For the fourth consecutive weekend, I went on a road trip from Chicago. Three weeks ago I drove to Ann Arbor and the last two weekends I spent time in Indianapolis. Yesterday, I drove to East Lansing, MI for the Northwestern at Michigan St. men’s basketball game. As was the case when I drove to Ann Arbor, I wanted to see Northwestern play at Michigan St. I had not seen a game at the Breslin Center. After last night, I have attended a game at nine Big Ten men’s basketball …

It turns out the Indianapolis Colts were staying in our hotel on Saturday night – so much for the poor reviews on tripadvisor.com. Since the AFC Championship Game did not start until 3 pm we had plenty of time to sleep in and then go to brunch. I had picked out Patachou on the Park for brunch. My first pick, City Café, is closed for some reason on Sundays – even this Sunday with a major football game taking place.
Obtaining TicketsOn Saturday morning, I emailed a guy on craigslist.org about …

Nicole and I left Chicago at noon and arrived at our hotel by 4:30 pm (with some stops along the way). The hotel (which I was concerned about based on reviews online) was great! It was a 4-star hotel – the lobby and rooms were luxurious, but not “that” luxurious. With Nicole happy with the hotel, I was relieved and ready to attend the Indiana Pacers game for the third time this season. Since Nicole wanted to rest when she got to the hotel the Pacers …

Last week (before the Colts playoff game versus the Ravens) the Ultimate Sports Wife mentioned she did not have to teach ice skating for a full day the following Saturday morning (tomorrow) and asked if we should go anywhere for the weekend. I was already planning to drive to Indianapolis for the AFC Championship Game if the Colts defeated the Baltimore so I mentioned to Nicole we should go to Indianapolis if the Colts won their game (and somewhere else if they did not).
Booking the HotelWhen I got …

As Nicole and I have done for Northwestern men’s basketball games this season, we drove to campus today. However, the Northwestern women’s basketball team was home rather than the men’s team. I dropped Nicole off at the Sociology department and drove to Welsh-Ryan Arena.
Obtaining Tickets
I had a free ticket for the game since it was included in my men’s basketball season ticket package. With men’s basketball season tickets, I received one free ticket for a women’s game.
The Game
Northwestern squeaked out a victory over Minnesota 61-60 as Brittany Orban missed the …

After sprinting to Lucas Oil Stadium, my ticket was scanned and I entered the stadium. I heard over the speakers there was 12:39 left in the first quarter. I left the Pacers game with 2:24 left and I was in Lucas Oil Stadium after 2:21 – pretty much as even as I could have hoped. 30 seconds later I was looking at the scoreboard as I stood in the concourse overlooking the end zone where Matt Stover kicked his first field goal with 10:44 left in the first quarter.
Secondary Ticket …

After buying my ticket for the Colts playoff game, buying my ticket for the Pacers game was easy. On my walk looking for Colts tickets, I had already checked in with the Conseco Fieldhouse box office – cheapest ticket was $10. I was planning to buy a $10 ticket from the box office when I walked by a few scalpers. I offered them $5 for a ticket and the guy asked for $10. I looked at the ticket and the face value was $125. I paid the $10 immediately.
I realized …

All week I planned to attend the Indianapolis Colts AFC Divisional Playoff game versus the Baltimore Ravens. Since that game did not start until 8:15 ET I wondered if there was another game I could attend earlier in the day. There was. The Pacers game had been rescheduled to 6 pm because of the playoff game at Lucas Oil Stadium. However, I knew that NBA games normally last between 2 hours and 15 minutes and 2 hours and 30 minutes. Thus, I did not think …

One reason (of many) I never buy tickets ahead of time to games I am planning to attend is because you never know if you might get invited to the same game. On Sunday Blackhawks Jim called me since he had an extra ticket to the Blackhawks game versus Anaheim. However, since I was in Ann Arbor attending the Northwestern at Michigan men’s basketball game, there was no way I could get back to Chicago in time for the 6 pm start time.
However, that bad luck probably led to good …

Tonight was one of those nights Northwestern needed to win. After moving into the rankings, at #25, for the first time since 1969, Northwestern did not start off conference play well, losing to Illinois and Michigan St. They rallied from 17 points down to defeat Michigan on Sunday and tonight were facing (#13 AP) Wisconsin. A win would give Northwestern some momentum, while a loss would leave them at 1-3 in Big Ten play.
Northwestern had a one-point lead with 5:04 remaining in the game even though they …