Sarnia Sting Hockey Club

Appeal: The arena design is simple, with limited ammenities. Long lines for food are not aided by the fact that only one cash is open at each stand. Limited availability of healthier items.
Fan interaction: The Sting does a poor job of encouraging fan participation. The most recent music I heard may have been 2Unlimited from the early 90s. If anything it discouraged enjoyment of the game. Even the P.A. announcer put me to sleep with his monotone voice. Limited interactions on the displays and no effort to encourage the college students to attend games. The arena is nicknamed «the library» for a reason.
On Ice: Junior hockey is cyclical with good years following rebuilding years. Some teams do it better than others: London, Kitchener, Ottawa. Some teams do it worse, like Sarnia who have never passed the first round of the playoffs.

I had a free night during my first week in Sarnia and scored some tickets to the playoff game between the Sarnia Sting and the Plymouth (MI) Whalers. This is Junior A withing the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). The players are within the 16 – 20 year range and many of them already have NHL contracts. I saved my program on the off chance that I once saw a furture star play here on his way up.
The Sarnia Sting play at the arena at Lambton College and plenty of free parking was available. There were lots of knowledgeable hockey people here, although I was surprised that the arena was only half full at game time. The place also had a family feel and it could have been my mother selling those 50 – 50 tickets or raffling off the Mark Kati jersey. There was also a nice bar at center ice, of which you could see another game on the rink on the other side.
The Sarnia Sting lost decisively that night and later in the week were eliminated in the playoffs. It was 5 – 0 after 2 periods and the 3^rd period pretty much turned into a scrum as the home team got more than a little bit frustrated.
The guys in back of me did point out the potential shining lights for next season as this Canadian pastime continues on. And just down the road, the Sarnia Legionaries (Junior B) were still in the playoffs…