Everything You Need to Know about the August 11th Dallas Hockey Meetup at BoomerJack's

It's gonna be a fun time

It may not be quite this glamorous.

I’m sure you’ve heard plenty about it by now, but I wanted to create a standalone announcement with all the information I have about the August 11 meetup Gavin Spittle is putting together. In fact, that Hockey Celebration is a week from today! So if you aren’t already planning to stop by and talk about hockey with a bunch of folks for an hour or two (or more), now is your chance to do so.

I’ve tried to cover all of the most obvious questions, but let’s start with the most important details:

What: Spits & Suds Hockey Celebration, Meetup, and Live Podcast

When: Tuesday, August 11 at 6:00pm for the meet & greet, followed by the podcast recording around 7:00pm or so

Where: BoomerJack’s Grill in Fairview (near Allen)

Who will be there: Gavin is hosting this whole deal, and he’s bringing out the big guns with in-person guests like Sean Shapiro, Lia Assimakopoulos, and Stephen Meserve. Also, I’ll be around somewhere, but more importantly, I’m told Steve Hill from SportsToons will also be in attendance. (Oh, and knowing Gavin, I’d expect there to be one or two other surprise guests as well, but you’ll have to show up and find out who those will be, because that’s how surprises work.)

How much will it cost? It’s free! Just get yourself there, and ka-blamo! You’re part of the event. (We do ask that you buy a drink or a food from our hosts at Boomerjack’s, of course, but since most of you have probably been to restaurants before, I trust that you understand how this all works.)

What do I get out of it? Oh, looks like we got a real Selfish Selwyn over here, huh? Well, fine. There will be free giveaways! Gavin has been saying that folks from the On-Time Experts will be there to give away some Stars tickets, so that’s obviously a great thing to win. Also, I have a few assorted items that I might just bring to give away as well. Or maybe I’ll just force some of this fan paraphernalia on people even if they don’t want it. Boom! You got free stuffed.

How much do we have to pay you not to say “free stuffed” ever again? A high-five should do it.

Why should I come to this? Because it’s a Hockey Thing in August, and it’s a chance to hang out with a bunch of cool hockey people and also me. But if I had to guess, I’d say you are likely to meet some other very cool hockey fans (though none of them will be quite as cool as you, the one reading this right now).

Wait, we can’t buy VIP tickets or anything like that? What if I want to pay extra to yell at Sean, or to give Stephen a high-five? Nope! Just show up, and you’ll have to get in the high-five/yelling lines like everyone else. Er, wait, I mean yes, you have to give me cash, personally, when nobody is looking. Bring cash just for me, yeah. Then I’ll make you a “Secret VIP,” which is a thing so exclusive that nobody else will even have heard of it or know what it means. But DO NOT TELL anybody about this. Bring cash for me, though.

What if I’m an introvert? You can show up and listen quietly and not talk to anybody else, just like I do when I go to the airport.

Will we be forced to go around the room and introduce ourselves like it’s an awkward corporate icebreaker exercise? This is not likely, but I won’t rule anything out.

Can I arrive or leave whenever I want? Legally, yes. Technically, yes. But if you get up and make that chair-scraping noise right as I’m saying something Super Smart on the podcast, I reserve the right to make a bad joke about it. Probably I will chicken out, though.

How many people will be there? What am I, psychic? I have no idea. Probably a big ol’ fun group, or maybe hundreds and hundreds of heaving throngs like there were on the Winter Classic midway in Fair Park! Wait, how is this affecting your decision, anyway? Are you like, one of those people who only go to parties once someone texts you a list of who all is already there? Because that’s my thing, and I won’t have you stealing it.

Have you ever done an event like this before? Yes, in fact! Taylor and I hosted a DBD meetup way back on December 29, 2019 at Craft & Crowler before said Winter Classic, and it was one of my favorite memories from my time writing for that site. It was really lovely. If you were there, I’d love to hear about some of your memories of that evening, but mine were exceptional.

The beginning of the aforementioned DBD meetup, when there was still room to walk around. I promise people weren’t on their phones the whole time.

Can we cut you off when you make the same dumb joke for the sixth time in a row in response to a genuine question and ask Lia to give us a real answer? Begrudgingly, yes.

What should we wear? Whatever you want. I would assume some people might wear their Stars gear, but Bill from Legal is telling me that I cannot impose a dress code at this late date, and also at any date, and also stop e-mailing me. Haha, Bill is such a kidder. Anyway, I’d recommend full white tie formal, so a ball gown or a white piqué shirt, top hat, cane, tails, and the works. I have a penguin costume I wore as one of Mr. Popper’s Penguins one time at on old job. I probably won’t wear that this time, though.

Will the Stars trade for Patrick Sharp again, like they did at that Party in the Park fan fest meetup back in July 2015 on Periscope(!) when Josh Bogorad announced the trade live? This seems unlikely to me, for multiple reasons.

What should we bring? If you have a book you’d like Sean, Steve, or Stephen to sign, you can buy their stuff here: SportsToons, We Win Here, and 100 Things Stars Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die.

Isn’t “before they die” kind of a morbid end to a subtitle? Sure, but maybe the idea for the publisher of the whole series was to grab people’s attention when they saw such a dire phrase on a bookshelf at Borders. (RIP, Borders.)

So wait, 6pm at BoomerJack’s in Fairview next Tuesday, and make sure to buy a Coke or whatever? That’s all we needed to know, and you rambled on for this long? Yeah.

How much are VIP tickets for the line to chuck batteries at your head, specifically? Surprisingly, these tickets sold out within seconds of going on sale. Weird, that.