Rampage Schedule Breakdown

 










by Andrew Ferraro 

Now that we’ve had a few days to digest the schedule, I’d have to say that, as a new Rampage fan, I am pretty happy with the schedule, and I think you should be too.

First and foremost, only three sets of three in threes? Are you kidding me? I need to look at these again to make sure this is not a typo. The first three in three is all home games and is not until late January. The second is at the end of the 10-game rodeo trip, and even features an "all bus" set. No early flights the day of those games. And then the last set is not until the second to last weekend of the season. All of the games are against the Texas Stars, and two of the three are at home. 

Rampage fans will get to see what their team is really made of right away with three of the first four games against the absolutely loaded Chicago Wolves. With all the stars on that team, I think playing them early is an advantage. Prior to the rodeo trip, the toughest test might be in early December when the Rampage play four road games against Abbotsford and then Charlotte in a six day span. That is a lot of air miles. 

Two new teams, the Iowa Wild and Utica Comets make their first visits to the Alamo city on Dec. 4 and Jan. 13 respectively. These guys are basically the Houston Aeros and Peoria Rivermen. Iowa will still feature a ton of the same Aeros from last year, but the Comets are revamped and could be pretty decent in 2013-14. 

The Rampage spend the entire month of February on the rodeo road trip in the middle of a stretch of 17 of 21 away from home. But if the team survives that, they finish up with nine of 10 at home, including home stands of five and four games. 

All in all, this is a good schedule with lots of chances to see the team at home before Christmas and a nice homestand at the end of the year. 

Here are some other nuggets:

• San Antonio’s busiest month is March with 13 games; six at home and seven on the road.

• The Rampage’s first visit to Utica will be on Wednesday, Feb. 26

• San Antonio will visit Wells Fargo Arena to play the Iowa Wild on Nov. 15. The Toyota Center was always a tough place for the Rampage. Hope the change of scenery for these prospects will do the opposite of wonders for them.

• In January, the Rampage will play 12 games, and 10 of them will be at home. In fact, from Dec. 22 through Feb. 4, San Antonio will not play one game outside Texas or OKC. 

• The defending Calder Cup champions (Grand Rapids) will make their first visit to AT&T Center on Sunday, Jan. 26. 

• The Rampage will play four matinee weekday games this year. Their annual “kids game” is on Nov. 19 (Tuesday) against OKC. They’ll be in OKC to do the same thing the week before, and they’ll do a kids game on Feb. 5 in Toronto (11 a.m.) and an afternoon start (1 p.m.) on Feb. 17 at Hamilton.