Playing Hockey in Cool Places

Have you ever wanted to play beer league outdoors? What about in an NHL arena? Or maybe a football stadium?
This episode we're talking about some cool places I've played and how I got into them. Then it's how were they found, and how can you find cool places to play.

Links:
Rent The Rink
BLPA
YouTube Reviews Playlist

http://thebeerleaguer.com
https://thebeerleaguer.buzzsprout.com
https://www.instagram.com/thebeerleaguer/
https://linktr.ee/beerleaguer

Music by RomaRecord1973 via Pixabay

Chapters

• 3:01 The easiest way to get into different venues.
• 7:08 Just ask
• 8:35 Being social on social media

Transcript

0:22

One of my favorite things to do besides play hockey is getting to play hockey in some pretty cool places. And this episode of the Your podcast, I touch on a couple of the places I've gotten to play hockey at and how those came about. But more importantly, I tell you how you can find cool places to play hockey to. In this episode, I'm here to talk about some of the interesting and different places I've been able to play hockey. Now, I never played hockey as a kid, but I don't have stories about a way game, tournaments, all the stuff that kids talk about, you know, playing near hockey and mini sticks and stuff like that in the hallways. I read that. I started playing it as adults, and I always thought that that was something that was good to do it. That was just for kids. But I am here to say that adults can find cool places to play hockey, and you should be doing it for a little context of where I play hockey now. I'm in Cleveland, Ohio, in the United States League that I play in plays at five different rinks in the area, and they're all rinks that like high school teams play at. None of them are larger than two pads of ice. Most of them are single pad rinks. There is an outdoor rink that we have around here that is run by the city, that has a regional pick up or stick in park, usually just kind of open skates. And there's a couple other rinks that aren't in the league that I do play at and played at. But again, those are like rinks that high school team plays at. Nothing created. You know, I think that's what most rec league's most about league's most parents are playing that. But what I have played at outside of that is some pretty cool places. I've played at six different NHL arenas. I've played in Pittsburgh, Vegas, Jersey, Long Island, Detroit, Philly. I've played at an NHL stadium, NFL stadium rinks up in Toronto that are really big and way nicer than a lot of the rinks around here that I've played at outdoor rinks on Long Island, outdoor rinks in Buffalo. So some pretty cool places. And I'm not doing anything special. I'm nobody special who gets to go play in these places. So there's no reason you can't play in some of these cool places too. So what we're talk about is how I've gotten into these, how you can find places to play so you can get out and play some of these things. The easiest way to get out and play at some cool places is to get ice yourself. I've played at the arena over in Cleveland here. It's where the Cavs play. It's where the NHL team Monsters play. And my league does our annual All-Star game there. And I played in it for a couple of years and I actually run that now. And it's not anything crazy to get. It's just about finding the right person. Most NHL, NHL, CHL all through whatever league you want to talk about. They'll have somebody that is in charge of like community relations, youth hockey, something like that. That's the person you get a hold of. Find out how you can get the rink. These rinks usually have ice sitting there. Nobody's using it. They'd like to make money off of it. So they will let you get on there. Usually most of them do, especially the non NHL rinks. The NHL rinks. A lot of times they will have tighter schedules on stuff because they have other stuff going on, other events, the teams, you know, kind of need the ice to be at their disposal. Usually for things so they can be a little bit tougher. But like these minor league teams don't have that sort of thing. So they have a lot of openings, you know, during the week and stuff when there's not stuff going on. So like, what I do with our All-Star Game is we have to sell X number of tickets to get an hour of ice time. So we just like have an All-Star Game organized where every team in the league can send people to the All-Star Game and they just have to buy, you know, X number of tickets so we can fill our quota and we get ice. It's pretty simple to do that, and a lot of teams have something similar to that, or some of them just have you can just flat out rent the ice, you know, like you can at your local rink. So it's just a matter of getting a hold of somebody from that team and asking them about that, like, Hey, can we rent ice at some point hours for it might not be great. You know, might be they only have stuff available during the day, which maybe you can't do. Maybe it's only on weekends during the week. But something like, you know, find out, call, find out, talk to people if they want to rent the ice, it's there. It's just sitting there. They want to get that out there. Along those same lines. Like I said, the city has a outdoor rink and you can rent that. The rink over here that we have isn't really a hockey rink. It's just a ice rink that you can play hockey. And they have had like some small kind of half ice size tournaments and stuff on it for things. But there are rinks around there that, you know, you can find rinks that will rent you ice, especially if they're city rinks. That's what they're there for. They're there for people to use, so they want them to get rented. So there is something like that. Find out who runs it. If it's the city, if it's somebody owns it, and see if they rent it, A lot of the stuff is just doing a little bit of legwork to find it, to say, Who do I pay money to to get to do this thing. That's usually the biggest. The biggest thing for it is finding that person. This is also how I've gotten to play at AFL Stadium last year here in Cleveland. Monsters, the minor league team played at Cleveland Browns Stadium and because I had a relationship with the monsters from renting the ice, previously we got offered ice, so same kind of deal. You know, we had to buy X number of tickets to that outdoor game and we're able to play at an AFL stadium and play there. That's that's a pretty cool kind of once in a lifetime thing to probably get to do. But it's because I talk to people before and they knew me and they had me on a list of people that are was interested doing this kind of stuff. So once you kind of get your foot in the door with these things, it kind of opens up to you to be able to do these things. That's that kind of leads into my next point, which is just ask around and talk to people, you know, find out, you know, people have played it cool venues, find out if they are playing someplace different and, you know, if they have done like a travel tournament or something or they know somebody else that has and just ask around. I think everybody that I know that's gotten to play at different rinks, at arenas and stuff like that, they love to talk about it because it's a cool thing. It's, you know, you get to kind of brag about where you've played. So if you just get them talking, you can usually find out how it came about or lead you to somebody else to how did they, you know, get this and how did this happen and can I do this? And it's just getting the ball rolling. A lot of this is really just doing legwork. It's usually pretty easy to get the ice, just finding out who to talk to, who's the right person to talk to at certain places. That's usually the biggest hurdle. So just putting it out there and, you know, like I said, getting your name on a list, getting on a waitlist for something, just letting friends, you know, know people you play hockey with, people in your league know, hey, this is something I would be interested in doing. And if they're looking for somebody then or they know if something opens up, hopefully they'll get a hold of you about it. That's that's probably the easiest and biggest way to get into this stuff. Another thing to do, if you're looking for places to play social media, this is a great time to actually use social media for stuff. Follow local teams, you know, not just your professional teams, your semi-pro teams, your like junior teams. If you're in Canada, you know, triple-A teams, things like that. Even a lot of these bigger league teams have, you know, Facebook, Instagram accounts, Twitter accounts, stuff like that. Follow them, check out what they're doing. You know, go scrolling through and see if they've played it cool places and if they have zero message and say, hey, how did you get to play there? How did you do this? You know, how did that happen? Find out about it. You know, people, like I said, usually to talk about it. So look up for those things. Also read. It is really good. The hockey players subreddit. That's actually how I found the group that became Rent the Rink. That's actually how I played in those NHL arenas is they started it because the guy had this idea of, Hey, I can find that I can rent out ice at Joe Louis Arena before it closed, but he needed X number of people to get in there to make it, you know, so it was affordable to do it. And he got it. And he did that a couple of times. And then that turned into this rent the rink thing that he was doing. Hopefully that comes back, but that's just from reading a thing on Reddit. Also from Reddit is how I found out about the BRP, the Beer League Players Association. They do tournaments, they do draft tournaments, they're doing travel tournaments now. They're a great one to look at too, because they go to some cool places. And if you know, you can't get a whole team together, you know, you want to go to someplace cool and play hockey someplace different, you want to play out of state, want to make a trip out of it. But you can only go yourself or, you know, your family goes or something like that. They're draft tournaments. That's kind of what they're for. You know, go there, play with some different people. You don't have to know anybody. You'll meet people and those are the people that you can also ask about playing in other tournaments. I've done one of their just regular tournaments with the team down there and talking to other people. Some of the people were local and they'd only were there because they were in the, you know, from the area. But also there are a number of people that traveled from out of state, from a couple of states away to go play in this. And once you start talking to them, that's, you know, how you find out other places to play, other things that they've done, you know, exchange information with them. I hate to say this, but a lot of it comes down to networking with people. That's kind of the key to a lot of these things is just putting out there to people that you want to go play at some different venues. You want to go play at some cool places and seeing what comes back from it, I think is Instagram. It's a great place to look again. Following local teams doesn't have to be pro semi-pro triple-A junior team, stuff like that. See where they're playing, see if they're playing tournaments, see if they're playing outdoor ice somewhere, see if they got something like that, and if you're not, you know, getting a hold of the team, get a hold of the venue and see if they have things. You know, I will put some links down to some YouTube videos that I've done playing in the Rent the rink venues and also links to all these tournament places that I've talked about in the shownotes. And if you're watching this on YouTube, also in the descriptions, so you can check this stuff out for yourself and kind of see some of my experiences and what I've gotten to do with those. Like I said, going back to when I played at the NFL stadium, you know, getting a hold of teams that played there wouldn't have really helped me. But getting a hold of the venue, you know, directed me into the right place to talk to. So see if they're playing places that you'd like to play. Because if somebody has ice down again, they they don't want to just sitting there costing them money. They'd like to make some money off of it. You know, these people that have ice, it's expensive to have ice. They want to get their money back from it. They don't want to have it, you know, just sitting there, not doing anything. They're usually happy to have people come in and rent it, rent it out and get stuff on there. The thing is to look for tournaments. I know my league that I play in that I've played up in Toronto. They do like a championship tournament at the end of the year up in Toronto. So some leagues have things like that. Their league doesn't have something like that. You know, you're not in the league, maybe ask about it, see if there's something they can do, you know, if they could go someplace cooler, have a have a neat venue like that. And, you know, you can also volunteer to help organize something like that. Some of these venues are easier to get into if you have the power of a league behind you. Like I said, for the All-Star Game that I help organize. If I didn't have a league behind me with a large group of players to get involved in it, it would be just trying to get enough of my buddies together to get up there and buy the tickets and put that together, and that would be a lot more difficult than getting a whole league of people that want to do that. So maybe offer that up to your league as, Hey, I'll do the work for this. Can I have the backing of you guys to bring in teams to do that or maybe even play like regular season games someplace different or like a championship game somewhere, or trying to put on some sort of like a championship tournament at a cool venue as well. Or if you go to a tournament, look around a lot of the rinks that host tournaments, host multiple tournaments. So they might advertise, you know, for an upcoming tournament. Maybe it's not an adult tournament, but maybe it is. You know, you can find those advertisements there because, again, if they're having a tournament, they want people they're especially good if you're going out of town somewhere to look for that stuff, you know, get out and find these things, see who's putting on the tournament. A lot of these companies that put on tournaments, they put on multiple tournaments, usually not just in one area. Even these places that do kids tournaments, a lot of them also do some adult tournaments in there. They realize that's a good venue. That's a way they can make other money, make a little extra, do something different. It's, you know, so look that up. Look up these places. If there's some where you're going that does the stuff or if you have kids that play hockey, you know, if they're doing a travel tournament or an away thing or something like that, see who's running it? Ask them about it. Now. Ask if they do do adult stuff. If you can get into that, find out how they do these things. Usually if you find one tournament that's somewhere, some adult tournament, you're going to find other ones. It's again, it snowballs. If you're out there looking for it, you're going to find it because these places want to be found. They're not hiding. They're they're trying to be found at stuff. So if you start looking at the rinks, start looking online for things like that, you'll find this stuff. It's out there, you know, Google it, Google for tournaments in your area or someplace you want to go. That's a great way to find these things, too. They want to be found via Google. They want to be found on Facebook. They want to be found on different things like that. If you just Google for yeah, adult hockey tournament near me or adult hockey tournament in whatever city, you're going to find some stuff, you know, and that can kind of lead you down the right road if you just just look for it. I think a lot of people don't even think to look for it or think it's too hard to find it or it's going to be really difficult. It's not mostly tournaments or super easy to sign up for, to most of them just yeah, they don't want to make it a pain for you. They want you there. They want to take your money. They want to make it the lowest barrier to entry as possible to get into these things. So get, get out there and look around, you know, find this stuff. All right. To recap how to find cool places to play, number one, ask around, tell people you're looking for this stuff. Ask people where they've played, see how they got into there. That's the easiest thing you can start doing right now. You know, just get get kind of the word out that you're interested in it. Follow on social media, looking for local teams or teams that are near to you or teams near where you want to play and look and see where they're playing, see if they're playing in some cool venues, see if they have, you know, an away tournament at some place that's, you know, just got ice for this year, something like that. See where that is? Follow up with the venue. See how you can get in there Now they'll get back to you. It's not that hard to do. Just looking around on that. Follow other things like stuff on Reddit. Reddit is a great place to be looking for. This stuff is a great place to be asking for these things. That's a place people kind of advertise that they're doing this stuff, looking for teams or looking for players, you know? So that's that's a great venue for that as well. And finally, I think the easiest way to do this okay, maybe not the easiest, but the least difficult way, do it yourself. Just do it yourself. Find a venue near you that you think is cool. If you have a local team and you want to play it at their place to play at the rink that they play at, we don't think you can find somebody that works at the rink, find somebody that works for the team, that runs that and talk to them, see what you can do. Try to go play at a different rink somewhere else in the area. Find out what it is, find out what the barrier to entry to get in is. Usually it's just buying tickets, paying X amount of money. Usually that's all you got to do. So find that. Just keep talking. They'll direct you to the right person, find something for yourself, you know, put together like I did put put together this all star game saying something like that or just make a game out of it. Get, get your teams play in there. I played at this outdoor rink in Long Island with the rent the rink folks when we were out there and it was because we had local people too Long Island, that were doing the rent, the rink experience and their local beer league played at this outdoor rink weekly and they said, Hey, you know, we're having all these people out there for this event instead of having our teams play there on this night, Can we just bring out these guys that are traveling for, you know, for this rent or anything? And we did we played out at this really cool outdoor rink in Long Island, you know, So if you just kind of ask around, talk to people, put that out there, go to some of these things and see if there's tournaments and stuff going on near you. And even if you're not playing in them, go to them. Go check it out. You know, the people that run the tournaments, talk to them, talk to them when there's not people coming in for signing up, you know, when they have time, don't bother them When they're kind of kicking things off or doing stuff. There can be a lot less friendly then. But, you know, talk to them and see what they have. So other places they're doing things, see who's running the stuff. Maybe they can direct you to, you know, the right place to go or the right people to do, or maybe they do something themselves and have that. But, you know, if you just kind of put in a little bit of legwork to most of these things, you can usually find an avenue to getting to play some pretty cool places. Listen, it's not difficult to find cool places to play. It just takes doing a little bit of work, a couple of phone calls or emails or something, asking the right people, keeping your eyes open for it, and that's it. It's 100% worth it, though. That little bit of work is totally worth it. So, you know, whether it's a weekend and Airbnb with the boys going to play in a tournament, you're taking a full on destination vacation with the family, you know, to Europe or even just another state, you know, to go play a little hockey while you're also on vacation or it's someplace you usually go and watch a pro team. If you just want to play on the same ice that you go watch teams play on. It's going to be a memorable experience for everybody involved because getting to play hockey is great, but game to play hockey in someplace cool is just special. So get out there. Go play hockey in someplace cool. Let me know about it. Let me know where you've played, how you came about playing there. I'd love to hear about it because like I said, when you get to play in a cool place, you like to brag about it. All right, everybody out there encourages you. Get out, go play hockey, and someplace cool with your friends or a bunch of strangers, have some good stories to tell and we'll catch you in the next one.