On most weekends one of my duties as a community reporter is to head down to the Agrena and in some fashion, whether it is a story, pictures or a combination of both and cover a hockey game.
Sometimes multiple games are going on, as it was this past weekend, covering the bantam Pirates.
All totalled, between the other events I had to attend, write, and catch up on, I managed to watch three complete Pirates games.
And for the most part, it is an enjoyable experience. Although sometimes I will admit I would rather be doing something else, almost anything else.
After all, most of the time when I am at a hockey game I don’t get to watch it as an ordinary fan. First and foremost I am there because it is my job.
To ensure success, I have to first make sure the spots I usually watch from haven’t been scuffed, written on or otherwise changed in a way that makes it impossible to take a photograph, a process which is getting harder and harder to do. Then you have to watch the majority of the game looking through the viewfinder of a camera, which doesn’t give a proper prospective of what really is going on in a game.
Despite it all, the majority of the time, it is still an enjoyable assignment.
However, this year I have found it harder and harder to actually focus on the game let alone enjoy it.
The main reason is because of a small group teenagers that are getting more and more obnoxious it seems by the week.
It seemed to reach the zenith about three weeks ago during a Steelers game. Besides the usual swearing, etc, the heckling, this time at the opposition (that isn’t always the case) the hecklers seemed to reach a new low to the point where the players sexuality was called into question using language I haven’t heard in decades let alone at a sporting event.
And this is from someone who has worked in a pressroom and has gone to Stampede Wrestling and watched Kerry ‘Pitbull’ Brown spit into the front row, in which a number of very young children were sitting in.
Now don’t get me wrong. I understand the primal urge to scream and yell obscenities during a sporting event.
I have been known to yell at my TV set on more than one occasion when a player or a referee has done something to slight one of my beloved Vancouver Canucks.
The difference being this was done in the privacy of my own home and that these players are adults and professionals.
The players at the Agrena are kids and everyone should remember that. Perhaps it is time to consider posting security, checking for alcohol and ejecting problem fans. Other arenas do it, often with volunteer security members. It is time to take our arena back.
