We do too few things as a community these days.
Even voting is not the community event it used to be because of early and online options, which are good, but which also mean we gather less with those not from our tribe. A concert is a crowd-gathering, but the focus is on the attraction.
Then there’s a Stanley Cup Final playoff game. In our own Thunder Alley backyard.
It’s about us as much as it is about Stammer and Bish. It’s about this Sun Belt market, non-marquee franchise and coming-of-age area that is underappreciated by national media as much as it is about the Triplets and Heddie and Coop.
It’s about hard-core hockey fans and hard-core, Tampa fanatics. It’s about the testosterone crowd and the marching, chanting, drum-beating, flag-waving “Sticks of Fire” as well as it is about couples and lawn chairs and a big-screen party scene.
And to TPD officers assigned to Amalie Arena security, it’s about the nicest mega sports crowd they encounter. I asked.
It’s about being unabashedly apolitical–for once–and unblushingly proud–for the duration. It’s about dyeing Garrison Channel blue and dying to see Stanley return. It’s about somebody in Tyler Johnson pajamas running around Cotanchobee Park with a “Go, Bolts” banner.
It’s about, well, us. We’re not Detroit, New York or Chicago, and we like it that way, no matter where we’re from. We’re here not from inertia, but from choice. Tampa and Tampa Bay are happening and Stanley Cup Final playoff games are further proof.
And Game Five is Saturday. Go, Bolts.