Last weekend I traded in my football reporter’s pass for a press ticket to watch Dundee Stars versus Fife Flyers ice hockey match.
So how did it compare with watching the national sport? Well, the pre-match experience was very different. The food on offer was superior to the usual match fare, there was much greater choice and it was reasonably priced. And never mind hot Bovril; you could also buy beer, an alien experience for football fans.
So, with a pint in hand and the players not even on the ice, I was already warming to this civilised atmosphere. Strobe lighting and pumping music set the scene for a derby with devilment, during which there were some handbags at close quarters between the players, yet interestingly not a swear word to be heard in the stands.
Stars had a good home turnout and Flyers had a big away support, ensuring plenty of noisy but good natured banter, in a crowd where the age profile spanned across the generations.
The announcer constantly updated fans on all aspects of the game, from the scorers to the sinners who had been sin binned and why.
The slick stick handling, the speed and all-round physical fitness of the players was highly impressive, but then it is elite league, the highest level of hockey in the UK, with players training three times a week and playing two games at the weekend.
Stars had travelled to meet Sheffield Steelers the evening before, a 650-mile round coach trip. They arrived home around 5am on the Sunday for the 6.30pm face off against Flyers, running out 6-3 winners. Howls of protest would surely meet the same schedule for top football teams, but in hockey they skate over such trivialities.
I discovered that there is a fair cross over between football and hockey fans, bumping into a good few faces that I knew from both Dundee and Kirkcaldy on my football travels.
The Stars and Dundee FC have also linked up with a special ticket deal for those fans who attend matches at both Dens Park and the Ice Arena.
Sometimes, given the near suffocating dominance over other sports by football there can be a real hostility towards it from the so called minor sports.
Not so from Mike Ward, co-owner of the Stars. Mike was the goaltender for the highly successful Dundee Rockets who swept all before them in the 1980s, but asked to compare the fitness levels of the respective sports, was keen to praise the physical prowess of today’s footballers.
That is a good thing. There is much the two sports can learn from each other. The sense of theatre surrounding ice hockey can be exhilarating, just as the sense of drama around football can intoxicate.
Two sports in many ways different, yet in many ways complementary to each other. Each of them fast, frenetic and fantastic to watch.
If you’ve never been to an ice hockey match, or it’s a while since you saw a sizzling slapshot propel the puck, I recommend you get your skates on.