A Sad Reality

Many people have asked me in the past as to how many fans we get out to our games. I would like to tell you that we get about 2000 out per game - you know pack the house. But let's be serious here, that's not even close to what really happens. We get probably on average 50 fans. Yep that's all, but it seems like more actually. There is this crew of guys, sometimes girls, of about ten or so. They come to every home game wearing Slavia hockey jerseys and a huge drum in tow. They are usually singing Slavia songs and chanting names and whatever else. Before the game they can be found in the restaurant drinking pivo (beer). The first time I saw these guys I thought...wow...they are really crazy/stupid for coming out to our games. They must be really die hard Slavia fans, or just here for the cheap beer in our rink’s restaurant.

Well truth be told, I'm almost positive they get paid for being there. How sad I know, but it's not uncommon in the professional world of women's sports in the Czech Republic. Our friend, Erin, is the head coach of the Sparta Praha women's basketball team and have about 5-10 crazy fans as well, who in fact are paid. I wasn't sure if this was true of our fans at Slavia, but have come believe that this could be the fact. After the game this past weekend I saw our manager, Mr. Nemec, with a bunch of money outside our locker room and our super fans around him. I was going outside for my cool down after the game, so I didn't exactly stick around to see what was going to happen next but could only speculate. That only left me to guess the inevitable.


Some of our crazy fans that even came to Berlin to watch us play


The drums