On February 3, I attended my first lacrosse game.
All I can say is that it changed my life forever.
Somehow, I went 18, almost 19, years of my life without ever attending a lacrosse game. It’s even funnier because in the area I’m from, there’s a local team. From my house, the arena is only an hour away, so I have no idea how I haven’t gone yet, but I never did. So, when I saw the ad go up saying that there would be transportation to and from the game, and that tickets to the game were only $15, I jumped on it real quick.
As soon as I stepped foot into the building, I felt a sense of community. The entire checkpoint/security area was a sea of orange, black and white, as my home team is the Buffalo Bandits. When I got through the security area, and went up to the 300 level, that sense of community increased.
After getting a ton of food to enjoy while watching the game (plus the food wasn’t from the dining hall on my campus so it was 200x better), I went into the arena, where I found a great seat on the aisle. It wasn’t long before the festivities ended, and the game began.
I’m not going to bore you with a play-by-play description of what happened, but I will tell you that the atmosphere of the arena each time the Bandits scored was insane. The entire arena erupted into cheers, everyone threw their hands up and clapped and some even stood. When there were bad calls, the camera panned around the arena and caught fans screaming words that I can’t repeat here. It was absolutely amazing.
During the game, there were little breaks. During those little breaks, the announcer engaged with the audience. During each of those engagements, the audience went nuts. When the announcer said, “Let’s go Bandits!”, the audience chanted it back. Each time the Rochester Nighthawks would try to score and didn’t, the announcer would say, “What’s he got?” and the audience would reply with “nothing.”
Finally, the amount of people in the arena blew my mind. Yes, I knew that Buffalo had a lacrosse team, and yes, I knew that people were fans of them. But little did I know that ¾ of the arena would be filled. Everywhere you looked in the arena, there were the colors of the team. Just goes to show that no matter what Buffalo team it is, the fans will be there, and be there in “full-send.”
In conclusion, I will be going to more in-person games, professional or not. That Bandits game made a profound change in my life, and I want to keep it that way. Also, if you’ve never been to a lacrosse game before, go.
I guarantee you won’t regret it.