By Dylan McDonough
One of my favorite winter sports to watch is ice hockey. This season my family went to the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids to watch the Grand Rapids Griffins ice hockey team play against the Manitoba Moose. Before the game, we took a private tour through the arena with some other fellow Koinonia Homeschool Co-op members.
John Hoffa was our guide. He has worked at the Van Andel Arena for 14 years and was a very knowledgeable guide. After introductions, he first led us to the Press Row. This is a special area high above the seats and ice rink for reporters and scouts from the Detroit Red Wings. Press Row is very high up because they need to see the plays develop. One interesting thing I learned is that some of the ice hockey players want to know which scouts are there while other players do not because they do not want this knowledge to affect how they play the game.
We were then led down a long hallway that had windows overlooking all of Grand Rapids. On the other side there were doors to the suites that can be leased. These are rooms that have windows on one side to see the game out of. The price can range from $28,000-$32,000 a year! This price does not include tickets. Since the lease basically “owns” the room for a year or more, people decorate their suites.
My favorite part of the tour was the AV Control Room. This room overlooks the stadium on the goal side. This is where they control the lights, cameras, videos and more. They had every second of the game ready to go on cue. It was really interesting to see all of the behind the scenes processes of just one hockey game.
When we got back to ground level, the hockey players were practicing. We stood right next to the glass behind the goalie and saw the hockey pucks bounce off the glass right in front of us. It was terrifyingly loud. We learned that the ice itself is not very thick. It is only a few inches thick. John told us a story that once, one of the Zambonis had a bolt hanging down and scraped the ice all the way down to the floor. They had to delay the game about two hours to fix the damage.
Stacked over in the corner were lots of floor panels that they use to cover up the ice for different events like concerts. There are only two events that require them to remove the ice, the circus and Monster Trucks. Otherwise, it was interesting to
learn that the ice remains there year round. Lastly, we saw the Zambonis and the kids choir practicing who would sing the National Anthem.
After the tour ended, we took our seats and the game started. Every time I saw a video or heard a song, I remembered the people in the AV Control Room that produced it. While the game held only one goal, there was a lot of other activity going on. When people were singled out for the Kiss Cam put on the JumboTron, one man proposed to his girlfriend. She said ‘yes’ and the crowd went wild. When the mascot Griff was shooting out hotdogs from his hotdog cannon, it hit my dad’s arm and rolled on the ground towards me. The Manitoba Moose lost and the Griffins won!
I really enjoyed this game. It is really interesting to see all the behind-the-scenes. The next time you go to an ice hockey game or any other even at the Van Andel Arena, remember all the effort that is put into the production.
