It was a big weekend for the Sydney Bears. Playing two games in two days against two of their biggest rivals for the league premiership and championship titles this season. You could excuse them for being all business and laser focused on the challenge at hand.

I’m imagining the mantra “AIHL glory, nothing else, AIHL glory, nothing else” on repeat over and over again like a pop-song ear-worm that invades your mind at all times.

Instead, we saw the Sydney Bears let their hair down, have a laugh and kick-back with vibrant fun vibes.

You may think, oh having fun never wins you games but the Bears proved this wrong. Not only did they defeat the Perth Thunder on Saturday night and Melbourne Ice on Sunday, they had a lot of fun doing it.

The marketing team at the Bears should be patting themselves on the back for organising and scheduling Superhero night. Devoting their socials and game day experience to the concept.

I have labeled this the art of fun with the Sydney Bears.

Engaging with the fans

Engaging with the fans by asking for them to invent superhero names for the players was a fun idea. I did have a chuckle at some of the names put forward, including Michael Fildes’ “the Kimlinator” and Sean Walker’s “the FreeTrellian”.

The comic-strip cartoon themed social posts were on point. It was a nice touch seeing some volunteers and people at the rink dress up.

Kudos to the Bears for coming up with a fun theme night and going all in on socials with it. We saw a few weeks ago the Bears and Adrenaline do similar with Star Wars. It just adds a bit of fun around the league. What’s more, it adds to a big victory and hopefully builds into a bit of a tradition that everyone looks forward to and gets involved with.

The Art of Fun with the Sydney Bears today, who is going to follow tomorrow?

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