After 39 years of waiting, how much was a championship worth to the Boston Bruins? The short answer: $156,679.74 and counting.
Last Saturday night, with the team and its New England-wide fan base still in full celebration mode, the Bruins partied it up at Shrine Nightclub at Foxwoods Casino in Mashantuckett, Connecticut. What ensued -- I love this -- is the stuff of legends.
In a 4-hour span, the Bruins toasted their NHL title to the tune of an astronomic $156,679.74 bar tab. The kicker: a $100,000, 30-liter bottle of Ace of Spades "Midas" champagne, 1 of 6 of its kind in existence. Players drank from the bottle. Players drank from the Cup. And, judging by the photos, some (Zdeno Chara) enjoyed both.
The giant bubbly the centerpiece of the celebration, the final tab still included a lot of other elements. 35 Jager bombs totaling $525, 3 bottles of Captain Morgan at $300 each, 9 bottles of Grey Goose at $600 a piece, 4 bottles of Crown Royal at $300, 4 more bottles of $1200 champagne, and 136 Bud Lights. Oh, and to get a head start on the impending hangover; $268 spent on 67 bottles of Fiji water.
Reportedly, a party-goer with tremendous means bought the 100-grand bottle of bub as an extremely gracious gift to the team. Shrine club owners also contributed to the bottom line with their compliments to the B's. Still, wouldn't you have loved to be the server that night, no matter how out of hand a gang of hockey players could get? The tip of a lifetime went to Danielle, who I'd like to think had to split it up among co-workers. $24,869.80 went to gratuity! Another nearly $7,500 to taxes! This has to be some sort of record.
Boston forward Shawn Thornton made a feeble, yet humorous attempt to reconcile the gargantuan total spent on alcohol. According to Boston.com, Thornton defended, at least, the 136 Bud Lights by telling local radio show hosts Felger and Mazz, "That's not that many though. I thought that was kind of low. We had 30 guys down there with us, that's like 4 beers a guy, that's nothing... hey, we won the Stanley Cup. If you're ever going to do it, all I hear about is how hard the guys from the '72 team went at it after the last Cup. We had to live up to those expectations."
Whatever your take on the extravagance, it was a party, I'm sure, few would have wanted to miss. From the 6-foot-9 captain Chara in an Ed Hardy t-shirt trying unsuccessfully to open the top of the 30-liter champagne, to players dancing on the top of the bar (ranging from 19-year old Tyler Seguin -- perhaps they forgot to check his ID? -- to 43-year old Mark Recchi), THIS is the definition of an epic celebration.
So, congratulations to the Boston Bruins! Not only did they raise the Cup, but also the bar -- at THE bar -- for all-time championship celebration price tags.
Getting after it! Wow!
Posted by: MG | July 06, 2011 at 10:48 PM