Lost in the Wilds of UK Sports: Flight to Chicago

After attending 17 sporting events in 15 days in three countries it was time to go home. Here were my stats:

I attended 12 games in England, 3 in Scotland and 2 in Finland.

I attended 10 soccer matches consisting of 4 English Premier League, 2 Champions League, 1 Europa League, 1 Scottish Premier League and 2 Carling Cup.
I attended 2 rugby matches – 1 in the Guinness Premiership and 1 in the Magners League.
I attended 2 county cricket matches – both Division I and Division II.
I attended 2 NHL games – the first regular season NHL games in Finland.
I attended 1 NBA game – probably the least exciting from a global standpoint.

My flight was scheduled for 2:40 pm so once again I packed up my stuff, said bye to Big Chris and took the underground to London’s Heathrow airport. The trip was a great experience but it was time to get home to Nicole.

Champions League: Wolfsburg at Manchester United

Rather than hang around downtown Manchester for a couple of hours before checking into my hostel, I decided to take the bus to Old Trafford to buy my ticket for the evening’s match. Even after seeing extra tickets in Glasgow on Tuesday night I still wanted to be sure I had my ticket for Manchester United.

Obtaining Tickets
Tickets were available for the match and I bought a ticket in the upper deck for £38. As I walked around the stadium looking for a restaurant to eat, there were a couple of guys who asked me if I needed an extra ticket. I should have figured there would be a secondary ticket market for Manchester United but I had already bought my ticket.

Lunch outside Old Trafford
I wanted to eat lunch before heading back to my hostel so I walked around Old Trafford to see what restaurants were in the area. I chose to eat at The Trafford which is a short walk from the stadium and has reasonable meal prices – for example, Fish & Chips was £4.

Back to the Hotel
At this point it was only 1:00 pm, so I took the bus back to my hostel to relax. I bought a day pass for the bus since the day pass was cheaper than even one round trip from downtown Manchester to Old Trafford. I was planning to make two round trips.

Pre Game
After hanging out in my hotel for a few hours, I took the bus back to Old Trafford. However, this time the area was completely different. The corner across the street from where I ate lunch was completely packed with fans hanging out before the game – where was this at Manchester City and Ibrox!

I believe the main reason so many people were hanging out on this corner was because of the beer store. The store had four commercial refrigerators (the kind you find at any convenience store) full of beer. For £2 you could buy a 16-ounce can and hang out on the corner – of course, the most expensive beer was Budweiser. Also, along this strip of stores was a bunch of English fast food restaurants but the main attraction was the beer convenience store.

Note: You can walk and drink your beer up until the police blockade but be sure to throw it out when you get there. No standing and drinking allowed.

Secondary Ticket Market
On the walk from the beer corner to Old Trafford were a few people holding an extra ticket in the air – meaning they had extra tickets. So for the second night in a row I could have bought a ticket for under face value but pulled the trigger too early.

Old Trafford
Old Trafford was a classic old stadium. However, I was in the upper deck meaning A) I had to walk up 170 steps and B) my view of the stadium was terrible.

First, as you enter the stair case to get to the upper deck there is a sign posted that reads “Access to the third tier stands involves climbing over 170 steps via 10 levels. Spectators who have vertigo or who have difficulty climbing are advised accordingly.” I’m not sure what stadium officials would do for you if you could not make the climb and I did not ask to find out. Second, my view of the game was fine, but the main reason I bought the upper deck ticket was so I could see Old Trafford as well and there was no view of the stadium from my seat.

The Game
The highlight of the night was Ryan Giggs becoming the ninth player in Manchester United history to score 150 goals for the team. His first goal with the team came in 1991. His 150th goal equalized the match at 1-1 after Wolfsburg took a 1-0 in the 55th minute. Michael Carrick scored the winning goal for United in the 78th minute as United defeated Wolfsburg 2-1.

Attendance at the match was 74,037 – by the far the largest crowd of any of the matches I have attended in England or probably will. A fan ran onto the field in the 2nd minute of the 2nd half for no apparent reason. Either most of the clubs have similar songs or it appeared that United had similar songs as Chelsea – only the words were different. Maybe the teams need to not only change the words but the tunes as well.

Post Game
For the third night in a row, I did not hang out in pubs after the game. Instead I did the same thing I had done on Monday night – buy a subway sandwich and chill in my hostel room.

Traveling back to Manchester

Since I went to sleep relatively early Tuesday night, I woke up early Wednesday morning. I was at the hostel’s free breakfast as soon as it opened at 7:00 am and was on the train back to Manchester at 8:00 am.

Once again, I was nervous that I would need to pay a one way fare from Glasgow to Carlisle since I only had an England BritRail pass, but, once again, the conductor glanced at my pass and went onto the next passenger. I had successfully taken the train to and from Scotland and England four times without a penalty fare even though I had specifically bought an England only BritRail pass. I bought the pass in August before realizing there would be three matches I would want to attend in Scotland. If I planned to attend the Scottish matches originally I would have spent the extra $90 on the England and Scotland BritRail pass.

I arrived in Manchester at 11:18 and checked into the Hatter’s Hostel – the hostel I had booked a week earlier knowing I would attend the Manchester United Champions League match versus Wolfsburg. Of course, I was again too early to check into the hostel even though I had a single. However, this time I could check in by 1:00 pm.

EPL: West Ham at Manchester City

After booking my hotels, I decided I needed some exercise plus I wanted to check ticket status for the Manchester City game I was planning to attend Monday night. I was in Manchester in February 2007 and remembered that the walk from the Manchester train station to the City of Manchester Stadium is 1.5 miles. I decided to run to the box office.

Obtaining Tickets to Manchester City
I arrived at the City of Manchester Stadium’s ticketing center and tickets were available for the night’s game. Also, since I was planning to travel to Birmingham for when Aston Villa hosted Manchester City I asked if they had an away ticket available for that match. I bought a ticket for both matches.

Manchester City requires you to have a ticket card regardless of whether you are a season ticket holder. I received a ticket card which would allow me entrance to the stadium and my “ticket stub” gave me an assigned seat. I am not sure how the secondary ticket market works for Manchester City. Either one does not exist or you need to buy an extra ticket from somebody who already has a card.

Lunch
On my run I noticed there were not many restaurants in the area around Manchester City’s stadium. Thus, I decided to eat at The Overstuffed Pizzeria – the pizza place in the Britannia Hotel. All pizzas were half price.

The Game
After taking a nap, I walked back to the City of Manchester Stadium in time for the game. It was my first Monday Night Football game – English style. Carlos Tevez scored two goals as he led Manchester City to a 3-1 win over West Ham. It was Tevez’s first goal against his former team. The win was Manchester City’s fifth win in six games and is their best start since 1961.

Post Game Dining
With pubs closing because of early closing hours in England, I grabbed a sandwich at Subway and went back my hotel to relax. I had just attended nine games in seven days in England and Scotland and was planning to attend one game per day for the next week in Scotland, England and Finland.

Britannia Hotel Manchester

My room at the Britannia Hotel in Manchester was excellent. It was £39 per night and after spending three nights in a hostel sharing a room with others it was great having my own bathroom and privacy. I went to sleep as soon as I checked in on Sunday night.

I still had not booked hotels for Glasgow (where I was traveling to Tuesday morning) and Birmingham (where I was staying Monday, October 5). I saw in my room that the Britannia had a hotel in Birmingham and when the room was only £28 for the night I booked the single immediately. Hotels in Glasgow were more expensive so I decided I would book a hostel for Tuesday night – especially since I was not planning to spend much time in the room. I booked a room at the Euro Hostel for £18.