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When you think of the Invesco Stadium
what image comes to mind? The Continental Airlines Arena
is where? Just what is a Core States Arena? Do cores
play there? What exactly is a Giant Center? All them
sports places look pretty big to me.
When it comes to building stadiums in
America one thing stays the same. Money talks, the rest
walks. So Long Mile High Stadium. Yes it needed updated
and the private bucks walked in. Invesco Corporation
built the stadium, and what is in a name? Just memories
I guess. Being unique in that it is a mile high fell
away to corporate advertising.
I know where the Meadowlands are. It is
a New York and New Jersey States Sports area complex.
Now the Meadowlands Arena is named after an airline.
Somehow it doesn’t flow. Going to the Meadowlands meant
something. Going to Continental Airlines Arena sounds
like you should have plane tickets.
Remember the venerable
Army Navy games at JFK stadium in Philadelphia, Pa.?
That is gone. Now it is a shiny building with a roof.
Papers called it the Core States Center. Now a new corporation
is in town and it is called The First Union Center.
Somehow a President’s name sounded more fitting. However,
the times change.
The change even affected smaller venues.
In this case the Hershey Park Arena is closing their
doors to professional sports. Replacing it will be another
corporate name known as the Giant Center. Giant is a
large-scale supermarket chain. Hershey, as in candy,
is no small potatoes in the corporate field. Business,
being business, deemed just let some body else build
a stadium in their backyard. It will be good for the
fans, so they say. It is good for the players, so they
say. It won’t cost us a dime and the shareholders of
Hershey will smile, so they don’t say. Money talks all
by itself.
In that sense little has changed. Money,
and one irritated rich guy, had the Hershey Park Arena
built. In 1936 Milton S. Hershey could not get a ticket
to a hockey game in the 1,900 seat local Ice Palace.
Despite the fact it was located in a town named after
him. His solution was to build something bigger and
better. Despite the Depression his chocolate sales were
staying strong. It also would provide much needed employment
too many of the residents and craftsmen in the surrounding
area. In addition, when finished, it would provide 7,225
seats. Any seeking admittance would have a seat.
Mr. Hershey asked only one thing. That
it be built by the end of the year. Well that and the
structure, and team playing there, bear his last name.
When I worked there years ago I often heard this story.
During the cooler months of the year they needed to
find a way to generate warmth. So that the interior
construction cement could set and become hard. This
was accomplished by bringing in wagonloads of animal
manure. For a short time it was just another new smell
floating around town. One Hershey did not put its name
to.
Hershey Entertainment and Resorts, which
own the facility now, explain it as the largest monolithic
structure in the United States when built. It had a
distinctive arched cement ceiling making it one of the
few arenas that incorporated a ceiling into the overall
look of the arena. It was announced as the most technologically
and architecturally advanced arena of that time.
However, now it is thought of the oldest
professional hockey venue in North America.
In addition the seating was on a much
steeper grade then would be allowed today. Dave Mishkin,
the team’s radio voice once said "The fans sitting
in the seats had the sense that they were sitting right
on top of the ice. And so the opposing teams had the
sense that the fans were sitting right on top of them."
The early fans watched a hockey team called
the Hershey B’ars. In time, because it sounded too commercial,
the name was changed to Hershey Bears. In addition to
hosting the Bears it also was home to ice shows, concerts
and circuses. In 1979 it housed numerous families due
to a partial meltdown of the near by reactor plant Three
Mile Island.
Despite all of the activity associated
with Hershey Park Arena lore it is possible best remembered
for something else. Hockey was not the only sport played
here. The then Philadelphia Warriors also played some
home basketball games under the arched ceiling. On March
2, 1962 they battled the New York Knicks, and set two
NBA records in the process. The first was the highest
scoring game to this date in a basketball game. The
Warriors bested the Knicks 169 points to 147. Along
the way about 4,120 fans watched Wilt Chamberlain score
an amazing 100 points. No other arena, but this one,
can boast that.
Frank Mathers spent close to 35 years
with the Bears as a player, coach, general manager and
then president. When asked about the move he stated,
" The players have improved, the equipment has
improved, and so the building shouldn’t be left out".
Not that the fans were asked. Like it
or not the move will be made to a newer and cushier
stadium this year. The new arena will feature more seats,
restaurants, luxury boxes and club seats. The old arena
will enter semi retirement. It will host college hockey,
and other events to be named later. The 1910 Ice Palace
is now called the Hershey Museum. I suspect the real
fans of the Hershey Bears liked the Hershey Park Arena
just as it is. However if somebody builds it, and the
Hershey Bears are playing, the fans will come.
Same is true for the Invesco Stadium,
Continental Airlines Arena, First Union Center and the
Giant Center. To sports fans the name of the game, is
the game. Pure and simple. The name of stadium is slowly
meaning little.
Whose fault is that?
Please send thoughts, feelings, and comments
by clicking on the bottom to Mike Toone.
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