Fans loyal to PA hockey team
By Herb Smith
Staff Reporter
hjsl33s@psu.edu
In the wide world of sports, the
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area is
pretty small, almost non-existent.
Heck, even in the normal world,
it's easy to forget the community
most famous for its history than
its forgettable present. The area's
biggest claim to fame is current
Syracuse basketball star, Gerry
McNamara; Syracuse home
games routinely draw thousands
of people from Northeastern
Pennsylvania.
However, there is a reason to
take a closer look at the area in
the world of sports. You have to
look close, or you might drive
right past it. There, in a hole
visible from Interstate 81, is the
Wachovia Arena at Casey Plaza.
The building itself is nothing out
of the ordinary. In fact, the Giant
Center in Hershey is a much
nicer facility. Wachovia Arena is
an average, medium-size sports
venue, but it is what's inside that
makes the building special.
Beginning in October, the
building became home to
the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
Penguins, the American Hockey
League affiliate of the Pittsburgh
Penguins. Now, the hockey itself
is not what is different. It's the
same game that can be found
in countless cities all over North
America. What is different is the
fans; the die-hard hockey fans
who fill the arena on a nightly
basis for a game that we are
told is not popular in the United
States. Tell that to Penguins fans,
who sold out the Wachovia Arena
for over 160 consecutive games
(equivalent to four full seasons of
home games).
When former Gov. Robert
Casey, whom the plaza is named
after, first proposed the idea
of bringing a new arena and a
new hockey team to the area,
people were skeptical. But,
when the Pens took the ice for
their inaugural season in 1999,
Students team up for intramural sports
By Addeline Hiebert
Staff Reporter
arh227@psu.edu
Looking for some on-campus,
weeknight excitement? Penn
State Harrisburg's intramural
basketball and volleyball games
are currently going on in the CUB,
and that should satisfy the thirst.
Tuesdays and Thursdays belong
to basketball, where students are
welcome to become spectators
at two games, one at 9:00 and
one at 10:00 pm, each evening.
Mondays and Thursdays, two
simultaneous volleyball matches
begin at 9:00, with two more
beginning at 10:00 pm.
According to Bud Smutley,
coordinator of recreation, athletics
and fitness, the basketball
program alone consists of 8 teams
and 85-100 players. The teams
are self-organized; each team
PSH's intramural basketball and volleyball games are currently going
on in the CUB.
it was quite obvious that the
governor had it right; this area
would support hockey. Quickly,
businesses sprouted up around
the arena and six years later, the
fans are still filling the seats.
It is known throughout the AHL
that WBS has the best fans in
the league. Hardly a profanity
can be heard anywhere in the
building, as the fans create a
family atmosphere. The fans are
not violent, unlike places like
Philadelphia and Binghamton,
where assaults on visiting fans
have become an all too common
occurrence. But despite their
squeaky clean image, the fans are
very passionate and very loyal.
And once playoffs come around,
the fans kick it up a few notches;
starting with a "white-out," where
all the fans in attendance wear
white. It is quite a sight to see a
complete sea of white covering
the entire building. The fans are
so loud that it almost hurts your
ears, and if you are any type of
fan, you will be hoarse by the
end of the game from joining in
the cheering.
Another unique feature is the
hat trick case. There have been
several hat tricks at Wachovia
Arena by the Pens and, as their
custom; the fans throw their
hats onto the ice. The hats are
collected and a few are displayed
in a case along with a plaque
stating the date and which player
scored the hat trick.
As a hockey fan, I can say I
have never been with better fans
at any game than I was when
I was in Wilkes-Barre. I have
been in arenas from Bridgeport
to Binghamton, from Hartford
to Hershey and everywhere in
between, and nowhere have
I been in the atmosphere that
compares to Wilkes-Barre.
So, if you've got a free weekend
and in the mood for some hockey,
instead of taking the short
drive over to the Giant Center,
experience another - venue, sitting
less than two short hours away,
with the best fans in the league.
has a captain and teams register
at the beginning of the season
at a captains' meeting. Players
without a team may also come
to this meeting to be assigned
to a team. Smitley believes that
the intramural program promotes
leadership, teamwork and fitness,
and is a good way to relieve
stress. "The intramural program
gives students who may not be
on an intercollegiate level an
opportunity to play a sport they
enjoy," said Smitley.
The Naturals and the Birdmen
opened up the basketball
season on Tuesday. Jan. 25.
The regular season will conclude
Wednesday, March 16, and a
single elimination tournament
will begin on Wednesday, March
22. Other teams competing
are Those Guys, Liban Forces,
Bucks, Bulldogs, M-Twizzie
Bailers, and Da Hustle.
Photo courtesy of cayalierdaily com
Hockey's suicide season already taking its tol
Sy Alan Robinson
AP Sports Writer
(AP) - Imagine the teeth-gnashing
if a labor dispute deprived Yankee
Stadium of baseball for at least
17 months, or the wailing over no
football at Green Bay's history
steeped Lambeau Field.
In puckthirsty cities like Detroit,
which proudly dubs itself
Hockeytown, such is the level of
despair among fans whose loyalty
looks less like sports obsession
and more like family ties.
The Red Wings are to many
what Motown once was to popular
music - the heart, the soul, the
raison d'tre. Team captain Steve
Yzerman's multistory image
hovers over the city square
where three Stanley Cups have
been celebrated.
But Joe Louis Arena is dark now,
all because of the first full-season
shutdown of a major North
American pro sports league. NHL
commissioner Gary Bettman
on Wednesday canceled what
was left of a season that never
started, plunging the league into
an entirely new and unpredictable
ice age.
"I'm ashamed by what we did,"
Los Angeles Kings president Tim
Leiweke said, invoking unusually
blunt criticism of owners and
players alike. "Smart people
should have solved this by
today."
Rumors exist that a deal could
still be made that would reverse
the cancellation, but those
appear to be nothing more than
false hopes.
"A lot of that is, nobody's willing
to deal with the reality that the
season is over. There's no way
to get it back," New York Rangers
player representative Tom Poti
said Friday. "I'd say there's zero
chance of anything happening."
The emotional damage from
the NHL's suicide season ranges
beyond the hockey faithful, and
the economic destruction touches
more than millionaires such as the
Rangers' Jaromir Jagr, the NHL's
The regular volleyball season will
conclude for the 12 co-ed teams,
Monday, March 21, and the top
8 will begin playoffs Thursday,
March 24.
Adam Smith, of the basketball
team Da Hustle, looks forward
to competing against teams
Bucks and Bulldogs. "Those
should be a good match up,"
said Smith. So far, Da Hustle is
undefeated. In their first game,
they defeated the Naturals, 70-
27. In their second game, they
defeated the Liban Forces 54-
28. "Our team definitely has a
height advantage," said Smith.
Da Hustle will face the Bulldogs
on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 9:00 pm
and the Bucks Wednesday, Feb.
23, at 10:00 pm.
Smith is an active participant
of PSH's intramural program. He
played for the Brewers softball
team during the 2004 year, for
the Roids football team fall of
2004, and is currently playing for
the Brew Crew volleyball team as
well as Da Hustle. Smith enjoys
meeting people from other teams
as well as working off energy.
"[The intramural program] gives
college kids something to do
on a weekday without leaving
campus," said Smith.
Coming up after spring break,
students have an opportunity to
form teams for co-ed one pitch
softball and co-ed table tennis.
Team rosters for softball are due
at the captains' meeting on March
23. Each team must have at least
2 members of each gender on the
field and on the line-up in order
to play without penalty. Teams
may consist of undergraduate or
graduate students, faculty, staff
or alumni. The entry deadline for
table tennis is April 6.
Sports
highest-paid player last season at
$ll million; and billionaires such
as Washington Capitals owner
Ted Leonsis.
Thousands of NHL club
employees' pay and work weeks
were slashed when the lockout
began months ago. The 500 to
1,000 seasonal workers at each
arena, from popcorn poppers to
Zamboni drivers, will miss up to
41 game paychecks, not counting
the playoffs.
And the minimum-wage-plus
tips workers at countless hockey
dependent restaurants such
as Pittsburgh's Ruddy Duck,
Boston's Halftime Pizza - and yes,
Detroit's Hockeytown Cafe _ had
their very livelihoods blindsided.
"I'm sick when we go around to
the restaurants," Columbus Blue
Jackets president Doug Mac Lean
said. "Some of the managers
get mad at me: When are you
playing? When are you playing? I
don't blame them. It's devastating
for them."
In St. Paul, Minn., where the city's
honeymoon with the expansion
Minnesota Wild is going strong
after four years, officials estimate
a loss of $369,000 in sales tax
income during the months the
team would have been playing.
Joe Kasel, who owns the Eagle
Street Grille across the street
from St. Paul's Xcel Energy
Center, said he has laid off 28
employees since the lockout
began. "We do what we can to
get through it. It's all we can do,"
Kasel said between waiting and
bussing tables, serving drinks
and handling checks - all part of
his now 80-hour work week.
At 242, a bar down the street, no
amount of effort could keep the
business going. The owners have
taped a note on the entrance:
"242 will be closed, indefinitely,
due to 'cost uncertainty' and high
player salaries."
At a Sports Authority store in
suburban Philadelphia, hockey
merchandise sales have dropped
to near zero.
"I bet we haven't sold a hockey
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shirt in two months," store
manager Joe Tarantino said.
"They're not playing. Why are
you going to buy a shirt and wear
it for nothing?"
Hockey's labor mess dates to the
last player-owner negotiations in
1995, when the league agreed to
a deal that put little restraint on
player salaries. By last season,
the average salary was $l.B
million - about $500,000 more
than the average salary in the
flourishing NFL.
"It's crazy," Islanders general
manager Mike Milbury said.
"Twenty years ago when I played,
we didn't have in the dressing
room catalogs of 'Christie's Great
Estates of the World.' I mean,
these (players) are wealthy
people, millionaires."
The only surprise of the five
month lockout came in its final
days, when each side made a
major concession.
The league backed off its
demand for "cost certainty," or
tying players' salaries to revenue.
The union, in turn, accepted the
idea of a salary cap, something
chief Bob Goodenow vowed
never to do.
But the two sides never closed
the gap between the $42.5
million per team cap offered by
the league and the union's $49
million proposal.
Now, both sides are wondering
if a sport whose U.S. TV ratings
more closely resembled those
of the WNBA and professional
poker than the NFL or NBA will
ever regain its casual fans.
"The game's just suffered an
absolute blow it'll never recover
from," Carolina Hurricanes
center Rod Brind'Amour said.
"They're totally underestimating
the damage that's been done. I'm
just really disappointed and, to be
honest with you, I'm embarrassed
to be a player in the NHL."
Teams are scrambling to
mend fences with their season
ticket holders long before play
resumes, offering' free concert
and game vtickettitY/bikiitilifel
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on souvenirs and other amenities
to those who don't cancel their
seats.
Bettman, now under more
pressure than ever to hit a home
run for the owners, is all but
promising the league will play a
full 2005-06 schedule. But if a
deal isn't reached by next fall, the
NHL can play only by declaring
an impasse, allowing it to employ
replacement players - a strategy
that flopped in baseball and
football's past labor battles.
Seeking such a declaration
is a risky gambit at best,
especially since two Canadian
provinces with NHL teams forbid
replacement workers.
"There are so many uncertainties,"
New Jersey Devils center John
Madden said. "Are fans going to
come in and watch replacement
players? Are fans going to cross
the line? Is any of this stuff going
to happen? It's all unknown, and
it's not good news."
Mario Lemieux, who has a
unique perspective as the game's
best-known player and also the
Pittsburgh Penguins' owner, said
both sides got hockey into this
mess - and both sides must pay
as a result.
"The game is going to suffer for
a couple of years and it's going
to take time to win back our fans
and rebuild the business," he
said. "And the players are going
to have to share in that."
At Detroit's Hockeytown Cafe,
the small lunch crowd grew quiet
for the NHL's season-ending
announcement. Waiters in Red
Wings jerseys watched with
somber faces. A manager shook
her head.
Even these hockey-obsessed
fans will need to be wooed back
after such a deep freeze, admitted
Red Wings general manager Ken
Holland.
"Eventually, when we get a deal
and back on the ice, I think it's
going to take a lot of work on our
part to try to reconnect," Holland
said. "There's going to have to be
a healing process I think between
everybody."