Ross sent this to me but I believe he meant it to go to the list.  When
you reply to the stuff I send from Merrimack, it goes right to me instead
of the list just because of the way the Merrimack mailer constructs the
header.  - mike
 
>From:	MX%"[log in to unmask]" 31-JAN-1992 14:16:23.66
Subj:	Re: There's no place like dome
 
Domes:  sure, you wouldn't be able to throw things onto the players, but I've
agree with Mike it's a really clumsy thing.  Crowd cheers seem to have some
impact on the players and the cheers would be severely diminished if the
players were enclosed.  That would be so unless the dome was perforated.
 
Then there's the problem that things will be thrown onto the dome.  It now has
to be strong enough to stand a person on it to clean, or be subject to some
other cleaning method.
 
Finally, wouldn't the dome glare like heck?   (This is probably just a
spectator concern but still should be considered.)
 
High glass - the RPI pep band is on a stage that is about 4-5 feet above the
ice level, and if we stand up on it, I (being a person of the short persuasion)
don't stand over it.  it's got to be 9 or 10 feet behind the goals, and i think
it follows that way all around.  Nevertheless, stupid people like me stand up
on flimsy folding chairs with large instruments (sousaphone) just to tweak
fate's nose by getting above glass-level.  During one warm-up, i was not
watching (i was standing sideways, facing someone else in the band) and did
have a very quickly moving puck skim my eyebrow.  Another time, I almost caught
a deflected shot in the bell of my sousaphone, which was much more fun.  I
don't have the sense to come down off the chair ("live dangerously!")
 
Summary - yes, it would be safer for the team to be netted or domed or
whatever.  (heck, why don't they just play in the basement and we can set up
big TV monitors on all that open space?)  But I'm probably at greater risk
getting hurt driving across snow and ice to get to the game than of getting
hurt by a stray puck.  Oh, but the Grim Price of Fandom!
 
Ross
RPI `91
--------
(Thanks to Mark Grassl for quoting the best movie I saw in 1991.  :) )