the low 30's but it was quite windy.
Finally we made our way to the Will Call window right near the entrance to the stands. We picked up our tickets without too much difficulty. We proceeded to go inside the building so we can look around and pick up some souvenirs from this special occasion. We found out fast that once again this was a minor league operation.
Most people who are sports fans like to know who the players are that they're going to be watching. That normally means you want to have an opportunity to be able to purchase a game program. In this case, a commemorative one. Well believe or not, they didn't even sell one of any kind. In addition, they didn't even provide sheets of paper with the rosters on them. That definitely didn't make no sense whatsoever.
These days they're too busy trying to market everything to the casual fan. It would be a no brainer to at least offer your customers a sheet of paper so they know who's playing in the actual game. Mind you, the prices for this event were rather steep being it was a minor league game. I do realize in order to be able to have this kind of event you need to cover your overhead costs.
They did sell hockey pucks, mini hockey sticks and a variety of t-shirts. It was mind boggling how the most important part of the show was totally overlooked. Hopefully in the future if they decide to have a similar event they'll learn from their mistakes.
As a whole, it turned out to be a festive affair. As far as the layout of the seating area, they installed special bleachers in 3 different areas around the rink that they specially built for this game. Those were all general admission seats that were $30 a piece. When you take into account how bad the view must have been they were rather pricey. I didn't get to go to those areas so I don't know for sure. But judging with my eyes they were pretty far away from the action.
They had special VIP seats set up as well. We sat on the side where the permanent stands were. They were supported by pillars. We wound up sitting in grandstand section 3 which was in the middle so we were able to have a decent view of the game. We were around half way up so that gave us the elevation we needed to see over people who were in front of us as well as the players. We did have a pillar in the way slightly. But as professional fans we made the necessary adjustments to make the best of the circumstances we were given.
The game started later than expected due to a broken glass behind the net to our left. In addition, they mentioned that people were still trying to park their cars as well. So the game was delayed around a half hour.
As for the game itself, I described it in a separate post. The record crowd of 21,508 were standing majority of the game. It was rather electric in the stands as we had many fans rooting for both teams and people like us who are hockey fans in general.
Other interesting things of note, before the players were introduced they welcomed a few all-time Syracuse Crunch greats J.F. Labbe and Dan Smith.
In addition, NHL legends Danny Gare, Rob Ray and Booby Nystrom were on hand for this memorable afternoon.
As for the National Anthem that was sung by Mercury recording artist Jesse James. Furthermore, skydiver Ray Maynard flew in from a parachute to deliver a puck to Governor David Patterson, who got booed loudly I might add and to Senator Chuck Schumer who was also in attendance.
The overall experience and atomosphere was entertaining. I do hope they do something like this again next year or in the future. If they do, I plan to be there.
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