Arena: Bon Secours Wellness Arena (2008)

Location: Near Downtown Greenville, South Carolina

Game Attended: April 11^th, 2026 vs. Bloomington Bison

Game Result: Bloomington 3, Greenville 2 (Shootout); Only 2 Tour Wins in the Last 10 Games; Sad!

Seat Locations: Downstairs Next to Greenville Bench, and on the Shoot 1x End

Overall Impressions: An All-Star Saturday!

I looked this up this week: in no fewer than eight places in Putting Cancer on Ice (which you can get your copy of conveniently online at Amazon.com!), I said that sometimes the best experiences in life begin with, “Oh, that would be cool!”

I thought it would be cool to go see a hockey game in every NHL arena, and the Tour was born. I thought it would be cool to drive through this random college campus we saw a billboard for, and I fell in love with Elon University. These cool ideas got me on a college trip to Silicon Valley (and San Jose, of course), a job at a bank, meeting wonderful people like Rob Suggitt and Mike Eruzione, and they helped me find a new “hockey family” with the 11 Day Power Play. 

Episode 2 of the newly-christened “Tour de ECHL” begins with such a story. A group of us wanted to watch Team USA play their Olympic round-robin game and enjoy a few pints. So we made our way to the friendly confines of Angry Ale’s, Montford Drive’s premier sports bar! And while we sipped on our Red Oaks and Miller Lites and God only knows what else, we came up with an idea:

“I think it would be fun to do a day trip down to Greenville in the spring, pop around town, eat, drink, be merry, and go see a hockey game!”

Thankfully, I have no shortage of great friends who are sports sickos like me and are willing to go on hockey adventures. Two certified “good dudes”, Boston Drew (frequent Tour de NHL guest and award winner) and Jon (he of the St. Louis – Colorado double trip) signed up for the day, as did newcomer Matt. Matt is a fellow Elon University grad, sports sicko, and geography nerd, so we get along great! He is a diehard Washington, D.C. sports fan and Capitals supporter, and I was very grateful to have him join us on our adventure to Greenville. 

Which, by the way, is a great little city. Greenville is the heart of South Carolina’s “Upstate” region, and has been named as one of the best cities to live in, most recently ranking #4 on US News & World Report’s 2024 list. I’ve been visiting Greenville for a few years now for meetings with our bank’s credit team, and I’ve always had a great time there. It’s definitely a place with a lot going for it, a great little downtown area highlighted by the Falls Park on the Reedy River, great restaurants, bars, and plenty of green space. Greenville also hosts the NCAA Basketball Tournament every few years, and got a lot of love from the commentators and journalists this March for being a great host city. Even if my beloved Tar Heels met a rather dramatic ending in the first round…

For our trip to Greenville, we, four Charlotteans with little to know knowledge of town, enlisted the help of my good friend and Bank teammate Peter, his lovely wife Kayla, and their four-legged son Goose, a regular mainstay at the Greenville office. We met them in Greenville’s Southernside neighborhood, which, naturally, is on the WEST side of town. We had a great afternoon enjoying some drinks at PKL Park (a pickleball-themed venue) and right up the Swamp Rabbit Trail at Southernside Brewing.

We laughed, we talked, we enjoyed the Masters on the big screens outdoors, and we even danced to live music with Goose. Peter and Kayla were wonderful hosts, and I’m very grateful for them joining us for a fun afternoon!

Just like Greensboro, my first stop on the new “Tour de ECHL”, Greenville has an interesting hockey history with multiple chapters and multiple teams. The city received its first ECHL franchise, the Greenville Grrrowl, in 1998, and the team had some decent success, making the playoffs 5 times in 8 seasons and winning the 2002 Kelly Cup. But much like the Greensboro Generals, the mid-2000s posed financial challenges for the Grrrowl, with the team losing nearly $1 million in 2005. People say “you can’t go broke taking a profit”, but you certainly can losing seven figures, and the Grrrowl folded in 2006 due to their financial challenges. 

Enter the savior of the day: the Johnstown Chiefs. One of the ECHL’s “original five” teams from 1987, the Chiefs suffered a similar financial fate as the Generals and the Grrrowl did, and in 2010, the Chiefs moved south to Greenville to rebrand the team as the Greenville Road Warriors. After five years in Greenvile, then-owner Fred Festa elected to rename the team to more closely connect with Greenville’s community and history. In a 2015 interview, Festa noted, “Ultimately, we selected the Swamp Rabbits because the name holds dear to a variety of residents, businesses, popular recreational areas and the historic landmark, the Swamp Rabbit railroad, dating back the 1920s in Greenville.”

(Editor’s Note: Yes, the Swamp Rabbit railroad was indeed named for a local species of bunny. And yes, it’s the same name as the Swamp Rabbit Trail we traversed earlier in the day looking for beer!)

We had such a good time enjoying our beers and live music and dances with Goose that we missed Greenville’s opening goal and half of the first period of the game, a feat last accomplished by Boston Drew and I in Arizona. We missed another two goals from Bloomington on our extended first intermission “arena tour” lap around Bon Secours Wellness Arena. It’s a rather large building for a minor league team, with over 13,900 seats for hockey. But much like the Greensboro Coliseum, the upper deck seating was tarped off, which probably halved the capacity of the building; the Swamp Rabbits average about 5,100 fans per game and we were four of 5,212 at our game. 

Bon Secours is kind of a “Goldilocks” arena: it’s not great, it’s not bad, it’s just….right. It’s a rather plain building that doesn’t pander to any individual team, much like its Coliseum cousin up in Greensboro. But it was fine! It had your typical concessions stands and merchandise stands and a few local advocacy groups advertising at tables on the concourses. Not much to write home about, but we did enjoy our Nutrl vodka sodas, a favorite from my trip to Vancouver!

But they did have cheerleaders!

And Chuck-a-Puck! All my homies love Chuck-a-Puck!

Oh, and Coach Brooks got everybody pumped up for overtime on the Jumbotron! It didn’t work, as the Swamp Rabbits dropped a 7-round shootout, but he still got the people going.

But as I’ve always said, the joy of these hockey trips to me has never been about the game or the building. Those are fun to see, sure, but they’re not the point. The point is to enjoy the journey, enjoy the friends, and enjoy making memories. We did just that on our trip to Greenville. In fact, our trip to the Upstate felt a bit like a “Tour” All-Star game. 

There were little elements of many episodes of the Tour that manifested on our Greenville trip. Innocent things like the day trip in the car reminded me of my road trip up the New Jersey Turnpike to New York with Craig to see the Islanders. Our day enjoying the sunny, summery April weather reminded me of sitting on the beach with Drew and Dillon in Florida, and enjoying the golf tournament with George in Tampa. Mingling with the locals reminded me of meeting the gang in Washington for dinner, grateful to have great company. Semi-drunkenly screaming at Cameron Young making birdies at the Masters reminded me of…..

…alright, maybe that was a first. 

But here I was again, spending quality time with some of my best friends, new friends, and even furry friends. Going on a new adventure, exploring a new city, taking in the local fare, enjoying the beers and sunshine. Our exploration to Greenville reminded me all these hockey trips have a common goal: to see a new hockey arena. But each trip has its own unique spin, filled with new adventures and shared with wonderful friends. 

In work and in hockey, Greenville has taught me to expect change, and to always look forward to new things. And to do your best to have fun along the way, just like Grandma wanted me to do. As this Tour has evolved to embrace the minor leagues, it’s that sense of fun that I will continue to seek out. 

I know the next game’s going to be a lot of fun, too!

Arena: 2.5 / 5

Atmosphere: 3 / 5

Neighborhood: 3 / 5

Overall: 3 / 5

Extremely Un-Comprehensive ECHL Arena Rankings:

1. Bon Secours Wellness Arena (Greenville Swamp Rabbits)
2. First Horizon Coliseum (Greensboro Gargoyles)