Okay, that was twenty dollars WELL SPENT. The Bandits are a freaking BLAST, you guys.
Things to love about the Bandits:
1. The crowd! I had NO idea that so many people in Buffalo were so into lacrosse. It was insane. Half the crowd was wearing gigantic orange wigs, and the other half had jerseys on. It was rough and tumble and seriously impressive. There were tons of fun chants (B-O-X, box, box, box, Whoo!), a decent in-game announcer, and the crowd seem fairly well informed. The Bandits have great fans. I seriously had no idea.
2. Lacrosse is a great game! It’s a lot like hockey, only with way more scoring. I didn’t know a single solitary thing about lacrosse, but I had no trouble following the action. The final score was 21-12, Bandits. At first I figured that my presence at the arena had cursed the Bandits, just as it always curses the Sabres, because they went down 6-1 almost immediately, but then they came back with a vengeance. On our way out we were commenting that lacrosse has the perfect amount of scoring: a lot more than hockey, but a lot less than basketball.
3. Bandettes dancing around with multiple costume changes throughout the night! Rax the Racoon mascot! Music during the game! It was a circus! The really funny thing is, they make as big a deal out of every goal at the Bandits game as they do at the Sabres games. So, for every single goal, they do the horn, and the smoke, and the siren, and the crowd leaps up triumphantly…..twenty one times. I am hoarse and giddy from all of the celebration.
4. It’s just as violent as hockey, maybe more. They HIT each other with their sticks. There was a fist fight directly over the unmoving, prone body of a goalie- just like in hockey!
5. The goalies wear a comical amount of padding. They look like they’re wearing those jokey sumo wrestler costumes, but the nets are teeny tiny. I bet Crunchy would love to have a lacrosse net. I don’t really understand why it’s harder to stop a lacrosse ball than it is to stop a hockey puck, but it must be, because both teams were scoring left and right.
6. It’s not hockey! I don’t really care about lacrosse, so I had nothing to lose in this situation. I knew I would have fun because it’s a sport and I had good company, but the experience exceeded my expectations by A LOT. I can highly recommend the Bandits, especially for families as it’s significantly cheaper than hockey. I’m definitely going to the Bandits again.
Go Bandits! Hee!
The Willful Caboose 
Glad you liked it and reccommended it to more people.
Lacrosse is the fastest growing high school sport in the US.
A lacrosse ball bounces but it is very dense like a puck.
I think one difference of why it is harder to stop is because unlike hockey most pros shoot near 100mph and the shots are coming from any angle a player can put his arms at, where as in hockey pucks are always coming from ice up. (That being said all goalies are freaking crazy anway.)
Just mho of course.
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4. It’s just as violent as hockey, maybe more. They HIT each other with their sticks.
Your to funny Kate. I love that line! My son and my cousin tried to teach me how to throw and catch with those sticks. Throwing is easy and even alot of fun, but catching? Not so easy!
Oh, and I’m watching the telethon and I’ve just learned…….that Rob Rays book is NOW out of print. Damn.
I’m glad you enjoyed the game. Its always good to see people maybe start to convert to the ways of indoor lacrosse.
I went to see the Bandits play the NY team in MSG a few weeks back. Proportionally to the smaller crowd, it was intense to see that Bandits fans (me included) seem to represent in the NYC area as much as Sabres fans do.
Rob Ray’s book is coming out soon in paperback (the large kind).
(Former classmate and)Writer Budd Bailey’s site is here and he discuuses it (also the fact that you can pick up a used copy for $315 on Amazon):
http://buddbailey.blogspot.com/
discusses – whatever.
I’ve been a lacrosse fan for about 8 years (though I’m a Toronto Rock / Maple Leafs fan, sorry). You would not believe how often I hear about people who come to their first-ever lacrosse game not knowing anything about lacrosse, and leave as a lacrosse fan.
Hope you make it to more Bandits games! As a Rock fan I refuse to say “Go Bandits”, I hope you understand. :-)
Graeme, thanks for your comment! Sadly I was in attendance last weekend when the Rocks beat the Bandits handily. (Step OFF, Toronto teams!)
Lacrosse has completely taken me by surprise. I couldn’t believe how easy it is to follow. I’ve bee talking it up to everyone I know, and I plan to go to as many games as i can squeeze in over the rest of the season. Go Bandits! :P
Thanks for stopping in, Graeme!
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