# Hockey Game in Roman Gladiator Arena **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [September 5, 2012, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730 "2012-09-05T11:41:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![newcomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e5b9ba/32.png) [@newcomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcomer)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/1 "2012-09-05T11:41:03Z")
As a big fan of outdoor NHL games, I must say that this will be an event to see: a hockey game will be played in Pula, Croatia inside Arena. Preparations in progress - [http://www.jutarnji.hr/nestvarna-scena--hokejaski-teren-usred-pulske-arene--pocinju-pripreme-za-spektakl/1051868/](http://www.jutarnji.hr/nestvarna-scena--hokejaski-teren-usred-pulske-arene--pocinju-pripreme-za-spektakl/1051868/) Pretty cool. Two games will be played; 14th and 16th of Sept. ---
**Author:** ![Abortion\_Fanatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/76d3ee/32.png) [@Abortion\_Fanatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abortion_Fanatic)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/2 "2012-09-05T18:34:04Z")
Awesome. I wish I’d known about this sooner, I totally could have arranged to go! ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/3 "2012-09-05T18:46:54Z")
I can’t read Croatian, but how in the hell are they going to maintain ice outdoors, in Croatia in the middle of September? Refrigeration units can’t be that powerful. Heck we have a hard time in North America for the outdoor NHL games in January. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/4 "2012-09-05T19:09:16Z")
Is this going to be a crossover game? Hockey with some gladatorial combat thrown in? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/5 "2012-09-05T19:36:30Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Is this going to be a crossover game? Hockey with some gladatorial combat thrown in? 😃 Be careful what you wish for. I’m picturing retiarii sans trident, just throwing nets at each other. _Synchornized_ retiarii. I guess a hijacky side question: was Diocletian the only Emperor who could be considered Croatian? I don’t know if he ever would’ve visited this particular Coliseum, or what shape it would’ve been 200 years later. But he was one of the few to retire, and lived in what is now Split (the cities aren’t terribly close). ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/6 "2012-09-05T19:39:21Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I can’t read Croatian, but how in the hell are they going to maintain ice outdoors, in Croatia in the middle of September? Refrigeration units can’t be that powerful. Heck we have a hard time in North America for the outdoor NHL games in January. Well, they did have an outdoor exhibition game in Vegas some years back. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/7 "2012-09-05T19:43:02Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Well, they did have an outdoor exhibition game in Vegas some years back. Wow. So they [did](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NHL_Winter_Classic). > [@](#): > > The process of keeping the ice cool in the desert heat required three times as much coolant as a standard NHL rink. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/8 "2012-09-05T19:44:10Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > Is this going to be a crossover game? Hockey with some gladatorial combat thrown in? 😃 How would you tell the [difference](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgKCdGnVJxM)? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/9 "2012-09-05T21:48:23Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > How would you tell the [difference](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgKCdGnVJxM)? 😃 Well, a slight difference in equipment for one. Give the goalie a trident rather than a hockey stick to go with his net. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/10 "2012-09-06T01:04:13Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > How would you tell the [difference](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgKCdGnVJxM)? 😃 I dunno, [this looks like a typical game](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaqA3riikCY) to me. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/11 "2012-09-06T02:14:06Z")
Moved Cafe Society --\> The Game Room. She shoots! She scores! ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/12 "2012-09-06T04:46:43Z")
This was posted on one of my hockey forums a few months back. One of the posters on there is a Yugoslav expat living in Italy, who remarked that a) this part of Croatia is very hot in September; and b) that this hockey league is pretty piss poor to begin with. Obviously the quality of the play is vastly outstripped by the cool factor, but still. ---
**Author:** ![antonio107](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@antonio107](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antonio107)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/13 "2012-09-06T04:50:30Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > I guess a hijacky side question: was Diocletian the only Emperor who could be considered Croatian? I don’t know if he ever would’ve visited this particular Coliseum, or what shape it would’ve been 200 years later. But he was one of the few to retire, and lived in what is now Split (the cities aren’t terribly close). I wouldn’t consider him Croatian, if only because there were no Croatians there yet, nor would there be for a few hundred years. Attila the Hun also wasn’t Hungarian, despite the protests of my grandparents. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2012, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/14 "2012-09-06T05:39:00Z")
I know, which is why I said “could be considered.” I doubt Philip the Arab has much ethnically in common with modern Arabs, except that he was born in what is now Syria. ---
**Author:** ![newcomer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e5b9ba/32.png) [@newcomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcomer)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hockey-game-in-roman-gladiator-arena/633730/15 "2012-09-15T01:13:34Z")
Little update - [ItemFix - Social Video Factory](http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=598_1347646071)