Buffalo Bandits Open Practice & HarborCenter Visit

After our Bandits game in the spring, Mike and I decided to get season tickets for the 2014-2015 season.  I ordered tickets in November and in December, the Bandits held an open practice/select-a-seat day.  Even though our seats had been selected and paid for, we decided to go down to the arena to watch the practice, pick up discounted merchandise in the gift shop (which Santa delivered on Christmas morning), and then walk over to the HarborCenter for lunch.

http://youtu.be/iOiMN9rNnLw

We weren’t at practice long because the kid lets were starving to death.  We decided to walk over to the HarborCenter for lunch and do a little exploring.
First up was (716) Food and Sport for lunch. For those unfamiliar with Buffalo, 716 is the area code for the Buffalo-area and people sometimes refer to the Buffalo/WNY region as “the 716”. This restaurant is a brand-new sports-themed restaurant and bar with new takes on classic Buffalo bar food and an enormous amount of TV viewing. Their 2-story, 38 foot video screen is so large that one broadcast isn’t large enough to be displayed and they have to have multiple broadcasts displayed on the screen. In addition to the main screen, there are an additional 70 big-screen HD TVs littered around the restaurant, including in the bathroom mirrors. LOL

Waiting to be seated:

We got one of the fancy-schmancy booths:

The TV is so large, I couldn’t even fit it in one picture frame!

http://youtu.be/_NMgjDVDiO4
After we finished our lunch, we walked around to check out the rest of the HarborCenter.

On the top floors is the ice hockey facility. There are 2 NHL-size rinks at the HarborCenter. The main rink (in the picture below) is the home rink of both the Buffalo Junior Sabres youth hockey team as well as my alma mater’s NCAA Division 1 hockey team. (Go Griffs!) In addition to the rinks, there are 6,100 ft of locker room space, concession stands, a sports training facility, Academy of Hockey, classroom space, small theater, and more.  In 2015 alone, the HarborCenter will play host to several hockey tournaments, 2 world championships, and the NHL Combine. It is an impressive facility to say the least.  We’ve been there several times with different people and every single time we walk out onto the rink floor of the HarborCenter, the reaction is “WOW!!!”

Checking out the ice:

The HarborCenter is directly next door to Canalside and overlooks the water and park. You can see the ships from the Naval Park from the windows at rink-level.  Too bad the damn Skyway muddies up the view.

In addition, we could see the progress at the new Ice at Canalside. The outdoor rink is in the same spot as the ice at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, the old arena that was eventually torn down. This rink is part of a larger project to restore the canalway and harbor area and is looking great. The rink opened about 2 weeks after our visit.

Our final stop on the “Tour de HarborCenter” was the brand new Tim Hortons that is located at street-level, across from the site of the former Memorial Auditorium. This Tim Hortons restaurant is unique in that is has special Sabres/Tim Hortons logo, is the only Tim Hortons restaurant themed in blue and gold, and has special displays honoring the Aud and Tim Horton.

Checking out the Aud display:

I fail to understand how the New Kids on the Block concert missed the 1989 highlights. I think that is a miscarriage of justice to say the least. I mean, who the hell does Ringo Starr think he is? Doesn’t he know New Kids are bigger than the Beatles?!?!? LOL  On a more serious note, I do think it’s pretty cool that the Moscow Circus made the list in 1988. I remember going to see that! 🙂

The Tim Horton display was really cool but in a spot that was difficult to photograph. And these very rude people didn’t seem to be aware they were preventing me from getting a good photo. LOL

And that concludes our tour of the HarborCenter. 😉