Last night I chose to attend the Tampa Bay Lightning game. St. Pete Times Forum is a 90 minute drive from where we are staying in The Villages, FL.

Parking
Parking around St. Pete Times Forum is cheap. Most lots are $5 and if you bring change you can park at the meters for 75 cents per hour.

Obtaining Tickets
I always park at a lot with some distance from the stadium so I can pass scalpers on the way to the stadium. My goal last night was to pay $5 or receive a free ticket. The first scalpers I passed had between 10 and 20 tickets each. I’m not sure why they had such a supply but that was definitely to my benefit. I decided rather than spend time looking for a free ticket I would offer the next scalper $5 for a ticket. I did and he accepted the offer. In my mind, $5 is equal to free when I do not spend any energy searching for tickets.

The Game
Before the game, IKEA sponsored a $5 all-you-can-eat buffet with Swedish meatballs, hot dogs, chips and non-alcoholic beverages.

The arena was pretty empty last night. Even though the announced crowd was 12,214, only the first 8,000 fans were supposed to receive the night’s promotion of thunder sticks and gate attendants were still handing them out when I entered the arena.

The Avalanche scored a goal in each period to win 3-0. Matt Duchene had two goals as Craig Anderson made 33 saves to lead the Avalanche.