Det, MI Grand Rapids Griffins hockey game- Sat. March 31st.

Details from TX338:
Star Wars Night with the Griffins is on....

http://griffinshockey.com/

Where:
Van Andel Arena
130 West Fulton
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Location: http://www.vanandelarena.com/parking.asp

When:
Sat. Mar 31st, 2007
Game time - 7:00pm
Set-up either Friday night or after 10:00am Saturday

What:

The Griffins will give us one of Van Andel Arena's huge banquet rooms to change in and store our totes. There will be plenty of space to get changed. Griffins will also supply a cooler of free waters, Gatorades, etc.. for us in the banquet room.

There was talk of having several troopers stand on the ice pre-game while the Griffins team is introduced. Darth Vader dropping the ceremonial first puck at center ice. Obviously there will be games and events the 501st will be involved in during the 1st and 2nd intermissions. Those games are still TBD.

There will be Star Wars trivia going on throughout the night on the big screen inside the arena.. Just like the Whitecaps... The dialogue yesterday suggested somebody roving the stands with a wireless mic...the in-house spotlight will stop when a person is asked the Star Wars trivia... if that person gets the question right, they'd win a nice prize. The Griffins people said they would look into getting autographed Red Wings stuff to have as giftf, Red Wings tickets, obvioussly Griffins memorabelia, and whatever Star Wars stuff we bring (Griffins are in bed with Meijer so maybe they can get some Star Wars DVD sets donated or some new Star Wars Toys). That was the talk but all that is TBD as well.

Kevin from te Griffins came up with the idea of having an all-expenses-paid trip to Vegas be made available. His idea was each person that pays to have their picture taken with the characters for charity they get their name tossed into a bin.. near the end of the 3rd period, a name will be drawn from a hopper and that person will win the trip. Having an element like that should really drive people to the photo booth.

The Griffins can get some rooms at a hotel in downtown Grand Rapids. Once the list of committed troopers grows, those of you from out of state should make that known so we can continue to provide the Griffins with a "running tally" of how many rooms we may need.

Obviously our houses are open as well for some out-of-staters to stay.

This is turning out to be a big event. I will be contacting Jeremy and Peter shortly about their interest in coming to this event. As soon as I know I will update you all.

E-mail from Kevin the Director of Fan experience for the Griffins Dec 11,2006:
The Star Wars Night idea has done well for preliminary meetings. Here is what I have so far...

The space on concourse for photos would be front and center.
Photos and such would be available 6-7pm pre-game and then as late into the game as you want to stay.
I'd like to utilize the costumers for some time-outs and intermission activities.
We can provide a room for costume changes and resting.
We can provide a limited number of hotel rooms for out of town costumers.
We can provide some sort of food and drink. How many people?
I am working with my video crew to create a Star Wars open for the game?
I'd like to utilize some Star Wars trivia and give away some Star Wars prizes.

Not sure about budget here to put toward bringing in a star. Like the idea and even have a talent booker here that could look into Mark Hamill, Carrie Fischer type people, but need to see what money would be needed for that.

More information to come...

**** Update 1/23/2007 ****

A few things were discussed during our 1/22 meeting. We got to see the locations they would like to give us for our display and photo booth. I took some pics of those locations so when I get them downloaded off my camera I will post their location here. The Griffins will be giving us a banquet room for changing and storing out stuff. It's a nice sized room so we won?t have any space issues. They will provide us with water and pop in the banquet roo

 

More info from sportsanchor:

Update... Kevin at the Griffins tells me that Red Wings forward, Jiri Fischer will be at the 3/31 Griffins game signing autographs... this might draw more fan interest, given Jiri's near-fatal experience during a game last year.

Kevin also needs to know exactly how many costumers we'll have for this event. There are several costumers listed right now as "maybe". If any of the "maybes" know they can or cannot make this event, please let Donavon and I know ASAP.. I would like to give the Griffins a "hard-count" of committed costumers sometime next week. The hard-count is everybody:

- Michigan 501st members
- Fan Force members
- Out of state travelers (Bloodfin?)
- Non-costume support

If you definitely need hotel accomodations, please let us know. The Griffins will need to know how many rooms to set aside for 501st members.

This thread should get a big update sometime in early March. Again, if you're listed as a "maybe" for this event, please examine your personal schedules and let us know relatively soon whether you're in or out. I'm sure we'll be able to add people at the last minute, but it's always nice to know a 'minimum' number of committed costumers as we approach the event.