OSC Game Day: Green Bay Blizzard

by Derrick Sloboda
Published on June 12, 2003 under arenafootball2 (af2)

On a day when a horse was going for the first Triple Crown in 25 years, the Yankees were playing the Cubs for the first time since 1938, and an AFL playoff game between Orlando and Tampa Bay was on the television, I was in Green Bay, Wisconsin for the Green Bay Blizzard and the San Diego Riptide. Oh, the life I lead as a minor league sports fan.

This is how my day went down. Taped the AFL game, listened to the Yankees game driving to Green Bay, and watched the Belmont at a sports bar across the street from the arena. Since the Resch Center is next to Lambeau Field, there are plenty of sports bars in the area so I would suggest that before the game you stop at one of the sports bars or tailgate like some did in the Lambeau Field lot.

By the time the game was finished and I left the Resch Center, I was flat out impressed. Not only with the Blizzard's game presentation but the Resch Center and professionalism of the Blizzard organization.

The Resch Center is brand new and fantastic. It is a perfect af2 arena, as it holds only 8,327. The sound system is top notch and can be heard in any seat or in any part of the concourse, keeping fans in the game no matter where they sit. With the Resch Center, the Blizzard probably have more toys as far as scoreboards and videoboards than any other af2 team, and they use them quite well. Video replays were prompt and clear, every scoreboard was used, and the video board featured creative images such as my favorite "Rock The Resch" image with an image of the arena and the word shaking around it.

The crowd was light for the game with only 2,606 in the stands, but the arena was surprisingly loud. A "Let's Go Blizzard" chant started up multiple times with no urging on by the PA or scoreboard. This is because the arena was filled with football fans. The Blizzard are trying hard not to compete with the Packers in Green Bay, but complement them. They went with green and silver as their colors instead of the Packers' green and gold. The coin toss for the game was done by Packers' wide receiver Donald Driver, and they even have the same music guy as the Packers. But the attendance seems to indicate their tactics are not attracting Packer fans. I just wonder if local residents are too Packer crazy to notice any other football in town. The local paper was advertising a special section on the upcoming Packers' mini camp - a routine mini camp!

It's a shame if the Green Bay residents don't start to take notice because the Blizzard put on a great show that stresses the game on the field rather than just entertainment. They provide a free program with a picture roster of the Blizzard and rules of the game. It features a very useful insert on that day's game with up-to-date rosters for both teams, league standings and player biographies on two select Blizzard players.

Despite not using any pyrotechnics, the Blizzard player introductions are very impressive. The keystone of the show is a fantastic and professional movie of a blizzard moving through Wisconsin and the city of Green Bay while going from Lambeau to inside the Resch Center with fans running from the blizzard. It is fun and allows Green Bay residents to relate to the team by seeing shots of the city. It could easly stand up with AFL movies I have seen. Sure, some pyrotechnics could have added an exclamation point, but it still was impressive.

The introductions follow Matt Goebel's (responsible for game day operations for the Blizzard) philosophy of keeping the game presentation simple and not cluttered with goofy on-field promotions. His goal is to keep the entertainment fresh, and he tries to do this by not overloading the presentation with in-game promotions that may take away from the contest on the field. Thus the Blizzard in-game promotions are basic: sub delivery to a fan in the stands, a fan trying to hit a target with a football, items being thrown into the stands each quarter, and the like. To keep an even flow to the game even during game breaks, Green Bay doesn't use an emcee for the promotions. The regular arena announcer explains the promotions rather than using a roving emcee to conduct them. This way only one voice is heard during the game rather than going back and forth between the arena announcer and the promotions emcee.

The Blizzard's halftime entertainment was a mascot football game. The game only featured six mascots so it was three on three with local radio personalities as the quarterbacks. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't horribly entertaining either. The best part was seeing the A&W bear fall down a few times due to his short legs. In defense of the Blizzard organization, they had a few mascots back out on them during the week so they had to settle with what they had.

One area I believe the Blizzard is missing out on is providing some sort of event before the game. The large plaza outside has a view of Lambeau Field and would be an excellent space for inflatable games for kids, live bands, and other activities. It is something that I would love to see the Blizzard expand to in the future.

Simply put, the Blizzard flat out sell the game of Arena Football. The Resch Center is a first class building and stands as my favorite af2 arena. The Blizzard have top notch resources with the Resch Center and take full advantage of them to put on a fantastic show. The Green Bay fans I met were diehard football fans. Many of them commented on how professional the Blizzard organization seemed compared to the old Indoor Football League Bombers, which leads me to believe that the Blizzard are succeeding on putting on a great show for the fans.

Extra points

• The touchdown song for the Blizzard is "Party Hard" by Andrew WK, a great choice.
• The Blizzard sell a good looking t-shirt for only 12 dollars.
• The Blizzard don't score regular touchdowns, they score "Bayland Buildings Touchdowns."

Next up for OSC Game Day: Louisville Fire at Quad City Steamwheelers, June 14th.

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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.