Brenda and JoAnn offered tickets to Friday nights Syracuse Crunch game to my dear wife Karen and I, and we thought, Let the Season Begin.
Our good friends handed me an envelope stuffed with six, coming to my bowling league play the night prior to the game to make sure I had them.
Brianna and Randy ready for hockey.
So I immediately invited my teammate Randy, who got on his cell to his wife. He said he’d sure love a pair so he could take his daughter.
When I got home, I handed another pair to Karen, who said she knew she’d be able to give the other two away the next morning at SMG. Sure enough, Robin wanted to go with her husband, Mike.
Brenda, Karen and JoAnn before the game.
Happily, I ran into JoAnn on the concourse before she and Brenda had made their way to their season-ticket seats. We chatted for a few minutes, and I brought them over to visit with Karen. We have a cruise trip friends group breakfast coming up this weekend. Hooray!
Costume contest.
Early on, an usher and a fire marshal I knew from my days reviewing concerts at the state fair asked to see our tickets. It turns out these six seats had been double-sold, he said. Somebody had bought a partial season-ticket plan after our friends had been given the seats as a bonus for buying their full plan. After discussing the situation with the partial plan holders — who let my friend Ed, who was working at the rink, handle the whole situation — we were allowed to remain in the seats. He told us they said they were happy sitting in empty seats higher up and did not want to have us move.
As usual, the Crunch put on a show, during and around the game. The costume contest between periods seemed tame enough until the children’s contest was won by a kid dressed as the dude in Magic Mike XL — I think. Anyway, the youngster — 10, 11, maybe 12, peeled off his suit jacket and shirts to a bare chest and twirled his clothing around over his head. Yikes!
The action on the ice and they jerseys the Crunch actually wore keyed me in for this week’s Mark It Up community column for Syracuse Public Media site WAER. You can read it and find more photos by clicking on the link below.
http://waer.org/post/watching-syracuse-skate-win-i-dream-crunchy-orange-weekend-all#stream/0
What’s the last event you attended with friends? Have you ever sat in a seat that’s been double sold, and if so, what did the organizers do? What’s your reaction to a kid dressed as a stripper for Halloween?
Mark Bialczak 
Not sure I would want my child, of any age, to even know what a stripper was!!!!!! Let alone pretend to be one.
Never been in a double sold seat…..seems to me the places selling such ticket mistakes should not be doing that…… ????
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Yeah, they explained the how, and it was a low-key solution. Everybody was very polite, MBC.
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Glad for the politeness. 🙂 I just can’t figure out how those things happen. Reminds me of doctor offices booking 2 appointments for the same time for each room all day long. 😉
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The doctors do it for billing in a constant struggle with the insurance monolith, thinks this layman, MBC. The hockey organization did it in a mistake after somebody bought a multi-game pack after the season had started. Anyway, one time’s explainable.
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I am understanding on both counts. 🙂
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wow, what a lot of ticket drama, but happy it all worked out! glad the kid wasn’t trying to be a stripper after all and glad it was a good game!
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It all ended well after all, Beth, including a win for the home team. 🙂
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glad you got to stay in your seats. As for the costume – bad idea.
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Hi Rachel. I was informed the kid was imitating a staff for the team that used to rile up the crowd by taking off his shirt. Not a stripper. My bad.
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what a relief! don’t feel bad – how were you to know that?
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All the regulars knew it. I guess I have to go to more games, Rachel. 🙂
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that is such a good reason for getting more sport in your life 🙂
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🙂
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The kid was “Big Sexy” aka Mark who works for The Crunch office. He would, in the past, do a “dance” (“strip” down to his pants) during the third period to get the crowd going. That’s why the fans loved it, they loved big sexy (Mark doesn’t do anymore), and honestly, I enjoyed the ingenuity the kid had.
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OK. I see. Not a movie, but a Crunch staffer. Thanks for clearing that up, J.
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Glad I could clarify the situation! definitely don’t want people thinking we like kid strippers here. Oddly enough,Mark brought out “Big Sexy” again at Friday’s game for “throwback night”.
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My wife and I plan to go Saturday night, maybe getting there a tad late after the SU-Clemson game. I’m looking forward to my Crunch game No. 2 of the season, J!
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Not remembering events I’ve attended with or even without friends. Mind is blank today. We like to have people over, but don’t go out so much. A stripper kid is bad news.
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I’m glad you agree on the stripper kid, Liz. Blank mind?
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2/3 of a bottle of wine while watching a movie with friends will do that to you (I mean me)
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It would to me, too, my friend. 🙂
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Went to the Steelers-49ers game in Pittsburgh back in September. Great weekend. Weather was great for the game and the home team won YAY! We all had a great time;well-two of us did. The 49ers fans that went with us were having fun until the game started then their fun meter didn’t really leave zero! Still was fun to be able to show my friends some of my favorite places to go and things to do while in Pittsburgh.
As for the stripper costume…my only questions would be where were the parents and why would they let their kid do something like that in such a public place? If they came to my house trick or treating, I would probably just chuckle. But in such a public forum-thumbs down. Just can’t imagine the parents who were at the game having to try and explain to their kid who asks “what is a stripper?”
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The Steeelers game sounds like a hoot, Deanna. Showing out-of-town guests the glories of your home city is always fun.
Yeah, I wondered if it was the parents’ idea or the kids idea to take off all shirts to his bare chest to stripper music. Because said music had to be cued over the PA, my dear wife Karen also wondered if the hockey organization was in cahoots about the costume.
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Yikes! I really had to stop at that kid stripper thing. So odd but yet on a boy I think it’s kind of funny while on a girl I would think it was just awful. That’s terrible!! I can’t tell if I’m a sexist pig or a feminist.
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The crowd, most of it, seemed to be hootin’ and hollerin’ at the kid’s antics, Marissa. I felt very outvoted in my horror at the thought of the inappropriateness of this costume choice for a boy of his age. Ah, well. If it were a girl, I’d feel the same way. Thinking it over, in a public arena, I don’t want no stinkin’ stripping goin’ on by anybody right there at center ice, no matter the gender or age or holiday. Just saying. What does that make me?
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I don’t know. I guess an outsider but welcome to the club. I often find that I’m outraged at things that few other people are outraged by. I can’t say my reaction wouldn’t have been similar if I were there.
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The last event I held tickets to was to see the POTUS and FLOTUS speak. I can’t even remember what year it was. Maybe 2012. It was great, but really, really hot, because Georgia. Security measures also meant we couldn’t take much, so I couldn’t reapply sunscreen and got a bit burnt.
Now, hockey, that’s a nice cool way to spend an evening! We’ve spoken of going, neither of us have gone in years, and our little ones have never been, but our lifestyle doesn’t much lend itself to events. Even seeing a movie all together requires big planning!
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I think it’s damingly strict that the screening for President and First Lady events includes the banning sun-protection-lotion, Joey. I guess terrorists could put that explosive paste crap in the bottle? Doggone, what a world we live in.
Try to coordinate a hockey game for the whole family squad, Joey. The kids deserve to be dazzled by the speed and skill up close. On the other hand, Sassy may never settle for the soccer field again!
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