These Fans Don’t Hesitate to Stand Up for Their Ducks

The nachos were tilting. That delicate balance struck between Lesly and Renee Adams--sisters-in-law who had left their husbands at home--had been compromised.

Lesly went right; Renee went left; Paul Kariya went down the middle. The Adamses began shouting, “Come on Paul,” as Kariya worked his way through traffic.

Cheese and chips were pushed to the brink but did not topple.

This was one of the hazards in the standing-room-only section Thursday night at the Pond. No place to sit meant no place to put food while cheering. People juggled mini-pizzas, chips and drinks while trying to root for the Ducks. Still . . .

“This is so much better than sitting up at the top,” said Lesly Adams, who lives in Orange. “I got the first standing-room tickets they sold. We told our husbands we’d be back sometime.

“You can dance around here and yell and no one tells you to sit down.”

Even if you do spill the nachos. This is how about 100 fans saw the Ducks’ Stanley Cup playoff game against the Phoenix Coyotes. They stood, a bit back from the $160 glass seats, a tad behind the $65 plaza seats. For $35, they had one of the best views in the house, just off the side of the nets behind the wheelchair sections.

There was one catch. No sitting. Ever. Especially on the ground. When some tried between periods, an usher quickly ordered them back up.

Still, even under such scrutiny, fans could stand for it.

“We’re Duck fans, we have to be here,” Buena Park’s Bert Cote said. “I called around and the brokers wanted $170 for a pair of tickets. For $35, I figured I could stand for a while.”

Late in the third period, Cote was gone, either tired of standing or tired of seeing the Ducks lose.

John Willard’s strategy was simple.

“This will be no problem,” Willard said a half-hour before the first puck was dropped. “As long as I keep drinking beer, I’ll be able to stand.”

Willard, who shares season tickets, saw Game 1 from those seats last Wednesday. He bought the standing-room-only tickets as a birthday present for his father.

“Some present,” Gary Willard said, smiling. “I get to stand all night.

“It’s fun just to be here. I’ll find some place to sit down between periods. It can’t be that bad.”

Willard, 15 minutes into the first period, was leaning against the wall. His son was nursing his first beer.

“This really gives you a different perspective on the game,” Gary Willard said.

Not to mention attitude.

Late in the first period, Lesly Adams had heard enough. Teemu Selanne had just scored to tie the score, 1-1, and Adams took out her Fowl Towel and, “whacked,” the lady next to her.

“Well, maybe I grazed her hair a little,” Adams said. “All they were doing was talking. If you’re on a first date, don’t come here, stay at home. So I whacked her . . . a little.”

The victim, pointed out later, was a Disney Sports Enterprises official, who apparently didn’t understand standing-room-only protocol.

“We been in the standing section for eight games this year,” Dean Morris said. “It really doesn’t bother you. You have to wear comfortable tennis shoes--white ones tonight because we’re not slackers like [Duck Coach] Ron Wilson said.

“It’s easy for hockey. Things are happening so fast and you’re really into the game. I couldn’t stand for baseball, unless I was standing next to a kegger.”