A born and bred Grand Rapids girl, and very good friend of mine, once said about our town, “I like Grand Rapids. You can kind of live a big-city lifestyle without having to make the committment to it.”. Well said! I think we avoid a ton of hassle and expense while still having access to sports, restaurants, festivals, museums, and cultural events.
A.P. was all of about 14 months old when we first took him to a Griffins Hockey Game. I warmed up to the minor leagues while living in Georgia. There was no major league hockey team and the Atlanta Knights satisfied a need inherited from my mother. It involves being a totally normal person most of the time unless I am watching live hockey, whereby I become an remarkably loud, and occasionally foul person. I’m not kidding. I don’t care if it is pee-wee hockey. 
The Flames had already high-tailed it to Calgary by the time I was there, but the Thrashers were not there yet. I’m old, but I’m not that old.
A.P.’s genetic code clearly includes an affinity for live hockey. This is a child that wouldn’t watch a TV show or sit through a movie until he was about three. At 14 months he sat through an entire Griffin’s game and when he finally learned to talk (about a year and a half later) he started asking when we could go see “the hockey guys” again. He has quite a few games under his belt now and I am always looking for inexpensive ways to take him to more.
Wouldn’t you know… the library to the rescue, again! With your KDL or GRPL library card, you can get up to four upper bowl tickets for $5 each.
The Entertainment Book and other similar books have good deals on Griffins tickets too. There are often printable coupons on the Griffins website for $5 upper bowl and $10 lower bowl tickets as well.
Even better than cheap seats are free ones. The Griffins have a very cool program called, “Put A Lid On It“. If your child commits to wearing a bike helmet, they will send you two free tickets. If you’ve been reading a while, you know that the Binder Household holds the helmet in very high regard.
Hope to see you soon at a Griffins game! I’ll be the loud one.
4 Comments
November 24, 2007 at 1:18 pm
As you know Lily and the hubby just went to one and loved it. Of course they haven’t won a home game all year so maybe next year is the year to take advantage of this deal.
November 25, 2007 at 2:52 pm
We did the “Put a Lid on it” this summer, and got the coupon. Clare can’t wait to go to a game. She still remembers her first game when she was 2.
July 13, 2008 at 8:43 pm
[...] GRAM, whatever. Jump to Comments I have written before about how Grand Rapids offers us big city livin’ without the commitment. As an aside, I need to tell you that this was astutely noted by my friend Megan, who now lives in [...]
July 29, 2008 at 9:51 pm
[...] with the traffic. Saturday night games have fireworks and the kids LOVED them. It’s no Griffins game, but they do have a lot of music and entertainment. If you have yet to see your friends [...]