Pond hockey Buffalo style

Went down to Erie Basin Marina for the pond hockey tourney Saturday. True, this is a little late but it was only two days ago. I went with someone that didn't even know what the Erie Basin Marina was or how to get there and he has lived in Buffalo his whole life. Sorry state of affairs the 'waterfront' is in when people that live here don't even know how to get there. But yea lets sue and cry and whine and bitch until we save every old piece of shit building and structure and we get our way..

Um, but I digress. So Labatt decided to hold a pond hockey tournament in Buffalo. Great idea, all of a sudden we have their headquarters here and everyone is obsessed with hockey, and of course we are all obsessed with beer so it is a perfect marriage.

The tourney moved 3 times from Hoyt park to the parking lot to EBM parking lot to finally the actual lake/marina. It was four on four small nets no goalies and a lot of fun. It was sweet having the whole city in the back drop and if you have a chance to look at any pictures you can see how cool it looked down there.

What was cooler was 16 ounce 'warm' cool cans of Blue and Blue light were only $2! Slices of pizza were $2 and hot dogs were $2, so if you were lookin for something to do cheaply and still drink with or with out the family you missed out.

Of course, the event wasn't perfect. No music, kind of far away from the action, no one knew any of the teams and you were outside. But considering the conditions, it was sunny and not too windy, it was a solid day.

Reports from the organizers seem to be all positive and according to this article and Labatt's head honchos the event is only going to get bigger. Obviously bigger is better and of course the all to positive Mayor Byron Brown jumped in and said, “It’s just absolutely wonderful the commitment this company is showing to their new home in Buffalo,” Brown said of Labatt. “I see this being one of the largest events in the City of Buffalo over the next few years.”

So hopefully it is better organized next year and this thing gets bigger as more people discover it. Some other problems include only 25+ year olds allowed to play, the tourney being contingent on the weather and well I guess thats it.. See you there next year fo sho.