Gary BUTTERWORTH Online

So, here’s what my brother and I did last night:

1. We drove to Binghamton.
2. We watched most of a hockey game.
3. We drove home back home.

Every year, RBK Hockey gives away a limited number of tickets for certain AHL (minor-league) hockey games on their website. 
When my brother went to claim his this year, they were all out of Philadelphia and Hershey tix.  Binghamton was closest team with free tickets left.  So, why not?
The Trip

My brother picked me up just after 3pm.
Our directions had us taking the Sure-kill Distressway Schuylkill Expressway to the PA Turnpike, but I suggested taking the NJ Turnpike to the PA Turnpike, and I think that saved us some time.
Before we knew it, we were really on the road!

Unfortunately, between the rain, the bit of traffic that we couldn’t avoid, and construction, we didn’t make great time.
As if that weren’t bad enough, as we got off of I-81 (my favorite highway) in Bingo, we followed the signs to the arena.  But for some odd reason, the signs just stopped about a mile from the arena. 
The first 200 miles went fine, but since the arena blends into the surrounding buildings, we had a really tough time with the last mile.
By the time we parked the car, it had been almost 4 hours since we had left home, and we had missed the first 10 minutes of the game.  D’oh!
The Arena and the city

As I said before, and as you can see above, the Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena blends in with the rest of the city. 
Here’s the interesting thing about New York state.  Buffalo is just a much smaller version of New York City.  Rochester is a smaller version of Buffalo.  Syracuse is a smaller version of Rochester.  Binghamton is a smaller version of Syracuse.  Elmira is a smaller version of Binghamton, and there are countless smaller versions of Elmira.  It’s lucky that they’re all similiar, because we didn’t see anything in town aside from the game.
Still, having spent a substantial amount of time in Syracuse (which is only about an hour north of Binghamton), and having passed through Binghamton numerous times (I’ve probably mentioned the Binghamton Wendy’s to you in passing), Binghamton felt comfortable, and it was good to be back.  New York is absolutely my favorite state in the country.  I love everything about it.
Like Syracuse, the arena is a throwback to what minor league hockey was 15+ years ago–a working man’s game played in a gritty, old arena in a small blue-collar city.  It proved to be a very enjoyable place to see a game.  Good sight lines, affordable prices, and an enthusiastic crowd.

There is only one seating level, and all of the seats are good–close to the action.

Above is a view in one of the concourses. 

Above is the view from ice-level.
Like the arena in Syracuse, there are public/service walkways in the bowels of the arena, underneath the seats.  I really like that about the older minor-league buildings.  If you’re on the way to the concession stand, you might just bump into a player, or the ice-making machinery, and you can sneak glimpses of the game from areas most people might not know about.
Today is mostly the era of big, luxurious, sports palaces, where access to everything is controlled, and where fans are kept as far away as possible from the players, the playing surface, interesting little nooks and crannies, and anywhere else other than their assigned seat where they might possibly get into trouble.
Not so in Bingo.
To me, it’s refreshing that, in older buildings such as this, you can wander and explore.  No one is worried that you’ll slip, bump your head, and sue; it’s so innocent, and it makes for a much more unique experience.
Like so many other old arenas, I’ve heard that parts of Slapshot were filmed here.  Like so many other old arenas, I don’t know if that’s true, but it is certainly possible.  I love that sort of atmosphere.
The Food
Like Syracuse, there’s cool stuff if go down lower than everyone else.
If you wander down two flights of stairs from the main concourse (one level below the bathrooms), you’ll end up under the stands.  It feels like you shouldn’t be there, but don’t worry; you’re allowed.
Wander a little further and you’ll find this hidden concession area.

I’d like to thank one of my internet hockey friends, without whom I’d have never even known to look for it.
One you get there, you can find CHICKEN SPIEDIES!!!
One thing I like to do when I visit various arenas is try the local food, and spiedies are a great example.
Once a month or so, when I was in college, the dining halls at Syracuse University had “a taste of Central New York” night.  One of my favorite dishes on these nights was chicken spiedies. 
Turns out, spiedies are actually from Bingo, not Syracuse (but I guess Binghamton is close enough to SU for “taste of CNY.”)
It’s nothing really too too special…just some chicken in a tasty marinate and on a roll.  But I loved them at SU, and after hearing that they serve them at the Binghamton Senators games, I was excited to try them on their home turf.
I’m glad I had the opportunity to do so, but the sandwhich was just ok. 
In Syracuse, you could put a lot of sauce on the roll.  Here, there was virtually no marinade, and the rolls weren’t that great either. This, and the fact that the team had sold out of game programs were my only disappointments. 
Still, it was a spiedie, and it wasn’t terrible, just a little too dry.
Here’s a young Santa Claus me with mine:

Any my brother with his:

(Don’t worry; he was laughing, not vomitting).
The Game
Binghamton is interesting because it has lost its hockey team several times.  The owners always realized that Binghamton was one of the smallest cities to ice an AHL team, and it had one of the oldest arenas, so they left for greener pastures. 
Well, despite small population of the Souther Tier, the fan support has always been there, so a new owner always seemed to move a new team in shortly after the previous left. 
(In the first picture I posted of the interior of the seating bowl, you can kind of see championship banners for all the old teams: the Broome Dusters, the Binghamton Whalers, the Binghamton Rangers, the Broome County Icemen, and the current Binghamton Senators).
Before the Senators moved in 2002, many people thought the AHL had been gone for good.  Many were shocked when such high-caliber hockey moved back in, but I’m glad it did.
But last night’s game didn’t really resemble AHL hockey.  The Binghamton Senators, quiet frankly, suck.
They lost to Bridgeport 6-2, and in doing so were eliminated from the playoffs.

No worries, though; I was just happy to have paid the visit.
Headed home
Less than 2 hours after we stepped into the arena, we were back in the car!
By 9:30pm, we were on the road!

We briefly stopped at K-Mart to see if they had spiedie sauce and/or a cheap FM transmitter so we could listen to my brother’s iPod.  They had neither (that meant no 30,000 Pounds of Bananas by Harry Chapin as we drove through Scranton!  Hmph!), and, after getting junk food and guinea pig food, we continued home.
A couple of hours later, just we got into the range of Philadelphia radio stations, I called 93.3 WMMR to request Spoonman by Soundgarden (my brother and I’s official hockey roadtrip song, along with just about anything by Eve 6.)  They told me they’d look to see if they had it. 
Well, if they managed to find it, it must have taken them more than an hour, because just after 1am (almost exactly 3 hours on the road, not counting stops for K-Mart or getting gas–GREAT TIME!), we pulled back into my grandmom’s driveway without having heard it.  But otherwise, the trip home went fine.
Yes, I realize that our “free tickets” ended up costing us $70 in gas/tolls/food, and yes, I realize that it might seem absurd that 7.5 of the 10 hours we were gone for were spent in the car.  But it’s that kind of ridiculousity that makes life fun!
Neither of us had been to a game in Binghamton before, and it’s definitely worth checking out!
It was a great trip.
IN OTHER NEWS, my mom just got back from getting new tires on her car.
It took almost 3 hours.  Now, I don’t know much about cars, but from catching bits and pieces of NASCAR on TV every now and then, I didn’t think such a job required more than 10 seconds!