Growing up football was my life and biggest hobby. 19 years a season ticket holder at my local football club, I was attending every home game and when able to, attending away games. That was until ice hockey came into my life.

Football will always be a big part of my interests but anyone who has never experienced ice hockey might think why ice hockey – especially in this country. Well let me tell you why.

Firstly, the atmosphere during an ice hockey game tends to be a lot better than a football game these days. Why’s that? Maybe it’s just me, but has the withdrawal of the old fashioned terracing affected the atmosphere at football?

I remember back in the days when you could stand up, jump around and have a good sing-song at football games, and when you scored you could go mad. These days, with most football stadiums being all-seater (and allocated seats in most cases) it has tended to reduce that atmosphere.

At ice hockey, you have the opportunity to stand right next to the ice, even the seating areas seems closer to the action, plus you are in an enclosed rink whereas at football stadiums the sound can be easily lost.

The sound of skates slicing through the fresh sheet of ice, the sound of pucks or players bouncing off the boards/plexi gets the crowd going. Add to that the arena music in between play and maybe you get where I’m coming from.

How annoying can it be that when you attend football games and you cannot have a beer during a game? At ice hockey you are allowed to drink.

What other restrictions does football have over ice hockey you might think? Well perhaps players fighting is one of the biggest differences.

Fighting is allowed in ice hockey (sort of). Players get into fights and fans cheer, the fighters get penalised, but in most cases will go back on the ice later after serving a penalty.

I find football can be petty nowadays. How many times do we see a player go down and we all think/shout out ‘he isn’t hurt’, ‘oh come-on get up’.

When ice hockey players go down you know 99% of the time they are genuinely hurt. These players sacrifice their bodies for the sake of the team, ever seen an ice hockey hit? Come and see one and you will see what a proper impact injury is.

Have I convinced you to try an ice hockey game yet? ‘Maybe not’ you are thinking to yourself, ‘but I’m warming to the idea, convince me more’.

Well, if you are warming to the idea, did you know ice hockey brings the following to the game too?

1. Power plays. A team commits a penalty offence so the team plays down a man for 2 minutes or more.  At times you can be down 2 men. When you are in that situation, playing 3 men against 5 can be nerve-racking for the team with 3 men – will they see out the penalty without scoring? As a fan you are biting your nails, shouting and willing the team on.
2. Shorthanded goal. When your team is one or two players short on the ice due to penalties one of the best feelings of watching the game is scoring a ‘shorthanded goal’ against a team with more players on the ice.
3. Line changes. The entire bench play a part.  Skating is tiring, so to keep everyone fresh teams cycle in changes, which pits different players against each other.
4. Possession changes. A team gets the puck and immediately turns around and attacks, and vice versa within seconds. The speed of play can be incredible.
5. Guaranteed 60 minutes of action. The ice hockey clock stops every time there is a break in play. You know every week you pay and receive 60 minutes of action. Unfortunately in football you pay for 90 minutes of action but you never get full 90 minutes of true action due to breaks in play, play acting and time wasting.
6. Did I mention pay? Ice hockey is a cheap sport to watch. A family ticket at Invicta Dynamos will cost you £26. If you attend a football game in the top 4 tiers of the English Football League, you will be hard pushed to get much change out of £26 for a single adult ticket these days.
7. The ice hockey players. They take time to talk to the fans, they’re genuinely good guys. The time they’ll take to patiently do autographs and pictures for everyone, especially for kids, is just amazing. These players play ice hockey for the love of the game. Invicta Dynamos players all work for a living and on top of that still train on Tuesday/Thursday evenings (starting at 10pm and finishing in the early hours of the next morning) and then play games on both Saturday and Sunday. You hear nearly every week in football about some footballers being tired – you don’t hear ice hockey players voicing the same opinion, these guys put the commitment in for the love of the game, not pay.

So in summary, ice hockey has taken over as my greatest sporting hobby. It’s encouraging to see a good mixture of men, women and children at these games. The sport deserves to grow in the UK and maybe, just maybe I’ve captured enough interest in this article to get you to come along to watch a game of ice hockey.

Further details on the Invicta Dynamos ice hockey club can be found on http://invictadynamos.co.uk/

Individual match tickets are priced as follows:

• Adult: £9.50
• Adult aged 60+: £8.50
• Child aged 15 and under: £5.00
• Family of 2 adults and 2 children: £26.00

 

Pictures supplied by David Trevallion.