Are you Looking for something different to do with the family or some friends?
Do you like sporting events and enjoy the energy buzzing all around you? Look no further than this fun and unique way to spend an evening.
If you are anything like me you stick to the basic Maryland sporting events. The Baltimore Ravens (football) and Baltimore Orioles (baseball) as your sporting go to.
I must say that I forget about all the minor league sports we have around here, as in the Bowie Baysox. More on them in a later post.
The Baltimore Blast is an American professional indoor soccer team. The games were held at the Royal Farms Arena in downtown Baltimore. They have moved to a new location and are currently playing at the SECU arena at Towson University. If you are interested in attending the game you can purchase tickets on their website. With the new move parking is free on campus. No more paying for parking and parking garages!
Once you arrive on campus you will follow signs to the lot that you need to park in. Everything is marked really well and it is easy to follow. My GPS only took us to the general area and we had to follow all the signs to the SECU Arena. We had no trouble finding a place to park. We migrated towards the crowd and followed them to the arena. They will search your bags before entering. After going through the secuity checkpoint we located our seats and scoped out the area to kill some time.
It is not as big as a stadium and you can clearly see the whole place from your seats. My daughter took her friend and I felt completely comfortable with them walking around on their own. We ended up going to the concession stand and grabbing some drinks and snacks. It is card only so if you try to give your kids some cash it won’t work. If you trust them to use your card that’s great! I went with them or they would’ve came back with one of everything available.
There is also a little store that sells hats, shirts, sweaters and other accessories. We did walk in there and it was pretty crowded so we weren’t able to really walk around and check everything out. That was okay since they ended up getting so much from the concession stand. Once we were done with the store we went back up to our seats to watch the opening ceremony. The team is very involved in youth activities as well as being a positive role model.
The opening ceremony started with a local dance team taking the field and preforming a dance. From there they brought out a bunch of little kids soccer teams to walk around and outline the field as a team. While you are watching them enter and parade into place, the Blast staff is busy getting the ramp setup for the team to be announced. There was also a local chorus group there to sing the national anthem. After all that is over they announce the away team and then the home team. When the Blast is announced they walk out with a child and get in the line up with them. After the team is announced the kids run off and the cheerleaders take the field.
The cheerleaders were interesting to watch. There moves were a little questionable considering it was geared to family and most of the attendees are children. The awkward move and pose one would do at random while the rest were standing seemed a little out of place. But really funny to watch.
This was my first time watching an indoor professional soccer game. I have spent many weekends watching and coaching soccer. This was not what I was expecting. I don’t know how many of you have watched indoor soccer but is seems like rules go out the window. It felt like I was watching a mix of hockey and soccer. They would throw each other into the walls and hold each other back with no calls made. After the first quarter it seemed like calls were finally being made. It did not end the drama on the field though.
With the referees now making calls the players seemed to be more dramatic. If one gets tripped they will flail to the field and wait for a whistle, when no whistle is blown they get up and get back into the game. If the whistle is blown they will limp around a bit. I do realize that some of them were probably hurt and I completely understand that. But pay attention if you go and see if you catch on. I had someone ask me if it was like wrestling (scripted) . That really got me paying attention a different way. I do not think it is scripted, I think the players are trying to get as many penalties against the other team as they can. I can confidently say that because there were a few punches to the nose and fights that quickly were broken up.
I would recommend checking them out at least once if you’ve never been to a Blast game. There are four quarters and a halftime to the indoor soccer game. You will want to layer up if it is cold out. Once you get inside it is more comfortable. I have been to many practices at the soccer dome and you need to bundle up in there. ,
With Love,
Jamie
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