When San Diego got it's first hockey team my DH was still in the Navy and we had never gone to a hockey game. One of his buddies wanted to go and convinced my DH since we were football fans we would love hockey. So we decided to go. Well, Tothill is right - it was really loud! And on top of that, the fans were violent. One guy even threatened to beat up our friend for some reason, and the pounding on the glass. It was so bizarre to us - and we haven't been back.
We are real sports fans, we had season ticket to the San Diego Chargers for 20 years, and we have gone to the San Diego Padres games since 1974 and now my DH works for them. And my eldest DD and DH have season tickets to the SD State Football and Basketball games.