Pro hockey is one of the worst ripoff scam circuses going. 90% flash entertainment and not much else. Today it's about mind-numbing theatrics, 5-storey video screens, distracting visuals, advertising, teevee eyeballs, player stats, fights and noise at $ 100 a ticket on top of taxpayer subsidies. Sorry, but that's not real hockey folks.
Hockey is supposed to be about athletic excellence; collegiate teams hustling their utmost all season long, in a barely-heated arena, white light, flat benches, and maybe the chance to talk to the chicks in the next row down without flash grenades and air horns going off during intermission. Or it's farm teams' practice on the local frozen river after dinner under a full moon at -25 degrees.
Instead what we have now is blatant spectator sensory addiction with live TV feed; a form of Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling with multicolor strobe lights and music organ soundbites. Rock concerts are great, but that's not hockey.
Despite all the technical innovations down on 104th street, that abomination mostly adds up to a sports bar with expensive parking crammed full of TV screens. They could have sufficiently renovated the Coliseum (remember that name?), already having full LRT service and parking available, for a fraction of the aluminum-covered turd choking up traffic downtown.
Finally, if you have to have a full company of riot police brought in to 17 Ave or Whyte or Vancouver center to put down a bunch of hockey fans trashing the city after they got riled up over standings, maybe you need to promote hockey differently to start with.
Losing the Flames? Cry me a river.
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