Good Lord this is Marketing 101 - every media outlet in Boston would be all over this.
The AHL Hershey Bears were on every major network news last night because of this
There is NO downside for the Bruins doing this
Theres just way too many people that would show up for it. Its the game all fans circle on the schedule and what like 10,000 people showed up in Hershey? Bruins would double that.
I've played in one with 3,500 fans and it took a good 45 minutes to clean all the bears up with probably 75 people + players help picking up the bears.
Thanks for the input. I did not realize it took that long to clear them all. You cant use carts to hold the bears because then you risk the ice and having to resurface.
An hour delay is not something the NHL would be OK with.
Good Lord this is Marketing 101 - every media outlet in Boston would be all over this.
Do it RIGHT at the end of the game. That final buzzer sounds and bam, raining bears. Everybody wins.
not just AHL, but the ECHL arenas as well, the issues are depending on the arena where is the quickest way to throw a bear without it missing the intended target, same with the chuck a puck promotion, half or 2/3 miss the target altogetherBrilliant. This was my solution reading through this thread, too. Heck, I would be mildly annoyed if I was at a game and there were an unscheduled/unannounced 45-minute delay due to a teddy bear toss, but do it at the end of the game, and you just leave the ice crew to clean it all up when folks are gone.
It seems like such an obvious and easy thing to do. Pay the ice crew 60 minutes of overtime to clean up the ice after the game, and you get:
1) Increase demand for tickets to the game.
2) People staying until the end of the game. That means they want to eat/drink.
3) Tons, tons, tons of media coverage
4) Even more media coverage if you have each player select a bear to be autographed and auctioned off later on to raise money for the same charity.
And that's ignoring the tremendous amount of good that's done by having charity events.
Maybe security would be an issue? That's my biggest devil's advocate argument against this, but security exists at AHL venues, too, and they make it work.
We used massive garbage bags to haul ours out and it took forever. I think that's what Hershey did too. The worst part is the ice after you have a bunch of people walking all over it - after they have been walking around in slush outside. The ice gets bad, dirt everywhere. That's really the only downside though, super cool experience.
basically, it's a similar thing to what a the teddy bear toss is: the difference is it's your regulation practice pucks that you see some players flip the pucks over the dasher/glass to fans.... the difference is there's a target usually at the center dot where you have 30 sec to a minute and a half to hit the target.... if you land near or on the target, you get a pre-determined prize, very similiar to the Ice Girls shooting t-shirts out of a minature cannon as far as they can shoot itWhat is “Chuck a puck”?