More and more sports fans are finding women's pro volleyball to be just as exciting as pro hockey.

Story by Mark Newman

        Hockey and volleyball seem to have little in common beyond being sports. For a growing number of Grand Rapids fans, however, they share several important characteristics – the action is enjoyable, exciting, and entertaining.

        Cindy Storer, a retired employee of medical device maker Stryker, and Ryan DeMorr, an aviation tax specialist with a family of five, are just two examples of many who see value in buying season ticket packages to both the Griffins and the Grand Rapids Rise, the latter gearing up for its second season of Pro Volleyball Federation play.

        Although Storer and DeMorr represent different generations of ticket buyers, they share similar stories about their devotion to both teams – even though their interests and inducements to attend the events are not the same.

        Storer has been getting tickets to Griffins games "since day one," which means she has been attending games at Van Andel Arena since 1996.

        "I'm a huge sports fan – I always have been," she explained. "I have season tickets for the Griffins and Rise, plus I have a premium seat at Van Andel Arena for all the concerts. I go to everything. I was a season ticket holder for the [Arena Football League's Grand Rapids] Rampage and it broke my heart when they left.

        "Going to the ArenaBowl [the AFL's 15th championship game won by the Rampage in August 2001] was the coolest thing I've ever been at. I could see John Elway's white teeth across the way. I'm serious, we're like, 'Hey, there's John Elway, look at his teeth.' It was hilarious."

        Her interests often take her on the road. She has a 10-game Red Wings mini-package and saw the Detroit Lions at Ford Field this season. She saw U2 at Sphere in Las Vegas and traveled to Red Rocks near Denver to see her favorite artist, Brandi Carlisle, whom she also caught at The Gorge Amphitheater in Washington state.

        As far as she is concerned, there is nothing like watching a sporting event or a concert and being there in person.

        "It's like an adrenaline rush – I call it my drug of choice. There's just something about being there in person. I read a study not that long ago that said people who attend concerts and sporting events on a regular basis add seven years to their lives. It makes sense to me because you're not sitting at home rotting.

        "I have friends my age who don't do anything. I'm like, 'Really?' because you only get one chance here."

       Fortunately, the Griffins and Rise play practically in her backyard. She lives in Midtown, one block outside Heritage Hill, so everything is just a hop, skip, and jump from her doorstep. She tries to attend as many events downtown as possible.

        "I want to support whatever's going on in our city," she said. "I think Dan DeVos has been a savior for the city. What this guy has done to bring sports to downtown is, to me, amazing. I live about a mile away from the arena, and when I first bought my house, the only things that existed downtown were Cottage Bar and Z's Restaurant. There was nothing down there.

       "People need to appreciate all the movers and shakers in our town who have invested their money to make things happen."

        As a Red Wings fan, her support of the Griffins came naturally. "I like to watch the guys start playing here and then all of a sudden you see them playing with the Red Wings, and I think that's pretty cool.

        "I love the Griffins. I just love what they bring to the community and that they continue to draw people still to this day, which I think is great. I cried when they won the Calder Cup at home [in 2017]. When you go to 20 to 30 games a year, you get invested in the team."

        It was an easy decision to buy Rise tickets when she heard Grand Rapids would have an entry in Pro Volleyball Federation's inaugural 2024 season.

        Storer played volleyball at Central Michigan University for four years in the Title IX-era '70s, "back when you didn't have to be an athlete to play," she chuckled.

       "Volleyball is a whole different thing now," she said. "The girls today are so strong and so athletic," she said. "To me, it's just like poetry watching them. It's amazing to me how good they are."

        One of the first in line to purchase Rise season tickets, Storer said the quality of action makes the team an easy buy.

        "Once people see it, I think they are sold on the sport," she said. "I know I have a lot of friends who have bought game packages. I buy the full season package because I'll be going to every one of them. I don't usually miss volleyball."

        Storer is anxious to see what kind of team has been assembled by head coach Cathy George for the Rise's second season. She thinks George has the perfect personality to be the face of the franchise.

        "When I talk to new people and ask them, 'What made you want to come,' a good portion of them will say, 'Well, after I got to talk to Cathy...' When you have a coach who people can relate to, I think it makes a big difference.

        "I think Cathy is fantastic. She's been around the game for a long time so she's got the experience and credibility to be a good ambassador for the sport. I think the organization made a great choice when they got her to be the coach."

        Storer has angled to get seats that give her the best view of the play, whether it's hockey or volleyball.

        "You can see either team for a pretty reasonable price," she said. "You can get a great seat to a Rise game for $30 and you can see the Griffins, even if you're in the lower bowl, for even less than that. So it's affordable for somebody to go to see either team a few times a year, compared to what you're paying for a Lions ticket, which is insane."

        The price is also right for Ryan DeMoor and his family of five. He has four seats at Rise and Griffins games, which he shares with some combination of his wife Marisa; son Kian, 16; and daughters Natalie, 13, and Jillian, 11.

        "We enjoy going to the arena and going to the games because it's a nice, fun, family event," said DeMoor, who runs the tax and compliance department at MySky, an international aviation services company.

        "We like taking advantage of promotions like $2 hot dogs or just getting a bag of popcorn and a pretzel and sitting down in our seats and watching the action. We enjoy the game-day experience of both sports.

        DeMoor, who started in the Grand Rapids Amateur Hockey Association (GRAHA) program when he was 8, played hockey through high school and college, so he has been attending Griffins games since the team came into existence.

        "I enjoy the speed of the game and the skill required to play the sport," he said. "But it wasn't until the Rise started play that we decided to officially get a ticket package from the Griffins."

        DeMoor explained that the rest of his family enjoy volleyball even more than hockey, so they bought a half-season package for the Rise and enjoyed themselves so much that they decided to opt for a Griffins package as well.

        "My wife comes from a volleyball family," he said. "She played volleyball growing up and her brother has been a coach in the volleyball world for a long time, so when they announced there was going to be a professional volleyball league and Grand Rapids was going to have a team, we thought it was really cool.

        "We love watching Big Ten women's volleyball and we record all of the matches, so when we could watch that kind of quality of play right here, it spurred us to buy half-season tickets to the Rise. And after going to six games, we found it extraordinarily enjoyable."

        That led DeMoor and his family to buy a Griffins ticket package.

        "With a 10-game package, we focused on the schedule so that we will be able to see a different opponent almost every game," he said. "We looked at family conflicts – birthdays, for example – and then looked at different promotions to choose our games."

        For instance, DeMoor said he is looking forward to attending the Griffins' DC Superheroes Night on Jan. 11. "It's my son's birthday so we'll take a friend of his, along with my brother-in-law who happens to be a huge Batman fan and there's a Batman Bobblehead giveaway."

        DeMoor said the family is excited about both teams' championship aspirations going forward. He was in the building for the Griffins' Calder Cup-clinching win in 2017 and said the family even thought about flying to Omaha for last season's PVF Championship.

        "My wife's favorite team is Nebraska, so we considered going out to Omaha," he said. "It was exciting to see the Rise in the playoffs last year and watch them get to the final. Obviously, we had hoped the outcome would have been a little different, but it was still a really good inaugural season. 

        "We're excited about the coming season."