My mission is to see the Flames play in all 30 NHL arenas, a mission that began in October of 2005 while at a local pub watching the Flames take on the Oilers. With the previous season’s work stoppage, and the season before’s run to the Stanley Cup Finals, Flames tickets had become a very hard item to come by. I was then struck with the idea of combining two of my favourite activities; watching hockey and travelling. You can follow my quest to visit all 30 arenas right here…
March 13, 2008 – Atlanta, GA
The day of this game started in Washington, DC; or at least 15 miles South of Washington DC, in the suburb of Springfield, VA. Washington and Atlanta aren’t exactly close, kind of like Winnipeg and Calgary. Since we didn’t have the same luxuries as the Flames, travelling by chartered jet, we left our hotel at five in the morning, and we’re on the open road heading South just as the morning rush into the capital had begun.
The day saw us passing through, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and finally into Georgia. When we reached the South Carolina-Georgia border at around four in the afternoon, we were still two hours out of Atlanta, but weren’t expecting any delays, so I was able to make a quick stop in the city of Augusta to see the greatest golf course on the planet, the August National Golf Club, home of the Masters. The club is on Washington Road, which is Augusta’s version of McLeod Trail, but with more Waffle Houses. Filled with low-end retailers, all that separates the two is a large green hedge. As it is one of the most private clubs in the world, our visit meant we would be staying on the low-end side of the hedge. We parked across the street for a few snapshots and then continued on our way to Atlanta.
We checked into our hotel in downtown Atlanta, and headed off to the arena a few blocks away. The weather was a balmy 75F, so our attire included jerseys, flip flops and shorts. Philips Arena is in the heart of downtown’s entertainment district, which includes the arena, the Georgia Dome, home to the Atlanta Falcons, and the Centennial Olympic Plaza, which like Calgary’s Olympic Plaza, hosted the medal ceremonies each night during the 1996 Summer Olympics. Adjacent to the plaza is the CNN Center, which not only houses the cable station’s world headquarters, but also the Georgia World Congress Center (a very large convention center), two office towers, two hotels and a shopping mall; and is all connected to Philips Arena.
We entered Philips Arena on the East side of the building, where the doors are covered by a giant awning that not only covers the doorway, but also the nearby subway entrance. The supports for the awning consist of twelve giant steel beams, which when viewed from afar spell out ‘Atlanta;’ a neat touch to the façade of the building. Passing through the doors, you enter a large two-story atrium, with stairs that descend onto the main concourse. Above the stairs, hung the scoreboard from Atlanta’s previous arena, the Omni, which sat at the same location before being torn down in 1997 and was home to the Atlanta Flames. At the bottom of the stairs, we passed a recruiting booth for the US army, (I wondered who went to a hockey game as a fan and left as an enlisted man, but whatever), and then started our customary walk around the arena.
Philips Arena has one of the most unique characteristics I’d ever seen at an arena. Instead of having a row or two of luxury suites between the lower and upper bowls, circling the building, Philips Arena has them all on one side of the seating bowl, creating a wall, five levels high, of private boxes, super suites and club seating. The concourses are the same as the seats, and do not circle the entire building, but rather they end at each blue line on the west side of the arena. I guess you could walk the concourse all around the arena, but you would need the Philips equivalent of a ‘golden ticket,’ and our seats, purchased as part of the Thrashers’ “2 for 1 Thursday” promotion, did not grant us access.
The benefit to us commoners of the wall of luxury and decadence is that all the concessions on the main concourse are grouped together on a Bourbon Street-like avenue of food and drink, called the “Hawk Walk,” after the city’s NBA team. The Hawk Walk was not only the most unique concourse feature we’d seen, but probably the best as well. The concourse itself is extra wide, which helps eliminate the congestion found in other arenas, (this is also a result of the lack of fans, but they were really wide concourses), and allows for most of the concessions to have small seating areas. This way you didn’t need to stand off to the side, trying to eat a messy hamburger while standing up and holding a beer. There was a wide variety of concession choices, including sit-down restaurant style places, pubs and of course typical fast food outlets. We grabbed hot dogs from the Wretzel Pretzel stand (a hot dog wrapped in a pretzel) and a couple of beers from the Jack Daniel’s Tavern, which looked like a pub in an old European town, not one found in a 21st century arena. From there it was off to our seats in the 2nd level.
The seating bowl and the concourse in Philips Arena are separated by glass doors, which when closed, completely seal off the two; so much so that you cannot hear the game while you’re in the concourse. Why they have this I don’t know, as on the rare occasion when I need to leave my seat during a game, I still like to be able to hear the sounds of the game. We were seated in the 2nd level, which is where all the seats from the 2 for 1 promotion were located. From a quick survey of the arena, it was obvious this game had the fewest number of Flames fans we’d ever seen at an away game. Coincidently, it also had the fewest fans we’d ever seen at an NHL game, even less than had been at games in Phoenix. Hockey did not seem to have a stranglehold on the people of Atlanta yet, and it’s doubtful the Thrashers’ poor play is helping. The arena was so empty, that five minutes into the first period, there wasn’t anybody sitting in the section below us in the lower bowl. Twenty-five rows of seats, about ten seats across and there wasn’t a single person sitting there. At the first TV timeout, we headed down to the lower bowl, and took up residence in some new, better seats.
The worst part of this arena, turned out to be the performance by the Flames. After getting out to an early three-nothing lead, the Flames began to crumble, allowing Atlanta to score five unanswered goals, and eventually win the game 6-4. Quite a pathetic effort by Calgary, but fortunately nobody was there to see it.
Following the game, we headed to Trader Vic’s in the Atlanta Hilton; to wash our sorrow’s away with a couple of pina coladas (the perfect après hockey drink?). We met some Alabamans there, who were in town for a basketball game, and ended up staying out far too late with them. The next morning we would begin the third leg of the trip, to see the Flames try and snap their losing streak against the Blackhawks in Chicago.
Nine arenas down, twenty-one to go…
-TheRev
Philips Arena Fast Facts
Seats: Section 216; $29 face value, “2-for-1 Thursday” promotion; Ticketmaster
Score: Flames 4, Thrashers 6
Arena Rating: 9.4
Unique Concession: ‘Hawk Walk’ Concession Street
Souvenir Stick: Thrashers, blue, plastic
Public Transit: Subway station beside the arena
Unique Arena Trait: Luxury Suites all on one side of the seating bowl
Swag: none
Photos
Now it’s on to the Windy City for a Flames-Blackhawks tilt tomorrow afternoon…
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