It was a snowy night to attend the Chicago Blackhawks game. But I managed to make the drive from my home to the United Center in less than 30 minutes. Rather than park for free on the street as I have many times this season, I used one of the parking passes I bought last year from Red Top Parking. I parked in their lot rather than brave the snow on the city streets.
Obtaining TicketsI parked just before 7:30 pm. I expected to see more ticket scalpers walking towards the …

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 …

While I was on my flight to Dallas I decided my best option was to attend the Dallas Stars game at 1 pm and then drive to San Antonio for the Alamo Bowl. My timing for the day would need to be nearly perfect. I figured the Stars game would last 2.5 hours, giving me enough time to drive to San Antonio.
My flight was scheduled to land at 11:45 am and Dallas Love Field is only a 10 minute drive (5 miles) to American Airlines Center. Thus, …

My original plan for today was to fly to Pittsburgh in the morning, attend the Green Bay Packers at Pittsburgh Steelers game and fly back to Chicago after the game. That plan was changed when the game, originally scheduled for 1:00 pm ET, was changed to a 4:15 pm ET kick off – meaning I could no longer make my 6:50 pm ET flight back to Chicago.
With my trip to Pittsburgh cancelled, I took in the best event in Chicago today – the Detroit Red Wings were visiting the Chicago …

After the Chicago Bears game, I took the CTA train back to our house to pick up the Ultimate Sports Wife, go to a holiday party near our house and then drive down to the United Center for the Blackhawks game – ah, the conveniences of living in the city.
Obtaining TicketsWhen I called Blackhawks Jim to invite him and his wife to the Packers and Bears game, he said he had his usual four seats in the lower level for the Blackhawks game. So after a simple trade of tickets, …

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.
ParkingParking 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 TicketsI 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 …

It was a day of temporary departure times. Hawkeyes Bryon and I were driving to Columbus, Ohio for the Iowa and Ohio St. Saturday afternoon. However, we were debating on when to leave. The drive takes six hours from Chicago and with a one hour time change we would arrive seven hours after we left.
Bryon had to work on Friday and had said he could not leave until 5 pm. He wanted to leave Friday so we would be in Columbus early even though kickoff was at 3:30 pm. With …

In addition to booking hotels on Monday, September 28 while I was at the Britannia Hotel in Manchester, I did some research on buying tickets to the Blackhawks and Panthers games in Helsinki. Tickets were still available from Hartwell Areena where the games would be played. Since tickets were still available I figured I could show up at the arena and buy tickets on the secondary ticket market (I’m not sure why I was so confident I could buy tickets on the secondary market for the hockey games …