The Quad City Flames

What a great night for hockey in the Quad Cities. The crowd was big, and very excited and involved in the game. If baseball fans would get that into minor league baseball, it would really be something. The attendance was 7,548. Just for comparison, the Iowa Stars vs San Antonio Rampage only drew 5,895 to the 13,000 seat AT&T Center in San Antonio. The Flames game was in the upper half of attendance rankings last night in a league that includes cities like Providence, Milwaukee, and Portland. Lets hope the crowd excitement and winning team snowball into another year like we had when the Mallards first arrived.
I'd say between half and two-thirds of the people wore red to participate in the River of Red. The parent team in Calgary has the "Sea of Red."
Look, people are actually paying attention to the game, and jumping up when something happens. Take note, local minor league teams, somehow make this happen!

Even though these are 2 brand new teams of players, they seem to have inherited the QC-Rockford rivalry. Here is one of the many fights or near fights, and believe it or not, the penalty box. I don't know that I've ever seen 7-8 players at a time in there before. And to think people were worried about the AHL not being as physical as the UH!

Unrelated Note: The only downside of the night was outside of the hockey world. Despite my usual opposition to the Cubs winning, I was really rooting for them tonight. I had tickets to Sunday's playoff game at Wrigley, and it would have been nice if the Cubs had managed to stay in it long enough for me to watch them lose. As they say, maybe next year...