Senior Day: Iowa at Northwestern

It was Senior Day at Welsh-Ryan Arena Saturday afternoon as Northwestern recognized seniors Craig Moore, Sterling Williams, Patrick Houlihan and Marlon Day. Northwestern defeated Iowa 55-49 after a sloppy first half of play.

Pre Game Dining
Before the game, we ate lunch at Buffalo Joe’s located at 812 Clark St. Although Buffalo Joe’s has three locations around Evanston, the Clark St. location is the only location that serves beer.

Obtaining Tickets
I met a former colleague at Buffalo Joe’s to purchase his extra tickets to the game and paid face value. We also paid $10 to park in the “official” Northwestern parking lot rather than park a few blocks away on city streets. If you are planning to buy tickets from scalpers for the game try to park on the west side of the stadium. If parking on the east side, you still need to walk to the west side of the stadium anyway.

CBK: Northwestern at Indiana

One sporting event attendance goal I have is to attend a Northwestern game at all of the Big Ten football and basketball venues. However, I have not made this a priority over the years. Usually other, higher priority sporting events occur the same day or weekend when Northwestern is at a Big Ten school or I am too lazy to make the drive. Each school in the Big Ten is at least at 2 hour drive away. Here are the following distances and driving times from Chicago (according to Google Maps):

0) Evanston, IL – 14 miles or 0:27
1) Lafayette, IN – 127 miles or 2:13
2) Champaign, IL – 139 miles or 2:22
3) Madison, WI – 147 miles or 2:34
4) Iowa City, IA – 222 miles or 3:45
5) East Lansing, MI – 223 miles or 3:41
6) Bloomington, IN – 234 miles or 4:17
7) Ann Arbor, MI – 242 miles or 3:57
8) Columbus, OH – 357 miles or 5:47
9) Minneapolis, MN – 408 miles or 6:46
10) University Park, PA – 569 miles or 9:26

Yesterday, with no other major events taking place in Chicago and a relatively early start time (6:30 pm ET), I decided to make the 4+ hour drive to Bloomington, IN to watch Northwestern play Indiana at Assembly Hall.

Obtaining Tickets
Before leaving for Bloomington, I looked on Indiana’s website and noticed that they were selling Balcony Level seats for $5 each. With a four hour drive ahead of me, I chose to buy a ticket through ticketmaster.com rather than wait to arrive at Assembly Hall. Even with Indiana having its worst year on record, the piece of mind was worth the $9.90 all-in price.

Pre Game Dining
I arrived in Bloomington about an hour before tip-off. I drove through campus and found Yogi’s Bar and Grill at 519 E. 10th St. On Wednesday nights, they have a $1.75 domestic draft special. In addition, I found out I could leave my car in their parking lot and walk to Assembly Hall. The walk was about 10-15 minutes and saved me the hassle of driving through traffic and paying $10 for that right.

As I approached the ticket office to claim my ticket from Will Call, a few fans asked me if I needed a ticket. One guy wanted $20, the next guy $5. I could have saved $5 on my ticket but then I may never have discovered the free parking.

The Game
Northwestern defeated Indiana in Bloomington for the first time since 1968 which included 35 straight losses – 32 of those coming at Assembly Hall. Meaning this was Northwestern’s first win EVER at Assembly Hall. It was also Northwestern’s biggest road win (by points) since they defeated the University of Chicago by 57 points in 1944.

Assembly Hall
Assembly Hall does not look like your typical basketball arena – rather than a complete circle it concaves on side of the court’s baselines and the balcony seats are extremely high. Rather than sit in the balcony, I sat in the middle level where there were many empty seats.

Post Game Road Trip
After the game I made the trip back to Chicago with, of course, a road trip stop at Dairy Queen along the way. No road trip is complete without a DQ run.

NBA: Orlando Magic at Chicago Bulls

The last time I watched the Orlando Magic in Chicago (New Year’s Eve 2008); I wrote that the Magic embarrassed the Bulls. They beat the Bulls by 19 points that day. Last night the Bulls defeated the Magic 120-102 in similar fashion. It was the Bulls first win in seven games and the first win at home in six home games versus the Magic. The Bulls scored 30+ points in three quarters – almost unheard of for an NBA game these days.

Parking and Obtaining Tickets
I parked in my usual parking lot. Before the season I bought 20 United Center parking passes from Red Top Parking. Instead of paying $12 per game, I pay $10.40 for buying in bulk. Plus, I get to park in “VIP” parking at the front of the parking lot. Red Top owns a few other lots around the United Center. I choose this lot because it is easy to get to from my house.

I already had my ticket for last night. As I wrote for other Bulls games, I bought $10 tickets for games during the week throughout the season. Last night there were a lot of scalpers with extra tickets, but through my experience it is generally difficult to beat $10 for a ticket unless you find a free one from a fan. The face value on your ticket will be higher than $10 if you buy from a scalper, but I sit in the better seats anyway.

Benny the Bull’s Birthday
Last night was Benny the Bull’s birthday for everyone who likes the entertainment at an NBA game more than the game itself. At halftime, Benny competed in a slam dunk contest with three other mascots – Blaze, Boomer, and Crunch. Benny, of course, won after he threw a ball from half way up the first level to his teammate from the Chicago Bulls slam dunk team.

2009 Tyson American Cup

Generally I would not attend a sporting event at the Sears Centre. The arena is a 32 mile, 45 minute drive from my house (without traffic). Two years ago, I used my birthday as an excuse to attend a Chicago Shamrox game (now defunct) since the stadium opened in late 2006 and I had not attended a National Lacrosse League game at the time.

Yesterday with the Tyson American Cup at the Sears Centre I decided to make the drive again. This time I made the drive because the event is a high profile gymnastics competition. For example, last year Paul Hamm and Nastia Liukin competed and won the event before the 2008 Summer Olympics. While Paul Hamm withdrew 9 days before the Olympics started, Nastia Liukin won the Women’s All-Around Gold medal in Beijing.

Obtaining Tickets
I arrived at the competition shortly after the 1:30 pm start time. The event was scheduled to run on NBC from 3 – 5 pm so I did not feel I had to arrive right on time and watch the entire 3.5 affair. To my surprise, it cost $20 to park which I thought was outrageous for the Sears Centre.

With an event like this, there are usually no scalpers because there is not enough demand for tickets and the event is 30+ miles outside of Chicago. I entered the main arena thinking I would have to buy a ticket from the box office. But as I entered, I saw a man with his two daughters. I thought to myself that this was a highly likely case of an extra ticket. I approached the man as he was getting ready for security and asked if he had an extra ticket. He did and handed me his 4th ticket for free.

The event
What I did not realize before attending this event was that every athlete that participated in the Olympics (only six months ago) was taking a break from competition. Thus, the most popular athlete competing Saturday was Bridget Sloan, while the most popular gymnast in attendance was Nastia Liukin, who was attending as a spectator. Fans consistently called out Nastia’s name during the event. Sloan, who also competed for the US Team in Beijing, finished second to Jordyn Wieber in the women’s event.

Fabian Hambuechen won the men’s event. He also won the bronze medal in the high bar competition in Beijing.

Most of the other contestants had problems staying on their respective apparatus. This made me think it is a good thing these contestants have 3.5 years until the next Olympic Games in London.

CBK: Michigan at Northwestern

Since the Ultimate Sports Wife is also a Ph.D. candidate at Northwestern University, we find ourselves on campus periodically throughout the year. One thing that has become a Sunday tradition during cold Chicago winters is to spend the day on campus. Nicole studies at the Sociology department while I attend a basketball game at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Until this season, only the women’s basketball team played on Sunday afternoons. However, with the creation of the Big Ten Network, the men are beginning to play more consistently on Sunday afternoons. Today the Northwestern Men’s Basketball team hosted Michigan.

I dropped Nicole off at the Sociology department at 1:30 pm and drove up the arena for the 2 pm tip. As I did four weeks ago, I parked for free on the corner of Lincoln St. and Ashland Ave.

Obtaining Tickets
I arrived earlier than I had four weeks ago, so I was hoping that would allow for more extra tickets outside the arena. As I walked by a couple scalpers, I offered them $9 for a ticket assuming they would say no. One broker said no, the other said yes - $6 less than I had paid for the Minnesota game.

As I approached the main entrance to Welsh-Ryan Arena, there appeared to be fans with extra tickets. I hesitated to enter the arena and realized a group of guys had one extra ticket. I asked if I could have it; they said yes and gave me the ticket – meaning I now had two tickets.

I sold my first ticket for $10 to another fan outside the arena. I was now up a measly $1 buying tickets on the secondary market, but better than losing money on my first ticket. Ticket Buying Tip: Always accept a free ticket from anyone, whether you have tickets or not. The worst thing that will happen is that you have to give that ticket away or leave it on the ground. In the end, it costs you nothing and may save you money if you can find someone who will buy the ticket.

The Game
Northwestern and Michigan played a see-saw battle that saw Michigan take a 5 point lead three times in the second half but Northwestern always came back including a Kevin Coble three-pointer to tie the game at 56 with 21 seconds left in regulation. That shot sent the game to overtime. However, Michigan won the game in overtime 70-67. This was the first OT game I have attended since Illinois defeated Arizona at the United Center on December 8, 2007.

CBK: #5 Louisville at Notre Dame

Thursday afternoon, the Ultimate Sports Wife and I drove to South Bend, IN to attend my first basketball game at the University of Notre Dame.

Pre Game Dining
We arrived in South Bend and were disappointed with the restaurant selection until we got to downtown which had much better options. We ate at Buffalo Wild Wings which is the Ultimate Sports Wife’s preferred dining restaurant in suburban towns.

Obtaining Tickets
Parking was free for the game. We did not see any scalpers or fans with extra tickets as we approached the arena. Thus, I walked to the box office to see if tickets were available. Tickets were available so we bought two bleacher seats for $13 each.

The Game
Notre Dame crushed #5 Louisville 90-57. Notre Dame took an 11-4 lead in the first 5 minutes, were ahead by 18 points at halftime and never looked back after that. The 33-point win is the largest in history versus a league opponent.

After the game we drove back to Chicago. The drive took less than two hours which is similar to driving to Milwaukee from Chicago.

World Cup Qualifying: Mexico at USA

A few years ago, I started using my birthday to attend random sporting events that Nicole would never attend if it was not my birthday. In 2004 we attended the Gary Steelheads of the CBA, in 2005 we attended the Chicago Storm of the MISL and in 2007 we attended the Chicago Shamrox of the NLL.

This year was a little different in that I chose an event that was outside of Chicago and a much better event – the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team was hosting Mexico in a World Cup Qualifier in Columbus, OH. In addition, I wanted to visit my friend, John Bishop, who lives in Columbus.

A major decision when planning any trip is whether to fly or drive. My preferred travel method is by plane especially when travelling from one city to another (and even more so when I can fly Southwest Airlines). The Ultimate Sports Wife prefers the road trip. Thus, I looked up whether there would be a sporting event for us to attend when we drove back to Chicago on Thursday afternoon. There was – Notre Dame Men’s basketball was hosting Louisville in South Bend, IN. With that, Nicole and I were road-tripping to Columbus.

We left Chicago at 9:30 am – much later than I had hoped. We arrived at my friend’s house at 4:45 pm, got ready for the game and were at Claddagh Irish Pub, where Sam’s Army was planning to pre-party before the game, by 5:15 pm.

Obtaining Tickets
While we were at Claddagh Irish Pub, the bar tender yelled out “Does anyone need tickets?” I jumped up and said we do and walked over to the two guys who had the extra tickets. They wanted face value for the tickets. After discussing with John and his friend, we decided to buy the two tickets for face value which was $48 each. I had researched ticket prices before the game and tickets were hovering around $100 each (with about half at face value). This appeared to be a good price and we did not have to worry about buying tickets outside Crew Stadium.

We left Claddagh at 6:20 pm and drove to Crew Stadium. As we walked to the stadium there were a lot of extra tickets so we probably could have gotten a much better price. But with tickets in hand we were able to spend an additional 30 minutes in the pub.

The Game
The U.S. defeated Mexico 2-0. Michael Bradley scored both goals and is the first U.S. player to score two goals against Mexico since Steve Moyer scored two on November 23, 1980 in another World Cup Qualifier.

Fans in the Stands
This was one of the first soccer games I have attended in which the fans in the stands appeared unsafe. At European matches, visiting team fans sit in a separate location away from the host team. However, U.S. matches allow Mexican fans and U.S. fans to mingle with each other. We heard many U.S. fans make racist comments towards Mexican fans and the area around Sam’s Army was chaotic. It may be time for U.S. Soccer to consider giving Mexican fans a separate seating location or hold the event in more Mexican friendly cities such as Chicago, Houston or Los Angeles where the Mexican fans are not so outnumbered.

Post Game Dining
After the game we ate at Marcella’s – a pizzeria and wine bar located at 615 N. High St. Although the restaurant tried to tell us the restaurant was closed, once they realized we had six people they were happy to seat us. For the nightcap, we went to Zeno’s Victorian Village, within walking distance from John’s house, and located at 384 W. 3rd Ave.

NBA: Detroit Pistons at Chicago Bulls

I had already purchased a $10 ticket to the Pistons at Bulls game for Tuesday night so I was still planning to attend the game even though I had flown back from Dublin, Ireland the day before. However, my plans changed a little when I found out my neighbors were also attending.

Pre Game Dining
I met my neighbors at WestEnd Bar & Grill located at 1326 W. Madison St. – about a 5 block walk to the United Center. On game nights WestEnd has a $5 – 22 ounce domestic beer special and a shuttle that runs to and from the arena. One of my neighbor’s friend’s chose to drive the five blocks to the United Center and pay $12 to park – something I would not recommend doing unless the temperature is extremely cold.

The Game
The Bulls, with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in the crowd, finished the game with a 17-2 run to defeat the Pistons 107-102.

In one of the longest halftimes I have ever witnessed, the Bulls honored Johnny “Red” Kerr, who was the first head coach of the Chicago Bulls and spent 30 years as a broadcaster. The halftime clock started at 25 minutes and stopped at 5 minutes for about 10-15 minutes for a total of 40 minutes or so. Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Jerry Colangelo gave speeches and were in attendance, while President Barrack Obama and NBA commissioner David Stern gave video messages on the scoreboard.

United Center
During the game, I discovered that the United Center now sells a “Super Nachos.” Although I do not remember the official name, these nachos are a big upgrade from the usual chips covered with cheese dip and jalapenos. The “Super Nachos” comes with beef, salsa, sour cream and shredded cheese and is easily big enough for two people.

Ireland SuperLeague: Hoops at UCD Marian

With a free day in Dublin, I wanted to attend a random Irish sporting event. Before flying to Dublin, I had researched a few events to attend.

1) Irish Indoor Athletics Championships in Belfast, Northern Ireland. My friend, Peter, was driving back to Belfast Sunday morning so I would have a ride there and would have to take the train back. However, the event started at 11 am and with a 2+ hour drive to Belfast, I highly doubted we would leave Dublin by 9 am to get to the event on time.

2) National Hurling League of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). No matches were taking place in Dublin. They were taking place in Galway, Limerick, Cork and Waterford. Each city was a 2.5 to 3 hour train ride from Dublin.

3) Ireland SuperLeague Basketball in Dublin. Obviously not the most glamorous event, but given the location seemed to be the best option.

On Saturday night, I ruled out the drive to Belfast and thanked Peter for the Six Nations ticket. On Sunday morning, I ruled out taking a 2.5 hour train ride for three reasons. First, I did not want to travel that far. Second, since my flight was cancelled Thursday night, I did not have the full day in Dublin as I had planned to on Friday. I did want to relax in Dublin at least one day. Third, with the Rugby match I had planned to attend Friday night cancelled, I feared that Hurling may be cancelled as well due to frozen pitches that were plaguing the country. I did not want to travel 2.5 hours each way to find out the match I was planning to attend had been cancelled.

Thus, Irish Basketball turned out to be my event of choice. However, the adventure in getting to and finding the event made me question whether or not I should have just sat in an Irish Pub all day. The game was supposed to be played at the UCD Sports Centre at the University College Dublin in Belfield. I took the #11 bus from Dublin’s City Centre to Belfield. The walk from the #11 bus stop to the arena was only 5 minutes. When I arrived at the arena there were 8x11 pieces of paper taped to the doors of the arena stating that the arena was closed due to the weather. “What?” I began thinking. It was a sunny day and I felt people could have played games outside let alone indoors. But because there was some snow and ice on the ground they closed the indoor gym.

To my dismay, I asked a few people who actually wanted to work out at the gym whether there was supposed to be an “Irish SuperLeague” game played at the arena and they had no idea. Plus, there was no sign up on the arena stating whether the game was cancelled, postponed or moved to another arena which I would have expected to be the case. Thanks to Ireland basketball management, I had no idea where the game would be played – so much for my great plan to attend Irish Basketball.

I walked back to my bus stop wondering how long it would take the bus to come. I had waited about 20 minutes the first time. The bus came within 5 minutes and to my surprise it was the same bus driver who drove me down. He let me on the bus for free, rather than pay the 1.60 euro since I had only been off the bus for 25-30 minutes.

When I got back to Dublin’s City Centre (it was still 2:30 pm so I had time to see if the match was still on and get there late), I went to an internet café and logged onto www.ucdmarian.com. In the top right corner, they list “UCD Marian News.” However, every piece of news they display states “Sunday, 07 December 2008.” Thus, I figured they were not updating the site until one of the headlines stated a match had been moved. I clicked on the link to find out the match was now being played at Carroll Arena at the Greendale Community School in Kilbarrack at the same start time of 3 pm. At the bottom of the two brief sentences appeared “Last Updated ( Sunday 08 February 2009 12:16 ). If only I had looked at the website closer before I left for Belfield, I would have known the game had been moved. The irony is that before I took the bus to Belfield, I had checked www.basketballireland.ie to ensure the match was still being played in Belfield and it stated it was.

After a quick Google search, I realized I could take the DART train from Dublin Connolly to Kilbarrack and either walk or take a taxi to Carroll Arena. I arrived at the arena shortly before halftime began. Thus, I just walked into the arena and to my surprise there were more fans in attendance than I thought there would be.

The Game
The second half began with UCD Marian leading Shamrock Rovers Hoops 36-34. UCD Marian ended up keeping that lead to defeat Hoops 75-73.

Post Game Dining
After the game I took DART back to Dublin and went to the Temple Bar area – the main nightlife area for tourists. I had a couple of pints of Guinness at The Temple Bar since they had live Irish music, ate dinner at Millstone Restaurant a few blocks from Temple Bar and finished the night back at John Lynch / The Swan Bar. This time around the owner of the Swan Bar talked to me for awhile since we had chatted briefly Saturday afternoon. I went back to Avalon House and packed my things for my Monday afternoon flight back to Chicago.

RBS Six Nations: France at Ireland

My plan for the weekend had been to fly to Dublin, Ireland from Chicago Thursday night and attend the RBS Six Nations match between France and Ireland on Saturday evening. However, those plans changed a little when my flight to Dublin was cancelled Thursday night and I was forced to fly to Dublin Friday night instead.

With an additional three hour flight delay Friday night, I arrived in Dublin at 10:30 am Saturday morning – plenty of time before the 5 pm kickoff between France and Ireland. I got through customs by 11:30 am and was at my hostel by 12:30 pm. Since, the Ultimate Sports Wife was not traveling with me I decided to book a hostel to save a few Euros. Plus, I knew I would not be in the hostel too much.

In December, I had booked the last available room at the Avalon House. I chose the Avalon House for two reasons. First, it was one of the only hostels that had a single room available at the time. Second, it was listed as the #1 hostel in Let’s Go Europe for Dublin. Those two reasons made the booking easy choice (especially 50 Euros per night).

Pre Game Dining
The Avalon House would not let me check in until 2 pm. Thus, I went to the pub across the street – John Lynch / The Swan Bar. After a couple of pints of Guinness it was almost 2 pm. I checked into my room, took a quick shower, changed clothes and headed out to meet my friend, Peter Speers from Belfast, at Dakota Bar to eat lunch before heading to Croke Park for the match.

Obtaining Tickets
As stated, Peter is from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He drove down from Belfast for the match and, since some of his friends participate on Irish Rugby Clubs, he was able to get tickets to the match for face value. In this case, he bought Standing Room Only (SRO) seats for 38 Euros (for comparison, back in 2004, the Ultimate Sports Wife and I paid 125 Euros each for an Six Nations Ireland match vs. Wales). SRO in Europe is not the same as in the U.S. They have specific sections that are all SRO, rather than making SRO ticket holders stand behind seated sections.

The Match
Ireland played a great game as they defeated France 30-21. It was Ireland’s first defeat of France since March 2003 (or their first win in seven tries). Croke Park is the largest stadium in Ireland, with over 82,000 capacity, and is primarily used for the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). However, since Lansdowne Road (the main home for national rugby and soccer matches) is being rebuilt, Irish national rugby union and soccer matches have been held at Croke Park.

Post Game
After the match, we went back to Peter’s hostel, Mount Eccles Court, which was located much closer to Croke Park than my hostel. After a quick nap in the hostel, we went back to Dakota Bar to meet Peter’s friends since everyone knew where the pub was located. This was also fine with me since Dakota Bar was a short walk back to my hostel. Even though we had planned to change pubs, moving a group of 15 people is not easy so we stayed there for the night. With jetlag and barely any sleep, I was one of the first to leave and went back to Avalon House.

Two Slow Weeks in Chicago = DePaul Women’s Basketball

The week or two around Super Bowl Sunday is a slow time for professional sporting events in Chicago – mainly due to the fact that Disney on Ice comes to town in late January and early February. This year they performed at Allstate Arena from January 22 through January 25 and moved to the United Center from January 27 through February 8.

With the Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks out of town for two to three weeks, one must look for other sporting event options in Chicago. Other professional sporting event options include:

1) Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League - the Wolves are playing two games per week at home during this time.
2) Chicago Storm of the XSL (Xtreme Soccer League) - the Storm was not wise enough to schedule games during the professional sports down period in Chicago.
3) A couple of “professional” basketball teams from the ABA (Chicago Steam) and PBL (Chicago Throwbacks). However, these teams also did not schedule games while Disney On Ice was in town. Note: Chicago also has IBL teams but the league takes place during the summer.

The other sporting event options in Chicago are Men’s and Women’s Division I College Basketball at Northwestern, DePaul, University of Illinois at Chicago, Loyola University Chicago and Chicago St.

Last night, I attended the DePaul Women’s Basketball game versus West Virginia over a few other sporting event options (mainly Northwestern Men’s basketball and the Chicago Wolves). All games started at 7 pm. There were multiple reasons why I chose DePaul. First, McGrath Arena is much closer to my house than Welsh-Ryan Arena or Allstate Arena. Second, and the main reason, the Ultimate Sports Wife was hosting her 32nd birthday party at Hidden Cove starting at 9:30 pm. The DePaul game would end before 9 pm, meaning I could watch the game, make it back to the house to pick up Nicole and still make it on time to the party. The other games would take longer which could be a risk of making the party on time – a no-no for the wife’s birthday party.

Obtaining Tickets
The worst part about attending third tier sporting events is that there is no secondary ticket market. Thus, I had to pay full price ($10) for my ticket, which is normally what I pay to attend any event in the Chicagoland area. However, if I had worn pink my ticket would have cost $5.

The Game
#25 DePaul defeated West Virginia 74-56 to win their fourth straight Big East game. Sam Quigley led DePaul with 17 points and had career-high’s with 6 assists and shooting 8-8 from the free throw line.

Note: No sporting events occur at the Staples Center in Los Angeles around Super Bowl weekend either. The arena is setting up to host the Grammy’s the Sunday following Super Bowl weekend.