Dollar Debauchery

As a recent addition to the 21 and up crowd (My birthday was December 9) I experienced my first ever dollar beer event at Van Andel Arena last evening as the Grand Rapids Griffins took on the Phantoms from Philadelphia.   The game was as exciting as any other AHL game with highly offensive minded teams rifling shot after shot at the opposing net minder, the occasional skirmish which was quickly disbanded by the officiating crew, much to the dismay of the heavily intoxicated crowd and of course, large amounts of beer.  It was intriguing to me just how many Griffins' "fans" are of the twenty-something target market and even more intriguing that these so called fans only attend games that take place on Friday nights.  Then I checked the schedule that I was so grateful to receive from an earlier game and saw that last night's date, similar to every other Friday night game was shaded in to signify that it was in fact the ever popular dollar beer and dollar hot dog night.  More often than not, I found myself spending more time observing the crowd than I did watching the semi-professional ice hockey players performing an elaborate symphony of skating, slashing, stick-handling, and swearing in more than a half dozen different languages that I was unable to decipher without my pocket translator... aka iPhone.   I would be lying to myself and to anyone unfortunate enough to be reading this if I did not take the time to mention that I had some secondary intentions behind my attendance last evening, namely looking for ideas to discuss in this entry.  Granted, I love semi-professional ice hockey as much as the next guy, but last night's experience was a magical mix of athleticism and advertisement.  If McFadden's Bar was a publicly traded entity, I would have bought 1000 shares prior to last night's contest.  It was not uncommon to hear the word McFadden's amongst a slur of expletives used in a grammatically incorrect fashion as they spewed from the lips of less-than-coherent frat guys in line for the bathroom.  During the second intermission, inebriated fans literally crawled over each other to catch the flyers that were falling from the sky as a promotional tactic by none other than...you guessed it...McFaddens.  On more than one occasion, the public address announcer threw in some plugs for the "Official After-Party" at McFadden's.  Little did the owners of McFadden's know, I was planning my own "Unofficial After-Party" at my apartment in Copper Beech completely withOUT $2 You-Call-It's until midnight, and ladies and gentlemen were both free before, at, and even after 11:00 P.M.  How's that for sticking it to the man?  In summation, if you're in the market for an inexpensive activity that incorporates semi professional athletics, advertising, and beer, Dollar Beer and Hotdog Night at Van Andel Arena is definitely the place for you.

Be Well...