Last January, I started regularly attending Omaha Lancer games and getting more into USHL hockey than I had been in the past. This evolved into curiosity on how Omaha stands up to other USHL clubs in their division. So my buddies and I started planning on making an effort (within reason) to visit opposing arenas in our division. There will be USHL teams I do not believe I will be able to reach, mostly Eastern division teams, but it will serve as a neat comparison of life in DI vs. life pre-college.
This past weekend I visited two new arenas: Buccaneer Arena in Des Moines, IA and the Cedar Rapids Ice Arena in Cedar Rapids, IA. I intend to publish articles reviewing the visiting fan experience in these two arenas, plus the Icebox Arena in Lincoln, NE, the Tyson Center in Sioux City, IA, the ice arena in Kearney, NE and hopefully Scheels Arena in Fargo and the new arena in Sioux Falls, SD this season.
Sunday's Review: Buccaneer Arena in Des Moines, IA
The exterior of this arena is basically a harbinger of the interior. It looks run down and obsolete on the outside and manages to look even older and more obsolete on the inside. There were many different architectural structures blended together for this building. For example, the interior wall setup is a lot like a deluxe bowling alley (in fact, go to the Bowler in Fargo and you'll have a good feel). The arena itself seems shoehorned into the facility, which suggests to me that the building was inadequate from initial construction.
Inside you see old wooden bench-style seating. There are "suites" or something to that effect upstairs that featured glassed in restaurant style seating. In fact, it's a lot like the type of seating and setup you'd find in a bowling alley's bar and lounge... complete with arcade games.
Ok, ok, I'm being VERY harsh on this arena, but it is what it is. Truth is: Des Moines is too large for an arena like this to still exist beyond that of a place kids can go to learn how to skate or, worst case, the local high school can use for its hockey club. The Buccaneer program is a VERY good program and deserves FAR better, but alas....
If you have a bad back or issues with severely uncomfortable seats, you'll hate this arena.
Facility Grade: D-
Enough facility stuff... how was the ice?
Actually, the ice seemed to be pretty good. The boards were rather tricky, though. I like that, though. Part of the challenge a road team has going in is the arena itself. The road team should really be in a hostile environment (non-violently speaking).
Ice and Boards Grade: B+
Home Fans
The announced attendance for the game I witnessed, a 4-0 Des Moines victory over Omaha,
was 1,700. I think they count sold tickets, because I severely doubt more than 750 people were in that arena. The home fans were passionate and got into the game...as long as they were scoring. Since that's all Des Moines did that game, I did not get to see what the flip side of the fan base looked like.
I wasn't really treated poorly despite the fact I'm loud and rather gregarious when I get into the game. In some ways, this is disappointing. Part of the fun of visiting arenas is the light hearted banter between fanbases. Perhaps the fact that, of the 750 in attendance, maybe 12 of them were Omaha fans (no, I'm not exaggerating here. It gets worse... just wait until the next review). factored into it, but I was left alone. The two guys behind us, though, were razzed quite a bit though.
The Cowbell/Vuvuzela Factor: This is a huge factor in the USHL. I'm not sure how much cowbells and vuvuzelas appear in college or higher levels of hockey, but it's something I do not believe makes an atmosphere any better. In the case of vuvuzelas, I think they downright destroy atmospheres at sporting events not called "Soccer games in South Africa." In Des Moines, this was a non-factor. There was one vuvuzela in the arena and he only blew it when the Buccaneers were entering the arena, exiting the arena, and after they scored. Newsflash: That's how it should be. End Rant.
Fan Score: C
Food/Drink:
I'm a Coke fanatic, so the fact they served Coke here is a HUGE plus. They join only Sioux City thus far as being the only arenas to offer Coke products to their visitors. Not a make or break deal, but it does matter to me. Also, they served their soda in 20 oz. bottles. I LIKE this.
Food here constituted the typical arena fare plus Dominos pizza. All of the food was horrendously over priced (like all arenas). They also had brats, which I was told, were good. The hamburger I had was absolutely terrible. I've only had two arena burgers in my life I couldn't stomach enough to finish off. This one and the TD Ameritrade Park burger I had at the outdoor game. Couldn't even save it by drowning it in ketchup. The pizza was fine.
Food/Drink Score: C- (would've been higher but the hamburger was simply awful)
PA/Intermission stuff: The Intermission entertainment featured a chuck a puck and an air guitar competition. Yeah. Air Guitar. Yes, it was as awful as you think. Still, it was unique among all the arenas I've been to.
The Chuck A Puck was rather lame and noncompetitive with one bit of an eyebrow raiser. It is a typical chuck a puck with local businesses donating some stuff to the arena for giveaways, but instead of requiring the winner's puck to land on the target, they'll take the nearest puck to the target as the winner... so no prizes were left unclaimed. Which brings me to the eyebrow raiser: My buddy played and won 3 prizes. We weren't from Des Moines and would have taken delight in giving away the prizes if we knew what they were. Only, the prize lady conveniently changed two of the three numbers when she discovered we'd won 3 times. This left us feeling like we'd been jobbed. We got the fact that it isn't that much fun to give prizes to the opposing team's fans, but:
1. We won
2. We spent money on YOUR team to get the honor to do so.
The prizes cost the team nothing, so why do this to us?
On a more humorous note: They tried to have cheerleaders at this event, but they couldn't skate. That's no big deal honestly, but the fact is they had those poor high schoolers dancing right up against the boards... and most of those girls weren't tall enough to have anything more than their heads visible above the boards if they stood up straight. So, when they did their routines with ducks and weaves and whatnot, their heads looked like they were bobbing up and down below the boards. It gave quite a visual to behold. Poor girls.
Entertainment grade: C
The PA guy was rubbish. Look, there's very little the PA guy has to do to make me happy: Know the player's names and numbers, and keep talking while the puck is in play to a minimum is basically it. The PA guy couldn't be bothered to learn the Lancers' players names. He pronounced them all wrong and they weren't even that challenging (especially considering all the Eastern European players Des Moines has on their team). Palynychev is easy to prounce. So is Zajc. But Angello or Bigelbach? Nope. Too hard.
PA Grade: D-
Overall Experience Grade: C
The biggest thing Des Moines could do to improve this team (which is currently undefeated and VERY good), is to build these guys a real arena. Nothing too fancy, just... not obsolete. Style? See Cedar Rapids Ice Arena.
