Arena #4 - 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…

December 16, 2006 – Jobing.com Arena – Glendale, AZ

A trip to Phoenix just before Christmas marked the fourth NHL arena we’ve visited, as we took in a Flames – Coyotes tilt at the Jobing.com arena. One of the more unusual names for an arena, Jobing.com is an employment website and has naming rights for the Glendale Arena until 2016. The arena is located in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, on the Western edge of the city, bordering the desert, and opened in 2003. It is situated across the street from the University of Phoenix Stadium, which is home to the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.

Much like in Anaheim, this arena is really only accessible by car, as transit links are minimal and it is too far from the rest of the city. When we arrived at the arena, we were confronted with something so bizarre; I didn’t believe it at first. Parking at the arena is free! I didn’t think this was something I’d ever see. We parked our rental car, (a red Mustang), and headed toward the arena. The area around Jobing.com was still being developed, and as a result there weren’t any services nearby. There are plans for an entertainment district called the Westgate City Center, which will feature restaurants, bars, theatres and shops, but for this game there were only construction sites and cacti.

We didn’t have tickets purchased beforehand, knowing that they wouldn’t be hard to come by. We decided to purchase tickets from a scalper outside the arena, who was offering 1st row tickets on the 2nd balcony for $30. The tickets had a face value of $28, but I figured the same tickets at the box-office would cost more after adding in Ticketmaster’s wonderful ‘convenience charge.’ After getting our tickets, we entered this oasis in the desert, where the first 10,000 fans received a ball cap celebrating a “Decade in the Desert.” In Phoenix, ‘the first 10,000 fans’ means everybody gets something, as there is never that many fans in attendance.

The concourses of the Jobing.com arena are similar to those of most modern arenas; wide and well lit. At each corner of the concourse, there was a mini-Hooters outlet, with décor like their restaurants, and abbreviated menus. The staff however, were not wearing the typical Hooters’ uniform. Much like the arenas in California, many of the concessions featured Mexican dishes, including burritos, tacos and quesadillas. The seating bowl in Jobing.com features ‘coyote red’ seats, over 3 levels of seating. Unlike most arenas I’ve been to, the lower bowl is the largest, with 25 rows of seats. The 2nd level features two levels of luxury suites, most of which were empty for this game, and then the upper level, where we were sitting.

Unlike the Arrowhead Pond, the Jobing.com arena does have escalators and elevators, making for an easy ascent to our seats. We were sitting in section 229, (which is in the upper level), even with the blue line in the Flames’ attack end. Our seats happened to be next to four retired teachers and their wives, from Calgary. In fact, one of them taught Social Studies at my high school, but had retired the year before I went there. They told us that they wintered in Phoenix and went to every Flames game, plus a couple of other “interesting games.” I’m assuming they weren’t talking about a Coyotes-Panthers match-up.

The game was a dominating performance by the Flames, and in particular, Jarome Iginla who had two goals and two assists on the night and a 1st Star selection. The Coyotes were unable to mount much of defence and allowed four other goals by Tanguay, Ritchie, Amonte and Langkow. After Iggy scored his 2nd goal of the night at the 7:12 mark of the 3rd period, I was really keen to see him get the hat trick. Thanks to the Coyotes’ generosity, I’d be able to throw my new Coyotes hat onto the ice! Alas, it was Amonte scoring an empty netter to put the game away.

The arena itself is nice, but it just isn’t very exciting for watching a hockey game. First off, it lacks a hockey game atmosphere, which is probably because there isn’t anybody there. Midway through the 3rd period, attendance was announced at 15,551. Judging by the number of empty seats, I’d be shocked if there were much more than 5,000 people in attendance.. They must have been referring to seats sold, as that building was over half empty. Secondly, the location is terrible, being on the outskirts of town. Perhaps when the development around the arena opens up, things will be a little more exciting, but for now it is a very dull location.

Four arenas down, twenty-six to go…..


-TheRev


Jobing.Com Arena Fast Facts

Seats: Section 229; $30.00USD ($28 face value); Scalper outside the Arena
Score: Flames 6, Coyotes 3
Arena Rating: 5.8/10
Unique Concession: Hooters
Souvenir Stick: Yellow Coyotes, plastic
Public Transit: None
Unique Arena Trait: Free parking
Swag: ‘Decade in the Desert’ ballcaps

Photos

Arena #3 - Arrowhead Pond

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 17, 2006 – Anaheim, CA

We headed to the home of the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, as usual, a couple of hours before the game. Located a few miles from Disneyland, and two blocks from the home of the LA Angels, is convenient to access by car and nothing else. Transit in Los Angeles leaves something to be desired, and transit in Anaheim is next to non-existent.

The Pond, as it is known, appears to be very modern. Glass and polished stone cover the outside, while the interior concourses are made of faux-marble walls and floors. Before entering the Arrowhead pond, you must pass through airport-style security. Like at an airport, you emptied your pockets into a tray, and then continued on to a security officer with a metal-detecting wand. Out of habit from airport security, I began to remove my belt. “Save it for the ladies…” said the older man who was screening me, as he waved me on. Now that we were secure, we could finally enter the building.

We did a tour of the concourse after entering, seeing a sea of run of the mill concessions, the same ones you would see at any arena. As it was the final game of the season, it was “Fan Appreciation” night, but from what we could tell, this entailed nothing more than saying that it was in fact, “Fan Appreciation” night. There weren’t any free handouts and there didn’t appear to be any special concession prices.

The seating bowl in the Pond is fairly standard. There was a row of luxury suites at the top of the lower bowl, another row of suites four rows into the second level, followed by a fairly large upper level, with about 30 rows of seats. Looking up to the rafters, I noticed that the Might Ducks only had three banners hanging, and two of them were celebrating the team’s existence. There was one banner honouring the team’s inaugural season and another commemorating the team’s tenth season. I guess if you can’t win, you can always celebrate not folding or relocating. The third banner did mention the franchise’s only real success; a trip to the Stanley Cup finals in 2003, where they lost to the New Jersey Devils in seven games.

Our seats were located in section 407, which is in the third level of seating. For some reason, the sections at the Pond are the 200’s, 300’s and 400’s. There weren’t any 100 sections, but I’m guessing those are for floor seats for concerts or basketball. One thing of note was that despite opening in 1993, there aren’t any elevators or escalators for accessing the upper concourse. Not unlike the Dome, but unexpected of a newer arena.

The game was fairly uninspiring until midway through the 2nd period. At that point, due to an Avalanche loss, it was announced over the PA that the Flames and Ducks would be facing each other in the first round in four days. Following the announcement, the checks started getting a little harder, and players on both teams started to skate a little faster. Playoff intensity had already begun in Anaheim. Despite the fierce battle in the 2nd half of the third, the Flames were again defeated, falling 4-3 to the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.

The Arrowhead Pond was quite disappointing, and inferior in almost every way to its cross town rival, the Staples Center. It made me appreciate the Saddledome that much more.

Three arenas down, twenty-seven to go…..


-TheRev

Arrowhead Pond Fast Facts

Seats: Section 407; $19.50USD; Ticketmaster
Score: Flames 3, Ducks 4
Arena Rating: 5.2/10
Unique Concession: None
Souvenir Stick: JS Giguere goalie stick, plastic
Public Transit: None
Unique Arena Trait: No escalators or elevators
Swag: None

Photos

Arena #2.2 - Staples 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…

April 15, 2006 –Los Angeles, CA

My second away game saw me returning to the Staples Center for the Flames 2nd last game of the ’05-’06 season. This time I was accompanied by my girlfriend, and our trip also included stops at the Honda Center for the Flames’ final game of the season, a Dodgers-Giants game at Dodger Stadium and a couple of days at the Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland.

When we arrived at the Staples Center before the game, my girlfriend was a little apprehensive about seeing a game in enemy territory. I had assured her it wouldn’t be bad and that people wouldn’t be yelling at us or anything, but nonetheless she was still worried. Much to her relief, the first hockey fans we saw as we approached the West side of the arena, was a group of over 30 Flames fans! These guys were playing a game of street hockey in the California sun. They had sticks and balls, and were using a couple of pylons for goal posts. Although it wouldn’t be that out of the ordinary in Canada, it wasn’t something we had expected to see in Los Angeles. After talking with a couple of them, we learned they were a group of Saddledome employees who head to a Flames away game each year. This year’s group had over 30 people, and they were attending the same sporting events we were; both hockey games and a baseball game.

Although there wasn’t anything on the line for either team; the Flames were already guaranteed 3rd place in the Western Conference and the Kings had already missed the playoffs, the game was destined to be a special one, as long-time King, Luc Robitaille was playing in his final game at the Staples Center, and the 2nd last game of his career. With over 600 goals and 1300 points, the Montreal born left-winger was calling it a career after 19 seasons. As we entered the arena, we were each given a t-shirt commemorating Robitaille’s last game with the words ‘King of Kings’ on the front and a silhouette of the future hall-of-famer raising his hands in celebration of a goal.

Walking the concourse before the game, we found another unique food at a concession booth called Camacho’s, burritos. I had never seen Mexican food at a hockey game before, but when in Rome…! We ordered a couple of burritos and headed to our seats. Entering the seating bowl, we were greeted with a sea of yellow and white placards that were on every seat in honour of Mr. Robitaille. The cardboard signs read “Thank You Luuuc” on one side and had the number 20 on the other. The same signs were also on the boards between several ads.

With the North West Division already clinched, it was obvious the Flames were sort of mailing it in for this game. There wasn’t a lot of hitting, and there didn’t seem to be much hustle from the away team. Fortunately, the Kings lacked a few key components to hockey success. Most notably, speed, strength, goal tending, defence, offence and overall talent. As a result, the game ended up tied 1-1 after regulation and overtime, and continued on to a shootout. Pavol Demitra was able to score on Kiprusoff while Jason LaBarbera was able to stop all three Flames shooters, handing the Flames a 2-1 loss.

A brief retirement ceremony followed the game, with the Kings faithful letting out a string of “Luuuuuucs,” and Robitaille doing a celebratory lap of the rink.

Next up is the Flames-Ducks game at the Arrowhead Pond against the Mighty Ducks.


-TheRev

Staples Center Fast Facts

Seats: Section 314; $28.00USD; Ticketmaster
Score: Flames 1, Kings 2 in a shootout
Arena Rating: 8/10
Unique Concession: burritos
Souvenir Stick: none
Public Transit: Train stop across the street
Unique Arena Trait: 3 levels of luxury suites
Swag: Luc Robitaille t-shirt, Luuuuc!/#20 Placard

Photos

Arena #2 - Staples 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…

October 23, 2005 – Los Angeles, CA

My first stop on a mission to visit at least 29 other cities with the Calgary Flames. I bought my tickets on Ticketmaster’s website on Saturday morning, about 36 hours before puck drop, and would be available at Will Call. I took a WestJet flight, leaving Calgary at 10:00AM, and arrived in sunny California in the early afternoon, well ahead of the game. My plan had been to head back to the airport after the game, where I could read or sleep in the terminal until it was time to check in for my flight in the morning. As I wasn’t going to be staying anywhere, I didn’t have any luggage. It was only me, my jersey and my camera, which would result in my first speed bump of the trip at the US customs desk.

“Where are you going and for how long?” asked the Customs agent.
“LA, one day,” I said, trying to sound as if it was a common occurrence.
“You’re going to LA for one day? Why?”
“For a hockey game.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s easier to get tickets there than here,” I answered, as if it was obvious.
“Where’s your luggage?”
“I don’t have any.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m only going for a day.”

Although not amused, he allowed me to continue, and warned me to have hotel reservation next time.

I arrived at the Staples Center via public transit from the airport after about an hour. With plenty of time before the game, I toured around the arena, taking pictures, and then walked around downtown Los Angeles for a bit. Evidence of hockey was hard to find in downtown LA, but there was a statue of Gretzky with his arms raised outside the North Entrance of the arena, commemorating The Great One’s eight seasons with the Kings.

Entering the arena, I had my eyes peeled to notice everything that was different than the Dome. The concourses of the Staples Center, which opened in 1999, are much wider than those of the Dome. Traffic circulates around the arena without the log jams seen so frequently in the Saddledome. As I walked into the seating bowl, I saw perhaps the biggest single difference from the Saddledome. Because the roof isn’t saddle-shaped, the seating bowl seems to be much larger, and much more cavernous. It was weird to be sitting in the 3rd level and being able to see all the other seats in the third level. You could even see the jumbotron! Having a flat roof makes the arena seem larger and emptier; a very different view than the Dome. The other unique thing about the Staples Center is that there are 3 levels of luxury suites circling the seating bowl. This results in the 300-level being substantially higher up than the lower bowl. As I left the lower bowl following the warm-up, I ran into, literally, Paul Guilfoyle from CSI. I had to look his name up, but I knew I had recognized him from different movies and TV shows; my first run in with a ‘celebrity’ at a hockey game.

As puck drop neared, I began to head up to my seat in section 315. Here I encountered another innovation in this newer arena; the escalator. It has never occurred to me that newer arenas would have escalators! The Dome could use some of those.

The game started poorly for my team, with the Kings scoring twice in the first period. During the intermission, still a little bashful wearing an enemy jersey, I walked around the concourse with a light jacket partially covering my white Flames jersey. Standing in line at the concession, I hear someone yell, “Hey Flames fan, you can’t hide under that jacket!” After getting my beer, I walked over to the Kings fan in question, and struck up a conversation. Kevin was a season ticket holder from Orange County. We talked hockey for the rest of the intermission, and he wished me a good trip. My first interaction with an opposing fan turned out to be a good one.

In the 2nd period, the Flames roared back with two goals of their own, tying the came at 2. During the 2nd intermission, I was able to walk around without my jacket and displaying the flaming C with pride. I saw Kevin again, and we continued to talk about hockey…turned out he was a true hockey fan, and was familiar with not only the Kings but all things hockey. He had even been to Calgary and Edmonton for games. He marvelled at our sports channels in Canada that “actually show hockey highlights!”

The 3rd period contained a perfectly scripted ending (for me), as Chris Simon scored the game-winning goal with only 29 seconds left. Flames win! The victory allowed me to leave the Staples Center with my head held high.

Following the game, after being advised not to take the train south of downtown at that time of night, I hailed a cab and headed back to the airport. After walking around LAX for about an hour, I soon realized that I wasn’t going to be able to stay up all night, nor was I going to be able to sleep in the terminal. I broke down and walked to the Travelodge a few blocks from the terminal and checked into the cheapest room I could find. In the morning it was back to the airport to return to Calgary.

Passing through Canadian customs, I encountered a similar type of exchange as with US Customs the day before. “You only went down for one day?” I had been slightly worried that I might receive some flack for the one souvenir I brought back, a plastic Los Angeles Kings mini-hockey stick, but was allowed past without any trouble.

With the Staples Center and the Saddledome in the books, I only have 28 more arenas to visit!

Seats: Section 315; $30.00USD; Ticketmaster
Score: Flames 3, Kings 2
Arena Rating: 8/10
Unique Concession: 6 pc sushi tray for $8USD
Souvenir Stick: Los Angeles Kings goalie stick; white; plastic
Public Transit: Train stop across the street
Unique Arena Trait: 3 levels of luxury suites
Swag: None

Photos: