Posted by:
Ben Wright on
May 22, 2007 at
3:26PM EST
I lived in Ottawa for three years in the not too distant past and I aside from
hating my jobs while I was that I consider it an incredible experience. The
people were great and the city is fantastic- if you can bear the cold in the
winter. It's a great hockey city, and if the Senators had have had the sense to
build their arena downtown instead of in Kanata there would never be an empty
seat in Scotiabank Place. If I remember correctly they wanted to build on a
piece of property close to Parliament Hill called Lebreton Flats but the soil
was contaminated and it wasn't deemed suitable. Now the Canadian War Museum sits
on that spot. Oh what could have been...
Anyway- Ottawa is without a doubt one
of my favorite cities, and one of the reasons is because it's so well-suited to
large gatherings. Pretty much everything of interest is in a 30 square block
area around Parliament Hill, and the hill ends up being the focal point for
everything. When something big is going on in Ottawa you feel it.
I remember watching the 2004 World Cup of Hockey gold medal game on Elgin
Street and afterwards I followed the mob that wandered from a sports bar up the
street to Parliament Hill and then through the market are. It was a few hundred
people, loudly but peacefully celebrating Canada's victory. No violence. No
vandalism. At one point someone tipped over a newspaper stand and they actually
got yelled at by half a dozen other people in the crowd as someone set it
upright.
All of this leads up to the following video. I know plenty of Thrashers fans
aren't so fond of the Senators, but having lived in Ottawa I'm happy for the
fans in the city. The enthusiasm they showed on Saturday when they eliminated
the Sabres was incredible, and I only expect to see more of it during the Cup
Finals. Congratulations Ottawa.
Even the team was impressed with the outpouring of support.
Here's a question for you- if the Thrashers were to advance to the Cup Finals
with a road win like Ottawa did and fans decided to celebrate in the streets,
where in Atlanta would that celebration be held?
(2) Comments
Posted by: Jason on May 22, 2007 11:14PM EST
Centennial Olympic Park - close enough to Blueland, large enough to hold a ton of people (worked for the Olympics, so it could surely hold a bunch of Thrashers fans!) you could have live bands, all kinds of things going on, and, obviously, it's almost too perfect being that it's right ouside the arena. If it rains, then I'd say hold a fan celebration in the World Congress Center... but if it's just fans who want to celebrate, there's no reason not to have some craziness along Peachtree and perhaps have a Thrashers parade down Peachtree as well... imagine the cruising of the cars with Thrashers flags and stickers and fans going crazy... man this is turning out to sound like something we need to experience and soon!
They should just close down Peachtree near the arena for the parade and fans...
Watching this video REEEEEEEEALY makes me wish we had made it this far... this is what it's all about...
But yeah if you are gonna have something like this, there's no other place that on Peachtree... it wouldn't make sense anywhere else... craziness in the streets then everyone makes their way to the Park for a concert or the team up on a stage talking to the crowd... Ice Girls out throwing things out... tables everywhere to get people to sign up for season tickets.... see where I'm going with this? Oh man it would be the best thing to happen to this city next the Olympics and the Braves 95 World Championship....
Posted by: PT on May 24, 2007 8:08AM EST
Celebration answer...of course Centennial. I don't think we have the volume needed to take over Peachtree...yet.
