In short: no.  To expand: HELL NO!

Here’s the basic premise: it attracts high end clients. Premium food, premium seats, premium entertainment value, with a bit more privacy. BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT. It’s a waste for everyone!

The majority of suites are owned by the very rich, or by corporations. The most common sales pitch is that it’s a great place to get business done. Although, more often, tickets are used as rewards or as gifts for employees or business partners. The best solution is to get rid of the seats completely, and replace them with this:

• Premium food: Attach a high end restaurant to the arena, have it located somewhere near the concourse.  Or just have a concourse level just for high end food. People who come to enjoy the game, are not there for a full course meal. Those who need the fancy meal, can go enjoy it quietly, away from the action.  Put  up some massive TV’s, and they won’t miss a thing, if they really care.  This still allows for business meetings to be conducted, without the loud crowd as a distraction.
• Premium seats: The luxury suites are generally between the 1st and 2nd level.  Obviously, with those gone, there’s room for more regular seats.  However, the layout in general would be different.  Some more seats can be added to both levels.  So, when companies give tickets as rewards to employees or partner, the people who do go are probably real fans that want to go see the game.  So they’ll get a good seat at the game.
• Premium entertainment: Seriously, what’s better: watching a game in a private box, with a security guard on one side, and glass on the other side like a caged animal – OR – watching a game with the die-hards, the people who really care.  Of course it’s better to watch with the crowd. You actually feel like a part of something, you feel like you belong.

Owner’s will complain about lost revenues. They are wrong!

• High end restaurants will bring in money from the people who go to the games but don’t really care, in addition to some people that will want to try it out anyway.
• The seats added to replace the seats will make room for more people than the suites allow. More people equals ticket revenues, merchandise revenues, and concession revenues.
• You don’t need security for every luxury box.  You don’t need an attendant.  You don’t need a bartender. In general, you need less people.  A restaurant, or several restaurants, need less people to make them run than 30+ individual boxes.

Think about the on-ice product. Don’t owners want a building as loud as possible? The WFC has worse acoustics than the Spectrum.  Adding a few thousand pairs of lungs sure would make it a bit better.

I’m sure there are more reasons to ditch the suites.  Whatever they may be, I say get rid of the overprice accommodations, and let more real fans get a chance to see their team in action.

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Remember that painful day in June, when the Blackhawks clinched the Stanley Cup on our home ice. Remember in the aftermath, that bum Adam Burish was trash talking Pronger.  Remember when he said that he hates Prongs, and if he saw him again, he’d punch him in the face?  Flyers fans, time to mark our calendars.  On Saturday, February 5th, 2011, Burish comes back to town.

Someone please hit me! (Courtesy: styleandsports.com)

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Sue, from the Ducks Daily Blog changed the word’s to the Jet’s Song from West Side Story, and apply it to the Ducks. Corny? Maybe. Just don’t say it to her face, she’ll Fed-Ex a stick right to your face. Anyway, because she’s such a HUGE Chris Pronger fan, I decided to go along with her little game, and change the lyrics to talk about the Flyers. Enjoy:

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A pleasant good evening everybody, and welcome to Flyers hockey.

I began watching hockey religiously during the lockout-shortened season in 1994-95.  Eric Lindros was the top young player in the game, the orange and black were returning to the playoffs after a 5 year break, and a lot of the games were on Prism. Jim Jackson was pretty much starting out his career as the play by play man for the Flyers, as the great Gene Hart was finishing his career up. JJ was partnered with Gary Dornhoefer then, and the two made a pretty good team.

JJ front and center, with his Motley Crue behind him.

Through the years, players have changed, broadcast deals changed, color commentators have changed, coaches have changed, the building has changed, but Jim Jackson has remained. And throughout the years, he was easily recognizable because of his signature mustache. Until this past season, when he sheared it off in the name of charity. He had the ’stache’ so long that his wife and children had NEVER seen him clean shaven. Legend had it that JJ;s source of power came from his facial hair, but lucky for us, that proved to be just a tall tale.

In fact, maybe it was just the opposite.  Maybe, by letting the world see his upper lip, he finally exorcised the Jackson jinx. There was once a time that if he spoke of any streak that was in the Flyers favor, something was sure to happen to end that streak. Goal scoring droughts, losing streaks, and many others, all came to die once JJ pointed them out.  This past regular season was an up and down one for the Flyers, but the playoffs were much better than in recent years.

As Flyers fans, we’re lucky to have a guy like JJ.  He doesn’t have any annoying tag line that he forces upon us every time a goal is scored.  He’s not overly obnoxious, loud, or rude when making his calls.  He’s just a genuine guy, who loves calling the games, adds some life and flavor, while quietly raking in daytime Emmy awards. By my unofficial count, JJ has approximately 300, all of which are well deserved. Good luck finding a Flyers fan that doesn’t love JJ.  Just about the only bad thing about a deep playoff run is that national broadcasters take over, and we don’t get to hear JJ call the games.

When the Phillies won the World Series a few seasons ago, it was even more special to hear Harry Kalas call the final moments.  No, JJ isn’t as legendary as Harry, and maybe he never will be; but in this town, by the time he’s old and gray, he might be loved just the same.

One final thought about the mustache: rumor has it that JJ will be sporting a goatee once the season rolls around.

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Web hosting can be a hassle. There’s no way to precisely project incoming traffic, for starters. Also, if your server gets rocked by an influx of traffic or is for some reason experiencing technical difficulties, you want someone  you can get in touch with no matter the time of day. Easier said than done, because even in the age of cell phones, texting, Twitter and Facebook, it can be hard to track down family and friends, let alone the help at your hosting company. Fortunately, we here at FanSided haven’t had those problems since we started working with exclusively with the good folks at Site5. In fact, we were almost growing faster than we could keep up with and experiencing some server issues as a result — until they stepped in. Nowadays, we never have any significant issues with our server at all and the Site5 team offers us fantastic support essentially 24/7/365. They are definitely an All-Star hosting company that will keep your site in the game.

Site5 has the FanSided Network stamp of approval and is our exclusive web hosting company.

Site5 was founded and 1999 and offers web hosting, Cloud Business Hosting, Virtual Servers, and guarantees on uptime, satisfaction, and support.

Every sporting arena is an experience, both on the field of play, and on the concourse. Every stadium has the usual: pizza, hot dogs, popcorn, soda, beer.  Then of course there are the local favorites: cheesesteaks, deep dish pizza, sushi.  Now, I understand that stadium fare is a bit of a rip off, so many people go out to eat before a game.  Some places (baseball and football stadiums) allow you to bring some food inside with you.  But when you’re at the Wells Fargo Center, there’s one thing you cannot skip: the vanilla ice cream, dipped in chocolate.

Talk about $4.25 well spent. For that haven’t tried it, you’re missing out.  There are a few different types of ice cream sold at the WFC, all of which are pretty good. But they’re not as good as this one. It begins with a rather normal, waffle cup. Not crispy, but solid enough to not get soft and mushy.  That’s not the magical part though.  The magic, comes from the ice cream itself, and it’s glorious topping.

The chocolate is like a perfect, protective shell.  It is solid, a bit thick, and delicious. There’s enough chocolate there that if you melted it down, you could make a small candy bar out of it. Anyway, because of the sheer coldness of the ice cream below, the chocolate does not easily melt.  You can take your time and really enjoy it. Then again, you can ravage it and bite it off in chunks. However you approach it, you’ll eventually get down to the white, frozen core.

I’m sure it’s not made of all natural ingredients, and isn’t very healthy. So we’ll put all of that aside, because really, who cares. So you have ice cream that is quite cold. Even if you’ve taken your time, savoring the chocolate shell, the ice cream will not be a melting blod underneath. It will be perfect, as if it were just created.  Like the chocolate, you can enjoy it the old fashioned way, using a little tongue.  Or, you can just sink your teeth into it, like Jaws (I miss shark week already). And unlike gelato shops, where the ice cream is just a scoop hovering along the edge of the cone, this one comes fully packed.  If you take your time and do it right, you can be in dessert heaven for a good 20-30 minutes.

Now, if you’re like me, the most important thing is the action gonig on. I don’t really like being distracted by gimmicks, and I’m not there just to enjoy the food. It’s not about the food, it never should be.  So if you get something like nachos, you’re better off finishing them during the break. When the Flyers light the lamp, you don’t want to be stuck in your seat because your holding a tray of food and you don’t want it to go flying everywhere. You want to be free enough to jump up and cheer along with 17,000+ of your closest friends. If you’ve got the ice cream in your hand, feel free to join the party.

However you choose to enjoy it, there’s no wrong way to eat a Reese’s vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate.

Aramark – THANK YOU!

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You can follow me on Twitter by visiting www.Twitter.com/BroadStreetBuzz

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Whether they openly loathe us, or secretly cheer for us, we’re always on their mind.  Want proof? Let’s just look around our own Fansided network.

You love me, you really love me! (Courtesy: Toronto Sun)

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Old news: After going to arbitration, the New Jersey Devils contract with Ilya Kovalchuk was canceled for “circumventing the salary cap”.

New news: The NHL is “reviewing” other contracts, with similar structures, that had previously been approved. One of those contracts, is with our very own Chris Pronger.

Photo courtesy: thesportsgeeks.com

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