There are however some other interesting things:
The aftermath
The tickets were about 85$ for one adult one kid. The arena was really empty (probably about 200 people, see the pics) still, annoyingly, they didn't let you move in the better viewing, otherwise empty, areas.
The regular parking was 10$ behind a hill from which a you had to do a 5 minutes walking to the arena. Apparently it's common knowledge that Daly City is a dangerous neighbourhood; as a result everybody parked in the "preferred parking plot" next to the arena, for 15$ (5$ more).
We payed pretty high prices for everything inside and we didn't buy ourselves fan stuff (as in hats, t-shirts, etc). If I remember right: 4 sausages on buns 34$, pop-corn + 2 churos 8$, 2 hot chocolate about 15$.
The vendors
Despite the big number of food kiosks in the circular hall surrounding the arena there were lots of mobile vendors inside the arena itself, and they were really keen on selling something right during the game.
I don't know how much enthusiasm was amongst the fans in the seats, but I can surely tell you that the main source of noise were those vendors regularly passing on the aisles shouting as powerful as they could, their bloody merchandise.
To my contentment, as far as I've noticed, nobody bought anything from them :)
The advertising hydra
As not much of the game can be seen directly due to the wooden fences surrounding the ice, there is a big television cube right above the centre of the rink, provisioned with 4 large screens one for each side of the arena. Normally on that screen, you see live game broadcast when the game is not stopped and ads, ads, ads when it is stopped. Using this shiny tool they can do advertising at its best, i.e. the "you-suckers-must-buy-something-now" type.
They had loads of strategies to make you look there and swallow an ad, like:
Even if you prefer to look at the ice during the game, when one team scores, the instinct makes you look at the screen to see the replay, especially because hockey is really fast but also because you want to enjoy again the glorious moment. Surprise: you swallow an ad instead and no replay at all, not even if you obediently watch the whole ad length.
At one time they displayed on the screen "Show your teeth!" and then they started to show live images from the public. Strangely enough everyone that was caught on camera did show their teeth as a well tamed pack. I found it quite infantile...
Nevertheless, after 3-4 people showing their teeth, a new ad struck, this time on a well prepared crowd: an ad to a dentist practise!
Even the ice polishing machines had ads on them!
At one point of time, during the game, I have noticed a lady holding a microphone in her hand advancing to a vip area next to the ice, followed by 4 other ladies. They all took a sit on some armchairs (you can see them in the second picture, the beige ones) and nothing more happened as long as the puck was on the ice. Then, at one break, the microphone lady appeared on screen and said that four ladies from the public had their seats upgraded by the X furniture company. Then she conducted a mini interview with those ladies, asking them how they feel to be upgraded and being very careful to mention the X furniture company at each sentence possible, like: "How do you feel now that you have been upgraded by X furniture - furniture for your life ?" Kind of lame, but see below for even more lame stuff with the same lady.
All in all, maybe I'm wrong, but I got the distinct feeling that the game on ice was actually dictated by the advertising on that screen. I have noticed several times the referee ready to throw the puck into the game but lingering a bit more to allow the current ad to finish the message :) I wouldn't be surprised if these poor guys have this in their job description now.
The American style
Probably the most embarrassing moments happened during the breaks when the microphone lady presented over the 4 big screens a trimmed down version of Blind date, that game with one guy that cannot see 3 ladies and he's trying to pick one based on her answers to some questions.
Now, let aside that the ladies were well overdue for being picked (unless you really prefer hen to chicken, I mean :) the whole endeavour was extremely lame and the only effect it had was that, after this event, those ladies probably started using Prosac or increased the dosage if already on it.
The reason is that, as said, there were not many people in the arena for this event and even less were in their seats during the break, most being out for some food or drinks. This had impacted the "mini show" in two ways: on one hand any "smart" answer from the ladies had little echo in the arena; maybe they expected applause or at least some confirming laughs but what they got instead was that type of embarrassing silence moments instead...
The only exception to this silence was a pretty large group of people wearing hoods, (probably from the neighbourhood - pun intended) that had their own list of questions they wanted to ask those ladies. I couldn't understand all they said but, I understood enough to get the point that they are some happy RedTube fans, like me.
So, the second impact of the the empty arena and of the fact that this group of hoodies, by chance or misfortune, were about 30 meters away from the blind date stage setup, was the fact that the ladies heard clearly all the "unofficial questions". Judging their faces, they probably realized they shouldn't have exposed like this but it was too late for them and the crucifixion went on :)
A final aspect that links this chapter with the "advertising hydra" one: they modified the rules of "Blind date", as such, the guy allegedly looking for a partner was actually debilitated and his decision didn't matter at all.
What mattered was the public decision on whom to pick, that should have been expressed by text messages, probably at surcharged SMS rates.
The conclusion
Will I do it again? No.
The main reason would be that you can see the actual play much better on tv, with all those replays and many cameras that allow you to see the puck on both sides of the ice rink.
Then, the overall feeling was that the whole setup is just a trap and I was just a target of as much advertising as possible, and some overpriced junk food.
I'm pretty sure that this feeling would get even more powerful in a more important game, with higher ranked teams and more at steak, so I don't believe that better teams would mean better experience.
Next stop: a basketball match.
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