People of Blueland: Zamboni Riders

Today's edition of People of Blueland will be about zamboni riders. I had a ton of friends that rode the zamboni this season and was lucky enough to ride it myself.


One thing people usually wonder is "how do you get chose to ride the zamboni?" Well there are several ways. One way is your ticket rep. Michelle and JB have an amazing ticket rep who hooked them up. My ticket rep sucks and when I asked him about it he gave me some bullshit about how "it was part of a fan experience package" and that "it wasn't included with tickets and he had no control." Whatever. Screw you. Sorry you had to return an email (for once). The best way is to look for the people who schedule the riders. If you see someone over dressed for a hockey game (suit or office type clothes) with a headset or walkie talkie and they are carrying a clip board...that might be them. This is made a lot easier when the games are ones that are not going to be well attended. Example: Tuesday night game versus the Florida Panthers, chances are, they need someone to ride the zamboni. I've heard of them standing at the CNN entrance after you come in. I was approached down by the glass waiting for warm ups.


When I first started going to Thrashers games there was a Cartoon Network zamboni and it had the Powerpuff Girls on it and it was the coolest fucking thing I've ever seen. Now, there are 2 zambonis.


The first is the Moulson's Canadian zamboni. Funny thing to know, even though it's just a zamboni and you don't get a beer when you ride, you have to be 21 years of age to ride this one. My friend Michelle just barely scraped by the age requirement!



Folks under 18 and kids can ride on the Comcast Cable zamboni.

So once you have been selected for the zamboni, they tell you to meet them at a particular portal (can't remember which one it is) about 10 minutes before the period ends. You meet and head down to the bowels of the arena. One bad thing, you miss a bit of the game. You can watch a little bit of it on the glass by where the zamboni will enter. You stand there with the ice girls.


You climb up a ladder and sit on the seat. Fasten your seat belt. You are NOT allowed to carry a camera or any other electronic device with you. You CAN have one person come with you to take pictures.



If you are lucky, you will have friends around the arena to take pictures of you from different vantage points.



Hell, if you see me, tell me to take pictures. I'll make sure it's one of the most photographed events in the history of Phillips Arena!



So you are zooming around the ice and it is pretty damn cool. You can't help it, you have to wave. And the crazy thing....people will wave back, the entire time!



Another cool thing, they announce your name and put it on the jumbo tron!



Remember to wear something warm! It's cold out there, don't want to catch a chest cold.