http://www.nunesmagician.com/2012/1/18/2717463/gary-sent-me-this-photo-saying-im-here-in-lahore-pakistan-where-i

Tomorrow is the big day!  If you’re not sure when and where to watch in your city, look it up here.

Anyway, I’ll go ahead an continue my story from where I left off…

After the test…

Those of us who passed gathered in the front left section of the auditorium while everyone else filed out.  It seemed like about 15% of the test-takers were left.  We had the opportunity to trade our t-shirts for a different size if we changed our minds since we walked in.  Perks already!  There was some paperwork to do–a couple of releases and a bio sheet.  Apparently, these were available on the website and some people had filled them out at home.  I didn’t, so I had to rush through and fill them out now.

I had a hunch that we’d be interviewed next, so I tried to craft my answers to make myself sound as interesting as possible to the interviewer.  Now, I think I’m a pretty interesting guy, so it wasn’t that hard for me.  The question was whether other people would agree with my self-assessment.

Interview

After I had finished filling out my forms, I was lead down a hallway with the last of the folks who had passed the test (those with their paperwork ready went first).  On the way, we passed the people who were lined up to take the next test.

I walked into a conference room.  At the front, there was a long table with about 4 people interviewing potential contestants.  I’d recognize most of them again a few months later in New York.  It turns out they were all mid-level producers on the show.

I took a seat and waited to be called.  I hadn’t really thought too much about what I’d say if I got this far (which, at this point, still wasn’t all that far.)  But I figured I’d treat it like a job interview and try to talk myself up.  And, as I said before, I’d try to hit on all things that I thought made me interesting.

There were a few topics I was hoping the interview would touch on:

• I produce a French-language TV talk show that airs Africa.
• I’m getting married to a Pakistani TV personality.
• I have watched sports in over 100 stadiums in 10 countries.
• I took care of my grandmom for almost 2 years.

Those sounded like game-show talking points to me.  I’d try to steer the interview in that direction.

I surveyed the faces and tried to pick out who I wanted to interview me.  There was a cute red-haired girl about my age who looked personable, and she ended up calling my name after a few minutes.

“So you’re Gary Butterworth?”

“That’s me.”

“So you’re also a TV producer.  Where does your program air?  Just so there are no conflicts…”
“Actually, I’ve never worked on a show that airs in the US.  My current show airs in 8 countries in Francophone Africa.”

“Oh, interesting.”  Looking down at my bio sheet, “how long have you been engaged?”

“What time is it?  Haha, no, I’m kidding, about 6 weeks.”

“Oh wow!  So very recently! Is she going to be Mrs. Butterworth too?  Do you ever get teased for that?”

“I do, all the time.  And I don’t mind it, but sometimes I get disappointed because I think I’ve heard them all.  But every once in a while I hear a new one.  Maybe if I’m on national TV people can find some new ways to make fun of my name.”

“Does your fiancé ever get recognized on the street?”
“Well, it’s not like there are paparazzi, but it’s happened a couple of times.  I was with her once.  It was kind of cool”

“That’s great.  Tell you what…go sit back down.  I’m going to send you back to talk with someone else on camera in just a minute.”

That was pretty much it.  For a second, I was disappointed–I didn’t hit all of the bullet points I wanted to hit.  But then I realized that I was still in this!  In fact, almost everyone else was sent out after the interview.  Hardly anyone was waiting for an on camera interview!  (I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard later that some people actually get sent home without the on-camera interview and get called for the show anyway.  But don’t quote me on that.)

The woman who interviewed me came back to my chair to take a quick photo of me.  She was supposed to do that when I was interviewing, but she forgot.  Probably because I’m so awesome. 

Video Interview

A few minutes later, a guy in his early 30s grabs me to go to the back of the room for a quick video interview.  It’s just with a cheap little handi-cam and with no lighting–they just want a record to review.

He glances down at the same bio sheet that I had filled out earlier.  He mentions that he went to Syracuse, too!  Awesome!

He starts asking me about sports stadiums.  Even better!  What’s my favorite college basketball arena?  I have to say the Dome.  I tell him I have to say that even if I don’t really believe it.  He understands.  Palestra at Penn is nice too.
Have I ever been to Cameron Indoor Stadium?  No, but it’s on my list.  He says it lives up to the hype.

Soccer stadiums?  I really like Estadio Saprissa in San Jose, Costa Rica, but it has artificial turf so I feel like that should disqualify it from my list.

Favorite stadium overall?  I really wish I could say some really obscure soccer stadium in latin America, or some little old ice rink in Quebec, but in all honesty, nothing even comes close to Fenway Park.  He’s a NYC-based Red Sox fan; he gets it.

I loved that conversation, but I almost completely lost track of the fact that I was being interviewed for a chance to win a million dollars.  I wondered if I wasted too much time talking about stadiums (probably the only time in my life I’ll wonder that).  But the conversation continued, so I relaxed a little bit.

“Tell me about your grandma.”

“Well, a few years ago, she wasn’t doing so well, so I quit my job and moved in with her.  I took care of her for about two years, and we tried to watch Millionaire every day.”

“That’s great!  And it says you sometimes get excited and passionate about weird little historical things…”
“Yeah, just yesterday I was driving home and I pulled over and made Sarah hike into the woods so I could show her one of  the stone they placed when they surveyed the boundaries of the District of Columbia back in the 18th Century!”
“Oh cool.  You should come to Chicago and take the Architectural Society’s tour some time.”

What would I do if I won a million dollars?  Hmmm…I hadn’t thought about that.  Well, neither Sarah nor I had ever owned a car.  And her niece and nephew live in Pakistan.  If I had a million dollars, I could bring them over here on there summer vacations every year.

That seemed like a good answer.  And that was it!
He told me to watch my mail for a postcard to see if I was a finalist.  I don’t think he actually winked, but he said it with a wink in his voice.  I was pretty sure I was going to be on the show…

Promo shoot

But first, would I mind hanging around a few more minutes to be interviewed for a promo for the local affiliate?
Sure, why not?

In all honesty, I DO NOT like being on camera.  I’ve been in a handful of behind-the-scenes features over the years, and I don’t shy away from the camera the way that some behind-the-scenes people do.  But overall, I DO NOT LIKE BEING ON CAMERA.

But why not?
As far as I knew, it wasn’t 100% certain yet that I’d be on the show, so anything to make a last-ditch effort to strengthen my case even further.

I went down another hall, waited a little while, got a little make-up, and then sat down for a nicely-lit, formal sit-down interview.  While I was getting made up, I was chatting with the camera guys.  They were DC-based freelancers, so we tossed some names around.  We both knew people that the other person had heard of, but we didn’t have any mutual friends.

A producer sat down and interviewed me.  He was incredibly expressive…I think trying to draw emotion out of me.  It work–he got me to look like a bubbly idiot.  “Who wants to be a millionaire?  Phhhh…who doesn’t?!”

As far as I can tell, this promo has never run, with me or without me.  Thank God.

Post card

A few weeks later, I got a post card in the mail.  I was officially in the contestant pool, and I could be called any time in the next two years to be on the show.

***

I may or may not get to post again before the show actually airs, but I’m planning to write two more posts about my Millionaire experience.  One will be about “The Call,” how I prepared, and my long day in the green room in NYC.  The other will explain what my thought processes were for each question I faced.

Better late than never?

Before I head off on my next trip, I thought I should finally find time to post the pictures from my last trip.

From July 27-30, I was in Chicago.
I mainly went to see a baseball game.  But it was my first time in the Windy City, so I did all of the touristy stuff, too.

The baseball game was definitely the highlight, but there were plenty of other memorable moments, too.  Particularly, I enjoyed seeing Georges Seurat’s Un dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte at the Art Institute of Chicago (Seurat is one of my favorite artists, and I had been wanting to see his masterpiece in person for years), Millenium Park and Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate sculpture (I posted two Kapoor pictures here. lol), eating at the Billy Goat Tavern, and visiting Soldier Field (unlike everyone else on earth, I really liked the renovation).

And, contrary to popular belief, Milwaukee was absolutely worthwhile as a day-trip on Amtrak.

I took some nice pictures, some of which I’m posting here.

I had originally typed descriptions for all of these pictures.  Unfortunately, they didn’t save properly, and I’m in no mood to re-type all of them now.  So, most of those pictures don’t currently have descriptions.  If you have any questions or comments about them, though, feel free to leave a comment below, and I’ll reply.

And, yes, I wore my Futures at Fenway cap to “Road to Wrigley.”  I am indeed a huge minor league geek. 

Before writing my full recap of my trip to Chicago and Milwaukee, I should probably explain why I went to begin with.

Most people who know me know that I have been boycotting Major League Baseball since 1994.
Of course, this sometimes presents a challenge, considering that my favorite hobby is visiting sports stadiums.  So, when a minor league baseball teams plays at a historic major league stadium, like last week at Wrigley Field, it piques my interest.  After all, it may be my only chance to ever see a game there.  That’s why I went to Chicago.

But why am I boycotting MLB?
I thought I had given this little lecture to everyone I know, but apparently, I haven’t.  People ask me about this all the time, and honestly, I’m surprised that I haven’t blogged about it before now.

I am boycotting Major League Baseball because of something I like to call “The 5 ‘S’es.”

1. Strike.

   Not only did baseball go on strike, but they canceled the World Series.  I mostly blame the owners (I never understood why sports need salary caps.  If teams can’t be disciplined in their finances, a “balanced budget amendment” would make far more sense), but the players could have done more, too.  Instead, neither party was willing to be the bigger person.  They canceled a great year of baseball, robbed me of a World Series, and began the Montreal/Washington fiasco that continues today.

2. Scheduling.

   The introduction of inter-league play introduced an unbalanced schedule to baseball.
   See, in football, it is only natural that some teams have “strong schedules,” while others play “weak schedules.”  When football teams only play 16 games a year, every team simply cannot play each other.  As a result, some teams get easier opponents than other teams.  It’s a necessary evil.  Baseball, on the other hand, plays 162 games per year.  With this large of a schedule, it should be relatively easy to balance out the schedule so that each team plays every other team the same number of times.  This would put each team on an even playing field, and the standings at the end of the season would mean something.  But after the strike, Major League Baseball introduced the publicity stunt of inter-league play.  Suddenly, some teams found life easier than other teams.  Then, in a further cash-grabbing ploy, MLB moved to increase the number of games against teams in the same time zone.
   The end result?  An uneven playing field and a meaningless standings table.

3. Stadiums.

   

   Old and New Comiskey Park, Chicago. The old stadium, on the left, could hold 11 thousand more people than the newer stadium, on the right--everyone sat much closer to the action and paid less for the privilege. Additionally, the old stadium was privately owned, while the new stadium was built with public funding.

   Despite my love for sports stadiums, the way that Major League Baseball has extorted stadiums from the taxpayers over the past few years has been ridiculous.  Owners have threatened to dissolve, move, or indeed have moved their teams, if the city would not build them a new stadium.  In the old days, if a multi-millionaire wanted a new stadium for his team, he built it.  Now, not only do the taxpayers build it for him, but he also gets a sweetheart deal for low rent.  Or, if you are the owner of the Washington Nationals, you ignore your rent payments and, instead, charge the city for the service of playing in the stadium that they built for you.
   Even though the public built these stadiums, the average fan still gets stuck paying sky-high ticket prices for seats far away from the action.
   (Baseball’s anti-trust exemption complicates the stadium issue, but it doesn’t seem to help it.)

4. Steroids.

   This is self-explanatory.  Two of baseball’s biggest headline-grabbers of the post-strike era (the single-season and all-time home-run records) were fueled by steroids.  The powers that be simply chose to ignore this.  Why should I support an organization that has no regard for its own integrity?

5. Salaries.

   Major League Baseball is hardly unique in paying its stars outrageous salaries.  But even if it is just following the trend in modern major professional sports, this still doesn’t help its case.  I really don’t want to contribute to the problem of spiraling salaries.

Also, there’s one other factor that doesn’t begin with the letter ‘s’: I have simply grown to like minor league baseball more.

So, those are the reasons for my boycott, in order from most important to least important.
I don’t go to games, I don’t watch games on TV, and I don’t buy merchandise.  I don’t follow MLB at all.  Aside from attending the All-Star FanFest in 1996 and a pin I bought for my mom in 2001 (both of which I regret), my boycott has held for 14 years now.

What would it take to get me back to the Majors?
All five of my grievances would need to be fixed.  Since the strike happened and cannot be taken back, I’d accept a personal, written letter of apology from both MLB and the MLB Players’ Association, along with some free tickets (good seats) to show that they meant it.  Short of this, I’d consider going back to MLB after the retirement of the last person who was involved in Major League Baseball in any capacity at the time of the strike.  Of course, grievances 2 through 5 would also need to be addressed first.  Since this doesn’t appear to be happening, it’s likely that I’ll never attend another Major League game.

Yes, I’m aware that the Chicago Cubs probably got a cut of the money I spent on my ticket and food at Wrigley.  And yes, other some Major League teams may also get a cut when when I go to various minor league games.  And no, I don’t boycott MLB’s advertisers (that would just be too much work).  So, I’m aware that my boycott is incomplete and mostly symbolic.  But even still, I think there’s value in that.  And there is definitely value in the hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars I have withheld from MLB by not buying tickets for 14 years.

So, there you have it.  That’s why I haven’t been to a MLB game since 1994, and that’s why I don’t intend to go back anytime soon.

I’m watching the Euro 2008 final on TV.

Why is it that ABC/ESPN is abbreviating “Spain” as “ESP,” but abbreviating Germany as “GER”?

It seems to me like they should pick a standard and stick to it–either abbreviate both in their native languages, or abbreviate both in English.

“GER vs SPA” or “DEU vs ESP.”

But then again, NBC referred to the host city of the last Winter Olympics as “Torino,” instead of using the English city name, “Turin.” This, even though they referred to the host city of the previous Summer Games using the English name, “Athens,” instead of the the Greek “Athina.”

I don’t mean to be pedantic, but I get annoyed when professional media doesn’t have a consistent style.  It’s a pet peeve.

Since I’m talking about international sports tournaments, I might as well point out here that I think the new Youth Olympic Games are a terrible idea.  But that could be a post in its own right.

I’m a little late in writing about this, but last Sunday my mom watched my grandmom while I went up to North Jersey to watch the international friendly between the national soccer teams of the USA and Argentina.

It was the second part of my weekend of sports day trips, and I had a great time!

Soccer and Me

Since this is (I think) my first blog post dealing with soccer, and since I never really mentioned the sport until a couple of years ago, I thought I might as well write a little bit about my semi-newfound interest in the game.

I never played or watched soccer growing up. I never had any interest in it whatsoever, and, like a lot of fans of traditional American sports, I even looked down on soccer as being too slow and boring.

But when I was doing my internship in France back in 2004, one of my friends suggested going to a Ligue 1 game. I went (RC Strasbourg vs Auxerre), and I actually enjoyed it. I wouldn’t say I was hooked, but I went to another Strasbourg game during my four months in France, as well as the 2004 SwissCom Cup final in Basel. (In hindsight, I’m kicking myself for not going to a Bundesliga game when I had the opportunity.) It wasn’t such a bad game after all!

I moved to Washington, DC, later in 2004, and I had heard that the Supporters’ Clubs for MLS’ DC United brought an enthusiasm to the games similar to that of some of the European ice hockey fan clubs. So, I started to going to DC United games and sitting with the Screaming Eagles and later the Barra-Brava. The enthusiasm of the fans in these clubs is contagious, and it didn’t take me very long to become a rabid DC United fan and, shortly thereafter, a somewhat serious soccer fan. I even started reading soccer books!

Ironically, after moving away from DC at the end of 2006, my love for DC United only grew. 2007 was an extremely difficult year in my life, and watching DC United games on TV and online was my way of staying connected to the city that I loved even after I had to move away.

So, I have only been watching soccer for about four years, and I have only been watching soccer seriously for about two. This was my second US Mens’ National Team game (I previously saw the World Cup Qualifier versus Panama in DC in 2004), and my first trip to Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ.

Giants Stadium

Adding Giants Stadium to my list of stadia where I’ve attended games was a small part of the reason I decided to go. However, there’s really not much to say about the place.

I had driven by Giants Stadium a handful of times before, and I still maintain that, from the outside, it is an interesting-looking stadium.

Inside, it’s your typical mid-70s concrete giant. It’s utilitarian, and I suppose a little spartan compared to the newer NFL stadiums, but it’s not really the horror that I had heard. The concourses are cramped, and there isn’t as much luxury seating as in newer stadiums. But the seats were comfortable, and the view from my seat was good. I didn’t move around the stadium to take in different viewpoints like I normally do when I visit a new sports venue, but it looked like everyone had a good view of the soccer field. (Sorry, I just don’t like saying “pitch” or “football.”)

One of the main gripes about Giants Stadium is its location, and this was indeed a problem. I drove up from Southern NJ; you pretty much have to drive to Giants Stadium, which is a shame considering that it is within sight of the New York City skyline, and many people from NYC would gladly take mass transit if it were more readily available. I didn’t have much of a problem going in, but coming out was a different story. Because of all the congestion, it took me an hour and 45 minutes for me to go the quarter mile or so from my seat to the New Jersey Turnpike!

The stadium was packed with close to 79,000 fans for this game. The fans brought a lot of excitement, so maybe that reflected positively on the stadium itself. With a smaller crowd, like what Red Bull New York draws, I’m sure Giants Stadium is a dead place.

The Game

The US-Argentina match was officially an “international friendly.” Essentially, this is an exhibition game; this wasn’t part of a tournament, and nothing was really on the line. But international soccer friendlies mean more than, say, a Spring Training baseball game or a hockey all-star game. For one thing, FIFA counts friendly matches in calculating world rankings, and the US could certainly stand to move up in the standings (at #21, I think we’re underrated pretty severely). Similarly, friendly matches count in players’ career statistics in just the same way the a World Cup final would.

Secondly, national soccer teams don’t have all that many opportunities to play together. With World Cup Qualifiers coming up, games like these are important in building team chemistry. And finally, with 79,000 fans on hand (maybe half American, half Argentinian), neither team wanted to disappoint. The fans also weren’t expecting to be disappointed, and I heard a handful of people say that the game had a “World Cup atmosphere” in the stands.

Both teams played more-or-less their full squads. I was disappointed that Altidore was left off the US team (still recovering from a slight injury), and I had been hoping to see Riquelme and Tevez play for Argentina. But otherwise, the big names played. It was a thrill to see Lionel Messi play the first half for Argentina, and it was nice to see Landon Donovan earn his 100th cap for the US.

I sat in section 101, the main US supporters section.

I bought my ticket from the American Outlaws, but it was a general admission, standing section that was mostly dominated by Sam’s Army, the main US supporters’ club. Despite the heat (high 90s F) and humidity, the fan clubs were loud. I thought it was too hot, so I left my scarf and fuzzy hat in the car, but lots of people sweated it out with theirs. We weren’t perfect, but we stood and sang for the whole game. Once it started to rain with about 15 minutes left, we took it up a notch and really rocked the place.

Here’s a YouTube video of the atmosphere in my section:

I wish I could find a video of us after it started raining, when it really got loud!

Tim Howard stood on his head in goal for the US, but we just couldn’t finish our chances.
The game ended in a 0-0 tie. (I can hear the anti-soccer crowd groan about the result.) I joked to a couple of friends that, “it’s almost like the game never happened.” I was mostly kidding, though. Argentina is ranked #1 in the world, and the US is ranked 21st. Considering that, it was somewhat of a moral victory. Plus, I really enjoyed myself. Even with no result, I’m glad I went. And, I’m glad that I had a busy weekend for once!

Link du jour: ESPN’s game recap.

I actually had a pretty big weekend for once. Yesterday, I went to Giants Stadium for the international friendly between the US and the Argentine national soccer teams. I’ll have a separate post about that later.
This post is about Saturday, when my dad and I went to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to watch Game 5 of the Calder Cup Finals between the AHL’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and the Chicago Wolves.

It was a little bit odd to look at the thermometer on my dad’s car and see a reading of 100 degrees F while heading to an ice hockey game, but we made the trip nonetheless. Wilkes-Barre was cooler than South Jersey, but it still didn’t feel like hockey weather. I’ve always thought the North American hockey season runs too late, but that’s a topic for another day.

ANYWAY!

This was my first visit to the Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza (formerly the First Union Arena) in Wilkes-Barre. I had heard some bad things about this particular arena. While it wasn’t perfect, I really liked the place.

The Wachovia Arena is nine years old, and for the first few years, it was almost impossible to get hockey tickets there.

Characteristically for minor league sports, playoff tickets are easier to obtain in Wilkes-Barre, but they still drew a good crowd.

The building itself was interesting. It’s not fancy like the new AHL arena in Hershey, but it’s not nearly as drab as I had feared.

It’s mostly a concrete building, but it doesn’t feel unfinished or anything like that. And it’s unique enough that it’s interesting despite its utilitarian design.

One thing I found interesting was the ends of the arena were different from each other. One end is rounded, with permanent seats; the other flat, with temporary seating. For concerts, these seats would be removed.

I think these pictures make the arena look bigger than it is.

The arena seats 8300 fans for hockey, but it’s still pretty intimate. All of the seats are close to the action, and the upper-level seats are pretty steep. Fitting that many fans into such a small space makes for a great atmosphere. This is definitely one of the loudest and most intimidating minor league hockey rinks I’ve visited. The fans were great. (And no one gave me any trouble about my Hershey Bears shirt.)

One common complaint about the Wachovia Arena is that the concourse is cramped. That was definitely true, even though this game was not a sell-out.

There was actually enough room to circulate through the building behind the last row of seats without entering the actual concourse, so that does help things a little bit. But, like I said, the concourse was cramped.

The concessions were pretty good. Northeast Pennsylvania is known for Eastern European food (or so I’ve read), and one stand was serving pierogies and potato pancakes. I also saw some local beers on tap.

I had the fried pierogies (with butter and onions), which I think were only $3.50, and they were very good.

In the AHL, I’m a Hershey Bears fan, so this game didn’t really mean much to me. But I was kind of pulling for Chicago to win. It would have been cool to see a Cup presentation. And Dennis Bonvie, who is something of a minor league hockey legend, is retiring after this season. It would be cool to say that I saw his last game.

Chicago was definitely the favorite to win, but Wilkes-Barre won, 5-1. (It looked to me like they were helped out by a few off-sides plays that weren’t whistled dead.)

Wilkes-Barre survived to take the series back to Chicago, down 3 games to 2.

After the final home game of his career, Bonvie saluted the crowd.

My current hockey city and league tally

Since I’m not going to Chicago this week, this trip ended the 2007-08 hockey season for Gary.

This was a pretty good year for me; I saw hockey in six different cities–four for the first time.

I have now seen hockey games in the following places (the links are to my posts on them):

NHL: Philadelphia, Ottawa, Washington, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Anaheim, NY Islanders
AHL: Hershey x2, Philadelphia x2, Syracuse, Binghamton, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
ECHL: Trenton, Atlantic City, Reading
SPHL: Richmond
OHL: Toronto
QMJHL: Drummondville (1/3 of a pre-season game only; I had a bad experience)
NCAA Div. 1: ECAC: Princeton
ACHA Div. 3: Shippensburg in Hershey
France Super 16: Mulhouse
France Ligue 1: Strasbourg
Switzerland LNA: Basel, Fribourg, Lugano
Germany DEL: Freiburg
IIHF: World Championship in Ostrava, Czech Rep.

I attended an Arena Football 2 game at the Norfolk Scope, which is also an AHL hockey arena.

I have also seen the hockey arenas in the following cities, but not attended games there: Bridgeport, Providence, Albany, Rochester, Indianapolis, San Diego, Elmira, Ambri-Piotta, Boston, New York MSG, Montréal, and Toronto x2.

On the agenda for next year is the new arena in Newark, NJ, and Madison Square Garden.  Other than that, it’s hard to predict which cities I will visit, because I’ve already seen most of the nearby arenas.

I just found the “Total Sports Fan” application on Facebook. It’s pretty cool. Since I support an awful lot of sports teams, I was impressed by how many teams it lets you select as your favorites–it even includes lots of really obscure teams! (I only had to add about four of these to the database.)

In case you were curious, here are my favorite teams, more-or-less in order:

Favorite Teams:

Syracuse Orange

USA

USA

HC Fribourg Gotteron

Hershey Bears

DC United

Philadelphia Eagles

Bangalore Royal Challengers

Princeton Tigers

Washington Capitals

Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles De Caliente

West Indies

Wilmington Blue Rocks

Trenton Thunder

New York

Etoile Noir de Strasbourg

Camden Riversharks

Potros de Tijuana

Atlantic City Surf

RC Strasbourg

Richmond Renegades

Queens Park Rangers

Philadelphia Soul

Philadelphia Wings

Philadelphia Kixx

Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts

Scorpions de Mulhouse

Philadelphia Force

Freiburg Wolfe

South Carolina Stingrays

SIG Strasbourg

SC Schiltigheim

Coast Guard Bears

Note: Whenever I visit a new sports stadium or arena, I like to post some of my thoughts and pictures about it soon after my visit. Believe it or not, there are a lot of “stadium geeks” online, and these posts are pretty popular. Unfortunately, I’ve been lazy for a few months, and I’m only just now getting around to writing this post about my trip to watch the SPHL’s Richmond Renegades play in VA’s Richmond Coliseum. Since it has been a while, my memory isn’t as fresh as I’d like it to be. But hopefully my thoughts are worthwhile anyway.

By February 7th, my grandmom was out of the woods with her heart, and she was resting comfortably in a rehabilitation home.

So, knowing that she was well cared for, I decided not to come back from DC after work on Thursday night. Instead, I hung around DC and met up with my friend, Kevork, on Friday afternoon to make the two-hour trip south to Richmond, Virginia, to take in a minor league hockey game. While there, we tried to see a few of the sights around town.

Kevork, being from Montréal, is a big hockey fan, but he had never seen a minor league game.

I love minor league hockey, but I had never seen a game in Richmond. In fact, it is one of the few semi-nearby cities in which I had never attended a game. Mostly, I wanted to see the arena (you probably know that traveling to visit new sports stadiums is my passion). But I had also never seen an SPHL game before (or any minor pro game below the ECHL level, for that matter), and I was curious about what hockey was like in the “low minors.”

I had wanted to see a game in Richmond for several years, and this seemed like a great opportunity.

The Trip Down

We met up early Friday afternoon and made the trip south on I-95. We stopped at a Waffle House along the way, which gave it a real road-trip feel. There was some traffic, but nothing terrible. As someone from the Philadelphia area, I was surprised to pass a Wawa so far south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but other than that, the trip was uneventful.

When we got to Richmond, we found our way around the city with no problem.

Richmond

I had been through the city of Richmond as a small child on my way to visit relatives in North Carolina, but I remembered almost nothing about it (aside from the fact that you can see the baseball stadium from the highway–what can I say, I guess I’ve always liked stadiums!). So, this was almost like a first visit.

I was only there for a few hours, so I’m certainly no expert, but the city itself reminded me a lot of Syracuse and some other medium-sized cities that I’ve visited for minor league sports. I liked it; it had a nice mix of small town and city, and it just felt like a comfortable place. (Although, I have to admit, having spent so much time in DC may have spoiled me. I used to think that a medium-sized city like this would be the perfect place for me to live; now, I’m thinking I might get bored there.)

Nevertheless, I liked the feel of the place.

We didn’t have much time, so we didn’t put too much on our agenda besides the game. But I like history, so I made a point to visit the Museum of the Confederacy and the Confederate White House.

I enjoyed the Museum of the Confederacy (even though I think I look kind of creepy in that picture), but it was considerably smaller than I expected. We only had about an hour there, and this was almost enough time. I was expecting a massive museum, almost an authoritative Mecca-like shrine to the Confederacy. This wasn’t it. In fact, this reminded of another Civil War museum I visited in Gettysburg. So, while it wasn’t extremely unique, it was a good museum nonetheless. I didn’t have time to nit-pick every little display, but it seemed to do a good job of portraying a neutral, objective account of the Civil War.

I was a little bit nervous walking in, because I was wondering if I’d run into a bunch of neo-seccesionists, ultra-right wingers, and/or klansmen. I have to admit that everyone in the museum was white and Southern, but I felt completely comfortable there, as did Kevork, who is a non-citizen. I don’t think anyone needs to feel nervous about visiting this place. In fact, I recommend it. The museum was good, and the staff was nice; the guy even came back after closing to validate our parking!

The Confederate White House was closed for repairs, but maybe that was for the best; we really wouldn’t have had much time there, anyway. Fortunately, we were able to see it from the street. I was shocked by how banal and unimposing it was.

Here’s Kevork in front of the Confederate White House.

After rushing through the museum, we moved the car to the arena, which was also easy to find. In fact, we probably could have walked, although we didn’t realize how close we were.

We parked and, while walking to the arena, Kevork thought this was a good spot to stop to have a cigarette.

The Richmond Coliseum

The Richmond Coliseum is pretty easy to spot: it’s the big flying saucer sitting in the middle of downtown. We found it easily, and had no trouble finding a place to park nearby.

Right after we parked, I noticed that the guy coming out of the car right next to us was wearing a Trenton Devils hat. I asked if he was from New Jersey. I think he thought I was weird, until I explained that I was from NJ, about 45 minutes south of Trenton. He seemed surprised to hear that I came to Richmond just for a hockey game. Turns out, his son was playing for the visiting team, and he used to play for Trenton.

The gates hadn’t opened yet, so we walked around, hoping to find a way to kill the hour or so that we had to. There didn’t seem to be a whole lot to do before the game in the immediate vicinity of the Coliseum, but eventually we found a small food court a block or so away. The architecture of the building was beautiful, but it was just an ordinary food court. But it seems like this was the place to go before the games; there were about two dozen hockey fans there (including the guy in the Trenton Devils hat) eating and drinking cheap beer.

From there, we headed over to the arena.

The arena immediately reminded me of the Norfolk SCOPE, where I saw an af2 arena football game in the summer of 2000 (of course, I only saw one game there, and it was a long time ago, so I’m not sure how good this comparison actually is.) It also reminded me vaguely of the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh.

Even though the arena reminded me of a couple of others, I found the place to be more unique than most arenas.

The futuristic exterior contrasted with the interior brick concourses, which I thought gave it a collegiate feel. (Appropriate, because Richmond is a college town, and the Coliseum hosts its share of NCAA basketball.)

The layout of the seating bowl was also a little unusual.

The building is circular, not a “barn,” and is covered by a large domed ceiling.

There are three levels of seating on the ends, but only two levels along the length of the ice.  The second level tapers up towards center ice.

I walked around the place for a little while, just taking it in.  Concessions were average (I had chicken fingers), but the team had a nice selection of merchandise (I bought a program and a scarf).  The seats were comfortable, inexpensive, and offered good sight-lines.

Hockey Game

Kevork was worried about making the trip without having tickets ahead of time, but I assured him that it wouldn’t be a problem; the Richmond Renegades never sell out.

I was right; we had absolutely no problem getting tickets at all, but I was a little bit surprised by a few things.  There were 4081 fans at the game–quite a bit more than I expected.  The fans were also more passionate than I expected.  It was a little odd, but cool, to see people cheering on a team in a Southern accent; I’m glad hockey winning fans in non-traditional markets in the south.

I was also surprised by the game presentation.  Hockey in the low-minors is traditionally unstable: teams move from year to year, management comes up with unrealistic business plans, and teams are shoddily run.  That was not the case in Richmond.  Everything felt professionally-run, and the ownership seems competent.

In fact, everything about this game felt like the AHL.  The city, the arena, the game presentation, all felt like they belonged in the high minors.  Of course, Richmond is still a non-traditional hockey city, so an AHL club might not be viable.  But it seemed to me like fan support is the only thing keeping Richmond from moving up the hockey pyramid.

The quality of play was enjoyable, and also a little better than I expected.

In the end, the Renegades lost to the Huntsville Havoc 4-2.  I was cheering on the home team, but I had a great time anyway.

Recap

After leaving the game, Kevork and I both kind of wished we had booked a hotel so we could have explored Richmond’s nightlife. But we hadn’t, and I was trying to catch an early bus back to Philly the next morning, so we headed back to the DC area. The ride home went fine, and we were both glad that we made the trip.

We got back safely and, fittingly, watched Bon Cop, Bad Cop before turning in for the night. (Three stars out of five for the movie; definitely worth seeing if you’re a hockey fan and/or if you have any interest in linguistic divisions in Canada.)

Overall, there’s certainly no need to rush back, but Richmond was unique and definitely worthwhile. I enjoyed the game, the arena, and the fans tremendously I was impressed all the way around.

My current hockey city and league tally

I have now seen hockey games in the following places (the links are to my comments on them):

NHL: Philadelphia, Ottawa, Washington, New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Anaheim, NY Islanders
AHL: Hershey x2, Philadelphia x2, Syracuse, Binghamton
ECHL: Trenton, Atlantic City, Reading
SPHL: Richmond
OHL: Toronto
QMJHL: Drummondville (1/3 of a pre-season game only; I had a bad experience)
NCAA Div. 1: ECAC: Princeton
ACHA Div. 3: Shippensburgh in Hershey
France Super 16: Mulhouse
France Ligue 1: Strasbourg
Switzerland LNA: Basel, Fribourg, Lugano
Germany DEL: Freiburg
IIHF: World Championship in Ostrava, Czech Rep.

I have also seen a dozen or so other hockey arenas, but not attended games there.

If you’ve been checking out my website over the past month or so, you might have noticed two things:

1. I’ve been lazy about updating recently.
2. This site is lacking in color.

So, I thought I’d try to kill two birds with one stone!

Believe it or not, I have been getting out of the house a little bit to do things other than watch my grandmom.  So, I thought I’d do a quick little photo-blog to recap some of the fun things I’ve done over the past month or so.

(Scroll down; I promise it’s not all hockey/arena pictures!)

Reading Royals hockey

On November 4, I borrowed my mom’s car and drove out to Reading, PA, to watch a Reading Royals ECHL hockey game.  Ok, ok…I watched the game (a pretty good game by ECHL standards), but my main reason for going was to see the arena.

The Sovereign Center is easy to find in a nice part of downtown Reading.  From the outside, it reminds me a bit of the arena in Elmira, New York.  The interior feels like a modern version of Broome County Veterans Memorial Arena in Binghamton. 

All-in-all, it’s a nice building for ECHL hockey and other small events.  But it’s nothing terribly special, and I don’t think it will age gracefully.  Hopefully, I’ll be wrong.

Regardless, I had a pleasant experience, and I’m sure I’ll make it back at some point.  Everything is reasonably priced, and it’s only about 90 minutes away from me, so there’s no reason not to make a return trip.

New York Islanders hockey

Just six days later, on Nov. 10, my brother and I made the drive to the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island, home of the NHL’s New York Islanders.

This place is a little old and a little grungy, but it has character, and I LOVED it!

The Coliseum is now the third-oldest NHL arena, which accounts for much of its charm.  Most of the new buildings seem so similar to each other; it’s nice to see something a little unique.

The Coliseum reminds me a lot of the old Spectrum in Philadelphia, and a little bit of the Mellon Arena in Pittsburgh.  The layout of the seating bowl even reminds me a bit of a larger HersheyPark Arena.

It’s not luxurious by any means; the seats are a tiny bit cramped, and the concourse is very cramped.  But it has character, good sight-lines, and affordable prices.  I’m glad this place still exists in today’s NHL.

Visiting the Dans at Thanksgiving

It’s odd.
I now live less than a mile from where I was born, and about 4 miles from my old schools.  Yet, I don’t know all that many people around here anymore–most of my good friends have moved away. 

Even though family stuff didn’t go exactly as I’d have hoped, Thanksgiving was a nice treat, because my good friend Dan, along with his girlfriend, EMILY, came out to visit from San Diego. 

We spent a fun night hanging out with them at (another) Dan’s house.  It was a good time.

We capped the night with a trip to Wawa, where this picture was taken so they could remember their trip to the right coast.

Gotta have my Wawa.

New York City

Thanksgiving is great, because it brings people back into town. 

The Monday afterwards, I met up with Dustin and his wife, Jess (both in town from Atlanta), along with their friend, Ali, and we drove up to New York City. 

It was a nice time, featuring delicious cupcakes!

Comcast High-Speed Internet

No picture for this one, but I finally broke down and ordered my own high-speed cable internet.  I anticipated this being a chore to get set up, but it wasn’t.  Comcast’s self-install kit was a breeze, and I was up and online within about 15 minutes of opening the box–I didn’t have to call tech support or anything.  Setting up the WPA was also surprisingly easy.  So, after a year here, I finally have fast, reliable, and secure wireless Internet on both of my computers!  (And I got $100 off of an mp3 player for signing up!)

Baby Hayley!

Saturday, I got to hold a baby!

Before going to the hospital, I half-jokingly pointed out to my mom that I have more experience with foreign dignitaries than I do with babies.  So, for the first minute or so of holding her, I was a little nervous.  But I got pretty comfortable very quickly, so everything went fine.  I didn’t drop her and break her!   In fact, she slept soundly almost the entire time.

Nana

Not much new to report on here.  She has been getting very depressed for about an hour a night for the past week or so, and we had a tiny bit of a scare with her heart yesterday.  But overall, she’s about the same.  Not much new to report.

Work

And, as I mentioned in my last post, I am now working again–two days per week in Washington, DC.  It’s going well.  After a year of my life that has been turbulent for many reasons, it feels great to be back in the familiar confines of my old office, surrounded by familiar faces.  Despite the problems my office has (and there are many), it still feels really comforting to be back.  Not to mention the fact that being productive feels good, too.

I don’t have any pictures of my return to work yet, but I’m sure I will eventually.  Especially once my movie premiers: my colleagues have decided that I should play the title role in their Lollywood remake of a television classic.  They’re going to call it, “Chaudhry’s Angels.”
(That’s a joke.)

And I’ve been trying to do a little work around the house, too.  Yesterday, I installed a new insulation blanket on the hot water heater.  Today’s job was renting a carpet shampooing machine.  It worked well!  No pictures of that, unfortunately; hopefully the other pictures I just posted will suffice.  And hopefully I’ll break out of this lethargy and start posting more often!