If you were offered free tickets to a B.C. Lions or Canucks game, would you go? Hell yeah, you say. Me too, so off I excitedly went Sept. 24 with my fellah for a pre-season Canucks game against the Anaheim Ducks (real Anaheim Ducks like Saku Koivu, Teamu Selanne and Ryan Getzlaf, not no-names that the Canucks put out on the ice that night. Pee-ew).
I followed that up Sept. 30 watching the Lions stick it to the naughty Edmonton Eskimos at the rebirth of B.C. Place Stadium with my brother in tow. A good thing my bro was with me for the pigskin match-up to provide Football 101 tips. (I learned to loathe football as a youngster when my five older brothers, all of whom played football, would monopolize the TV late Sunday afternoons watching the NFL. But I can tell you who coached the Dallas Cowboys in the 70smind you, King of the Hill episodes might have refreshed my memory. I remember when three minutes left on the clock often lasted an hour and ate into The Wonderful World of Disney. Imagine my growing disappointment. I was less hateful towards hockey, but that might be due to growing up in a family of Habs fans, not to mention the Canadiens 24 Stanley Cup wins. Take that, Vancouver.)
I obviously dont get out often, which made last weeks excursions so thrilling. The ticket price for the Canucks was $235 a pop. I dont know who can afford those prices, but I presume its corporations, like my employer who raffled off some tix to staff recently. I also didnt know I wouldnt see any topflight Canucks players. I couldnt help but think how disrespectful it is of the Canucks organization to charge season ticket holders the same price for pre-season games as regular season matches when the product on the ice is barely recognizable. (The names Maxim Lapierre and Cody Hodgson rang a bell but they arent first line playersthat much I know). The first pre-season game a few days earlier had half the Canucks squad in Calgary. One positive aspect to pre-season nobodies on the ice is it inspires ticket holders to give their tickets to the less fortunate and less important (like me!) because its all meaningless.
Thats the only explanation I have for the massive number of children scattered throughout the arena. Thank goodness they were in abundance because I did what any good non-sports fan would do while watching such a lopsided game. I watched TVthe Jumbotron in this case. I havent laughed so hard from such simple pleasures of seeing hyper excited children jump up and down and fans, if thats what they were, strut their stuff for the dance cam. Kudos to the young man who became a dance cam favourite not once or twice but at least five times, never letting the arena down despite obvious fatigue setting in. I also whiled away my time trying to read the Facebook messages the two guys in front of me never stopped sending and checking on their iPhones. One of them did cough up a good quote when a Canuck took on the six-foot-four-inch, 220-pound Getzlaf: Thats like me taking on Mike Tyson.
Maybe the no-name was trying to be a some name. I dont know. I tend to tune out fights. They upset me.
Despite the loss, the atmosphere at Rogers Arena felt buoyant. Nobody really cared about the results. Everyone seemed genuinely excited just to be thereapparently there are others like me who dont get out much either. A big hand to the fans who were more entertaining than the big-salaried players.
Taking in the Lions is the more affordable ticket as sports fans know. I doubt youll ever see three generations of one family taking up half a row at a Canucks game. The cheaper ticket price is definitely why my brother is a regular. My only beef with Friday nights drama-filled game, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would, was the half hour delay in starting. (The fact they ran out of beer and food was a non-issue for me. I refuse to pay exorbitant prices for crap.) When it was announced the delay was due to TSN waiting to hook in, my foul-mouthed inner crank wanted to stand up and shout, Get the effing game started. Talk about disrespecting the 50,000 fans in attendance who paid for the half-a-billion dollar retrofit. I sure hope the delay wasnt geared for Eastern Canadians to tune in. And couldnt they see that the Felions were getting cold not being able to shake their heinies.
Is a little respect too much to ask for?
