by Roger Bourke White Jr., copyright November 2017
Write about attending a new-for-you-style event for the first time.
I played hockey for many years in my teens and twenties, but I never went to a pro game -- I'm a player type, not a spectator type. This going to a pro game finally happened. There were lots of surprises in the experience.
The novelty began well before I got to my seat. The game was at the Salt Palace and while walking through the corridors up to my seat I found myself walking by lots of trade show-style booths were vendors were selling lots of stuff, much of it totally unrelated to the game. One was selling vacations, another was selling timeshares in condominiums. It was strange to experience such odd merchandise being offered at a hockey game.
This is an example of persuasion. This is a face-to-face commercial form and it appears to be working because there were many vendors selling many products -- it wasn't just a single vendor who may have been doing this because of some non-persuasive item on their business agenda. It seems that people who are happy and excited because they are about to attend a sporting event that will make them happier are good targets for commercial-style persuasion.
In sum, the corridors were filled with a mix of spectators heading for their seats at a hockey game and sales people pitching some of them for a few minutes before the game started on totally unrelated products.
When I got to my seat it looked conventional. It was one of many seats on a steeply sloped seating area that looked down on the ice rink where the game would be played. My seat was about halfway up and in the middle of a row.
The ice rink looked familiar, but it wasn't quite the same as what I played on in my youth. The most obvious difference was ten foot tall clear plastic panels that separated the rink from the audience. According to one of the people I was sitting next to this served two functions, "One is to keep high flying pucks from hitting people in the crowd. The other is to keep unhappy crowd people from throwing stuff on to the rink, like lots of paper cups and gum, and I saw one or two throw folding chairs out there."
One thing that was surprisingly familiar was the Zamboni -- the truck-like machine that scraped the ice smooth. It looked identical to the Zamboni that had scraped my ice rink when I played thirty years earlier in Cleveland. Cars had changed, fashions had changed, but not Zambonis it seems.
This rink also doubled as a basketball court. Pro basketball games were played here too. The baskets were visible, but pulled up and didn't hinder the view of the ice rink.
As I got settled in I noticed more strangeness. Below me, near the rink but still above it, was a big hot tub! And in it were three people in swim suits who were ready to watch the game. Wow! The promoting didn't end in the corridors outside the arena!
More people came in and soon the seats on both my right and left were filled. There was an organ playing over the loudspeakers that warmed up before the game started and announcer that warmed up along with it. Together they were warming up the crowd. The audience was going to be participating in this event in a cheering way. All this singing and cheering was stroking the ingroup experience. It was making the audience members feel good about being part of the group supporting the team.
Another oddity hit the air: a four foot long balloon that looked like a blimp came flying out. It had a propeller and it was flying around the arena in a deliberate fashion. It also had a camera and every so often what that camera was seeing would pop up on the big screens over the hockey rink.
The game began and it was played much like the way I played. The biggest difference I saw being the flashy uniforms. I played take-up games and college dorm games so no one bothered with uniforms. Another difference was there were breaks in the play not just for half time and penalties but also for commercials to be shown on the TV programs that were covering the events. One of my seat companions pointed to a nondescript man in a business suit standing near the rink, "When he has his hat off there's a commercial playing." While he had his hat off the organist and the announcer would yell cheers and play choruses from popular songs like "Na na na na, Na na na na, Hey hey hey, Goodbye" to encourage the audience and the home team. The audience was enthusiastically cheering and singing along.
When the man put his hat back on the game continued, the audience got quieter and payed attention to the playing, but the cheering and singing didn't completely stop.
And then the game ended. Leaving was a lot more straightforward than coming in, and a lot more crowded. Everyone left at the same time and everyone was concentrating on leaving. There was some small talk about the game, but that was second in priority to getting to the door, getting out, and getting headed to home or some post-game party.
And that was my experience at a pro hockey game.
--The End--