There’s no denying I live in HockeyTown Canada. There are rabid hockey fans all over the country, but there’s a significant concentration of them here. It was really just a matter of time before I found myself at a hockey rink to see some guys chase a puck around and throw some punches when they felt like making the crowd roar (without the benefit of a goal). When in Rome and all that. Thing is, I’m not about to pay exorbitant ticket prices to watch the Leafs in the NHL (although I’m open to invitations if you’d like to share a complimentary pair of tickets with me), but I’ll certainly pay the equivalent of a restaurant meal to watch the local AHL team the Toronto Marlies play (Rochester’s) Rockford IceHogs. Sure!
I was going to write a big post about hockey in general and throw in my two pennies about the marketing of professional sports, but I’ve got a big roadtrip tomorrow and I need to sleep more than I need to expound. So here is my bullet-point version:
- called up my hockey-playing Aussie neighbour 20 minutes before the 4pm game and he came along
- scored two tickets for $10 from someone getting rid of a pair
- witnessed at least EIGHT players get sent to the penalty box for fighting
- some of my favourite plays were by the little kids from Whitby
- final score: Marlies soundly pounded by the IceHogs 5-2
The bullet-point version comes with a corresponding small number of uploaded photos due to awful white balance for the Ricoh Coliseum that needs fixing. But first things first: roadtrip! I’ll be mobile blogging for a bit.
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