Ever wonder what it's like to have a front row seat at a UMass hockey game in a giant inflatable chair? Harry Plumer got to find out.
Harry Plumer got a different view of Friday night's UMass-Providence hockey game.
AMHERST — I had a sports editor in college that told me the best thing I could do was to get out of the press box.
So for Friday night’s UMass-Providence hockey game, I traded in my perch at the top of Mullins Center for a spot in the 8 ½-foot tall inflatable chair that sits in the southwest corner of the arena.
Normally, two or three “fans of the game” get the opportunity to sit in the chair, which is sponsored by the UMass Alumni Association, but Friday I had the spacious accommodations all to myself.
I wasn’t exactly certain what to expect — my only goal was for it not to suddenly deflate like it did with three girls on it earlier in the season when the blower that keeps it inflated disconnected.
I accomplished this, though I did almost fall down a couple of times while climbing into the arms of the inflated beast.
Luckily, the embarrassment of that was averted.
At first, sitting in the chair feels a little unstable — like the first time you lay down on an air mattress — but once I got used to it and figured out the most comfortable posture (leaned against the back of the chair, legs crossed with laptop in my lap), I found it to be quite comfortable.
(Side note: I will admit there was some trial and error involved in this, including a full sprawl that I was worried would look far too unprofessional, and a lying on my side moment that would have been right at home in some sort of dystopic calendar featuring photos of out-of-shape sportswriters.)
The view is a great one for fans — a front-row seat — especially when the puck is in the zone right in front of the chair.
There were a few punishing hits right in front of me that loudly rattled the glass, legitimately startling me, and I had a fabulous vantage point on UMass’ three second-period goals.
When the puck is at the far end of the rink, it was hard to figure out exactly which players had the puck — a problem for a reporter, but a seemingly negligible issue for fans just there to have a good time.
The “big chair” was a project created by Nelligan Sports Marketing, which has handled the promotions, marketing and media rights for UMass Athletics since being contracted by the University in August, 2011.
The chair’s actual inception came sometime in early 2012, when the UMass Alumni Association approached Pam Batalis, Nelligan’s General Manager at UMass, about a seat upgrade promotion.
“I thought, ‘Seat upgrade? Gosh, yawn,’” she recalled.
So, she did what any good marketing professional would do — figured out a way to make it work.
The idea for the chair dawned upon her over a bowl of what she calls her special creative combination — Special K Protein and Honey Nut Cheerios — sometime in the early spring of 2012.
“I thought, ‘We do tons of inflatable promotions. Why not furniture?’” she said.
The Alumni Association loved the idea, and jumped on it immediately, according to Batalis, so off her and her staff went to the most reliable place to find just about anything — Google.
“We literally just Googled inflatable furniture,” she said. “It really didn’t take that long.”
UMass students Emma Mulvaney ,Melissa Tarbell and Kall Ackerman were selected to sit in the Big Chair during its debut at Gillette Stadium on Sept. 8.
photo by J. Anthony Roberts
Batalis eventually contracted MLSCgames.com, a company out of Lakewood, N.J. that bills itself as a “Manufacturer of Quality Amusement Games and Attractions,” to build the chair, which arrived in time for the UMass football team’s first game at Gillette Stadium.
“We were like kids in a candy store,” Batalis said of the day the chair arrived. “We just ripped open that box and immediately plugged in the blower and inflated it — it’s a good thing we have 12-foot ceilings in our office.”
The chair was up and running in time for UMass’ opening football game against Indiana on Sept. 8 at Gillette Stadium, and one of the first guests to plop down on it was legendary comedian Bill Cosby.
The chair weighs around 70 pounds with no air in it, according to Kevin Haworth, one of four interns charged with handling the chair’s inflation and deflation Friday night, and takes just under two minutes to inflate with the high-powered blower that MLSCGames.com included with Nelligan’s purchase.
The blower runs throughout the game, keeping the chair from deflating under the weight of multiple fans, or in this case, one reporter with a dream of sitting on an inflatable throne for two-plus hours.
Ultimately, my old boss was right — It’s good to get out of the press box.