Growing up as a diehard sports fan, there’s always been something about out-of-the-box games that I’ve enjoyed.
Did I lose you already? Let me explain. An out-of-the-box event is when you take teams out of their normal element to play a game. Watching teams in different surroundings than those they are used to has somewhat of an aesthetic appeal.
The out-of-box event that intrigued me the most was when the University of Michigan and Michigan State University hockey teams played in front of 74,000 fans at Spartan Stadium in 2001. Yes, that Spartan Stadium. MSU’s outdoor football stadium. Fittingly dubbed the “Cold War,” the game drew the largest crowd ever for a hockey game.
The popularity of the event resulted in a wave of outdoor puck games, including speculation over a Boston University and Boston College showdown at Fenway Park. To a Boston sports fan at BU, the thought of such an event was so unbelievably too-good-to-be-true that it made your head spin. Putting the school’s most important and popular team into New England’s sports cathedral would be quite an appealing sight.
The rumor began four years ago, though, and nothing has come from it. Wishful thinking. If you ask me, Red Sox management having some second thoughts about placing a rink in the ancient ballpark probably has something to do with it.
As I mused the other day about how cool it would be to travel over to Fenway in a few weeks and see a sheet of ice covering the infield, I thought about other out-of-the-box events out sports teams could have here. In the end, one stood out among the rest.
The athletic department at BU constantly tries to think of new ways to get people to show up to events not involving Jack Parker’s squad. Whether these include free T-shirt giveaways, Beanpot ticket sales or giving us the privilege of watching Dean Elmore shoot some hoops, most of the gimmicks only result in mild success.
I’ve got one that would have a full house. Men’s basketball games at Agganis have yet to consistently be played in front of capacity crowds, but throwing a game into the Old Barn certainly would fill the seats. That’s right. Bring back Section 8 and lay down the hardwood.
Walter Brown Arena, One Night Only. I’ll even let the Athletic Department use that line for the posters to put around the school. That statement alone will fill in some seats. It’s a little less corny than “Red Hot Hockey,” too.
Think about how cool this would be. While precautions would have to be taken to make sure the floor wouldn’t get wet (as happened at the DCU Center the other day when the Celtics second half had to be cancelled) from the ice underneath, it’s the type of game that could serve two meaningful purposes.
One, it would be extremely fun for the fans to travel back to Walter Brown in droves for a significant sporting event (with all due respect to the women’s hockey team). While we all love the comfortable confines of Agganis Arena, taking a trip down memory lane to see a different sport played inside the Old Barn would be a very popular and hyped-up affair.
Secondly, this game could draw some exposure for the basketball squad. Think about how loud the place would be if BU was playing a significant opponent in a televised game there. A full house would have the walls rumbling and the announcers salivating over how loud the Dog Pound is.
Maybe it’s far fetched, but it’s nowhere near as unrealistic as a hockey game at Fenway. There’s no Red Sox ownership to go through if the Terriers want to play some basketball in one of BU’s own buildings. For a school constantly trying to find new ways to attract the student body to games, this is an idea that ought to be thrown around more.
Want to join the Atlantic-10 at some point, BU? Bring in a Saint Joseph’s and make them play in front of a capacity crowd at Walter Brown. The fans will show. And trust me, the noise will turn some heads and show that BU can be a tough place to play.
Chris Lyons, a junior in the College of Communication, is a weekly columnist for The Daily Free Press. He can be reached at [email protected].
