wyliepoon
Senior Member
Went to the Red Wings hockey game on Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena, sitting in the fourth-to-last row in the upper bowl. It was a 3-1 win over the New Jersey Devils (minus Martin Brodeur- Scarborough native Kevin Weekes (I knew his cousin in high school) was in net for the Devils) for the defending Stanley Cup champs.
Some observations from the game:
1. Having been to one Leafs (preseason) game and this game, I have to say that the Detroit crowd is definitely more vocal. No surprise here.
2. While the seats in the upper bowl of JLA were mostly full during the game, a good number of seats in the lower bowl were empty for this game. I'm guessing some season ticket holders chose to stay in the suburbs rather than come out to watch a pretty good matchup.
3. JLA is representative of arena design from the 1970s, before pro sports realized how much they could make off of corporate money. The arena is quite intimate (no private boxes between the lower bowl and the upper bowl). The scoreboard is still of the old cube-like design.
One drawback, however, is with the angle of the seating. The upper bowl seating is not steep enough- every time someone sitting in front of you gets up, no matter if he/she is sitting one row or five rows ahead, you lose sight of a large part of the ice.
4. The Red Wings have Ice Girls, but they stay out of the spotlight, and they wear real hockey jerseys rather than skimpy uniforms.
5. With a 3-1 lead in the third period, most of the fans started for the exits as early as 5 minutes before the end of the game. By the time the game ended, half the arena was empty. Perhaps the fans were quite confident that the team would be able to hold onto a 2-goal lead for the win, plus they wanted to beat the crowd to get onto the People Mover, or the traffic out of the parking garage.
What if I didn't drive to the game?
JLA concourse
Gordie Howe sculpture
After the game, there was long lineup to get onto the People Mover at JLA station. The police stood at the turnstiles, allowing only a number of fans to get onto the platform at one time. I understand this kind of crowd control, but the number of people boarding each train is a lot less than the number on any two cars of an SRT train during rush hour.
Guess who I saw at the game...
Some observations from the game:
1. Having been to one Leafs (preseason) game and this game, I have to say that the Detroit crowd is definitely more vocal. No surprise here.
2. While the seats in the upper bowl of JLA were mostly full during the game, a good number of seats in the lower bowl were empty for this game. I'm guessing some season ticket holders chose to stay in the suburbs rather than come out to watch a pretty good matchup.
3. JLA is representative of arena design from the 1970s, before pro sports realized how much they could make off of corporate money. The arena is quite intimate (no private boxes between the lower bowl and the upper bowl). The scoreboard is still of the old cube-like design.
One drawback, however, is with the angle of the seating. The upper bowl seating is not steep enough- every time someone sitting in front of you gets up, no matter if he/she is sitting one row or five rows ahead, you lose sight of a large part of the ice.
4. The Red Wings have Ice Girls, but they stay out of the spotlight, and they wear real hockey jerseys rather than skimpy uniforms.
5. With a 3-1 lead in the third period, most of the fans started for the exits as early as 5 minutes before the end of the game. By the time the game ended, half the arena was empty. Perhaps the fans were quite confident that the team would be able to hold onto a 2-goal lead for the win, plus they wanted to beat the crowd to get onto the People Mover, or the traffic out of the parking garage.
What if I didn't drive to the game?
JLA concourse
Gordie Howe sculpture
After the game, there was long lineup to get onto the People Mover at JLA station. The police stood at the turnstiles, allowing only a number of fans to get onto the platform at one time. I understand this kind of crowd control, but the number of people boarding each train is a lot less than the number on any two cars of an SRT train during rush hour.
Guess who I saw at the game...
