Flyers Playoff

I have an internship with the Philadelphia Flyers. These past couple of weeks have been crazy at the internship obviously because it is playoff time! At the internship I am a part of the in-game promotional team called the Fun Patrol- super fun I know. If you have ever been to a game we are the ones rocking the bright neon orange Fun Patrol T-shirts and jump suits- they call us the “Orange and Black Pack.”
Since the playoffs started I can’t tell you the atmosphere of the arena. Our job is to interact with fans and crowd before and during the game. For regular season games we would have to arrive at the arena two hours before, have a brief meeting, and be given a set of tasks to complete for the night. Typically my game day would be something like: arrive there, have the meeting, be sent to either the Broad Street or 11th Street atrium to play Ring Toss (a game involving flexible rings and a hockey helmet with a stick coming out of it) with little kids coming into the arena. Then my Ring Toss partner and I would go to the AT&T Pavillion for a promotion they called the Enterprise Ring Toss. Here we would pick out two people from the crowd at the bar and ask if they would like to help us do a promotion, explain the game to them, and introduce them to the camera man. Shawny, or the dancing guy as many people know him, would come be our announcer as they filmed the promotion and ran it on the jumbo tron. After the promotion is over we quickly change in to Flyer Fan Gear for what they call a Merch Hit. This is basically just a quick taping with Shawny introducing us and showcasing the Fan Gear that also is shown on the jumbo tron.
After pre-game is over everyone is given a list of tasks to complete for the rest of the game. They can include U.S. Air Giveaways, Season Ticket Renewal of the Game, etc… We are all given times to be at certain places to complete each promotion. It really runs like clock work, and it’s cool to get to see how much goes into the promotions behind the scene.
However, now that it’s playoffs, a lot has changed. We are required to be there 3 hours in advance to help out at Block Party- an on-going carnival outside of the arena they run during playoffs. It is a lot of fun and we do a lot of the same things but the fans act much different. The atmosphere is much more intense and every move we make is being watched by somebody. The in-game promotions are limited to Playoff Fan Gear, and occasionally a Renewal of the Game, other than that the promotions are taken over by the NHL and our jobs just involve throwing T-shirts into the crowd.
I consider myself so lucky to be able to be a part of such a cool experience. Not too many people are guaranteed the chance to be at every Flyers home Playoff game. It is an awesome experience to be a part of.
What is so cool about this internship is that it doesn’t really feel like an internship at all. I work with people all my age, and our job is literally to have fun. We meet fun and cool fans, joke around with each other, and basically just try to create a great atmosphere for everyone at the game. I don’t even mind that we only know our schedule from week to week bases. I just hope none of the games are the same day as my finals!