READING, Pa. – It\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve at Santander Arena, and this year, the celebration comes with skates, sticks, and pajamas.<\/p>\n
Fans packed the stands for the Reading Royals\u2019 Pajama Party game, but many were also there for something bigger: the team\u2019s first game back after the players\u2019 union and the league reached a deal to end the strike.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played my whole life, and we\u2019re happy that the strike didn\u2019t hold up and that we were able to come,\u201d said fan Jimmy McKee.<\/p>\n
For families, it\u2019s part hockey, part holiday tradition.<\/p>\n
\u201cCheering and having fun,\u201d said Ella McKee.<\/p>\n
And for longtime fans, it\u2019s about being together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all excited about the game. I just hope they play good. And whatever happens, happens,\u201d said Barry Petrillo.<\/p>\n
Some fans say they were worried the strike could have changed, or even ended, the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrike\u2019s finally over. Thank God. So, we got a game tonight. The strike could have ended the league, actually,\u201d said fan Kevin Dunkelberger.<\/p>\n
On New Year\u2019s Eve, there\u2019s a lot to celebrate, and Janet and Richard Zerbe say this is exactly how they want to spend it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe come here, have a good time, and still get home in plenty of time to watch the ball drop,\u201d said Richard Zerbe.<\/p>\n
And they came dressed for the occasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, you like my flames? I like it. That\u2019s because the Royals are hot,\u201d said Janet Zerbe.<\/p>\n
Hockey. Family. A little celebration. And a fresh start for the new year.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut luckily, they got them back together, settled on something, and then we\u2019re playing. 2026 is going to be another exciting year,\u201d Richard Zerbe said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. – It\u2019s New Year\u2019s Eve at Santander Arena, and this year, the celebration comes with skates,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75192,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[18221,28,736,128,130,129,38392,12565],"class_list":{"0":"post-75191","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-new-year","9":"tag-pennsylvania","10":"tag-reading","11":"tag-reading-city","12":"tag-reading-city-headlines","13":"tag-reading-city-news","14":"tag-reading-royals-pajama-party","15":"tag-santander-arena"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75191\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}