Football Fallout in Central PA?

With so much football fandamonium and tension existing between Eagles and Steelers fans in the midstate, I for one thought that a professional indoor football team would be a sure success in Harrisburg. I was thrilled to hear that the American Indoor Football Association was adding a new team to the 2009 schedule- the Harrisburg Stampede.

Forget driving 2 or more hours and paying $100 plus for a lousy seat at an NFL game, the Stampede play at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg and tickets sell as low as $7 ! Not to mention the entertainment value of a smaller field completely walled in to ensure bigger hits, higher scores, and plenty of cheap entertainment. So these games would probably sell out right?

Well, not exactly. I attended the Stampede’s first home game and despite all the promotion and hype about Harrisburg’s first pro indoor football team, the Farm Show Complex was less that half full. Even so, I didn’t suspect anyone left the game without feeling like they got their money’s worth- it was an exciting game! Big hits, loud music, lots of free giveaways, and plenty of scrapping between the two teams. Not to mention the game was a narrow win for the Stampede that had the entire crowd hyped to the final minutes of play!

So surely, future home games for the Stampede would be packed out right?

Well I returned to Farm Show Complex last night with a few friends to cheer on the Stampede and I must sadly say that there were probably less people in attendance then the first game I went to. A real pity! I’m not sure exactly why the Stampede haven’t ‘caught on’ quite yet in Harrisburg, but I do hope it happens soon. I don’t want to see the Stampede follow the way of the Harrisburg Heat.

Perhaps there are just too many alternatives in the greater Harrisburg area for sports fans? We’ve got roller hockey, roller derby, rugby, ice hockey, baseball, basketball, woman’s football, soccer and more! There’s plenty to choose from for sure, I just hope Harrisburg gets behind the Stampede. Take the kids, take your friends, family, or your boss. Support the investment that the owners of the Stampede have made in the city of Harrisburg. For the price you’ll pay to get in it’s an easy entertainment investment that I heartily suggest looking into.

You can find their schedule and all the usual team info at HarrisburgStampede.com, and don’t forget to show them some love on their facebook page as well.

Go Stampede!

Harrisburg Launches New Pro Indoor Football Franchise

The rumors are true! The Harrisburg Stampede are the newest sports team addition to the city, set to begin their inaugural season in 2009. Part of the American Indoor Football Association, the Stampede are co-owned by the New Orleans Saints’ Marques Colston, and will play their home games inside the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center.  The AIFA regular season stretches from March to June, with currently 17 teams representing cities from across the commonwealth and the country.

The Harrisburg Stampede have announced they will hold a press conference to introduce the coaching staff and roster on September 23rd, 2008, at 4:30pm inside Strawberry Square in downtown Harrisburg. A team website is also in the works and can be found at:  HarrisburgStampede.com. You can show your support by becoming a Stampede fan on

Harrisburg was recentely ranked by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal as the second-best minor league sports market in the country, a sure sign that the Stampede will fit right in to the city’s diverse landscape of sports teams.

Bube’s Brewery- A Must Experience

If you’re into unique dining experiences, themed feasts, quality beer, or pirates, you need to put a visit to Bube’s Brewery on your to do list. Located in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, this 19th century brewery and museum contains 4 extraordinary restaurants, live events, an unusual store, and an art gallery displaying works from local artists. Bube’s, (interestingly enough pronounced “boo bees”) has a very rustic, vintage atmosphere, as everything has been preserved as it existed years ago.

My experience with Bube’s was in the Catacombs, an incredible restaurant located 43 feet underground in the old stone cellars where enormous wooden casks used to be full of aging beer. The atmosphere is beyond unique, as the quiet stone caverns are lighted only by candlelight atop a number of dinner tables. What an experience! Not to mention that the food was great and the service superb. They even provided a free dessert to help us celebrate a birthday in our dining party. I tried a few of the house brewed beers- an IPA that really threw me off because of it’s unique maltiness and a red ale that was just perfect. My date tried a caramel apple martini that was equally delicious, and the prices for everything on the menu were very reasonable. Both the swordfish and the seafood mornay were wonderful.

All in all, dining in the Catacombs was an experience I will not soon forget, and I am already planning a return visit to try the other dining establishments at Bube’s Brewery. Those include the original bar called Alois, the Bottling Works, and the outdoor Biergarten. Themed dinners also include Murder Mysteries, Roman Feasts, Medieval Feasts, Pirate Feasts, Halloween and Christmas Feasts.

Bube’s is truly a must, try it for a romantic dinner, a fun themed evening, or just for something altogether different.

You can check out their upcoming events, menus and more at: BubesBrewery.com

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Harrisburg Young Professionals Open Registrations for Coed Flag Football

You can now sign yourself or a team of 12 up for HYP’s first ever Coed Flag Football League. Games are scheduled for Tuesday evenings at 6:30 or 7:30 and will take place at Twin Ponds off Union Deposit Road. $20 will get you into the league or $240 to register a team of 12. There is one caveat however, each team must have at least 5 ladies on it.  More details to follow, but games will begin Tuesday, September 30th, so don’t delay- grab a couple of friends or 12 if you have that many and get signed up for some serious good times. You can register on the Harrisburg Young Professionals website.

The flag football league is following HYP’s first ever kickball league, a huge success and well participated as there were 14 teams in total. You can check out pictures and final standings at the HYP Kickball League website.

(FYI the HYP flag football league will most likely resemble something similar to these fun loving youngsters minus the guy with the pony tail.)

Upcoming Event – Carlisle Bike Fest, July 25th-27th, 2008

Try to picture for a minute over 50,000 motorcycle enthusiasts along with some enthusiast wannabes and a number of regular curious citizens descending upon the little town of Carlisle, Pennsylvania for a weekend of food, music, stunts, super charged trials, vendors, and the usual festival revelry. Did a strange look of befuddlement just appear on your face? I certainly had a hard time imaging such an enormous event taking place in nearby Carlisle, a peaceful little town with a nice variety of restaurant choices and eclectic shops. Images of the final scenes from the movie Wild Hogs began dancing around my head as soon as I learned about this annual festival. 

But regardless of what imagery comes to mind, this is the seventh year Carlisle has hosted this event so Bike Fest must not be as crazy as I am envisioning. And even though I don’t own a bike anymore I’m still planning on attending, maybe I’ll even win the motorcyle giveaway. More information about the event can be found on the Carlisle Events Website. If you’re just in town for the weekend, make sure to check out the Cumberland Valley Visitors Bureau, and Spotobe.com for other great events taking place in the area. It’s going to be a wild weekend in Carlisle, see you there!

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Annual Blues Festival Promises Big Eats and Guaranteed Entertainment

Saturday, August 2nd 2008 starting at 1:30pm one of Harrisburg’s best annual blues concerts is set to kickoff in grand fashion with a lineup of performances including the Krypton City Blues Revue, Zora Young, Gary Belloma & The Blue Bombers, Nate Myers & The Aces, The New Experience Variety Band, and Tomm Dunn Delta Blues Soloist. 6th annual “The Lost, The Found & The Dearly Departed” will take place at the Harrisburg Postal Employees Picnic Grounds, 1500 Roberts Valley Road, Harrisburg. Attendees are encouraged to come hungry, as the $20 entry fee ($25 at the door) not only provides your ticket to incredible entertainment all day, but also access to as much pork BBQ, fried catfish, chicken, fresh cut fries, baked beans and salad you can stomach! The event is totally BYOB which is mainly the reason so many attendees bring camping equipment and stay the night, as the party continues long after the music has stopped playing. While this annual festival remains for the most part under the radar, trust me you won’t want to miss out on the revelry.

Harrisburg Young Professionals Open Registrations for Summer Kickball League

Ever wish you could relive those 5th grade playground kickball games that were all the rage at recess? Well dust off your adidas sambas and throw on a pair of umbro shorts because the Harrisburg Young Professionals are hosting a summer kickball league for anyone interested in kicking some serious red rubber!

The league will officially begin July 10th, with five regular season games and 2 weeks of playoff games concluding on August 21st. Games will take place Thursday evenings and guarantee to attract the most serious ballers from Harrisburg and beyond. Registration is $20 per person, you can sign up at HYP.org by clicking the register now link. See who plans on making a run for the 2008 summer kickball title on facebook, and feel free to invite anyone who might have interest in such revelry.

The deadline to register is July 3rd so don’t delay!

Don’t Miss the 80th Annual Jubilee Day in Mechanicsburg, PA – June 19th, 2008

This Thursday there’s a  good reason to take a personal day from work – Mechanicsburg’s 80th Annual Jubilee Day. Here’s a tasty tidbit of trivia about the event; it’s the biggest one day street festival on the entire east coast and anticipates over 60,000 people to be in attendance this year. Wow! It’s hard for me to picture that many people fitting into little Mechanicsburg. This year’s event will take place from 10am-9pm and boasts over 50 food vendors, 2 live music/entertainment stages, amusement rides, and plenty of vendors selling various arts and crafts.

I’m not sure where the best place to park would be as this will be my first year at Jubilee Day, but from the event website: “There will be free shuttle bus service from the following locations. Mechanicsburg Senior High School, off Williams Grove Road, and Immanuel Alliance Church at 800 South Market Street.”

The Gettysburg Festival “Celebrating America” Debuts June 19th-29th, 2008

Heard about this massive ten day festival on the radio this morning, I can’t believe this is the first I’ve heard of it! This will apparently be the first year of the Gettysburg Festival “Celebrating America” and will be no small event – over 60 events are scheduled from dance to theater to jazz. With events for the whole family and all ages this event is sure to establish itself as one of the premier festivals in Southcentral PA, if not the entire commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Much of the performances will take place in Gettysburg’s Majestic Theater, but events are scheduled at many other venues as well, including the Historic Gettysburg Railroad Station Pavilion, The Historic Gettysburg Hotel, and Gettysburg College.

Sprint Car Racing at the Williams Grove Speedway – an “Experience”

So this past Friday night my girlfriend and I decided it was time we saw first hand what all the hype was about at the Williams Grove Speedway. It’s funny that I’ve been living less than 5 miles away for the past 5 years and I’ve never once given the place consideration for weekend entertainment (apparently the raceway has been there since 1939). Personally, racing has never interested me, it seems more of a country sport, is it a sport? (If you’re a racing fan don’t be offended by my racing naivety) Anyhow, just recently the Williams Grove Speedway has been sort of eeirily brought to my attention. I first started noticing a lot of locals around Mechanicsburg have sprint car stickers on their cars, which seemed strange but I gave it little thought. Soon after I started noticing the car stickers, I couldn’t help but notice one of my neighbors actually had a sprint car sitting in their driveway, rather weird eh? But the final “sign” that told me to go to the speedway was that my chiropractor (Mechanicsburg Chiropractic is awesome) actually sponsors a sprint car that belongs to the massage therapist’s boyfriend – whoa! So I told my girlfriend we were destined for a Friday night adventure and we set off in the sound of roaring engines (you can hear them for miles).

We didn’t make it for the very start of the races, so we had to park a little ways walk from the stadium in a grass field. The first thing I noticed was that the track was huge, and there was certainly a lot of excitement going on – there was easily a few thousand people there! I had no idea the races were so popular! We strode up a muddy road around the side of the track to a ticket window where we tried to use our college ID’s to get discounted $9 tickets. The old man inside the booth just looked at us like we had spoken to him in a different language. Apparently, people attending college are not considered “students” at the raceway, rather odd. Anyway we ended up paying $15 a piece to get in which in my opinion was a little steep, but there was no way we could leave now! After reluctantly paying the old man we stepped inside the stadium immediately into a different world. Like I said there were thousands of people crowding about, some standing, some sitting up in the stands, but everyone looking quite country and enjoying their favorite case of bud light (cans only allowed in the stadium FYI).  I’ll admit this was a little bit of a culture shock for the both of us at first, and it was apparent we had an immediate disadvantage at fitting in as neither of us had remembered to pack blue jeans, a cut off racing t-shirt, camouflage racing hat, or 30 rack of cheap beer!

The adventure continued as we attempted to find a place to sit in the stands. There appeared to be a good amount of seats open in a nearby section that was located near the turn of the dirt raceway so we headed over. I immediately noticed large pellets of dirt all over the stands but didn’t really think much of it, but after curiously surveying those sitting around me it became apparent that they were all wearing an array of protective eye gear; glasses, work goggles, and even ski googles. How strange. Well, before I could ask my girlfriend what she thought about everyone wearing such stylish glasses the sprint cars (they look like go-carts with roof racks to me) came roaring around the track and wouldn’t you know they threw so much dirt and pellets at  us up in the stands we could barely see! So they weren’t just wearing the ski goggles to be trendy! We quickly relocated to a different set of bleachers closer to the center of the track to avoid the dust and dirt pellets.

This section was noticeably more enjoyable to sit in, especially when we noticed a gentleman entering the speedway with a pink polo on and slicked back hair. Bad choice my friend for a day at the raceway. Needless to say, he received a host of unruly comments from those already seated in the stands as he walked by in search of a seat, nervously looking around for whoever invited him to come to the races and neglected to tell him the normal pink popped collar polo might not be a wise choice of evening attire. Pure entertainment.

The races were in fact entertaining, and there were quite a few crashes on the track which really got the crowd on their feet in a hurry. The place was loud, the crowd a bit rough, and the evening altogether extremely entertaining. I do plan on a return visit, but next time I’ll be sure to enter the park dressed in character and armed with a case of beer.

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