Once again, I drive (alone) to Bridgeport to attend the home opener of the
Sound Tigers. One motivating factor is that this is only opportunity to obtain the seasonal magnetic schedule.
As usual, I park on the street a block or two from the arena and purchase a ticket in my favorite cheap seat section at the net near the glass in Section 100. Actually, there are a few rows of expensive seats in front of me.
Much to my chagrin (to put it mildly) there has been a snafu and no schedule magnets are distributed tonight. Instead, they give out paper vouchers that enable you to pick up the magnet at a future game. What a racket! Twisting management incompetence into a marketing opportunity and fan ripoff. Ooooh, professional sports....
And so I settle in to watch warmups before the start of the game. This is how I started sitting in this section: sitting directly behind the net and watching the Tigers pound the puck at the net.
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| Watching warmups from my seat. |
One of the advantages of sitting this close to the ice is the closeup view when the action is at this end of the ice.
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| The guy at bottom left (w/glasses) is the official scorer for this side of the ice. |
The downside of sitting at the end of the ice is that it is hard to see the action when the play is at the other side of the ice.
At the start of the 3rd period, I moved up to mid-ice at the top of the rink. These seats are considerably more expensive even though they are far from the ice. However, the view is more uniform (almost like watching on TV).
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| My seat at the start of the game would be to the right edge of this picture. |
Although early in the 3rd period, the Tigers were ahead 2-0, it turned out to be a tense game. The Bruins scored with less than 2 minutes to go which made for a very exciting last minute. Fortunately, the Tigers prevailed and won
2-1.
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| Sound Tigers win 2016-17 Home Opener vs Providence Bruins: 2-1. |
So, it turned out to be a happy game. I like this arena so much better than the one in Hartford. It just seems brighter. However, I don't know anyone here and I have to drive a while to get home while most of the fans here live a few minutes away. Still, I have many fond memories here...which is one reason why I keep returning periodically.
Postscript: I called the Sound Tigers later as per the voucher (see above) to request my schedule. A few days later, an envelope arrived in the mail with two (2!) magnet schedules-so I sent one to my son. Perhaps he'll put it on the fridge with the others and remember the good times.
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| 2016--2016 Magnetic Schedule for Sound Tigers. |
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Links:
http://www.soundtigers.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_resurfacer
https://lscluster.hockeytech.com/game_reports/official-game-report.php?client_code=ahl&game_id=1015917
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Written Sunday 1 January 2017
