The Nelly

Nelson Center

Springfield, IL
Opened:1993
Seating Capacity: 2100

The next arena I will be covering in my blog is the Nelson Center, which is home to the Springfield Junior Blues of the North American Hockey League.

I played for two seasons with the Jr. Blues in the NAHL. We skated out of the Nelson Center, which is a public skating arena that is surrounded by a water park, soccer fields, and Frisbee course. It was not the most jaw-dropping arena by any means, but it was my home for two years. It is completely different from all of the arenas that I have covered in my blog so far. It felt like a junior arena. It was not too small so that it felt like a youth hockey arena; yet, it was not enormous so it felt like playing in a professional venue. It was...just right.

As I mentioned earlier, there was a public water park adjacent to the arena, so our locker room served as a changing area in the summer time and as an ice hockey locker room in the fall and winter. While this may seem bizarre, the locker room was very spacious. The biggest downfall of that locker room was the warm water, or lack thereof. The showers would not get warm unless they ran for roughly 20 minutes. We had to use broken hockey sticks and turn them into a "shower stick" that would hold the shower nozzle on and keep the water running. Luckily, this job was delegated to the rookies so I didn't have to worry about it my second year.

The arena had seating on both sides of the ice. On one side, the seating was old wooden bleachers, and the other had new aluminum seating. Personally, I liked the look of the wooden side better. I would sit in the stands, isolated, for about a half an hour before every game and just stare onto the ice envisioning every scenario in my head. The arena had a concession stand across from the benches, but on the side of the rink where I dressing room was. As we would come onto the ice before the game and between intermissions, the fans would line up and give us high fives. It is a pretty proud feeling knowing that fans, who have no idea who we are, come and pay to watch us play the game we love. In a sense, it made me feel like a professional player having little kids idolize us.

The ice surface was always pretty good during the colder months; however, at the beginning of the season it would still be warm outside which made the ice very slushy. There was also a large conference room on the opposite side of the benches that had glass windows. If the sun was sitting just right, these windows would make for very bad glares on the ice. The size of the arena was nothing out of the ordinary. It felt like the perfect size. Not too big, not too small. The boards and glass were also nothing special. They were not dead like some of the arenas I have written about, but at the same time they were not nearly as lively as others.

Most teams hated coming to play us in the Nelson Center. Granted, the opposing teams' locker room is nothing to write home about. But I loved playing in that arena. It felt like home to me and I would not have been opposed to playing all 120 of my NAHL games in that arena. I'm glad that I had the privilege of calling the Nelson Center my home for two seasons, and I want to thank all of the Springfield Jr. Blues coaches, players, billet families, and fans for making my time in Springy a memorable one. I'm proud to say I served as your captain for a season, and I wish for all the best in the future.

Go Blues!

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-       Joshua Lammon