Sign me up for the ‘Rage Room’ at Flyers’ games
I haven’t been to an NHL game since Kirk Muller and KenDaneykowereskatingfor the Devils, but guess what? I want to go to a Flyers game this year. Not because I’m a Flyers fan, not because I’m a hockey fan, but because I’msometimes a fan of bashing the crap out of stuff.
Full disclosure: When I get really angry - we’re talking 11 on the 1-to-10 scale - and it’s matched with equal amounts of frustration, I’m going to start hitting some inanimate objects. Not proud of this behavior, I’m sure there’s better ways of dealing with this anger and frustration, but I’ve reached the “not going to teach old dogs new tricks” part of my life, so beware giant, extra recycling garbage can thing in the garage: I’m coming for ya.
This anger non-management started in my angsty teenage years, where posters of Farah Fawcett, Darryl Strawberry, Janet Jackson, and Dwight Gooden - along
COURTS
with ripped-from-RIP-magazine shots of Lita Ford and members of Vixen - would cover up holes I punched through the drywall because my parents did such things as “try to make me a good person” and “calmly try to help me deal with whatever I was going through, no matter how trivial they thought it might be.”
As I got older, I got stupider, and would occasionally skip the drywall and just punch cement walls. To this day, the bottom knuckle on my right hand is in constant dull ache as a result of this “I’m 22 and indestructible” behavior.
As I got older, I got smarter – I don’t know how to fix drywall, hence the rubber recycling bucket - but I still tend to want to destroy things in my anger and frustration, which, thankfully, does not occur with any regularity. Once or twice a year, tops, usually when my wife does such things as “try to make me a good person” and “calmly try to help me deal with whatever I was going through, no matter how trivial they thought it might be.”
Anyway: The Flyers. This year, in an effort to … well, damn if I can figure out the “why,” but hell: The Flyers braintrust decided to add a so-called “rage room” where fans will get the opportunity to destroy things like old TVs, guitars, bottles, and the like. The cost is $35 ($60 for a duo) and you’ll get five minutes to smash the crap out these and other items. You’ll be able to use baseball bats, sledgehammers, and – of course – hockey sticks to carry out the carnage.
“The concept is definitely one-of-a-kind and non-traditional,” said Valerie Camillo, president of business operations
HONORS
of the Flyers and the Wells Fargo Center, according to an ESPN.com article. “We ran the concept by some of our fans who told us they thought this would be a fresh way to have some harmless fun.”
Ha.
Flyers fans and sledgehammers. What wrong?
Apparently, the concept of “rage rooms” got its start in Japan during that country’s most recent recession. A business called the “Venting Place” allowed stressed-out Japanese people the chance to throw plates against a wall. From there, the idea spread all over the world, and now it’s a real-life, honest-to-goodness business. Apparently, there’s hundreds of them in the United States. I don’t know of any in the immediate area, so you know: Any investors out there?
Honestly, I’m just glad to know the concept of violence directed at stuff is not an affliction I need to hide anymore. Apparently, it’s all the – wait for it – rage.
Best part? It might even be healthy.
OK, fine, I made that last part up, but whatever: As long as no one is getting hurt, I say smash away. could go