Sports weekend begins
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I had the best seats I've ever had for any game of any type last night. The Chicago Bulls played the Shaq-powered Miami Heat at the United Center, and my friend Tony scored four 1st-row seats at midcourt.
That's right four first-row seats at midcourt to watch the terri-BULLS face off against the largest human ever, Shaq-Diesel. That guy is just mind-blowing. HUGE. Even when he stands next to the Bulls' Eddie Curry, who goes something like 6'11", 275, he dwarfs him. It's crazy.
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
Well, we didn't see much of a competitive game, as the Heat won 105-81, but it was so much fun to have elite seats.
Upon arriving into the United Center, I noticed quite a few things that separated the arena from Minneapolis' Target Center, an arena where I've had season tickets for about 15 years (well, my dad has, at least).
First, you can SMOKE in the United Center. What? Yes. You can STILL SMOKE IN AN NBA arena. I was shocked. There is a little area over by the condiments that a bunch of sketchy dudes were hanging out near smoking cigarettes before the game. I couldn't believe it.
Next, I know Chicago is known for its extreme diversity, but I didn't expect to see much of it an NBA arena, a high-ticket price sport, which seems to attract a fairly homogenous crowd across the nation to its games. But, I was wrong. It was refreshing, really. Many blacks, hispanics, asians, Polish, etc. Good stuff.
Finally, it's in a weird part of town. There's really nothing over there on the West side of town near the stadium. It's a bit dodgy, and it's kind of an old industrial wasteland with little to offer for entertainment, or even living, aside from the arena.
Most NBA arenas are in the downtown zone of a city (save for a few, like Detroit, but who really wants to go to downtown Detroit EVER,) but the United Center is in a strange juxtaposition of big-time entertainment venue which hosts the former six-time champs -- that sits about 4 miles from anything else of value - especially a bar/dining district. Very strange. We arrived in a cab, like most of the other 18,500 attendees, making the moment even more strange.
In Minneapolis, you drive downtown from your suburban, or sub-suburban home, park in one of the 123 parking ramps, go to dinner in a trendy restaurant and walk through an intricate system of skyways to the arena - then maybe have a bump afterward - all without stepping foot in the outdoors.
In Chicago, you hop in a cab and head AWAY from downtown, get dropped off a block from the arena about 5 minutes before gametime, and leave 5 minutes early to get first dibs on a cab back INTO town. Doesn't make sense. Well, because we had such nice tickets, we weren't going to leave this game early, even if it was a blowout.
We paid the price.
Instead of standing around aimlessly, freezing our asses off in hopes we could steal a cab near the arena, we decided to start walking, and hopefully grab a cab somewhere closer to town.
After about a mile, I began to question the city's planning, placing the United Center in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. Sometimes I really hate Chicago.
We found a seedy bar, finally, and popped in for a beer. Nice surprise. 4 beers for $9.00. Completely unheard of in Chicago. UNHEARD of. In a bar we cabbed to later, we paid $18.00 for 4 beers, just to put this in perspective. $9.00!!! $9! But, yeah, you should have seen this place. Just a little shady. Oh well. It served its purpose and we were on our way.
Followed up the night at Emmett's, the bar featured in Ocean's 11 (but that's not why we went there -- it's kind of the midpoint between the UC and my friends' condo). Good times. Even saw some Minnesota fans, in town for the Vikings game. No doubt they were at Emmett's becuase of the movie. No doubt. It's just enough out of the way, so as no weekend visitor would ever stumble in by accident.
Cabbed home, burnt a pizza and went to bed.
One last thing about the Bulls game --- Funny stuff. The Bulls have this group of FAT men, yes - FAT, that double as cheerleaders, in a spoof of the typical all-skinny-hot girls dance team, the Love-a-Bulls. I forget what they call themselves, but they are absolutely hillarious. Imagine 25 really large men doing booty-dances meant for young, limber girls. Comedy gold. Those guys made my night, right there. Also, there was one FAT guy with his shirt off, who had a Chicago Bull logo shaved both on his belly and on his back (he had enough hair to make it obvious.)
I'm telling you - you've GOT to see this sometime. I was rolling.
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Sunday - I'm making the pilgrimage to Soldier Field for the Viking/Bear game. Tailgating at 9:00 a.m. followed by a 3-hour game in the cold of winter (not really, it's supposed to be 45 degrees). Should be good times. I'll let you know how it goes.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lastly, please check out this link. I don't have time to comment on it, but I've found it exremely troubling and amusing at the same time.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5118622.html
That's right four first-row seats at midcourt to watch the terri-BULLS face off against the largest human ever, Shaq-Diesel. That guy is just mind-blowing. HUGE. Even when he stands next to the Bulls' Eddie Curry, who goes something like 6'11", 275, he dwarfs him. It's crazy.
Beautiful. Just beautiful.
Well, we didn't see much of a competitive game, as the Heat won 105-81, but it was so much fun to have elite seats.
Upon arriving into the United Center, I noticed quite a few things that separated the arena from Minneapolis' Target Center, an arena where I've had season tickets for about 15 years (well, my dad has, at least).
First, you can SMOKE in the United Center. What? Yes. You can STILL SMOKE IN AN NBA arena. I was shocked. There is a little area over by the condiments that a bunch of sketchy dudes were hanging out near smoking cigarettes before the game. I couldn't believe it.
Next, I know Chicago is known for its extreme diversity, but I didn't expect to see much of it an NBA arena, a high-ticket price sport, which seems to attract a fairly homogenous crowd across the nation to its games. But, I was wrong. It was refreshing, really. Many blacks, hispanics, asians, Polish, etc. Good stuff.
Finally, it's in a weird part of town. There's really nothing over there on the West side of town near the stadium. It's a bit dodgy, and it's kind of an old industrial wasteland with little to offer for entertainment, or even living, aside from the arena.
Most NBA arenas are in the downtown zone of a city (save for a few, like Detroit, but who really wants to go to downtown Detroit EVER,) but the United Center is in a strange juxtaposition of big-time entertainment venue which hosts the former six-time champs -- that sits about 4 miles from anything else of value - especially a bar/dining district. Very strange. We arrived in a cab, like most of the other 18,500 attendees, making the moment even more strange.
In Minneapolis, you drive downtown from your suburban, or sub-suburban home, park in one of the 123 parking ramps, go to dinner in a trendy restaurant and walk through an intricate system of skyways to the arena - then maybe have a bump afterward - all without stepping foot in the outdoors.
In Chicago, you hop in a cab and head AWAY from downtown, get dropped off a block from the arena about 5 minutes before gametime, and leave 5 minutes early to get first dibs on a cab back INTO town. Doesn't make sense. Well, because we had such nice tickets, we weren't going to leave this game early, even if it was a blowout.
We paid the price.
Instead of standing around aimlessly, freezing our asses off in hopes we could steal a cab near the arena, we decided to start walking, and hopefully grab a cab somewhere closer to town.
After about a mile, I began to question the city's planning, placing the United Center in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. Sometimes I really hate Chicago.
We found a seedy bar, finally, and popped in for a beer. Nice surprise. 4 beers for $9.00. Completely unheard of in Chicago. UNHEARD of. In a bar we cabbed to later, we paid $18.00 for 4 beers, just to put this in perspective. $9.00!!! $9! But, yeah, you should have seen this place. Just a little shady. Oh well. It served its purpose and we were on our way.
Followed up the night at Emmett's, the bar featured in Ocean's 11 (but that's not why we went there -- it's kind of the midpoint between the UC and my friends' condo). Good times. Even saw some Minnesota fans, in town for the Vikings game. No doubt they were at Emmett's becuase of the movie. No doubt. It's just enough out of the way, so as no weekend visitor would ever stumble in by accident.
Cabbed home, burnt a pizza and went to bed.
One last thing about the Bulls game --- Funny stuff. The Bulls have this group of FAT men, yes - FAT, that double as cheerleaders, in a spoof of the typical all-skinny-hot girls dance team, the Love-a-Bulls. I forget what they call themselves, but they are absolutely hillarious. Imagine 25 really large men doing booty-dances meant for young, limber girls. Comedy gold. Those guys made my night, right there. Also, there was one FAT guy with his shirt off, who had a Chicago Bull logo shaved both on his belly and on his back (he had enough hair to make it obvious.)
I'm telling you - you've GOT to see this sometime. I was rolling.
---------------------------------------------------------
Sunday - I'm making the pilgrimage to Soldier Field for the Viking/Bear game. Tailgating at 9:00 a.m. followed by a 3-hour game in the cold of winter (not really, it's supposed to be 45 degrees). Should be good times. I'll let you know how it goes.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Lastly, please check out this link. I don't have time to comment on it, but I've found it exremely troubling and amusing at the same time.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5118622.html
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