Allowed back, fans enjoy a win in their return
The crowd capacity was restricted, but the enthusiasm was not.
Maggie Christine had no idea what was about to happen when her dad, Steve, came home from work Tuesday afternoon.
While 7-year-old Maggie sat on a Zoom call, Steve snuck upstairs to execute his surprise and came back into the room wearing his Blue Jackets jersey. It took Maggie a minute to realize what was going on.
“She was like, ‘What are you doing? I haven’t seen that jersey on for a while,’ ” Steve said. “I said, ‘Well, it’s gonna be of great use tonight.’ She’s like, ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘We’re going to the hockey game. Where’s your jersey?’ She started jumping up and down and kind of went crazy.”
Steve has been a Blue Jackets fan and a season ticket holder since the team’s first season in 2000, and Maggie has been raised as a hockey fan. After Steve told her they were going to the game, the first thing Maggie wanted to do was play the song “Party Like a Rockstar” to celebrate the moment.
“I really felt like a rock star, telling her we (were) going to the game tonight,” Steve said. “This is kind of the first normal thing she’s had with dealing with the whole COVID situation.”
The opportunity to be two of the first 1,953 fans allowed back at Nationwide Arena to watch Columbus play the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday was incredibly special for the pair. And for the players on the ice, having fans back in the stands was special, too.
“It’s pretty crazy,” defenseman Zach Werenski said after the game, a 4-1 Blue Jackets victory. “Me and Savvy (David Savard) were talking about it in the second period. Even 2,000 people, it feels incredible to have fans back. I can only imagine what a soldout building will feel like again. “It was awesome having them
in there tonight. They gave us some juice. And they were loud.”
Tuesday’s game was the one and only game that will have fewer
than 2,000 fans in attendance. Wednesday morning, the Blue Jackets announced that capacity will increase to just over 4,500 fans for the next home game on March 9. In a way, Tuesday served as a kind of test run to see if the protocols in place would allow for a larger crowd to attend safely.
“For there only being 2,000 people, it felt like there were six (thousand),” Jackets fan Brandyn Tinney said after the game. “I’m drinking coffee right now because my throat is sore from yelling all night.”
Among the fans The Dispatch spoke with, the Blue Jackets and Nationwide Arena earned high marks for their efficiency and polite yet firm enforcement of protocols throughout the game. Many had expected there to be some kinks to work out in the first game with fans, but everyone was consistently impressed with how smoothly things went and said they felt very comfortable in the building.
“Not to kind of be a kiss-up here, but I really just want to express how well Nationwide Arena and all of the employees did,” Jordan Francis said. “Everyone was super accommodating. Everyone was super friendly. They asked us how we were. They made sure we knew how excited they were to have us back in the building.”
For many of the fans in the building, being back at a game had a profound meaning, and for Francis and his wife, Victoria, it was even more special. It was their first time back at a Blue Jackets game since their wedding in November — a wedding that wouldn’t have happened without the Blue Jackets.
In early 2019, Jordan happened to meet Victoria’s mom at a gym. As they started talking, they realized they both had Blue Jackets season tickets in the exact same section and row. At the next game, Victoria’s mom asked for Jordan’s number to give to her daughter, and they started texting right away. Just over a month later, they met in person for the first time.
“Our first date was April 2, 2019, against the Boston Bruins,” Jordan said. “Unfortunately, they lost that game, but we got to meet each other in person. We went to dinner after the game and the rest is history. We are now married with a child on the way in August.”
For fans like the Francises and many others, being back at a Blue Jackets game meant more than simply attending a hockey game. It was a special moment, and one that they’ll remember for a long time.
“Not to get overly corny, but it was an honor to be there,” Harry Yeprem said. “It was really cool to be there tonight. A privilege.”
Now that the capacity is increasing, the fans who attended on Tuesday will carry the knowledge that they were part of a select group that got to experience the first game with fans. And for fans who are hoping to add more games to their calendar through the rest of the season, the capacity increase can’t come soon enough.
“I’m still trying to find tickets to those last two (games) without going to StubHub,” Tinney said mere hours before the announcement that capacity would increase. “I’m hoping that capacity goes up to 25% here pretty quick.”