Could a school-day game be in the future for the Soo Greyhounds?
Earlier this week, the team played a rare Thursday morning road game against the Peterborough Petes — 11 a.m. puck drop — in front of nearly 4,000 screaming students.
It was a moment the team won't soon forget, and triggered the obvious question: Should the Hounds do the same thing here at GFL Memorial Gardens?
While the team has never formally discussed the possibility of hosting a school-day game for busloads of kids, Greyhounds general manager Kyle Raftis feels it’s something the team could potentially consider.
That said, it wouldn't be as simple as it might seem to add a morning game to the existing schedule. Logistics with current season ticket holders, among other factors, come into play.
“It’s an interesting concept,” Raftis said. “You have to make it work in terms of how the season ticket holders could be a part of it and that side of things."
“It’s always great when you can get a young fan base excited about it," Raftis continued. "We’re always looking at creating new fans. That part of it is exciting. You want to balance your fan base, too, on top of it.”
Raftis called Thursday’s morning game in Peterborough “definitely out of the norm.”
“We were talking about it, there’s almost like a white noise of sound,” Raftis said. “It’s not like it kind of revs up or down depending on what’s going on with the play. It’s just kind of like a steady hum of noise because there’s obviously a lot of youthful energy in the building. It’s kind of neat on that side of things.”
Greyhounds coach John Dean was definitely impressed. He called the chance to play an early game with the stands packed with school kids “a really fun experience.”
“It was fun,” Dean said. “It was crazy. The kids were there an hour before. We were sitting in the coach's office and you could hear the kids cheering and screaming already.”