Chicago Steel Fox Valley Ice Arena STADIUM REVIEW
Vložit
- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- SAC Stadium Review Episode 23
Fox Valley Ice Arena home of the USHL's Chicago Steel ice hockey team in Geneva, IL.
Enjoy!
Want to visit this stadium? Use code “SACSPORTSADVENTURES” for $20 off your first purchase of $30 or more at SeatGeek - seatgeek.com/
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
0:22 Background
1:59 Getting to the Arena
2:13 Outside the Arena
2:25 Concourse
3:30 Seating
5:17 Food
6:35 Atmosphere
9:18 Game
11:05 Souvenir - Sport
![HOCKEY NHL VIDEO GAMES EVOLUTION [1979 - 2023]](/img/n.gif)
The Clark Cup banners were moved to the west end of the rink after they won the Anderson Cup for the most points during the 2019 20 season
Interesting! Thanks for the insider insight!
I had a ton of fun talking to fans, coaches and players from the other teams at Edge. Highly informal place. We'd help the Indy Ice load their trailer. And meanwhile John Carlson would be trying to shock us by snapping shots at the plexiglass in warmups. Steel guys got our attention by doing that as well.
I always love arenas with a good relaxed attitude.
I’ve been there with friends before. I used to go to more Steel games when the played at the Edge Ice Arena, as it was just a town away from me
Nice! Seems like the Edge Ice Arena keeps having teams move out of it. I enjoyed this rink but the location was kind of odd.
@@SACSportsAdventures it is kinda odd. My sister has games and practices there now, so I’ll visit quite a bit. It’s a very nice thing that the rink is good quality for her games though
The Edge benefited most by being close to O'Hare. There were two rinks under the Edge roof, and another attached to s Park District swimming pool south of the main building. Robert Morris also played at the Edge. But the proximity to O'Hare made the place a fave place for scouts and we had many of them there. The ISC person was a good guy to talk to. In fact that was one of the nicest things there- you could meet all sorts of former NHLers, and the parents were terrific. I guess they found that too restrictive in terms of trades, etc. Despite Jon Waibel being a good guy, his head coach was poor. If he could not win with the team they put on the ice in 08-09, he couldn't coach his way out of a bag.
@@SACSportsAdventures Edge at one time was owned by the town of B'ville. Had to laugh over the Covelli vid when you got to that part as well. We never knew whether the team owed back rent to the city, but at one time B'ville was paying the Steel staff. That's how bad things were. I reckoned they were moving to Wausau at one point. Glad to see the parents and players succeed here.
1:28 The 2nd rink was refurbished to be another NHL standard size rink. No longer international.
Thanks for that i move from chicago to 2 years ago and i miss the steel games. I never really saw a lot of guys using the other rink.
Oh nice! Thanks for the info!
Very few games are ever sold out here. 34 years back i think they're average game attendance was under a thousand a game.
Ouch! Yeah, it’s a smaller crowd for sure.
You should go the Chicago wolves hockey game at the Allstate Arena
Yeah! That’s on my list for next year as well as the Rockford IceHogs. Hoping to get down and see both! Thanks for the suggestion!
We are the Calder Cup Champions this year Let’s Go wolves
@@eddieannis9867 Unfortunately, I know. I am now a Milwaukee Admirals season ticket holder and was at the two playoff games against the Wolves in Milwaukee. It’s always a great battle when they play each other and a heated rivalry. No worries, if they’re not playing the Ads or Monsters, I’ll try to support the Wolves ;)
@@SACSportsAdventures And every TV game here is either against Rockford or Milwaukee it seems! (not reality, but close!) Interesting to see what will happen next season with the Wolves going indy!
I don't live far from the rink. I've actually played there myself but i haven't been there to see a Steel game. The bar that looks into the rink used to be a Chelios Bar and grill if i'm not mistaken. But like you said its a saturated market. For not a lot more i can go see the Wolves play at All state arena. or i can go see our other AHL team the Blackhawks.
Hahahaha! “Other AHL team”. Sure seems like it sometimes.
That was Chelios' bar. I knew the family when Dean and Jake played for the Steel in Bensenville. Chelly's Chili, I think?
It will take some time to build a team around Bedard, unless they ruin his talent. This is one of those Bulls plans with drafting Jordan circa 84 and winning 7 years later.
Love your vids man! do you think you'll do more ohl arenas too?
Thanks so much! I’d love to do more OHL arenas but none are too close to where I live Wisconsin. Hoping to do a trip through Ontario some day and hit up a few.
@@SACSportsAdventures Go to Saginaw and Flint!
The deal with the hot dogs is play jack the food prices high in kept a ticket prices stable for a couple years. Beer was something like seven bucks six or seven something like that.
I hate that! Ruins the experience.
Until you mentioned the suites I couldn’t remember if I had been to the rink or not. As soon as you mentioned and shows them I was like “oh, that’s the one with the restaurant you could see through to the rink from. I remember it well”.
I grew up in a hockey family in the Chicago area.
Should possibly see a Capitols game now that I am attending UW-Madison
That restaurant window is definitely an interesting feature that you remember. Haha! Really make it a unique rink.
That’s awesome! I loved going to the Caps game. That was my first USHL review. Fantastic atmosphere and a super weird arena. Congrats on going to UW! What are you studying? I’m going to be at their football game tomorrow and will have a review of it out hopefully Monday or so.
@@SACSportsAdventures I’m studying law. I went to their game last week and had a fun time.
When hockey seaon starts you should consider a UW hockey venue review of the Kohl Center (men’s) and LaBahn Arena (women’s)
Some advice if you ever make the trek to Lincoln Nebraska to see the Lincoln Stars gotta go when we’re playing the Omaha Lancers it’s the best rivalry in the USHL
Oh! That would be a fun one. Do they ever do a home and home where they play in Lincoln one night and Omaha another? That would be perfect to hit both in the same weekend.
I think every time we play them this year it’s like that
I'm a mini plan season ticket holder for the Chicago steel and I make videos when I go to games there
That’s awesome! I’ll have to check out some of your videos.
At one time you could not trust the staff here re: taking photos and such. Glad it has changed. All I will say.
Hello there I really like your hockey stadium reviews and I just subscribed to your channel. I am from Philadelphia Pennsylvania and I am a huge Philadelphia Flyers fan and I have been to the Spectrum, the Wells Fargo Center and also I went to the PPL Center home of the Flyers AHL team the Lehigh Valley Phantoms and also Santander Arena home of the Flyers ECHL the Reading Royals. I suggest you check out those Hockey stadiums as well.
I’ve got a Lehigh Valley Phantoms one on the way that I did last March when I was in the Philly area. If you haven’t checked out my video from Wells Fargo Center, give it a watch and let me know what you think!
@@SACSportsAdventures I saw it it was really good, I'm not really a Football or Baseball fan but II suggest you also check out the Phillies stadium Citizens Bank Park and the Eagles stadium Lincoln financial Field both located in Philly. I have been to Citizens Bank Park a couple times and it was a nice stadium.
played there many games as well as the Madison capitols arena.
That’s awesome! It seems like a fun arena to play in.
Chuck a puck used to be done after 2nd period at the Edge. Jesus- how do you NOT dominate the Caps?
Haha! It was a pretty dominate performance.
Will tell you a funny story- one of SP's first games in 2008 was against the Green Bay Gamblers, coached by Jon Cooper. Steel were up like 5-2 going into the third, when Cooper decided he'd see what happened if his kids pressured the goalie a bit. Well, we had AS and RS, who was perhaps the league's best fighter. We also had Jamie Oleksiak, the future NHLer, rooming over with Kevin Lind's family. There finally was an explosion and two fights about 5 min into the period, and from that point on, the game was a disaster. There was no focus from our coach and you could see Cooper was out maneuvering him. One of our players who was a friend of mine got a 10 min misconduct and then a game misconduct. We all reckoned this was a total ripoff and were getting angry. We did not find out until the end of the season what had happened. My friend had looked at Cooper and challenged him to a fight. We were shorthanded for the last 13 min of the game, and lost 6-5. I looked at the GB bus driver and said "I hope your bus is insured" and he reminded me not to blame the bus. He was right: we actually became friends. I talked to Jon Rogger, their asst. coach, next time in, and he said they had to apologize to the scouts because they were wasting their time with fighting. The Steel guys didn't like me talking to opposition coaches. I was telling them nothing, and Dean Blais and Craig Hartzell were great to talk to. But the nicest guy was JP Parise, may he rest in peace. If we had a coach like that with the Steel, they would not have to wait as long as they did to win anything. And believe me, there are horror stories about the ownership back then as well. At one time they were their own worst enemies. It was not until Robbins that they started spending money and recruiting great teams.
That’s a wild story! Haha! You gotta hate when games get out of control but love when you can use tactics like that to steal (Steel? Pun intended) a win.
It beats the Edge but I figured it was larger and of course, the Edge had tix at $2 at one time. . On the other hand, not much better in terms of seating. The nice thing about the Edge were the sight lines. Great place to take photos as well. At Ice level, not above, from the corners. I was also under the impression that Fox Valley had a larger capacity. Oh well. Edge was about 3200 and "festival seating". First come, move around!
I’ve never heard it called “festival seating”. Haha! That’s fantastic!
As someone who plays for the joiner team (cyclones) I have found that you have to pay a $300 GAME FEE at the restaurant.
$300?! I’d believe like $30 or something.
They have to pay some sort of game fee, my coach's ex-wife owns rookies.
@@DuckDogCZcams interesting. Thanks for the insight! That makes sense though.
@@SACSportsAdventures And when are you posting your next USHL review?
@@DuckDogCZcams In about two weeks time. I went to Dubuque early in December and have an NFL review to post first.
If you need help getting cheap tickets to Waterloo if you ever make the trip, you should let me know! I get either dirt cheap or free tickets and get put behind the players benches. Love to see what your opinion is on Young Arena!
I will totally keep that in mind! Thank you so much! I’m thinking of hitting Dubuque, Waterloo, and Sioux Falls on a weekend in the winter if they’re all home but it’ll probably just end up being 2 of the 3. I’ll let you know!
LOL. I can't wait for him to hear the cow bells!
I'll be there FRIDAY NIGHT!
@@SACSportsAdventures Have fun! I won't be at the game, but I'll see if I can find a promo code you can use for cheaper tickets!
The no standing,, is just behind the bench. You can stand anywhere else
Ah! That makes more sense. Thanks for clarifying! Standing makes the atmosphere top notch.
I work for the team as part of the game day production staff by filming the game’s. I also make videos when I go to games there
That’s so awesome! Hope I was able to do it justice. I’ll check out your channel to see some of those videos!
perks. You still get free food for restaurants? They used to at Edge.
The arena isn’t the best but the athletics side of the program is amazing. My brother plays for chicago #13 Jack harvey.
That’s awesome! It’s a really good organization they have there and the team is super talented. Best of luck to your brother!
I REALLY have to hand it to the scouts and GM of this team as they are much better than I ever thought they could become back in the days of 02-09. They recruit incredibly well but know for years they tried to recruit in the Chicago area in order to keep from going broke paying billets. With the Robbins money, they started coming in from Ontario and elsewhere and the program itself has really blossomed. Put it this way, I used to have local parents whose kids used to go to Cedar Rapids, etc. because at one time this team was the last place you wanted to end up. CR has great fans and a great organization but hats off to the Steel for becoming the powerhouse they are. All it took was good scouting, good recruitment, and good coaching. We had 2/3 of that back in 08. And we failed to make the playoffs!
Better be a damn good dog for $6.50, for real. I'd love to see your puck collection, bet you've got a mountain of them lol
It was a pretty good dog so I’m not complaining too much. Haha! And that’s a great video idea for once I finish the last hockey video of the season!
Trust me, you can have WAY too many pucks!
I went to several games there in the late 90s with Cub Scouts. Except back then the team that played there wasn’t the Chicago Steel, it was the Chicago Freeze.
The place looks just like I remember though, albeit a lot smaller then I remember but I guess that’s to be expected lol
Haha! That’s pretty cool. It was a fun place to catch a hockey game for cheap and I totally recommend checking it out if you’re still in the area.
The Freeze had some famous alums, actually!
Go steel
Yeah! Thanks so much!
Used to blurt this out before they dropped the puck at every home game at one time!
1997 the steel were the freeze. then in 2000 they were changed to the steel.
It looks like the Freeze were in the NAHL (tier 2 of juniors) from 1997-2003 and were a separate franchise from the Steel.
Yes, The Freeze was the NAHL, Not USHL Go ICE SHARKS
They were NEVER the Freeze of the NAHL, kiddo. The Freeze of Bachashua was an entirely different team. The Freeze played at Fox Valley, however. I still have a game jersey of theirs but at one time had about 45 Steel jerseys. I hang on only to my friends on the 08-09 team jerseys now. Hats off to the Krushelnyskis, John Moore, and Andrew Miller, Jamie Oleksiak and the Stremmels and Nick Pise! You made 08-09 special but deserved a better result!