Winter X Games Day 2

Saturday was a day dedicated to the Winter X Games since it was the first day with Final events during the afternoon rather than just the evening.

Pre Game Dining
To start off the day, Nicole and I shopped in Aspen, followed by brunch at the Wienerstube - one of Aspen's only restaurants open before noon.

Winter X Games
We spent most of the day at Winter X Games. The afternoon events were Women’s Skiing Slopestyle Final, Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle Final, Men and Women’s SnowboarderX Final, and Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle Final. However, the only issue with these events is that you cannot watch the entire course. The event is mainly for television. Thus, we ended up watching most of the events on TV in the ski lodge, while watching some of the participants finish up their runs live.

The ski lodge at Buttermilk is the main place to warm up and get anything to eat at Winter X Games. If possible, be sure to eat before or after the event as the food is regular stadium fare.

The evening sessions were similar to Friday night’s events – Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe Elimination, SnoCross Final and Ski Big Air Final. We had hoped Ski Big Air Final would be similar to the Skateboard or BMX Freestyle Big Air, but it did not have the same effect. The most entertaining part of the evening was the snow ball fight that took place. The entire crowd was throwing snow balls at each other, the luxury boxes and the television cameras. In order to calm the crowd down the public address announcer threatened to call off the games.

Post Game Dining
After the events, we met our group at Social Restaurant – an upscale tapas restaurant – for some post X Games tapas.

Winter X Games in Aspen, CO

We made the drive to Aspen Thursday afternoon. However, rather than attend Winter X Games Thursday night, we had reservations at the Pine Creek Cookhouse Thursday evening. This restaurant was not only a 30-minute drive from Aspen, but was also a 30-minute sleigh ride from the restaurant's parking lot! Total cost for the evening $120 per person but was worth the wintery experience.

Friday was a different story. The Ultimate Sports Wife and I skied on Aspen Mountain Friday afternoon, which was followed by an evening at Winter X Games.

Winter X Games
Winter X Games was everything that ESPN has you believe that it is on television – only better. Although you have to stand on a bed of ice at the bottom of the half pipe in order to watch the event, the views from the bottom are great and if you need a quick replay of the run, all you need to do is watch the event on the closest television screen.

We watched the Ski SuperPipe Final, SnoCross Round 1 and Snowboard SuperPipe Final all from the same location. The last event of the evening was Snowmobile Next Trick Final in which Levi LaVallee was attempting to pull off the first double back-flip on a snowmobile - modeled after Travis Pastrana's double back-flip on a motorcycle at Summer X Games 2006. Although LaVallee completed the double back-flip, he fell off the machine on the landing, meaning he ended up losing the event.

Post Game Dining
After the double back flip, the Ultimate Sports Wife and I raced to the free buses that drove us back to Aspen for a late night dinner. We ate dinner at Lu Lu Wilson which was a great place for a post game meal after the X Games.

NHL: Los Angeles Kings at Colorado Avalanche

With one of the Ultimate Sports Wife’s good friends just moving to Denver, CO a few months ago and a visit to see her long overdue, we decided to fly to Denver Wednesday afternoon for a weekend of skiing and Winter X Games in Aspen, CO.

Nicole’s friend Nicole Neuschler (who I will call “the Neusch” from now on in order to avoid confusion with the Ultimate Sports Wife’s first name) lives in Denver, so we had the option to fly to Denver or Aspen. We decided to fly to Denver ($175 each) instead of Aspen, CO ($500+ each at the time) and join her for the four hour drive from Denver to Aspen on Thursday morning.

Since we were flying to Denver (and knowing “the Neusch’s” apartment was only a 10 minute walk to the Pepsi Center), I looked at the Pepsi Center schedule. The Colorado Avalanche was home Wednesday night, January 21, and the Denver Nuggets were home Sunday night, January 25. Knowing that I would be “pushing it” to attend both games in Denver (mixed in with a weekend at Winter X Games); I had to choose one event. With Nicole’s birthday being Monday, January 26, I knew waking her up early and flying to Chicago Monday morning would not give me any “bonus points,” so I chose to fly to Denver Wednesday afternoon and fly back to Chicago Sunday evening.

“The Neusch” picked us up from Denver International Airport (DIA) Wednesday afternoon and drove us back to her place. With only a 10 minute walk from the Pepsi Center and a 70 degree day in Denver, we decided to sit on her deck with a bottle of wine rather than frequent any bars in the neighborhood before the game. At 6:15 pm, I decided to walk over to the arena.

Obtaining Tickets
I arrived in front of the Pepsi Center and noticed that a few scalpers were selling tickets. With the weather so nice, I thought I would search for my own ticket. Rather than wait in front of the stadium, I took the walkway into the southern parking lot. I looked for single fans and groups of three that may have an extra ticket and asked “Do you have an extra single?” Ticket Buying Tip: Don’t waste time asking couples or foursomes if they have extra tickets. Most fans buy two or four tickets for an event. Thus, look for single fans or threesomes since they will most likely have an extra.

After asking a few threesomes if they had an extra ticket, one group finally said they did. They handed me the ticket and did want anything for it. Face value = $111. For me = $0. When I arrived in the arena, I was 12 rows from center ice.

The Game
In the highest scoring game I have attended this season, the Los Angeles Kings defeated the Colorado Avalanche 6-5. The Kings had a 6-2 lead before the Avalanche scored three unanswered goals to make the score 6-5. The Kings were able to hold off the Avalanche for the remaining 12.5 minutes for the win.

The section next to mine won Chipotle Burritos, in which staff came out and actually threw burritos into the crowd. Although a few burritos came into my section, I did not catch one.

NBA: Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls

The Chicago Bulls are now 4-4 this season when I am in attendance at the United Center after losing to the Atlanta Hawks last night 105-102. The loss gave the Hawks their first season sweep of the Bulls in NBA history.

Chicago Bulls Attendance
Two months ago when I saw the Atlanta Hawks play on a Tuesday night the attendance at the game was 21,738 and the arena was pretty full. However, the Bulls are now seven games under .500 after last night’s loss. Although last night’s announced crowd was 20,389 there could not have been any more people in actual attendance than there were for the other two games I have attended in January – those attendances being 18,060 and 18,996.

This lack of people in the seats has made me wonder if I made a mistake in buying $10 tickets to about a dozen games at the beginning of the season. Each time I have walked from where I park (the Red Top parking lot on the corner of Madison St. and Ashland Ave.) to the United Center, scalpers have had plenty of tickets. Last night was no exception and seemed as though they had more. I did not negotiate with any of them, but it appears as though I could have bought a cheap ticket.

Granted I may not beat $10 for a ticket from a scalper but my chances of receiving a free ticket would increase as regular fans might have more extra tickets since their friends may not want to spend an evening to watch the Bulls play.

WWE Hospitality at Allstate Arena

As was the case five months ago, my friend Todd emailed me that he had a ticket for me to attend WWE Raw last night. I had planned to eat dinner at the Chili’s by the arena before the event. However, Todd called me earlier in the day to say I could eat dinner in the Hospitality room between 5:30 and 7:30 pm.

Rather than pay $20 to park in the Allstate Arena parking lot, I parked in the Target parking lot (by the Chili’s) as I did last time. Since I was not eating at Chili’s to justify my free parking, I walked into Office Depot for 15 minutes to “shop,” somehow rationalizing that this course of action would allow me to park there all night. Of course, I was being more discreet than other fans. Other fans would park, put on all their WWE gear and carry their tickets out in the open as they walked to Allstate Arena. They were obviously not as concerned as me.

I arrived at the Hospitality room shortly after 5:30, ate dinner and had a few drinks. At 7:15, Candice, Mickey James and Tiffany arrived for a photo opp. I did not bring my camera to the event so I asked a guy with a camera phone to snap a picture of me and send it to my phone.

WWE Raw
At 8 pm, the event started. Last night’s event seemed to have less wrestling and more talking than the event five months ago, most likely in order to increase pay-per-views for Royal Rumble on Sunday night. For example, John Cena and JBL signed a contract for their World Heavyweight Championship match, Chris Jericho had to apologize to Stephanie McMahon, and the entire crowd, in order to be re-instated for Royal Rumble (which he was), and Randy Orton, who was concerned about being fired, was slapped by Stephanie earlier in the night after treating her disrespectfully and followed that up by slapping and then kicking Mr. McMahon in the head at the end of the event which put a damper on his much anticipated return. The event ended when Vince McMahon was taken off in a stretcher after the incident.

After the event, I went back to the Target parking lot to find my car still there as it had been at the previous WWE event. It looks like I have found my “official” Allstate Arena parking lot.

CBK: #18 Minnesota at Northwestern

In my first men’s college basketball game of the season, Northwestern defeated its first ranked opponent since it defeated then #18 Iowa on February 8, 2006. Northwestern used a 16-0 run early in the second half to take a 47-37 lead over Minnesota and never looked back, defeating the Golden Gophers 74-65.

The arena was mostly Minnesota fans who (after the 16-0 run) began complaining about each referee call that went against them. However, they were not nearly as bad as the Wisconsin fans I sat next to last year.

Obtaining Tickets
I was a few minutes late to the game so there were no fans with extra tickets outside the arena. I offered the ticket brokers outside the arena $10 for a single ticket. However, none of them would take it. They countered with $15. Instead of paying $15 right away, I looked for my own single from a fan but nobody had any extras. Rather than spend $20 at the Northwestern box office, I bought the single for $15. Of course, as I entered the arena, I did find a fan with an extra ticket. But he would not sell his single for $5 to a broker so I would have had to spend $10 or $15 anyway.

Parking
Parking on a Sunday afternoon is easy around Welsh-Ryan Arena. Rather than pay $10 in the official lot, I parked on the corner of Lincoln St. and Ashland Ave. for free – a 3 block walk from the arena that allows me to walk by all the Northwestern scalpers.

NBA: Portland Trail Blazers at Chicago Bulls

For the second night in a row I drove down to the United Center. This time it was to watch the Chicago Bulls host the Portland Trail Blazers.

Pre Game Dining
I parked in my usual Red Top Parking Lot on the corner of Ashland Ave. and Madison St. I decided to eat at the Taco Bell that is adjacent to the parking lot. This Taco Bell must be one of the slowest fast food restaurants around – tonight it took 20 minutes to order and receive one bean burrito.

The Game
It was the first game I have attended in which each team had the number one draft pick from the past two seasons – Greg Oden and Derrick Rose. Not to be outdone, each player had a double-double; Oden had 17 points and 13 rebounds while Rose had 13 points and 10 assists. The Trail Blazers defeated the Bulls 109-95.

Facebook status leads to Chicago Blackhawks Game

Around 3:45 pm yesterday, the Ultimate Sports Wife checked her Facebook account and noticed that my cousin’s status read “Carl is going to the Hawks game!!” Having wanted to go to the Blackhawks game myself and get together with my cousins, I called Carl’s father, Jim, and asked if he was going as well. He was, as well as his wife and Carl’s girlfriend. Nicole realizing that her checking of Facebook was leading her directly to the Blackhawks game added “I don’t think I will state anyone’s status to you anymore!”

Pre Game Dining
The plan was to meet our cousins at The Beer Bistro, located at 1061 W. Madison St., before the game. We were able to park our car for free on Madison St. just outside our meeting place. The Beer Bistro has over 140 beers to choose from as well as a free shuttle to the United Center (if the shuttle is there as you leave). As we were leaving for the game, the shuttle was just coming back to pick up more passengers so we hopped onboard.

Obtaining Tickets
We needed to buy three tickets since we were also going to the game with foxsoccer.com’s Jamie Trecker. Since we arrived after game time we had to buy tickets from scalpers. Ticket Buying Tip: Most fans with extra tickets will not wait around after the puck drops to sell or give away their tickets.

The scalpers would not accept $20 for three tickets, even though there were no other buyers. We ended up paying $35 for three singles for the sold out game. Since we were planning to sit with our cousins in Section 120, we just needed to buy tickets to get into the game. We did not care where the seats were or whether they were together.

The Game
The Blackhawks defeated the Nashville Predators 3-1. We were able to find three seats in Section 121 through a guy my cousin played hockey with – he even gave us his extra tickets so we would have no problem getting passed the ushers.

Post Game Dining
After the game, we ate burgers at Billy Goat Tavern located on the corner of Ashland Ave. and Madison St – only a few blocks from the United Center. We then walked a few more blocks back to our car outside of The Beer Bistro.

NBA: Sacramento Kings at Chicago Bulls

Last night the Chicago Bulls defeated the Sacramento Kings 99-94 (and miss giving the crowd free Big Mac’s by one point). It was the first time I have seen the Kings play at the United Center.

The Bulls converted 33 of 36 free throws. The Bulls converted their first 29 free throws which would have set a franchise record if they had not shot 4 for 7 to end the game. The previous Bulls record for free throws without a miss occurred on February 9, 1977 when the Bulls went 25-for-25 versus the Houston Rockets.

As with most other Bulls games this season, I had already bought a $10 ticket for the upper deck. However, since the arena was relatively empty, I sat within the first two rows of the upper deck – a $60 face value ticket (for single games not season tickets).

NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field

The NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field is an event not to be missed – especially for the Ultimate Fan. First, I was able to attend an outdoor hockey game. Second, it was at a new stadium for an NHL game. Third, it was New Year’s Day which is generally reserved for college football. I have been to four bowl games on January 1 – two Rose Bowls (1996 and 2007), the Citrus Bowl (1997) and the Outback Bowl (2003). Fourth, the event was held within one block of where I live.

After attending 345 Chicago Cubs games (287 of those when living less than a block from the stadium) and one minor league baseball game at Wrigley Field this was the first event that split up the usual lonely winter around the neighborhood. Normally, opening day is like the first day of summer camp – total excitement and anticipation for the summer to come, whereas the last game of the season is when all of the “campers” go home for the winter.

Obtaining Tickets
My friend, Mike Holzman, invited me to the game back in the summer after the game was announced. Since he is a full-season ticket holder he had the right to purchase one ticket to the Winter Classic for each full-season ticket. With tickets priced at $325, $225 and $75, we agreed that the $225 seats probably made the most sense. We sat in Section 228 Row 4.

This, of course, left the Ultimate Sports Wife concerned about where she would be sitting. I promised her I would buy her a ticket and took the following steps to get one:

1) In the middle of November, I entered the Chicago Cubs Season Ticket Holder Lottery for Winter Classic tickets. We lost the drawing.
2) During the week of December 15, I started to check stubhub.com to see how much tickets were. Tickets that had been in the mid $200’s in early December and were now in the low $200’s. I told Nicole we would wait until after Christmas to buy her a ticket. I had a feeling ticket prices would drop.
3) On December 22, I received the following email from the Chicago Cubs:

Thank you for your interest in the 2009 Winter Classic at Wrigley Field.

As the installation of the rink is now underway, it has been determined that seats previously unavailable may now be made available for sale. Because you expressed an interest in purchasing tickets by entering the recent drawing, we would like to alert you that such tickets will be made available via tickets.com.

Tickets may be purchased starting at noon CT on Tuesday, December 23 by clicking here to order tickets:

4) I logged onto tickets.com at 11:45 am on December 23 and began refreshing the page every few seconds as the clock approached noon. I thought we may be able to buy a ticket since we were only looking for a single. A minute before noon, I was placed in the virtual waiting room. A few seconds later I was able to purchase ticket. I chose the best available single immediately and received a seat in Club Box Section 8 Row 6 for $75 ($88.75 after tickets.com fees). I purchased the ticket immediately.

Pre Game Festivities
The Ultimate Sports Wife and I went to bed shortly after midnight New Year’s Eve. I woke up at 8 am in order to get ready for the day. Our initial plan had been to meet our neighbors around 10 am, go to the Wrigleyville bars and attend the NHL Winter Classic Spectator Plaza. However, we decided that this would be the one time we would play cornhole in the winter and pulled out our neighbor’s cornhole platforms and bags. An additional perk was that we could heckle all of the Red Wings fans (minus our neighbors) walking in front of our building.

The Game
We walked into Wrigley Field shortly before noon. The pre-game festivities took more than 30 minutes with Bobby Hull, Ted Lindsay, Stan Mikita, Tony Esposito and Denis Savard making appearances. Cubs’ players Ryne Sandberg and Ferguson Jenkins were also in the pre-game festivities to make the connection to Wrigley Field.

The Detroit Red Wings defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 6-4. The Blackhawks had a 3-1 lead after the first period but the Red Wings scored 5 unanswered goals. The teams switched sides at the ten minute mark of the third period so neither team would have an advantage if the wind was favoring one side. During the break, Bobby Hull led the fans in “Take Me Out to the Hockey Game.”

Post Game Party
After the game, we had a post game party at our house rather than party with Blackhawks and Red Wings fans at the Wrigleyville bars.