A Winter Festival to Win Varsity Chili Dogs!
Atlanta is increasingly a hockey town. Last weekend, there were 16,000 plus folks at the Thrashers game and straight up I-85 another 10,000 plus at the Gladiators game. That’s 1% of the 5 county Metro area at a hockey game on a given night. More than were at Georgia and Georgia Tech’s basketball games.
However, we have not done much to incorporate this into our image as a city. We should do that in two ways. First, we should apply to host the frozen four. If the Superbowl is afraid to come back here because it might be cold, lets get fans who appreciate the chance to put on a sweater when the game is done.
The second thing we need is a citywide tournament in hockey among the metro colleges. Just as Boston has the Beanpot hockey tournament, we need the Varsity Cup. Get Georgia, Emory, Kennesaw State, Oglethorpe, Morehouse, Georgia Tech, and others to compete. They play a round robin on Friday and Saturday with a game for third and a game for first on Sunday. The winning team gets Varsity chili dogs which they get to eat right there on the ice after they shake hands!
A citywide hockey tournament would have a number of benefits. First, because no local team is a division one NCAA hockey program, all the colleges can compete. How often do all the city’s schools compete in one tournament? This will get people excited about their colleges, increase interest in the higher education community, and prove you don’t need athletic scholarships to have fun intercollegiate athletic competition. It’s also a great chance to reach out to High School students across the community.
It would also be a boost for the city. Hold the event at Philips arena, charge $15 for an all day pass (or $30 for all 3 days), and build a winter festival around it. Students would come downtown, families would come downtown, and it be a great chance for everyone to celebrate the city’s new favorite sport! There could be a student artist market, local bands, food, and tie ins to the Thrashers and Gladiators. Now all we need is the Varsity as the sponsor.
February 21st, 2006 at 10:29 pm
As a huge NCAA hockey fan, I have to say you are off base with the Frozen Four request for Atlanta. It needs to be in a town where the bars will actually play games when they’re on (I think we only get the Frozen Four all year long in Atlanta), and the local Fox Sports affiliate tracks it.
Some cities just aren’t college atmospheres. I’ve been to Frozen Fours in Columbus OH and St. Paul MN. St. Paul was excellent, Columbus rather lame. The arena district in Columbus was almost unaware of the on-campus event, and I assume Atlanta would be the same…”the Frozen what?” I don’t think a Frozen Four with N. Dakota, UNH, Cornell and Colorado College would sell out the Puppetry Arts Center here.
And us college hockey diehards don’t want the sport to be a cartoon for some other event. NCAA hockey…it’s pure, simple, and it should stay that way.