To continue the adventures of February 17: after our phones had died and we had properly traversed the downtown area we went back to our parking spot for a few minutes. We attempted to charge our phones via a single outlet in her vehicle with little success. Thankfully I had my camera with me and though I had not thought to charge it and it did not last through the night I was still able to get some pictures of the game.
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Ah, but what game you ask? I am jumping ahead of myself! Cher-ron Lee, despite having been in a long-term relationship with a newspaper sports editor, had never been to a hockey game! To continue our fun and work on her 'bucket list' we traipsed on over to the Cox Convention Center to buy some tickets. There are some very cheap tickets available and a decent section of $28 seats. However for $10 more we could get in the best section and this being Cher-ron's first hockey game (and my first Barons game - I haven't been to a hockey game since Oklahoma City's beloved Blazers disbanded) we decided to go for it! The helpful woman at the ticket counter even hooked us up with FRONT ROW seats!! Woo-hoo!!
Now we had some time to kill. We had looked for places to eat along the way there but nothing called out to us, so we decided to eat overpriced concession fare. Cher-ron went for a loaded hot dog (foot long?) with Coke and I settled on a salty soft pretzel with Dr. Pepper. The older lady at the concession stand was a riot! After having a good ol' time cuttin' it up with her (she probably thought we were drunk!) we went in search of our seats. This was when we discovered just how cool our ticket seller was. We didn't just get front row seats. No. We got FRONT ROW, CENTER ICE, RIGHT NEXT TO THE BARON'S BENCH!!!
The experience was not novel for me as far as it being a hockey game, but it was a bit different than the Blazers games I previously attended. It has been several years since I was at a game and back then the Blazers played at the erstwhile Ford Center.
The Chesapeake Energy Arena was originally The Ford Center. I was at the Ford Center on a number of occasions including multiple Blazers hockey games and Trans-Siberian Orchestra concerts. I was quite shocked to discover a couple of days ago via the omniscient Wikipedia that The Ford Center was opened in 2002! I was under the impression all this time that it had been there already and was just remodeled prior to becoming The Ford Center.
My first Blazers game was a blast! I went with a group from work and we watched from one of the boxes. That is watching the game in style: food, drinks, comfy chairs, TVs, easy bathroom access and more. It was a fun experience and I am glad I had it. However, I quickly discovered at the next game I attended that being in the stands is MUCH more fun and provides a MUCH better view of the goings on!
I have been to the Cox Convention Center on a number of occasions as well, most recently several years ago when we attended a few YardDawgz games (now also sadly disbanded). There were a few times when I was younger that I was there when it was still The Myriad. It is smaller and not as fancy as the Chesapeake Arena, but it has much comfier seats that are slightly further apart so you don't feel like you are sitting on the lap of the person next to you like you do at the Chesapeake Arena.
The best part about hockey games is that the crowd gets so involved. I love the various chants and organized group ruckus. Sadly such crowd participation was nearly absent during our visit in February. The Barons got soundly whooped which precludes us from much of the taunting of the opposing team.
Overall we had a wonderful experience and enjoyed the game. Before it got started I went to the gift shop and picked up a Barons hockey puck (to go with my Blazers one!) as well as sets of chuck-a-pucks for me and Cher-ron. There was one big kink in the night, though: our horrible rowmates. There was a couple to the right of me (and right next to them the Barons team!) that were mostly aloof, so no issues there. The two chicas next to Cher-ron were a different story. It seems they attend most if not all of the Barons games and operate under the mistaken impression that the Cox Convention Center is their own personal property that others are infringing upon. They were loud and rude and obnoxious. At one point one of the ladies even called Cher-ron a highly inappropriate name because she had stood up to get a better view of a fight in the works further down the ice. I offered to move with Cher-ron over to the other side of the rink - after the first period was over and there were so many empty seats I figured we could go to another one without causing a stir. She refused to let them run her off, though. What really saved the night from being ruined by the harpies was that as they drank more beer rather than becoming more belligerent as one may expect, they mellowed out.
When the game was over I headed for the bathroom. Upon exiting I found Cher-ron standing in a relatively short line to nowhere. While she had been waiting on me she discovered that several Barons players were going to sign autographs! So we stood in line debating with a teenage girl and her mother what on earth we should have them sign and having some fun at the expense of #9's unfortunate name (Pitlick). We ended up having them sign some flyer things that were near the table where they were doing the autographs and I had them sign my new Barons hockey puck as well. There were only 4 of them and after they worked their way through the short line they skedaddled.
Our adventures thus ended, we walked in the rain back to the car (all the while trying desperately not to get our fresh autographs wet) and headed back home.
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