The Ultimate Sports Wife and I decided to spend the afternoon touring Valencia since we had decided to watch Valencia square off against Sevilla at 7 pm on La Liga’s opening weekend.
Obtaining TicketsI had already bought two tickets to Sunday’s match on Thursday night so we would not have to deal with buying tickets on Sunday evening. We may have been able to beat the 20 euros ticket price at the window but taking our time to get to Estadio Mestalla was worth the peace of mind for not …

One part of Spanish soccer I do like is the late start times of soccer matches. La Liga’s weekly Saturday night contest begins at 10 pm (meaning it ends close to midnight) – no sporting event in the United States has that scheduled start time. Last season, I remember thinking it was crazy that Game 2 of the NLDS between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs had an 8:37 pm start time at Wrigley Field.
Thus, I should not have been surprised when the Europa League Play-off match …

After arriving in Spain Saturday night, we quickly got ready and drove to Valencia Sunday morning for the Grand Prix of Europe. Although the race started at 2 pm, I wanted to arrive early to see part of Valencia. We left the house at 9:30 am and finally parked our car at 11:30 am.
ParkingAs we arrived in Valencia we followed signs to an “official” parking lot which was no where near the circuit. We paid 15 euros and then had a lengthy walk to get to the …

As with attending any sporting event, the location of where you live or where you decide to stay determines what sporting events you can attend. For example, if the Ultimate Sports Wife and I did not live less than one block from Wrigley Field, we would not attend nearly half the Cubs game we actually attend. Second, living in Chicago, allows me to attend many more Chicago White Sox, Chicago Bulls and Chicago Blackhawks games than attending Chicago Fire or Chicago Wolves games (teams based in the Chicago …

When we decided to plan a trip for Europe, the wife checked U2’s tour schedule and realized they were playing in the United Kingdom the week we would be in London. She immediately wanted to attend a show. There were four shows to choose from – Friday, August 14 or Saturday, August 15 at Wembley Stadium in London, Tuesday, August 18 in Glasgow, Scotland or Thursday, August 20 in Sheffield, England. Ideally, we would have attended a show in London so we would not have to travel …

With our season tickets in hand, the Ultimate Sports Wife and I waited in our house for three hours and 15 minutes before the game between the Cubs and Pirates was finally postponed due to rain. As I have written before, the Cubs new day-of-game ticket policy is not friendly when it rains since one must enter Wrigley Field as soon as they purchase a ticket.
If it is raining, I would recommend buying a ticket from a scalper or a fan on the street if possible. That way …

As was the theme with the last couple Chicago Cubs home stands, I planned to meet a friend in the stadium so I decided to buy a standing room only (SRO) seat for $15. As I have mentioned before SRO at Wrigley Field is a good deal for multiple reasons.
1) It is the cheapest ticket in the ballpark.2) Fans do not have to pay a premium buying tickets from a ticket broker or StubHub.3) Although most people will plan to stand in the SRO areas, this is a bad …

Given all of the promotional days at Wrigley Field throughout the season, I would argue that if you only have one day to attend a Chicago Cubs during the season, you should attend the Friday afternoon game on Chicago’s Air and Water Show weekend.
Let me give you a visual – in the bottom of the 2nd and Cubs’ pitcher Randy Wells at the plate (the second batter of the inning), all the fans in the bleachers stood up and starting pointing towards the press box. I thought, …

The Philadelphia Phillies completed their three game sweep of the Chicago Cubs winning Thursday afternoon 6-1. It was the Phillies first sweep of the Cubs at Wrigley Field since June 14-17, 1984, when they won four straight.
Cliff Lee was the winning pitcher. Lee also pitched at Wrigley Field on June 19 when the Indians were in town. He should have won that game as well, but the Cubs came back from a 7-0 deficit to win 8-7 in 10 innings.
Obtaining TicketsMy original plan was to buy a …

Last night the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs game featured two first starts of the season. For the Phillies, Pedro Martinez was starting for the first time since September 25, 2008. For the Cubs, Jeff Samardzija, Notre Dame’s career receptions leader with 179, was making his first career start.
Obtaining TicketsI was planning to sit with my neighbors at the game, so I had planned to buy a SRO ticket for $15 rather than deal with scalpers. However, as I approached the Cubs day-of-game ticket office, a man …