Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Is The Excitment Still There?

It's already a long summer. Is it long enough for some short term memory loss? Maybe for some fans. But catching up with one of my season ticket holders, this has been an excruciating wait.

It's that time of year when it seems all you see is Redskins, Redskins and more Redskins. So much so that many Washingtonians might have the summer amnesia when it comes to what the Capitals were able to do in the spring. But for hard core season ticket holder friend, who has re-upped for next season already, the playoffs are still fresh in their minds.

"For those of us that were there, that building was amazing," He said with a look of excitement in his eyes. "I don't think I have ever seen a building that alive before and every one of them were in red. I just hope we see more of that next year."

Uncle Ted as already seen the benefits of a an electric spring in the dead of summer. "Business is very healthy for us right now and we are very grateful," Owner Ted Leonsis wrote through his blog. "I watched game 7 of our playoff series against the Flyers last night on the NHL channel. It was so amazing to see that sea of red in the stands. I am hopeful we can keep the spirit alive and recapture that magic throughout next season and it all starts with our season ticket holders."

For some it might be hard to contemplate hockey in this sweltering humidity and heat. But for that core of fans that season ending run and the playoffs that followed has kept ice on the brain no matter what time of year it happens to be.

Take, for instance, my blog. My readership this summer has almost tripled from last year with fans who want to know more about the Capitals. While I appreciate the love, this is becoming much bigger than I hoped for a place that I just came to vent game after game. But the level of the Washington area's saturation of Capitals hockey seems to never reach full. Fans want to know more and they want to keep the momentum going.

"This is a town of flakes," My season ticket holder friend once wrote me. "For them to come in full force to Verizon Center, that means something special happened. I witnessed a team that couldn't draw charity tickets in the door, to a croweded ticket line to get in 2 hours before game time all in one season. That is once in a lifetime experience there."

1 comment:

asnowballschance said...

Actually, being from NY and living in the DC area for 2yrs (although I went to college in VA before that), I've noticed how desperate DC is for a winner in the big four sports and that whenever a team gets hot, except for the Nationals, fans will immediately get on the bandwagon and ride it for a bit until they lose momentum. It's sad and pathetic how the Redskins have saturated this market. I refuse to go to a Redskins game until the Caps win the Stanley Cup. As far as the season starting, I've been clamoring for it to start amongst family and friends since we were ousted in the playoffs.