NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field
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.
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