Ottawa All-Star Fan Fair Review – Meeting the Players

I’ll be honest, my favourite part about any NHL event is to try and meet as many players as possible. I love collecting and displaying signed items on my wall. The All-Star Fan Fair at the Ottawa Convention Centre provided the perfect opportunity to do so, with many autograph sessions planned for each day. There were several different booths that I was able to visit to meet the players (there were probably others that I missed as well):

1. Canadian Tire Booth – The Canadian Tire booth featured retired players including ex-Sens and hall of famers. This was likely the best booth to get autographs. You were able to get a wristband an hour before the autograph session officially began (and needed one in order to meet the players). This kept things very organized as you knew you were guaranteed to meet the players once you had the wristband. This booth only provided a generic blank card to get autographed, but allowed you to get anything you wanted signed instead. As well, from my experience they allowed everyone to take photos with the players as well. This was also the only booth where I saw the players take their time to have a short chat with every person they met and offer to personalize their autographs.

2. Scotiabank Booth – This was the booth that hosted the most star players. However, it was also the least liked from what I’ve heard. You had to lineup in order to get an autograph and the line would fill up an hour in advance for most players where the staff would cut it off. Furthermore, since the lines were longest here they did not allow any time for people to chat or take photos with the player. You just got your item signed, and would essentially be pushed out. As well you were only allowed to get the 8×10 picture provided by Scotiabank autographed (although I saw several people manage to get their own items signed).

3. Bell Booth – To my knowledge the Bell Booth only featured current Senators players. From my experience they provided a player card to get autographed as well as allowing you one additional personal item to be signed. They also allowed you to take a picture with the player.

4. Upper Deck Room – The Upper Deck room provided a numbered wristband to control their numbers. The lower your number, the earlier you got to go. So if you were in the first hundred, you could line up as soon as the player arrived, while the latter numbers had to wait outside before being allowed in line. Because Upper Deck was sponsoring they only allowed their own oversize card they provided to be signed, but they did allow photos with the players which was nice.

5. Panini Room – The Panini room hosted many of the game’s great players. They provided no wristbands so one would have to line up in order to guarantee their chance to meet the player signing. Like Upper Deck, they only allowed their own oversized card that they provided to get signed, but did allowed photos to be taken with the players as well.

I ended up going to the fan fair all three days, trying out the interactive booths, but mainly trying to get into as many autograph sessions as I could. Here’s a quick recap:

Thursday:

This was easily the best day to go. There were very few people attending compared to Friday and Saturday, meaning lines to the interactive booths were essentially nill. To boot there were some pretty good player appearances as well. I was able to get into the Erik Karlsson line for the Scotiabank booth in the final few minutes. Since I was one of the last people to get their provided 8×10 pictures signed (plus the fact it wasn’t that busy), the staff seemed to be more lenient and allowed for pictures to be taken with Karlsson. I was also able to visit the Bell booth that featured Milan Michalek. Since the booth wasn’t that busy, they allowed (as mentioned previously) two autographed items (one of their cards, and one personal item) as well as a photo with the player. Overall, a succesful haul seeing as I didn’t even arrive when the Fan Fair first opened. Since I arrived late I did end up missing the Colin Greening signing (which I believe was at the Scotiabank booth).

Friday:

Friday had to be the most unsuccesful day for me. I was only able to arrive late in the afternoon. I ended up missing the morning session at the Canadian Tire Booth that featured Curtis Joseph, Patrick Lalime, and Shaun Van Allen. All three very well known players by Sens fans. I also ended up missing the Jason Spezza autograph session at the Scotiabank Booth as well as the Marian Hossa (and a surpise appearance by Pavel Datsyuk from what I heard) at the same booth later in the afternoon. Worst of all I arrived too late to get a spot in line for the Daniel Alfredsson signing at the Bell Booth (which was only 30 minutes long, compared to 60-90 minutes long for most of the other player appearances). To add insult to injury, I also arrived too late to meet Mr. Hockey himself (Gordie Howe) at the Panini Booth. Talking with one of the workers there, that was easily one of the most crowded player appearances. The one saving grace of the day was managing to snag a Zdeno Chara autograph at the Scotiabank Booth. However, it was very rushed, and consisted of Chara just signing pictures as quickly as he could (and other items that people managed to sneak on his table). It probably wasn’t really worth spending an hour and half in line, and missing out on another autograph session occuring at the Canadian Tire booth that featured Mike Bossy, Todd White, and Gaston Gingras.

Saturday:

I was able to get to the Fan Fair early on Saturday and managed several autographs. I missed out on the three signings at the Scotiabank booth (Jarome Iginla, Corey Perry, and Dan Girardi). Wasn’t too upset though seeing as those were the longest waits as well as the least personal of any of the booths when it came to meeting the player (just a rush for the player to sign as quickly as possible). At the Panini room I was able to meet both Gabriel Landeskog and Jeremy Roenick. They were only able to sign the Panini provided cards, but were more than willing to take pictures with every fan which was nice. At the Upper Deck room I was able to snag Cody Hodgson’s autograph (on the Upper Deck provided card) as well a quick photo. Their numbered wristband system worked really well and I only ended up waiting under five minutes in line. My final meeting of the Fan Fair was with none other than Garry Galley and Denis Potvin at the Canadian Tire booth. This was easily my favorite as I was able to have a short chat with both as well as get my picture taken with each. Both personalized their autographs to boot!

Overall, the Fan Fair gave everyone a good opportunity to meet the players. However, one had to know the schedule where each player would be and plan accordingly. There was no way to meet every single player in a given day. As well, some booths offered a much more personal environment where players were much more willing to engage with the fans (i.e. the Canadian Tire booth) compared to those where a player is being rushed to sign and get through a line as quickly as possible (i.e. the Scotiabank booth). Nevertheless, it was a blast meeting some of the players I would never have been able to meet otherwise. This was definitely an event I’m glad Ottawa was able to host!