The Frozen Tundra of TOUAMB Field

[CortJstr]

A few years ago a group of soccer supporters went to a Caps game. Apparently the other hockey fans were quite annoyed and how they kept standing and cheering and whatnot. From this I gather one watches hockey while sitting quietly in the manner of an opera or Japanese wrestling.

[Carlos del Vaca]

It's more the standing part.  Caps fans are plenty loud, but the expectation is that you're sitting down until something big happens (i.e. a goal or a fight).

I had Caps season tickets for two years, during their LAST good phase (when they won two division titles and traded for Jaromir Jagr).  Don't go all that often any more, but at least once a season.  Been to a handful of NFL and NBA games.  I actually think one is better off watching a football game at home, in terms of actually seeing what's going on in the game, not to mention not freezing your ass of in December and not having to pay $8 for a beer.  But there is something about the overall spectacle of a live NFL game with 80,000 of your closest friends that makes it worth doing every once in a while.

[Choop]

i ain't payin two hundred a seat to watch the falcons do anything.

growing up in ohio in the eighties, i got to see the reds post-machine and the bengals' one good season with boomer. the browns and indians were across the state so they were the enemy. still: reds? bengals? ugh. this is why i'm not so much a sports fan.

[Asherdan]

Hey, I'da mentioned a couple of goal line stones of Swervin' Curvin Richards but he kinda massively flamed out with the Cowboys, just like Roman Matusz, the guard I lit up, did with Chicago.

I got to watch Tony Siragusa and Mark Spindler spin it up like a mother on their defensive side, though. I guess they had OK careers.

I agree with the NHL charity aspect, unfortunately. What a great fricking live game that is, though.

[littlefallsmets]

I've seen a mess of MLB games at Shea and Citi and The Big A and Dodger Stadium, of course, and a few NFL games in Buffalo and that's really it in the terms of the major league games.

I doubt I could fit in the seats at Fenway and I doubt I could spend nine innings in fuck*ng Yankee Stadium without leaving on a fuck*ng stretcher.

I love the hell out of live minor league hockey, in person watching dudes from farms in Alberta just wailing on each other over and over again trying to get called up as an enforcer, but the NHL bores me... probably mostly because it is almost as bad of a television sport as soccer and since they're in the majors already, they don't fight nearly as much.

The NBA... eh. Eh. I just can't generate much more feeling about the NBA than "meh".

I did rush the field after the one Big East Championship 'Cuse won while McNabb was there, winning on a last-second touchdown. That was fun as hell.

I was bigger than a lot of the opposing team's players and a lot of them were crying, which was... weird.

[Asherdan]

I love the hell out of live minor league hockey, in person watching dudes from farms in Alberta just wailing on each other over and over again trying to get called up as an enforcer...

That was a Calgary treat I've enjoyed a few times now and you hit it on the head. The last time we were in the beer line during warmups when a big ol' roar went up from the crowd so we check the monitors and three or four guys were avenging some prior wrong on each other at center ice during skate around.

ALSO: The SaddleDome has 7" monitors over the urinals so you don't miss a beating while letting out the Red & Black.

Awesome.

[Carlos del Vaca]

There used to be an ECHL team in the Maryland 'burbs (they since moved to Mississippi or someplace like that where they don't naturally have ice, ever).  I organized a couple of group outings to their games with the promise "If there isn't a fight, I will personally refund the cost of your ticket."  I never had to pay.

[AugustWest]

I have seen an ECHL game.  That was pretty fun, even though I no nothing about hockey.

[pmcd9]

I was in Pittsburgh to play the Pitt Panthers and I broke curfew to have a cabby take me down to Three Rivers Stadium. There was no game or event that night so I scaled a fence or two and avoided the office side and...found myself the field. I ran around on what I thought was the TarTan (it was Astro by then)Turf and took pictures of my feet on the endzone logo until some dude yelled at me to get the hell out. I asked him which way was the quickest and he actually told me, and nice enough too. I asked him how often he had to boot someone and he said "Tonight?" which answered my question.

Did I ever tell y'all about the time I put a curse on the Buffalo Bills?

[pmcd9]

I've seen maybe 100 Oilers games in person and at least that many Astros games.  I've also seen the Rangers play a few times in Arlington and I saw  St. Louis game once.  I've seen a ton of Rockets games even though I like basketball the least of the big three sports. 

Houston doesn't have a NHL team, but they had the Aeros back in the 70s with Gordie Howe and his two sons.  Saw them play a bunch.  I don't know what league they were in, but it wasn't the NHL.  I remember they played against the Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers before they joined the NHL. The Aeros folded instead of trying to join the NHL.  My memory is foggy on this, but it seems like they had a season ticket drive and they had to sell some certain amount of season tickets to get into the NHL, maybe 8000 seats, and they failed.  Anyway, I saw them play a few times, that was a lot of fun.

Now there is another Houston Aeros team which I saw play once with free tickets.  I didn't enjoy it as much as I did when I was a kid. 

[littlefallsmets]

Houston doesn't have a NHL team, but they had the Aeros back in the 70s with Gordie Howe and his two sons.  Saw them play a bunch.  I don't know what league they were in, but it wasn't the NHL.  I remember they played against the Winnipeg Jets and Edmonton Oilers before they joined the NHL.

World Hockey Association. WHA.

(I love me some defunct sports team history.)

[Nabubrush]

I used to watch the Anchorage Aces play a lot. They actually played pretty good hockey. I missed the year of the NHL lockout, when Scotty Gomez came back and played with them. I've heard it was like watching an adult play against Pee-Wees.

[jaydub]

All I need to get a record of 3-1 is for Miami's Defense to score 54 fantasy points.

[littlefallsmets]

Hell, the Giants probably scored that last night, yeah?

[Asherdan]

I'd just like to point out that Eli Manning's total of -3.75 fantasy points this week is the perfect example of how I hate quarterbacks who may look somewhat competent but do the little things that make them a big bag of team-dragging suck.