STEVE MILTON
What do you do when you’re hosting a game for 8,500 students and school is cancelled?
Making the big race a celebration. Have a brownie, sip a beer, hear some tunes at Around the Bay
When he woke up Thursday morning, Hamilton Bulldogs’ president Steve Staios and his staff were gearing up for one of the busiest days on the team calendar. Things are a little frantic, after all, when you’re expecting 8,500 wired students plus whoever else decided to take in a rare morning School Day game.
Then he checked his phone. More freezing rain overnight. Buses were cancelled, schools were closed and, whelp, the longplanned full house was about to be a giant pumpkin.
Was Staois suddenly having panicky visions of 50 people in the building?
“Yes,” he says.
The Bulldogs quickly fired off a tweet announcing the game was still on and encouraged people to “grab your tickets at the box office this morning.” Good seats were still available. As in, roughly 17,800 of them.
When the doors optimistically opened at 9, zero fans poured in. By 9:20, there was a dad with three kids and one other couple in the stands. All in Bulldogs’ sweaters though, so that was good. By 10, the crowd had swelled to 50 or so.
That included a few teenagers who appeared to have taken over a vacant private box, two people who snagged the red Muskoka chairs between the benches usually used for an in-game promotion
and a few folks who, despite having their choice of nearly any seat in the entire building, weirdly chose to sit 17 rows back. Oh well, at least their ears were safe. School Day games are usually opportunities for attendees to test their auditory resilience as thousands of young kids scream at a pitch you’d only otherwise hear if Celine Dion got her toe caught in a rat trap. This one was the opposite of that. Early on, it was so quiet at times the players could hear the fans’ thoughts. Call it the silence
without the lambs. That said, other than the lack of kids, everything was pretty much the same as if it was a full house. Staff was in place, many concessions were open, music was playing, PA announcements were made, and the TV crew was working.
It was just, well, intimate. To the point that in some sections, fans could have watched the action with their pants off and nobody would’ve noticed (please note: this is not a challenge).
There were some moments of life. Each time Matt Strome scored — he had two goals in the first period — the noise level rose to that of a busy sports bar.
Bolstered by the not-taking-aday-off horn and celebratory music. Generally though, it was pretty docile.
But a funny thing happened on the way to being the least-attended game in league history.
Not long after that first tweet encouraging people to buy tickets, the Bulldogs staff held a crisis management meeting.
At that point, Staios made the wise decision to make attendance free to anyone who wanted to — or could — make it to the rink. Try to salvage something.
By midway through the first period, there were people in the seats. Not row after row of sugar infused school kids testing the limits of the human eardrum but maybe 1,000 or 1,200 who decided a live hockey game was better than a full day of Netflix or video games.
Some amateur mathematicians in the press box guessed a few more than that.
The total was not far below what a few games played in this building have drawn over the years and more than a few others. A respectable number under the circumstances, for sure.
Instead of being able to introduce yourself to every fan by the end of the first period there was a real crowd.
Those thinking they might make a video of themselves watching a hockey game alone to the strains of Bobby Vinton’s Lonely and hoping it would go viral after it was posted on The Spectator’s website ... er ... YouTube, were out of luck.
It even looked like a bunch of the students made it anyway, some with signs they’d made at school.
So it turned out OK. Even though the Bulldogs ultimately lost 4-3 to the Oshawa Generals in a shootout.
“I’m a little bit surprised,” Staios admits of the crowd.
“I’m really impressed with the turnout.”
Sure beat the 50 he was fearing.
sradley@thespec.com 905-526-2440 | @radleyatthespec Spectator columnist Scott Radley hosts The Scott Radley Show weeknights 6-8 on 900CHML.