Hold the ice

The University of New Haven has a blue football field. Roos Field at Eastern Washington has a red field, making the entire 100 yards the red zone.  Estes Stadium at Central Arkansas has a field that is alternately purple and gray every five yards, and at Rynearson Stadium (Eastern Michigan U) the field is totally gray, making it look like you're watching the game on a black-and-white TV from 1957.

Basketball courts?  They come in all sorts of colors anymore, some with beach scenes.

So it should come as no surprise that some smarty came up with the idea to play hockey on yellow ice.

You know the Florida Everglades, but there is a minor league hockey team called the Florida EverBLADES, and Hertz Rent-A-Car is shelling out money for the naming rights to their arena.

So the icemaker added a coat of yellow paint between two sealant coats on their skating surface, and now the official color of the car rental firm is iced down for the Everblades as they open their season against the Norfolk Admirals.

This all takes place in Estero, Florida, which is the 47th consecutive fact in this blog that I never heard of before.



Hertz is also checking with the town's Design Review Board to see if it's ok to paint the building "sunny yellow" on the outside.

The yellow will be removed from the ice after the first games are over.

Predictably, Blades president and general manager Craig Brush quipped, “Don’t eat the yellow ice,” and then bowed to his corporate masters by  adding, “It’s something Hertz wanted to do and we’re all for it."

When asked if he’s excited about playing on the yellow ice, Blades coach Brad Ralph smiled and said, “I’m excited to play on home ice.”

Do you get the feeling that Brad Ralph learned to play hockey on outdoor rinks in his native Canada, and made it to the National Hockey League as a left-winger for fourteen years, and is now just so glad to have a job that he'll just take the diplomatic course?