The Stadium Experience

I've been an avid competitive sports enthusiast since I was a child, both as a fan and a participant.  My participant days are long gone (with the possible exception of golf), but I still follow sports closely, primarily major college and professional team sports.

An offshoot of this interest is an interest in the stadiums in which these teams play.  There was a time when I could name the stadium called home by every single professional team, and most major college teams.  I wouldn't be able to do that anymore, mostly because teams now sell stadium naming rights that change regularly.  But I'm still quite good at being able to see a stadium on TV and be able to name the home team.

I recently attended a Minnesota Vikings football day game at the relatively new U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.  (I even got to be on the field the day prior for a charity event.)  Such a neat stadium environment, with a translucent roof and enormous 'doors' that open at on end -- effectively being indoors but having the sun shine in and feeling fresh air.

This made me think about a 'bucket list' of other famous and/or unique sports venues in which I want to attend a game.  I've already checked a few of these off of my list, but here are my top ten for now in alphabetical order:

Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, KS 
AT&T Stadium in Arlington, TX
Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, NC
Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles
Fenway Park in Boston 
Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, IN
Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA (done)
Soldier Field in Chicago (done) 
U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis (done)
Wrigley Field in Chicago (done)

Outside of the U.S., I'd also add Wembley Stadium in London. Unfortunately, there are also some great old stadiums that have been replaced with new ones I'm not as interested in seeing.  Otherwise, I'd have included old Yankee Stadium in Bronx, NY, and old Chicago Stadium in Chicago.

While my 'event' sports bucket list would of course include things like the Super Bowl, World Series, and The Masters, this stadium list would be fun to accomplish, too.

The Bandwagon Is Full

As I write this, it’s presidential Election Day in America.  And to help me get celebrate the end of the seemingly never-ending campaigns, I’m going to write about how it’s like…..bandwagon fans.

Last week, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series for the first time since 1908.  I’m not a Cubs fan, and frankly baseball is at best my 4th favorite team sport behind football, basketball, and even hockey.  (I’ve made blog entries in the past about how the baseball establishment has ruined baseball.)  But the Cubs’ triple-A team, the Iowa Cubs, play in Des Moines, and I’ve seen many of the players in past trips to those games, so even I was sort of rooting for those lovable losers.  (Also, it makes me feel better because I’d like to think that once in my lifetime, another perennial losing team called the Minnesota Vikings will win the Super Bowl.)

During and after the Series, there were somewhere between thousands and millions of people claiming to be long-suffering Cubs fans.  And while many of them were, some of them were not.  A lot of those so-called long-time fans couldn’t name even a couple of the players, nor had any clue as to how well the Cubs did in the regular season.  They were bandwagon fans, trying to attach their sorry souls to a contender they really don’t care about, giving them an excuse act silly and feel good about themselves.

Those fans drive me nuts.  They act like they care, but they don’t actually know enough to care.

In a way, it’s a metaphor for this year’s presidential election.  Millions of people are going to vote today, and lots of them know virtually nothing about the candidates, nor the issues they’ve been campaigning about for the past year.  They just know that a big contest is afoot, and they’re going to attach their sorry souls to a contender they really don’t care about, giving them an excuse to act silly and feel good about themselves.

Those voters drive me nuts, too.