Gwinnett Gladiators Professional Hockey Club

I’ve been going to a couple Gladiators games per year since 2008. I didn’t even live here yet in 2008!
It’s not NHL hockey by any means but I’m very, very proud to have Louis Domingue killin’ it for the Coyotes this season, since he was a staple of this team in/​around 2013. He played here for like 2 games last year and then within 2 months was shutting out the Habs in his first game. YEAH.
It’s also a great way to see the siblings of NHLers like Blake «Other» Kessel and Jared «Tito» Staal.
It’s hard to have favorites though because the ECHL is like a revolving door of players. Players come and go for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes they are not very good. This is often, actually, they get down a couple goals immediately and spend the rest of the game trying to make up for it. Once I saw them manage to score 8 goals. That was a good night.
Tickets are cheap, we often sit a few rows back from the benches for $ 20. I wouldn’t even bother buying them online except for like Teddy Bear Toss night (Jan 30 this year!).
Hopefully with the Bruins affiliation (ugh) things start to turn around here, but either way I’ll always try to get to a few games a year.
btw check out the post game parties at Marlow’s Tavern down the street on those nights. They interview a couple players and the coach for a radio show and it’s cool to get to get insight from them.

Always a good time and very affordable!
The arena is usually far from being full but it is good to still have some hockey action close to Atlanta.
Go Glads

I have been a hockey fan for quite a while. I started following ECHL hockey in 1990 in Greensboro, NC. Having been an ECHL fan, I am quite fickle as to who I cheer. The Glads have won me over!
Going to a Glads game is relatively cheap… and they actually play quality hockey (with the occasional fight thrown in!). Wifey and I can go to a game, with snacks for less than $ 40 or so. You cannot go to a movie for that price any longer!
Yes, we have to trek the 15 miles or so from our home in Alpharetta out to the Gwinnett Center… but…so long as you time traffic right, even that is not a bad deal!
Go see the Glads so that Atlanta continues to have professional hockey!

Exciting experience. Great value for the ticket price. My children had a blast

Probably not as polished as what you’d find in the NHL, but boy is this fun. As a casual fan who has caught a dozen games, I always seemed to have more fun watching the gladiators play over the thrashers, and now that the thrashers are gone, there’s still plenty to see here.
Tickets are affordable, at about $ 20 a ticket, which will generally sit you anywhere outside of the suites, and even though there isn’t always a packed house, the fans who are here are just as passionate as a full house might be.
All of the players play with passion, typically are competitive throughout the season and if you’re lucky, you may get a t-​shirt shot your way.
Beautiful arena, passionate not exactly polished players and a fan frenzy for 20 bucks? Best deal in town.

Having grown up watching minor league hockey in my hometown and loving the unpredictability and spontaneity of it, I’ve always felt the NHL players toe the line of conservatism and corporate accomplishment a tad too closely in major cities (with apologies to Marty McSorly who never really seemed to care either way).
Watching the Gladiators play is to observe 17 – 20 year old kids who think they might have a shot at an NHL contract if they can just stand out enough when the scouts are in the audience. As a mixed blessing, this leads to intense, and sometimes misdirected hyper violent and all too physically eager play, on behalf of the budding ECHL players.
Even as a hockey player, I have seen some incidents at games that I felt went a touch over the line in both a personal and professional capacity, especially given the family atmosphere the Gladiators promote to their fans.
For the price, the Gladiators games allow for a family of four to go see a semi pro event at a price that won’t prevent you from paying next month’s mortgage. Their season ticket packages are quite reasonable as well if you are local, given what I’ve paid in the past to see a handful of NHL and Olympic games, and my experience with NHL season ticket packages that have bordered on the outer limits of outrageous.
If you’re looking for entertaining, unpredictable, fast paced, and sometimes brutal on ice action, you can’t get much more for your dollar than the Gladiators.

The ECHL affiliate of the Atlanta Thrashers, and a great value for sports fans looking for professional sports outside the perimeter. It’s not the highest level of professional hockey, but its definitely entertaining and a much cheaper event for suburbanites to attend. The parking is more accessible, there’s less traffic, and the prices are more reasonable than watching the Thrashers at Philips. Plus, a lot of the guys on the ice are fighting to keep their professional careers going and seem to play like it. They may not be as talented as the big leaguers, so they work harder.
In 2006 the Gladiators lost in the ECHL Kelly Cup Finals to the Alaska Aces. It was the closest an Atlanta team has come to a championship in almost 10 years. Which is kind of depressing to me, but that’s a me thing.