For the first time in decades, the Baltimore Blast are playing their hard-hitting, high-scoring, indoor-soccer games some place other than Royal Farms Arena. The team’s new home is the smaller, more modern SECU Arena on Towson University’s campus.

In an interview with Marty Bass and Linh Bui on WJZ team owner Edwin F. Hale, Sr. linked the move to his ongoing legal dispute with the city over the ownership of billboards outside Royal Farms Arena. And the deal with the college is the only reason the team is still around.

“Had we not gone to Towson University, there would be no Baltimore Blast this year,” Hale said.

Still, for Blast diehards, leaving may feel a bit like when the Orioles, and then the Ravens, departed Memorial Stadium. Though little about the building could be described as state-of-the-art, the old Baltimore Civic Center is not without its shabby charms and history. But the Blast are all we got and they’re still really, really good at winning games—they’re going for their third championship in a row.

This past Saturday, we ventured out to Towson to check out the new digs and see the Blast take on the St. Louis Ambush. Here are some pointers for enjoying an action-packed game at the new venue.

Buying Tickets

Even though the team’s maximum seating capacity has been cut by more than half (from about 10,000 to 4,000), there were still plenty of seats available for the game against the Ambush. The box office is located beyond the security check-in at Gate 2. With that said, it’s still best to call or check the map on Ticketmaster before banking on walk-up sales.

The small confines and smaller field really do put fans right on top of the action. My buddy and I started out in section 206 and had a great view nearly at midfield. It’s worth it to splurge and get seats in the lower bowl—we checked out club section 112—where you can clearly listen as the players call out directions to their teammates and hear the sound of the ball moving along the artificial turf.

Pregame

Given its location on York Road just off Towson’s campus, local sports bar staple Bill Bateman’s Bistro is, by default, the best place to grab some pregame beers and food. Even then, it’s about a 20-minute walk from Bateman’s to the arena, so you’ll probably still have to drive (responsibly, of course).

I asked our bartender if there were any Blast-related specials and he said there weren’t, but that he was thinking about mentioning it to his manager after seeing an uptick in business on game days. No pressure, guys.

But they did have their regular slate of deals, which on this day featured discounted Bell’s Best Brown Ale ($4.50 for a 22-ounce glass, $3.50 for a pint), and, of course, all the wings, burgers, and pub grub our appetites could handle.

Know Before You Go

SECU Arena is just off Osler Drive and, as the team has heavily promoted, parking is built into the cost of a ticket. As you head south on Osler, the first sign for Blast parking will lead you toward lots near Unitas Stadium. Keep going, though, and you’ll see a second sign that leads to parking near the Towson Center. The lots near the football stadium are much further away.

It took us a little more than five minutes to walk from our spot to the gate and through security. Though not quite as strict as Ravens game, SECU security doesn’t allow bags larger than 12 inches high, 22 inches wide, and 8 inches deep.

The In-Game Experience

Opened in 2013, SECU Arena still has a lot of new bells and whistles, including an overhead scoreboard with crisp graphics and rectangular video boards that wrap around the seating bowl, much like at M&T Bank Stadium. These new amenities give the game itself a much sleeker, professionally produced feel.

As for concessions, professional sports still means professional sports prices, with nachos at $6, pizzas at $8 ($8.50 for pepperoni), chicken tenders and Old Bay chips at $11, and beer and wine ranging from $7.50 to $8.50, just to name a few. There were only three main food areas and a couple of carts, but they all seemed to move customers through briskly. Only at halftime were there noticeable lines. A few things worth pointing out: There are no vendors walking up and down the aisles, and the food stands started shutting down early into the fourth quarter.

The team store is located below section 210 and sells standard sports fare, like jerseys, shirts, and soccer balls, as well as fidget spinners and, if you so desire, Hale’s autobiography.

Otherwise, the atmosphere is the same as ever: Kool & The Gang’s “Celebration” and a T-shirt toss after every goal, the once-per-game playing of the theme from SpongeBob Squarepants, and superfan Rickee Walker—decked out in a hat and vest covered with buttons and pins from years past—banging on a drum, shaking gas fans filled with chickpeas, or playing a vuvuzela to hype the crowd.

Postgame

Per usual, several players will head to the team store after the final buzzer to sign autographs for fans.

The official after-party is at Nacho Mama’s in downtown Towson, where players, coaches, cheerleaders, and their families enjoy a meal together and then mingle with fans. There were no specials there, either, but the restaurant does boast having its house margarita, the sour and salty Graceland, on draft.

History Type

Key Highway
January 7, 2016

Sitting on a chair in front of a 7-foot-tall machine invented in 1884 called the linotype—literally “line of type”—Ray Loomis hits several keys, demonstrating how hot liquid metal forms molds for each letter.

“It was mechanical, before electricity, when gas lines and a steam engine— usually in the backyard—powered its operation,” says the 86-year-old Loomis, a printer with 72 years of experience. “It created the type that got taken over to the press, which is basically how things were printed for 80 years.”

More than 150 linotype and letterpress enthusiasts—many former printers and younger artists—are gathering inside the Baltimore Museum of Industry for an unveiling of the museum’s renovated linotype exhibit and a discussion around the machine, and its inventor, Ottmar Mergenthaler, that launched the previous Information Age.

A German watchmaker, Mergenthaler emigrated in 1872, arriving in Locust Point to join the U.S.’s burgeoning industrialization and, possibly, to avoid conscription into Otto von Bismarck’s army. “He was extraordinarily bright, making this complex machine out of mechanical parts when others struggled with similar efforts,” says Frank Romano, author of History of the Linotype Company. “His biggest problem was that he never stopped inventing it. He kept changing his mind, believing he could do better. Drove people crazy.”

Michael Ponton, a MICA graphic design major, renovated the exhibit, making tonight’s promotional flier from old linotype font. “I find inspiration in his story and accomplishments,” Ponton says. “My Bolton Hill apartment is on the street where Mergenthaler lived. I walk by his house on the way to my internship.”

---

Beautiful Minds

Union Avenue
January 19, 2016

The sign taped to the glass door simply reads “Here!”—with a cartoon smiley face dashed across the page.

Due to overwhelming interest, tonight’s lecture by Johns Hopkins psychologist William Richards—whose book, Sacred Knowledge: Psychedelics and Religious Experience was recently published—has moved from Artifact Coffee to a larger space next door, where the entrance is tricky to find after hours.

“Bill is one of the O.G.’s [original gangsters] of psychedelic research,” chuckles Mike Margolies, 29, founder of the local group Psychedelic Seminars, which hosts conversations about the benefits—and risks—of hallucinogens. “He has been studying this since volunteering for a research study in 1963.”

That’s the same year that Harvard University terminated professor and LSD-advocate Timothy Leary, but Richards’s book is considered among the first serious academic accounts of the effects of psychedelic drugs on human biological processes, consciousness, and religious experiences. In fact, fliers here seek fresh volunteers for ongoing research around psychedelics and their effects on those suffering from depression and addiction.

“This [enlightenment experience] has been so elusive before,” Richards encouragingly tells the audience, which includes an organizer of Baltimore’s annual Mushroom City Art Festival. “For many years, the study of mystical states was limited to people in the dark carols of libraries. Even reading the works of ancient mystics in their original languages trying to get closer to what’s being expressed. And now, we have a technique, really, enabling many people to experience these things directly—in the present time—and say, ‘Oh, now I understand where Plato was coming from.’”

---

Sisters of Hoop

York Road, Towson
January 29, 2016

Institute of Notre Dame guard Amber Knapper-Jones darts to the wing just in time to tip an opponent’s pass. Then, scooping up the loose ball, the diminutive senior dribbles the length of the floor, laying the ball off the backboard as she’s knocked down—sending Towson University’s packed SECU Arena into a frenzy.

On a night so frigid that walking through the parking lot feels like a brave endeavor, 3,400 fans are here for the 50th edition of “The Game”—the annual match between IND and Mercy—a pair of Catholic girls high schools not especially known for their hardwood prowess.

The first contest took place at the then-Baltimore Civic Center, as a school basketball fundraiser before a Bullets game, and was won by IND, 31-23, though IND now trails in the overall series. This evening, led by Knapper-Jones—her key steal capping a 9-0 run—and sophomore Ja’Lyn Armstrong, who scored 14 points, IND wins again.

A lot has changed over the years, including girls basketball, which once played by half-court rules. Other things seem eternal, such as Sister Hilde behind the IND souvenir table. Supervised by nuns at St. Mary’s Female Orphan Asylum for several years before receiving her own religious calling, she has spent 68 of her 83 years doing whatever needs doing at IND, including making a locker-room speech before “The Game” a few seasons back after a request from the coach.

“I told the girls, win or lose, they will always be No. 1 in God’s eye,” Sister Hilde says. “And I told them to keep their heads up, their hands out, and eyes on the ball and the player they should be guarding.”