NLL Insider

Yep, that is the proper, complete name of what Rochester Knighthawks fans revere as the “Barn Down by the River” (thank you Chris Farley), home of the defending National Lacrosse League’s reigning champs.

I was trying to come up with a unique blog topic this week as I knew the Fall of the Champs topic would be well-worn by my deadline. I decided to go where not many Rochester sports fans have gone before. That’s right, behind the scenes at the Blue Cross Arena. Nope, I didn’t find Jimmy Hoffa or even George Eastman under the arena. I did however see a lot of Rochester history and took a lot of photos of places most fans probably will never access. First and foremost, thank you to Jeff Calkins, the General Manager of the Blue Cross Arena and his staff. They were excellent tour guides and let me go practically anywhere I wanted to that didn’t involve insurance liabilities.

First, some quick history of the BCA. The Kimball Tobacco Factory (with the Genesee River behind it in this photo) was built on this spot in 1880 and a 21-foot statue of Mercury was placed atop the Factory’s smokestack. It stood there until 1951 when the original Civic Center Arena was built. Today that statue is atop the Thomson West publishing building across Broad Street from the BCA. The BCA opened as the Rochester Community War Memorial in 1955, many native Rochesterians still call it “War Memorial” to this day.

In 1996, the decision was made to renovate the War Memorial instead of building a new arena. The BCA remained open during the renovation process and completed the renovation just two years later. In 1998, the Blue Cross Arena at the Rochester Community War Memorial became Rochester’s “newest” arena with sporting event capacity of 11,215 and concert capacity of 14,000.

When I first arrived at the arena, I had in my mind some things I wanted to see, such as the old Erie Canal bed that runs under Broad Street, the War Memorial that is open to the public every hour that the building is open, and how exactly do they change the floor from hockey to lacrosse. I first went down a freight elevator to the North end of the building where there was a large overhead metal door. My guide opened the door and there it was: the old Barge Canal bed where the Barge Canal used to aqueduct over the Genesee River. There was a cinder block wall to my left that separated the arena from the rail lines that used to bring in circus animals to the arena and giant paper rolls to the Democrat and Chronicle printing presses.

If you look out at the river from the BCA, you can see the Broad Street Aqueduct and the canal bed under the street to your left. Back inside the arena, the Americans hockey game was ending and I was able to witness the floor changeover. Two forklifts starting bringing stacks of 2″ thick rubberized sheathing that were cut to fit onto the ice perfectly like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Within 40 minutes, the entire ice surface was covered and the second forklift was now bringing out the Knighthawks turf. The first piece took the longest to put down as it was aligned in the corners and knee kicked to precise placement. After that, subsequent rolls weighing 300 pounds or more were stretched, kicked and coerced into place, then velcroed together.

The lacrosse goals were brought out and put into their spots and I noticed that all of this had happened within 40 minutes of the first piece of turf going down. Needless to say, the crew had done this a time or two before.

Other parts of the gameday that most people don’t see are the gameday operations staff in the control center above Section 220. This staff makes every announcement, every light, every promotion, every videoboard message run effortlessly. There is a bank of switches, a/v equipment, power supplies and controls to rival an airport control tower. As I walked across the top of the arena’s horseshoe, one thing I noticed is that if you are sitting in the last row of seats, you can see the entire playing surface although only the scoreboard attached to the rafters, not the videoboard. The seating bowl goes all the way into the rafters and the catwalks that carry the lighting crew and maintenance staff are accessed right next to the top row of seats. (This was one of those insurance areas I mentioned before.)

As long as I was at the top of the arena, I decided to see how the other half lives and visited the suites. These are very nice, fully stocked suites. However it was after the game and there were no gifts left behind for this blogger. The other part that most fans don’t realize is that someone does actually come through and pick up all the garbage left behind in the seating bowl. It is a small army of cleaners and reminded me that I need to pick up after myself after the games as they hauled away rolling dumpsters full of trash from just one hockey game.

Now, that I had visited under the arena and the rafters of the arena, I decided to head down to the locker rooms and box office. Who knew that AHL rules prohibit any visitors to the lockers rooms after the games, even though no one was in the locker rooms and it was now a hour and a half after the game ended? So sorry, no pictures of the locker rooms. I went farther down this same hallway though and found the box office. Every day of the week, this box office is open, except for some weekends. The attached picture is one showing ticket handlers providing fans with their tickets.

My last ventures were to the actual War Memorial that is the building’s namesake. This War Memorial is open to the public every minute that the building is open. To get there, you go to the left of the escalator in the main lobby and follow the building along. This War Memorial includes pieces of the original Memorial as well as a new computer based search engine that will show information on every Rochester area veteran, even yours truly. The new part of the War Memorial is a globe fountain with an eternal flame burning in the center and each branch of the U.S. Military represented in plaques surrounding the globe.

After all of this walking and exploring I headed outside along the river to possibly the best hidden treasure in all of Rochester. This park like setting is below Broad Street and Court Street and really is a great place to eat lunch or just relax downtown in the shadows of the skyscrapers, yet seem in your own backyard.

So, next week we’ll be back to the NLL, but I thought you all would enjoy a little behind the scenes of our “Barn Down by the River.”

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