Fan Experience for first limited attendance game

[RedStorm]

It was interesting being at the Cane’s (first fan attending) Home Opener.  Some random notes and observations from the arena experience (instead of the on-ice game itself) for those not there:

• Wearing a mask the whole game was harder than i thought it would be, enjoyed being back for live hockey, but not sure I’d want to attend again until masks are no longer required.
• Concourse was set-up for one way traffic, though several ignored the signage.
• Food options were very limited, three vendors on first floor and one on the third.  All offering the same limited options.
• The pumped in crowd noise was not very noticeable from my upper level seats, but understand it was louder and somewhat distracting down low.
• The Eye, mini Eye, and Market shops all had signage limiting the number of patrons and 6 foot spaced queuing lines at the doors.
• Parking was open, no one checked that you had tickets entering the lot and you could park in the normally reserved STM lot if you wished (which we did)
• Some fans missed the email that they needed to do a Covid check-in pre-game. Showing your certification was required in the ticket line, some delays and confusion from fans that didn’t do that ahead of time. 
• Arena announcer was funny at the first intermission saying excitedly, “And coming up for your intermission entertainment—ice resurfacing!”  Relatedly, there were no fan promotions, no extra in arena cameras, etc.  The feed on the video board was basically the TV broadcast.  All-in-all, pretty bare bones.
• Fans did their best to make it a real game, cheering, booing, taunting the refs, the random wooing, chanting ‘Let’s Go Canes’ with the guy blowing the horn—which someone in my section amusingly yelled “hey, blow that Covid spreader again!  Let’s Go Canes!” 
• There were PNC Arena ‘mask police’ monitoring the seating and I noticed them admonishing some fans for non-compliance but no major issues, fans generally complied with the rules.
• An interesting benefit of the limited attendance was lack of other team’s fans. Normally for a Red Wings game, you might expect up to 10% or more of the fans to be there for the Wheel.  I think the number at this game was only about 1%.  I only noticed two Wings fans across the three or four sections near me.

Be interested to hear from any other fans that were there and what they thought. Go Canes!

[54th man]

Good i cant stand Detroit fans