Arena #9 - Philips Arena

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…

Arena #8 - Verizon Center

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 12, 2008 – Washington, DC

Having visited many of the teams in the Western Conference, as they are closer to Calgary and easier to get to, we decided it was time to head East and see some of the teams that even the Flames themselves don’t see very often. The problem with planning a road trip to see the Flames play in the East is that you need to travel a long distance to do so, and then they usually only play one or two games before returning to Calgary or the West. It often isn’t practical to fly four or five hours to see one or two games. This year’s schedule however, afforded us an opportunity to hit the road for four games. The plan was to fly to Toronto and rent a car. From there, we would drive to Washington DC, Atlanta, back North to Chicago, over to Columbus and finally back to Toronto. All said, I had estimated the entire trip would cover 5000km, 14 states, nine days, four arenas and a hell of a lot of fast food joints.

We arrived in Toronto late in the evening, and had planned to drive to Washington, DC through the night. We’d arrive in the capital early in the morning, catch a nap, and then head into the city to do some sightseeing before the game. Of course, things don’t always work out as planned. We hit a snowstorm outside of Erie, Pennsylvania at about 2:00 in the morning. Our speed fell to under 30MPH as our visibility was reduced to almost nothing. Realizing it was fruitless to continue, we checked into a motel in Meadville, PA, stopping over a few hours, hoping the snow would clear. We continued our trek in the morning under sunny skies, passing through Maryland and West Virginia, and arrived in “DC” in the early afternoon, only a few hours behind schedule. After checking into our hotel, we jumped onto the subway and headed for city center.

We emerged from the subway right in the middle of the Mall, near the Washington Monument. By this time we only had about an hour before we needed to be at the arena, so it ended up being a rushed mini-tour of the many sights to be seen. The Washington Monument is something we’ve all seen in countless movies and TV shows, so it was neat to see from that perspective. It also holds the distinction of being the tallest building in the capital. From there we ran, okay jogged, okay walked quickly past the World War II memorial to the Reflecting Pool, which stretches to the Lincoln Memorial (you might remember it from Forrest Gump). After a few quick snapshots, we headed to the White House, about three blocks away. On our way there as we waited to cross the street, wearing our Flames jerseys, at the height of rush hour, I heard someone yell, “Stampeders Suck!” This was one of the last things I expected to hear standing on a street corner in Washington DC. Looking around, we spotted a man and woman across the street in Roughrider t-shirts. We exchanged waves as the light changed and went on our separate ways.
As we approached Pennsylvania Avenue, police sirens began to sound and policemen filled the streets of the intersection. Suddenly, through the police, a motorcade consisting of four black Suburbans, 12 motorcycles and two limousines roared by, coming from the direction of the White House. The convoy was gone in under 20 seconds, the police disappeared back into the crowds of rush hour and everything returned to normal. Through later investigation, I found it was not the President as he was out of town at the time, but it was obviously someone of some importance.

We arrived in front of the White House for some obligatory pictures, and marvelled at its location. In the movies or on television, it appears to have massive sprawling gardens around the house, almost making it seem like it is in some acreage community on the outskirts of town. In reality, it is in the center of downtown. While the gardens or lawns are larger than the average home, they are not the sprawling, Xanadu-type yards I had been expecting. The security of the White House was also something to see. More obvious things were the snipers walking the roof of the house, and the overhead helicopter surveillance. Less noticeable was the absence of garbage cans, manhole covers, or storm drains within two blocks of the house. My own idea of home security, which consists of leaving the upstairs light on and double checking that the door is locked, suddenly felt inadequate. Having seen the President’s home, it was then time to head to the Verizon Center. The arena is only about five blocks away, and a simple walk from the White House. With such a convenient location, I wonder why the President doesn’t take in more games.

The Verizon Center is located in the heart of Chinatown in Washington’s downtown. The arena goes from sidewalk to sidewalk on all four sides, and is surrounded by shops and restaurants. To incorporate the arena into Chinatown, the outside signage has ‘Verizon Center’ in Mandarin as well as English. Unlike most of the other arenas we had been to, the Verizon Center was not surrounded by parking lots, nor was it off in a dark corner of an underused industrial park; it was smack in the middle of the city, surrounded by office buildings, hotels, galleries, shops, restaurants and, uniquely Washington, foreign embassies. It is a great location for an arena, and something I’d like to see for Calgary if the Dome was ever replaced.

We entered the arena across the street from the National Portrait Gallery, and began our customary tour of the concourse. The Verizon Center is very similar to most new arenas, with wide, well-lit, clean and organized concourses and tunnels. The concessions, for the most part, were serving standard things like nachos, hot dogs and the like. One unique shop however, was the fitness centre located within the arena, and accessible from the street. Vida Fitness is a full service gym, with weight room, cardio, yoga studios, Japanese soak tubs and more. It seems like an odd thing to have in an arena, I guess a pre-game workout might help burn off the above mentioned hot dogs and nachos.

The seating bowl at the Verizon Center is also fairly standard with two levels of luxury suites, and club seating in between those. The rafters in the Verizon Center are particularly bare, as neither the Capitals nor the Wizards (ne Bullets) have had much success over the years. We made our way to our seats, which were located in the 2nd row behind Olaf Kolzig’s net, in time for the National Anthems. I found the tickets on eBay, where we paid $50 per ticket, despite a $76 face value. It’s always hard to believe you can get tickets in the lower bowl for under $100, and that you can buy tickets on eBay for less than face value. Such is hockey in the United States.

This was our first game seeing Ovechkin, so we were keen to see if he lived up to the hype of being the most exciting player in the NHL. The Caps opened the scoring only 56 seconds into the game, as Viktor Kozlov scored on a tip in, and Jarome tied it up in the final minute of the period. In the 2nd period, Kristian Huselius put the Flames ahead 2-1 with a nice wrist shot. It was at this point that Ovechkin did surface, as he tied it up with two minutes left in the 2nd period and then scored the go ahead goal with 1:56 left in the third. To be honest, this wasn’t the game I was looking for from Ovechkin; I was thinking more that he would score a couple of exciting goals as the Flames went on to win 9-2. The win was the 300th of goalie Olaf Kolzig’s career, becoming the 23rd goalie to do so and there was a short ceremony following the game. It may be the quietest any goalie has ever recorded 300 wins.

I heard an interesting comment from a Caps fan who was sitting behind us. After a nice defensive play from Dion Phaneuf, he said, “It must be nice to see a Norris candidate, Vezina candidate and MVP candidate playing every night,” referring to Phaneuf, Kiprusoff and Iginla. I had never thought of it that way, but I guess as Flames fans, we are pretty lucky right now.

After this visit to the Verizon Center, we’ve seen eight arenas, with twenty-two to go…


-TheRev

Verizon Center Fast Facts

Seats: Section 116; $50 (face value $76); eBay
Score: Flames 2, Capitals 3
Arena Rating: 8.6
Unique Concession: none
Souvenir Stick: Alexander Ovechkin stick, white, plastic
Public Transit: Subway underneath the arena
Unique Arena Trait: Outside signage in Mandarin and English
Swag: none

Photos



The next stop is to see the Flames play in their original home; Atlanta, GA.

Arena #4.2 - Jobing.com Arena

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 1, 2008 – Glendale, AZ

The second leg of this Southern trip took the gang to Phoenix, Arizona. After watching the Flames lose 3-1 to the Ducks the night before, we were keen to hit the highway and head into the desert. Getting to Phoenix from LA is fairly straight forward. Interstate-10 takes you from one to the other, without stopping, and the entire journey takes about six hours. We hit the road a little late; perhaps we were still recovering from all the light beer the night before.

We arrived at our hotel in Glendale a couple of hours before the game. The last time we had been to the Jobing.com arena, there weren’t any businesses within two miles of the facility; it was stranded in the desert. This time around, the arena was surrounded by a development called the Westgate City Center, featuring bars, restaurants, shops and a couple of hotels. As a result, we were able to stay at a newly opened hotel, only a few blocks from the game. The addition of the Westgate City Center completely changed this arena in my eyes. The first time we visited here, the stadium was out in the dark of the desert, like a place where the mob would bury bodies. There was nowhere to go before or after the game except to and from your car before a lengthy drive to pretty much anywhere. The Westgate center provides the arena with a little community full of places to socialize, and actually makes it feels like a part of the community.

We arrived at the arena wearing standard Canadian hockey attire; flip flops, shorts and jerseys. As we entered the building we were given Coyotes gym bags, really nice gym bags in fact; tokens of the Coyotes’ appreciation for us showing up. As we entered the arena, the woman scanning our tickets commented that we were going to be chilly in our shorts and flip flops. “It gets down to 50F in there with the ice,” she said, not realizing we’ve worn shorts in “colder” temperatures.

We did a lap of the concourse, re-familiarizing ourselves with the local concessions. Basically they include a collection of Mexican outlets, standard hot dog outlets and a couple of mini-Hooters. I still find it funny that there are Hooters in the arena. I don’t know why, but it’s funny. We grabbed a couple of beers, and made our way to the seats in section 113 of the lower bowl. Our seats were located just inside the blue line, in the 12th row of the lower bowl, all for a mere $50.

Like our last game here, the Flames put on a dominating performance, beating the Coyotes 3-1. Jarome Iginla was named the game’s first star, recording two goals and an assist. After scoring his 2nd goal 11 minutes into the third, the large contingent of Flames fans in attendance were keen to see him get the hat trick, but it was not to be. We left the arena full of life and full of beer, joining other Flames fans in chants of “Go Flames Go.” To celebrate the victory, we headed to the Westgate City Center, moving from patio to patio and enjoying the warm desert night.


-TheRev

Jobing.com Arena Fast Facts

Seats: Section 113; $50; Ticketmaster
Score: Flames 3, Coyotes 1
Unique Concession: Hooters
Souvenir Stick: previously acquired
Public Transit: none
Unique Arena Trait: Free parking
Swag: Coyotes Gym Bag

Photos

Arena #3.2 - Honda Center

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…


February 29, 2008 – Anaheim, CA

Not having travelled to see the Flames play since last year’s first-round exit against the Red Wings, it was once again time to hit the road and cheer on the Flaming C. This trip involved a return to the newly named Honda Center to see the Flames play the Ducks, followed by a quick hop over to Phoenix for a game against the Coyotes. We were being accompanied by a couple of buddies on this trip; three friends who wanted to see what travelling to see the Flames play was all about. Of course it didn’t hurt that this trip was to California and Arizona in the middle of winter.

The trip hit its’ first bump before we even left Calgary. The night before we were to leave, it came to our attention that we wouldn’t be able to fly from Calgary non-stop to Los Angeles as planned. Looking at the flight schedules, it became apparent that there was only one way we were going to be able to take in both games, and that was to fly through Toronto. There was a red-eye flight to Toronto leaving that night, which would allow us to connect to an LA bound flight in the morning and still have us in Southern California in time for the game, all be it a little sleepy. All involved were in favour, and it was off to the airport. There is nothing quite like getting off a plane after four hours, to know that you are then twice as far away from your final destination. Such is the price we pay for last minute travel!

We arrived at the Honda Center on a beautiful Friday night, a group of five, anxious to see some hockey. I bought the tickets on StubHub, where I was able to get them for less than their face value. Unfortunately, they were also in the very last row of the upper deck. As we sat in our seats, it was decided that we would never again settle for crappy seats at an arena like Anaheim, where seats are not difficult to come by and are very affordable. Why sit in the worst seats in the house for $15 when we can sit in the lower bowl for only $50, or at least considerably less than we’d pay in the Dome? Away games are the perfect opportunity to sit in great seats.

Walking the concourse before the game, I was reminded of why I’m not too fond of this arena. The concourses are nice, with marble floors and walls, but the venue just lacks any kind of enticing atmosphere. I find it difficult to describe, but there is something about the Honda Center that I find “un-fun.” What was fun however was that Miller Lite had a booth set up near the main entrance. As part of their promotion, there was a taste test where you drank a cup of Miller Lite and a cup of Bud Lite before picking a winner. Although I’m not a fan of light beers, I am a fan of free beers. Especially at a hockey game. Now I’ve seen free parking and free beer at hockey games, who would of thunk it!? I couldn’t really tell the difference between the two, but was lucky enough to pick Miller Lite, so I received an autographed poster of the Miller Lite girls; a true hockey keepsake.

My second trip to the Honda Center, or rather my first to the Honda Center, but second trip to this arena, finished much like the first one; in disappointment. The Flames came out flat, and were unable to get any kind of momentum going against the defending Stanley Cup champions, falling 3-1. Dion Phaneuf was the only Flame able to score on the Ducks, while Niedermayer (Scott), Selanne and Schneider all scored for the Ducks.

After the game, milling about the arena, we met a Ducks fan, Phil, who was keen to talk hockey. He was a bit of a different breed, being born and raised in Southern California, and being a knowledgeable and die-hard hockey fan! Phil was able to talk not only about the current state of the NHL and its teams, but teams from the past, the AHL, the WHL and international hockey.


-TheRev

Honda Center Fast Facts

Seats: Section 403; $18; StubHub
Score: Flames 1, Ducks 3
Unique Concession: Free Miller Lite Samples
Souvenir Stick: previously acquired
Public Transit: none
Unique Arena Trait: none
Swag: none

Photos




Next up is a game tonight in Phoenix…

Arena #6.2 - Joe Louis Arena

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…

April 15, 2007 – Detroit, MI

If you can’t get tickets to a Flames playoff game in the Dome, you might want to consider heading to the other barn to see some hockey. After being unable to secure tickets for either game three or four of the Flames-Red Wings series, I decided to look into going to Detroit. Checking on the Red Wings site, I had no problem getting tickets, so it was off to Toronto, and then a nice four hour drive through Southern Ontario into the Motor City.

Game Two was an afternoon tilt at Joe Louis Arena, with puck drop scheduled for 1:00PM. We had landed in Toronto at 6:30AM, so there was plenty of time to make the four hour drive to Michigan. After touring around downtown for a couple of hours (which involved going to White Castle for burgers) we headed to the rink. Walking to the arena from our parking spot a few blocks away, I was again reminded of my dislike of watching hockey games in the afternoon. Being that this was a playoff game and in April, it was even worse. It is supposed to be dark for hockey games, not sunny and 23C outside; it just doesn’t fit.

When we arrived at the arena, we still needed to pick up our tickets at Will Call, which happened to have approximately 12,000 people in line. We found the end of the line, snaked around the corner and half way down the length of the building, and began to wait. There was still a lot of time, so that wasn’t a factor, but it was a little intimidating standing against a wall in downtown Detroit, wearing a bright red Flames jersey. There were plenty of comments, but nothing we couldn’t handle. As we exited the Will Call booth after an hour line up, I was approached by a reporter from CBC, who asked me for a few comments. Happy to oblige, I began what turned out to be a CBC radio interview, standing on the steps of the Joe. The reporter asked me the standard questions: “Are you from Calgary?” “Why come all the way to Detroit for a game?” “Do you think the Flames can win this afternoon?” among others. All easy questions really; I am from Calgary, because it’s easier to get tickets, and of course they can!

We headed into the dreaded Joe, where we were given red playoff towels, saying “Ride the Red Wave!” I guess the Red Wings wanted in on the C of Red, but it just wasn’t the same. I suppose it was better than when teams hand out white towels, which I’ve never understood, as waving a white towel is the international sign for ‘I surrender!’ Entering the seating bowl, we found a ton of Flames fans. Talking with a lot of them we found some that had made the trip from Calgary as we had, but the majority were transplanted Calgarians, now living in Toronto and Southern Ontario. The game didn’t work out as planned, and within four minutes of puck drop the Flames were down 2-0. By the end of the game it was 3-1 for the Red Wings, and a two games to none lead in the series. Dejected, we left the arena and prepared to make the long, monotonous journey back to Toronto. With a win, the drive would have seemed like going around the corner, but of course, winning makes everything better.

As we made the walk from the Joe to our car, we heard one of the greatest comments I’ve ever heard at an away game. As we waited to cross the street at a red light, a group of four Red Wings fans approached the same light on the other side of the street. They began hooting and hollering the usual things, until one yelled, “Calgary’s a dump!” This was a pretty ironic statement, as we were standing at an intersection where the only building that wasn’t abandon featured a pawn shop specializing in bail bonds. Calgary could be called many things, but in perhaps the biggest crime-ridden cesspool in the developed world, it can’t be called a dump! However, as Detroit has one of the highest murder rates in the United States, I opted not to retort and we continued on to our car.

We were back in Canada within a few minutes, and on our way back to Calgary to see if the Flames could somehow even up this series.

-TheRev

Joe Louis Arena Fast Facts

Seats: Section 217B; $63; Red Wings Website
Score: Flames 1, Red Wings 3
Unique Concession: Little Caesar’s Pizza
Souvenir Stick: none
Public Transit: Detroit People Mover across the Street
Unique Arena Trait: One-tiered seating bowl
Swag: ‘Red Wave’ Playoff Towel