Arenas Quotations | Page 2

A stupendous amount of money goes into public stadiums and arenas - probably somewhere upwards of $2 billion a year, when you count all the local, state and federal money that goes into it. And the public does not get back any sort of benefit close to what it's putting into it.

As much as we love playing the small clubs, we'd really like to get ourselves in front of a larger audience. I'm not talking about arenas or anything, but nice theaters and larger clubs.

I have just returned from Arenas and feel very tired. His Excellency loaded me with a thousand honours; I have painted his portrait and that of his wife and boy and girl with unexpected success, for other artists had been there previously and not been successful.

We've been playing very well on the road. That's really good right now, especially heading to these two arenas that are really tough to play in.

The bar business is a ball when you are 25, but by 45 it wasn't. My kids were getting turned away at indoor soccer arenas in Merrillville, Frankfort and Dolton. I figured if I could just work off that overflow, it would be enough to keep me in business.

You can never stop improving. We like to walk out of arenas with all of the air sucked out and all of the fans calling us names. We love that.

A lot of the old arenas have character and that's what gets them great to play in. Once we get the fans in the building, it'll be great.

We've played in pro arenas before, and the NBA line messes us up. We've already called, and they said they're not going to have it (NBA arc) down, so that's good.

The owners can sit there and do giveaways and lower ticket prices to get the fans back to the game knowing that what they are really doing is taking it out of our pockets, ... It's important to get people back into the arenas to watch hockey, but it is a lot easier to do when (the owners) know they still get money back because they are taking it out of our paycheck. In essence, the players are paying for all the giveaways and free stuff that the owners are doing. Which is all well and good, but you don't hear about it.

I've been in a lot of arenas around the country and there is nothing like a cadet crowd. It's not just the noise and how they get into the game. It's the camaraderie and the feeling that everybody is in this together. It's a family.