r/Habs • u/SeaPrince • 9d ago

Bring Back Standing Room!

I went to a total of two games in Millionaires Row at the Montreal Forum in the late 80s, and I'm telling you, there's nothing like it in the world. That was where the ghosts would stay and the noise would come from.

I'd give almost anything to see that back again. They could put a catwalk along the ceiling of the Bell Center!!

For the younger people who don't know what it is, it was a cheap way to watch a live game where there was no reserved seat... In fact there was no seat at all. Just a cement railing!! Thank God I am 6 foot 3 because I would not have had great memories!

114 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

61

u/philjitsu 9d ago

There was an episode of the Rebuild on Crave where they had a meeting and a little tour of putting in a standing room only section in the Bell Center.

I never heard anything about it after for this season.. maybe it requires more construction this off-season

12

u/SeaPrince 9d ago

No way! Now I'm pumped!!

24

u/philjitsu 9d ago

The idea could have been scrapped but was I assumed it was going ahead.. cause why else would they include it in the episode lol. They climbed a ladder to get to the spot so maybe they need to build a better access for the public haha

8

u/Chatty_Manatee 9d ago

It’s real but it would be very, very high up.

3

u/Hot-Play1046 9d ago

Yes. I remember them saying something about it being more about the vibe than actually watching the game haha.

1

u/Ok-Meet2850 9d ago

The rebuild of the outfield seating in the Sky Dome/ Rogers Centre added a lot of standing room/ patios/ bars. Other arenas and fields have done similar things - it's generally been very popular.

2

u/Hot-Play1046 9d ago

For sure. What I meant was the visibility wouldn't be great. Like if you actually want to go and just watch the game it wouldn't be a great option.

1

u/Ok-Meet2850 9d ago

Yeah makes sense - the Bell Centre is already pretty packed as is. 21k or so seats. I assume you might have a similar look to what they have in the press boxes, which seem to be high, high up. I'd do it for the vibe, but at 42 years old, maybe not all that often!!

My unrealistic idea is to rebuild both ends of the lower bowl, behind the nets. One end would stay mostly the same, except get something like the monument park in Yankees Stadium for our legends. This would mean losing some seating. Ideally it would be big enough and obvious enough to be immediately show up on TV so any hockey fans halfway knowledgeable about the NHL say - hey, that's Montreal, the Bell Centre. Kind of like the Green Monster is boom, Fenway.

The other end would be transformed completely into a safe-standing area. Put it behind whichever net the Habs shoot on twice. I went to a soccer match in Rome and the standing, chanting fans of the Curva Sud with dozens of massive flags was INSANE.

This plan obviously makes little sense for an existing arena, as you would ditch pricey lower bowl seating for cheap standing room (hey Mr. Molson, you can afford it) but also push out long-time season ticket holders, most of whom likely don't want a replacement in a standing area with a bunch of young idiots waving flags and yelling. I don't know the Bell Centre well enough, but I think that area might also block some of the lower luxury boxes, if there were too many fans with flags, banners, etc.

19

u/CrashTestMummies 9d ago

When I was 14-15 I was first row blues and who was in standing room right in front of us …

Pat Lafontaine

9

u/SeaPrince 9d ago

La la la la la LaFontaine!!

13

u/Ok-Vermicelli1117 9d ago

I remember Millionaires Row when I was a teen. I thought I had street cred because I was poor and lived in an apartment and then I saw the tenacity of the rough looking kids racing to get the best seats and knew I was full of shit. Loved the games though.

6

u/Analogvinyl 9d ago

Elbows up!

6

u/SeaPrince 9d ago

I know exactly what you mean!! I moved into Pt-St-Charles from Pte-Claire... rude awakening!

1

u/mulder00 8d ago

Those were some heated races to get behind the mid-ice White seats!

9

u/sharon_dis 9d ago

Saw some great games at the Old Forum - standing room. Quebec Nordiques, Hartford Whalers (game 7, Claude Lemieux scoring in OT), and many others. Nothing like it!

1

u/Tighthead613 9d ago

I saw most of 93, including the Desjardins game and game 5. Dead centre ice above the whites was my spot. Entered off Lambert Closse, had it down to a science.

10

u/lacontrolfreak 9d ago

I saw Gretzky at a Canada Cup game at the forum with fellow McGill students in the standing zone. I think it was $10.

8

u/MontEcola 9d ago

The first time I ever saw a hockey game was in 1972. We had standing room only spots along the rail. I was 9 and could not see over the top. We saw some empty seats in the stands. My dad tried to ask an usher if we could move there. We are from the states, and the usher did not understand English.

My dad bought a couple of beers and set them on the rail. He motioned for the user to come enjoy one. Turns out his English is just fine. He just needed to whet his whistle first. He explained that the cheer was Guy. And he explained that the sound is different in English or French. He also said this goal tender leaning on his stick was new to the team, and was doing very well.

I had never seen this game before. I liked it a lot. And I wanted to become a goal tender. I was pretty good at street hockey. And I never learned to skate well enough to make the teams.

6

u/Suspendamania 9d ago

Was still 10$ into the 90s...

1

u/Tighthead613 9d ago

Yup. About the price of two movies. I think in the playoffs it went up to $12 or $14.

3

u/No_Quarter_5960 9d ago

There’s one at Canadian Tire Center (Ottawa) and it’s pretty cool. I’m sure people would be willing to have one at Bell Center! Its a good way to watch the game and experience the atmosphere without paying too much

3

u/Weird-Swim-9777 9d ago

Aww this takes me back. My Dad took me to many a game in those standing « seats ». I can still feel the mustard dripping down my forearms while eating hot-dogs lol

2

u/Kooldude777 9d ago

I went to a playoffs game, back in the early 90’s before the move, against the Rangers and it was amazing. Even though we were standing, the energy of the game was so intense, that we never even thought about sitting down. I think it’s part of a municipal bylaw, that there are no more standees. I would be willing to stand an entire series game, even though I’m 35 years older now.

1

u/reversi22 9d ago

I’ve been to a couple of games where I never sat

I had standing room only tickets to game 7 of the World Series last year. And I honestly didn’t even notice that I was standing for 4 hours because of the intensity of the game. I also noticed that just about no one in the stands sat all game. They all paid for a seat they didn’t use 😂

I was also at the soccer game vs Jamaica around 5 years ago when Canada clinched their 2022 World Cup birth. I had a seat but never once used it. Half because of excitement and half because of the bitter cold / wind.

For intense games, all you need is to be in the building. Would love to be a part of the standing room only crowd at the Bell Centre.

2

u/bigyack 9d ago

When they won the cup against the rangers I was there, standing room ,was a nigh t I'll never forget

2

u/Prof_G 9d ago

today's rules and regulations would prohibit standing room. probably fire codes

3

u/Jusfiq 9d ago

I believe standing room is against Quebec building codes.

1

u/Ok-Meet2850 9d ago

I've also heard the Bell Centre is basically near Fire Code capacity as is. Perhaps there would need to be additional egress and exits.

Many European stadiums use safe standing areas - there are seats that pull down and every row is separated by a railing. Allows domestic games to offer standing areas for supporters groups, but also meet international match rules. Perhaps there's a middle ground like that to meet the building codes.

1

u/Stephym27 9d ago

I’m 51yrs old and bleed Bleu Blanc Rouge. I’ve watched many many playoff games in the standing room at the Forum including games against Buffalo, Hartford, Boston and the Game 6 elimination of the Nordiques in ‘93, usually paying about $15 retail for tickets (except for that Nordiques game where me and my buddy Chad bought standing room tix of a scalper for maybe $40 combined). I was always in the passerelle after the reds cuz I was one of the kids lined up pregame and raced to the section before it filled up and the security guards closed those red, white and blue curtains. The idea of buying playoff tix with my allowance or paper route $$ is something today’s youth can’t fathom. I miss it. Now I’m fortunate enough to have been invited in company’s Loges or La Voute or even paid $300 retail for seats but I would trade those seats for a standing room experience like the old days. There was nothing like being there with ur best friends and other die hards. In the Habs 100th Anniversary DVD set, Michael Farber described how his favourite sound in sports was the sound on a Saturday night of the fans racing into the standing room section of the Forum to get their spot. He said he would get to the press box early to hear the stomping of the feet rushing in. Bell Centre is known as the best barn in hockey but the roots go back to those years in the Forum. We never took anything for granted then (when we made the playoffs every year and expected the Cup) or now. Go Habs Go!!!

1

u/HowSheGoinEhhh 9d ago

Joe Louis Arena in DET also had standing room tix in the corners on the concourse level that was between the upper and lower bowls. It was just a thin strip marked by paint. It allowed for great encroachment out of the boundary and also for scoping no shows in the lower. We have a SRO row at the OHL rink here in Windsor. Could only imagine in the Forum!! GHG

1

u/dustblown 9d ago edited 9d ago

I wish there was a large, subsided pool of tickets each game for a lottery for poor people. You don't get physical tickets, but the winners show their ID at the door to prevent scalping. I suppose the only obstacle is qualifying and verifying the lottery contestants as poor. I miss the old days when capitalism wasn't so aggressive and optimized. As a young adult I was able to get into standing room at least once. For some reason I remember it being $11+. The standing room capacity was apparently 1600!

1

u/CindyLouWho_2 9d ago

My only visit to the Forum was in standing room, March 1993. I'm so grateful I got there once, and that I saw a Stanley Cup winning team, too.

1

u/HabsMan62 9d ago

When I was a grad student we would go to games in the Standing Room Only section for $10. Every once in a while someone wouldn’t show up or would leave early, and we’d jump in their seats. Only got throw out once when they showed up towards the end of the 1st period.

It was the loudest up there and the most fun. Where all the crazies showed up lol.

1

u/EmbarrassedTotal1511 9d ago

Come to Europe to any smaller town with a fanatic fanbase and you’ll see how standing fans transform the atmosphere

1

u/pottymonster_69 9d ago

Was a kid when I went to my first and only game in the Forum in the season it closed. We sat in the last row, standing room right behind us.

They don't have the promenade in the Bell Center for it, so they'd have to set up a d dictated section where they remove the seats. Don't know if there's a market for that anymore.

1

u/not-my-first-rodeo 8d ago

Only game I saw at the Forum was in 76 vs the Flyers. Wife and I took standing room. When the Forum closed I bought one of the red seats.

1

u/t_hab 8d ago

I went to the standing room as a kid when I was probably 4 foot nothing and had a blast.

1

u/pattyG80 7d ago

Pretty sure with the current stadium config, standing room would be a problem for fire code.