Thoughts from the Belfast weekend.

[Keith Sheppard]

I thought I’d keep this separate from the game thread and the “what happens now?” thread, as it relates to other areas. This is not meant to be me having a go at our club or individuals, it’s just me trying to make positive suggestions. Our club could really benefit from having a look at how the Giants do their game night presentation, it’s superb. I talked to a few Steelers fans about this, and they all agreed about the experience. One fan I talked to hit the nail on the head, their announcer knew how to read the room. When something occurred on the ice and the fans reacted, he didn’t play a music stab or announcement. He kept quiet, showed a replay and let the crowd do the rest. The interval entertainment was good fun too with different games both nights between rival fans. Their scoreboard was used more effectively with quizzes and videos. It would just require small tweaks, to our current ideas, but it was so effective. The music was far better in Belfast too, it was more in a ‘rock music’ vein, I know we’ve been told that certain music won’t work in the arena, but it does in Belfast’s! ….. but that was probably the Guinness talking.

[MLL79]

I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the inter-period break games were that were going on in the background on the webcast. Especially the mini Land Rovers!!

Sounds like it was a good night bar the stuff on the frozen bit in the middle

Always fancied the Belfast trip as part of a weekend mini break so it sounds like a good experience.

[DimTim]

We attended the ISU skating gala on Sunday. The music was not deafening & whilst an additional lighting rig was suspended above the ice it created a whole different atmosphere.

Oh & they put a QR code on the jumbotron that made people’s phone lights turn on/off to the music - we need that for when players entering the ice!

[Brian]

Our interval entertainment has become very boring in my opinion. We seem to be trading interest for volume.
We are very wary of putting any fans on the ice, presumably afraid of one falling and suing. Very 21st Century I am afraid.
The phone lights seems a great idea!

[smbmetal]

I've not been to Belfast, but I have heard people who think our music and entertainment is better than theirs's etc. I think it's just because it's different to the norm of what people get used to at their own home games.

Personally, I cringe at a lot of our match night entertainment and it doesn't appear to vary much, some examples being, 'Evening Norma' at the first break in play with flag waving in the 1st period.....Dance cams in the 2nd with a mix of holding babies up and singing Sweet Caroline is the about the long and short of ours. BUT, many, many people appear to love it, almost 8,000+ game will attest to that.

I like the welcome to Sheffield intro video though this year, I think that's excellent. We also appear to start more or less on time.

I did used to enjoy Steeler Dan zooming around on the Quad bike and trailer with chuck a puck though back in the day.

[rnewbolt1]

On match night entertainment it seems in my opinion everywhere but Sheffield is good especially Braehead, nice touch with intermittent organ playing

[kivo1889]

Our interval entertainment has become very boring in my opinion. We seem to be trading interest for volume.
We are very wary of putting any fans on the ice, presumably afraid of one falling and suing. Very 21st Century I am afraid.
The phone lights seems a great idea!

I recall a 'skate with the steelers' event at Ice Sheffield a few years ago when a girl with v basic skating skills took a bad fall, and her family sued the club! There hasn't been one since, although that could possibly be because we hardly ever play at IS these days? Which is a pity as my then 8 year old daughter skated with the team on one one occasion and really enjoyed it (she was doing her skate UK levels and was a good figure skater).