Local ArenaBowl Celebration for Chicago Rush

[Tannerman]

Last week Amy and I attended sort of a celebration for our Chicago Rush, who had just won ArenaBowl XX.

Chicago Rush are ArenaBowl XX champions!

As we mentioned when the Rush won the game over Orlando, we didn't quite know what to do next! We wanted to celebrate with the team and the fans, but nothing seemed to be put in place for that. Finally the Rush front office announced that they were going to have a celebration at a local restaurant. Well, word of this got around and the location was quickly changed to the Allstate Arena due to the demand.

The Arena sends some congrats...


... and welcomes you to celebrate!

So, on June 22, Amy and I waited in line outside of the stadium. Thankfully, they didn't even charge for parking! There was a pretty large group waiting to get in. But it was also quite warm!

We line up to enter Allstate Arena


It was hot out, but hey, we're winners!

When we got inside, there were basically three things to do. See the ArenaBowl trophy, get autographs, and buy stuff.

I thought the plywood was a nice touch

We quickly headed to the trophy line. Which pretty much how it sounds. A line to see the Jim Foster Trophy (Foster is the founder of the AFL, having come up with the idea while watching an indoor soccer match).

Steve poses with the trophy...


... as does Amy


But don't even think of touching it!
(They had 2 cops standing there the whole time)


Even FriarTuck and Son of FriarTuck were there!)
(Source: kristof.smugmug.com)

After snapping our photos with the trophy, we wandered around on the main floor. Up on the video boards they were replaying the NBC broadcast of the ArenaBowl... complete with commercials. (What, was 2 weeks not enough time to cut those out?)

What better place to watch more commercials

We wandered around some more on the floor. Wow, how empty the stadium felt with no one in the stands and no real structure on the floor (no ice, field, etc.). Amy ran into the new creepy Rush mascot, Grabowski...

Grabowski puts the moves on Amy

We eventually migrated over the autograph signing area. There were many players there and a few coaches.

Floor was full of people; stands were not

We're really not into the whole autograph/player worship thing, but it was nice for the kids to check out, I guess. We were kind of disappointed that Coach Ho was not in attendance, however.

Line up for autographs next to the big helmet

Finally, we headed to the concession area to check out what sort of ArenaBowl loot we could pick up. ]As I mentioned I would do, I picked up a Rush ArenaBowl Champs hat... from this point forward to be officially known as Hat D.

Rush Championship Logo on "Hat D"


Add the ArenaBowl XX logo


Plus the Nike swoosh!

The hats were made by Nike and feature the championship logo on the front, the ArenaBowl logo on one side, and the Nike swoosh on the other. One odd thing, however, was the "authenticity" sticker stuck under the brim. Take a look...

And... wait a minute! That's not right!

NCAA? What, did Nike just use some leftover blue hats, slap some embroidered logos on there, and poof... you are set?

While it was fun to see the trophy and pick up some merchandise, Amy and I left the experience amazingly underwhelmed. The Rush front office had two weeks to put together this "celebration," which really amounted to nothing more than a bunch of lines for stuff. There was no formal program, no speeches by players or coaches, no big fan appreciation rally. It was just "hey, come here and get stuff." C'mon you guys, you've just won the ArenaBowl and this is all you could come up with? You have got to be kidding me.

Amazingly disappointing.

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ArenaBowl XX - Celebration

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