Hockey more hailed in Athens
Now don't get me wrong, I am one of the biggest college football fans around. But when it comes to Ohio football and Ohio hockey, the colder sport is by far the cooler of the two to watch.
I am not trying to draw the ire of all the Bobcat football faithful (God knows I don't want threatening e-mails from all 12 of you), but the big difference is in the fan excitement at the games.
Take any given Saturday when both teams are playing at home, and I think you'll understand what I mean.
Peden stadium fills half way with fans more interested in a social scene than a football game. Take this real life conversation I overheard at a football game my freshman year. Honey
did you see that interception? the guy asked. No she replied. Is that the one where they kick the ball?
All the while Bird Arena is packed with die-hard fans that are only a few feet from the action. They come up with clever chants, paint their faces and help pump up one of the ACHA's best hockey programs. I don't know when you last saw Chip Cox deposit someone into the stands at Peden Stadium, but each time you go to Bird Arena you can watch Nick Bilanow check someone so close you can count the guy's nose hairs as he's smashed against the glass.
Oh yeah, one more thing adds to the excitement of hockey in this town, the tradition of winning. Last year Ohio lost the national championship game to Penn State. When was the last time you saw our beloved football team play a Big Ten school for a national championship? Let me answer that for you; you haven't. Plain and simple, football is a national pastime, but in Athens, I'll take hockey any day.
Peden boasts school's best fans
It's easy to say that the Ohio club hockey has more fan support than the Ohio football team. But that opinion is skewed by the small size of Bird Arena. Of course with as few seats as it has, it is going to fill up.
Peden Stadium seats 24,000, and true it does not ever fill up, but attendance is usually around 20,000 per game. Even if Bird Arena had the capacity and gave away free tickets, it would never come close to that kind of number.
The O-Zone is another example of why football fans are better than hockey fans. There are plenty of crazy die-hard fans at football games. I've heard opposing team's coaches say it more than once: the student section at Peden Stadium is one of the most imposing in the MAC. Additionally, Ohio football claims that it has the top student attendance rate in the MAC.
I've never been to a hockey road game before, but I think it is safe to assume that there are not nearly as many Ohio fans that make those trips as there are who make the trips to football games. At Kentucky this past weekend, there were probably a couple hundred Ohio fans filling the visiting team section. And it was not just parents -
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