When I finally found it, the arena was actually packed.
This was Sunday night, way out on the edge of Brooklyn at the Aviator Sports and Events Center, home ice for the New York Riveters, who were playing their home opener against the visiting Boston Pride in the brand-new National Women's Hockey League.
I wasn't expecting a big crowd. The closest subway stop was a bus ride away, the turn-off road for the parking lot took three passes to find, and the Pride's bus had left Boston hours late, then hit traffic, and still wasn't at the arena. In fact, as I finally found the road that wound back to the complex, I saw Boston's bus on the wrong street, about to shift into reverse, having also missed the proper turn.
This was almost an hour after the game was supposed to have started. Keep in mind, this is women's sports: Sometimes arenas remain empty, even when they're in the center of town, even when everything is spoon-fed, easy. So I wondered how many people would show for a women's hockey game at a rink in the far reaches of Brooklyn, just a stone's throw from Jamaica Bay.
But the parking lot was jammed. I could feel the excitement as I walked toward the ice, turning the corner to see the stands, nearly filled, dozens of young girls in hockey jerseys pressed to the glass, enthralled.
The Boston team wasn't far behind. After six hours on a bus, the Pride quickly changed into their gear and flew through a 10-minute warm-up. The puck dropped at 8:20 p.m., 80 minutes later than scheduled. (No, not a great look for the league.) Boston is the strongest squad in the four-team NWHL, loaded with talent because numerous members of the U.S. Olympic team are based there, having previously played for the Boston Blades of the Canadian Women's Hockey League. On the other hand, the Riveters struggle to compete for talent because most players can't afford to live in New York on the reported league minimum of $10,000 a year.
The Pride won, 7-1.
The game was never in doubt. Even at half-speed, Boston was twice as good as New York. The hockey was decent, not great, kind of chippy, but that's to be expected so early in the season, so early in the league's existence.
The larger takeaway: People cared. People were into this. Women's hockey has a market.
So now what?
The NWHL is two weeks old. And the only way to know where the cracks are is to have pressure expose them. That's exactly what's happening. Take, for example, the team bus for the Boston Pride. If everything had gone according to plan -- if the bus had shown at the proper pickup location, if traffic into New York City wasn't a thing on a Sunday night -- the team would have arrived hours early to the arena. But that's not what happened. And the reality is that the only way to ensure on-time arrivals is to have teams stay at a hotel in the host city the night before a game.
Of course, that expense isn't in the budget.
"Six things went wrong to account for Boston being late," explained NWHL commissioner Dani Rylan just before the start of the game. "We built in a four-hour cushion, but maybe it needs to be even more, just in case."
These aren't things that men's professional leagues worry about. Snarling Sunday night traffic isn't a concern to the New York Rangers because they're flying chartered jets. And lopsided rosters aren't a perpetual concern because NHL players are making enough to live anywhere. And finding an arena is rarely difficult because big-time arenas are usually smack in the middle of cities, connected to public transportation.
Still, on Sunday night, for the second game of the NWHL season, despite a late start time, people showed up, people packed the stands.
Expected, no. Cool, yes.
But now the NWHL must keep this opportunity from slipping through the newly exposed cracks.