The Ultimate Sports Experience

[Little Jerry Lawler]

As sports fans, we all have our events that we would like to go to whether it be the Super Bowl or the World Series. If you're a baseball fan, your ultimate destination would be to watch a game at Wrigley Field or Fenway Park. It would be everything you thought it would be and more. I'm going to kick up a notch.

Imagine you have unlimited resources. You have one year to watch a game at every MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL field, arena, or stadium. Playoff games count as well. How would you go about it? Here's how I would do mine....

MLB: This would be the easiest sport to do for me since the regular season runs from April to September and they play games almost every day so you have roughly 150 to 160 days to go to 30 baseball fields. If I want to experience the summer rush, do it in June, July, and August.

NBA & NHL: I lumped these two together because their regular seasons start and end around the same time. If I want to stick to strictly the regular season, I have a little over five months to go to 60 games. Two factors play into how I would tackle this.

1. Let's say I have 6 or 7 NBA teams that I haven't watched when playoff time rolls around. It happens that a majority of them didn't make the playoffs. Would I be disappointed? I wouldn't because I always have the end of October and the whole months of November and December.

2. Most of the NBA and NHL teams are in the same city so it would be easier when you first look at it. A problem is if there's a Blackhawks game on Monday and a Bulls game on Thursday. That's two days that I would have wasted so if there's a Pacers game on Tuesday or Wednesday, I can knock that off so I don't have to worry about it. As for cities who have either a NBA or NHL team, they're in close proximity to each other so it wouldn't be much of a hassle. I'll list some for you.

Spoiler

Cavaliers/Blue Jackets, Blues/Thunder, Grizzlies/Hornets/Predators/Hawks, Magic/Lightning/Heat/Panthers

NFL: I had difficulty as to how I would go about this at first. You have 17 weeks or between 35-40 days when I factored in Thursday and Saturday night games. Sounds like a challenge, doesn't it? If I'm looking at Sunday and Monday, I would go to an early Sunday game first, then the Sunday night game, and finally the Monday night one. I would have to look at the schedule to see what games are close, especially on Sundays because I have a 3 hour gap between the early and the last game. Whenever the Saturday or Thursday night games happen, that gives me a great opportunity to watch 4 games in 4 days so I would get done quicker. Playoff games would be helpful because that could give me around 6 or 7 teams that I can eliminate right off the bat.

My Calendar
January-April: NBA & NHL
May-August: MLB
September-December: NFL



How would you go about your ultimate sports experience? Which sport would you start with first and which would be the hardest and easiest to complete? Would you go about it geographically or start where you would most like to go to first?

 

[IrishCanadian25]

For me, I don't want to just go nuts on the "sports experience" by seeing a bunch of games I'm not concerned with. Also, I can't restrict myself to just the four major North American sports. If we're going with 2012, here is how I'd work my experience:

January 2012

With my Packers eliminated, there's not much here, so it's time for me to visit the Canadian hockey provinces. Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and Winnipeg. I'd see a home game for each team and just hop from one to the other. After the Toronto game, I'd give myself 2 days to skulk around the Hockey Hall of Fame.

February 2012

Super Bowl is on February 5th, and I'd SO be there, no matter which teams play. Bummer it won't be my Packers, but it's still the Super Bowl.

March 2012

Final Four ahoy! Gotta go see the last games of March Madness played out, hoping that my wife and I can see our Kentucky Wildcats win a National Title.

On St. Patrick's Day, I would go to the final game of the Rugby VI Nations tournament, which just happens to be Ireland @ England. I would proudly support my heritage by rooting for the Irish to beat the oppressive Brits on our very holiday, then I'd find a pub and drink myself stupid.

April 2012

This is easy. I'm in Augusta for the Masters Golf tournament. My wife and I love golf, and seeing the first major on this hallowed ground would be amazing.

May 2012

Stanley Cup Finals. As many of the 7 games as I can hit without sacrificing my other endeavors. Hopefully my Devils are playing, but the way they look right now, doubtful.

The Greco Roman Wrestling World cup is the 18th - 20th. I'd like to catch that.

Of course I would have to skip a day to attend the UEFA Champions League final game on May 19th.

I couldn't find the date, but I'll be at the Kentucky Derby as well. Not for real, just in this thread.

June 2012

I'd catch an NBA Finals game or two. And I would likely head to Daly City, California for the US Open Golf Tournament, but that's not a huge deal to me.

July 2012

This is a tough month.

I would want to be there for the final stage of the Tour de France just to see which poor schmuck is getting busted for bad piss.

From the 19th - 22nd, I'd like to be at Royal Lytham & St Annes for the British Open of Golf, which is my 2nd favorite tournament.

While in Britain, July 7th and 8th I would be at Wimbledon.

July 27th the Summer Olympics kick off, and I wouldn't miss the opening ceremonies.

August 2012

I'd skulk around London - my new home for the summer - for the conclusion and the medal ceremonies of the Olympics. I would return to Queens, NY for the US Open of tennis and also to watch my Mets choke another season away, but I'd thrown out a first pitch.

For the remainder of the year, I'd go to the Packers Regular Season opener, the NJ Devils season opener, the World Series, and on September 1st, I'd go see Notre Dame vs Navy in Dublin's Aviva Stadium. OMG, wow. NorCal and Becky would be with me for that.

 

[agentmichaelscarn]

April 2012

This is easy. I'm in Augusta for the Masters Golf tournament. My wife and I love golf, and seeing the first major on this hallowed ground would be amazing.

+1. This is my ultimate dream sporting event. Even as much as I'd love to go to the Super Bowl, being at Augusta on Sunday would be my first choice for any sporting event.

As for my Calender it would probably be something like this...

January- BCS Bowls and an NFL playoff game or 2

February- Super Bowl obviously and probably NBA All Star Weekend.

March- Of course some NCAA tournament games and maybe a few sporadic NBA and NHL games

April - The Masters, Detroit Tigers opening day(even though I do this every year anyway) and the NFL Draft.

May - Kentucky Derby and maybe the French Open

June - Some NBA Finals games and probably the US Open golf tournament.

July - For July I'd probably spend most of the month in the UK, I'd start at Wimbledon and then move to the British Open golf tournament.

August - May take it easy this month and just go to some baseball games.

September - Hit up some more MLB games and maybe a few NFL games.

October - MLB playoffs and World Series

November - Ohio State-Michigan football game and my Detroit Lions Thanksgiving game.

December- Probably take it easy after a long year, maybe hit up an important NFL or College BBall game.

Oh and I'd probably do a few huge Boxing or MMA matches throughout the year.

 

[IrishCanadian25]

Good call on the NFL Draft, AMS, though I could go to that at anytime seeing as I live 25 mins from Radio City...

Funny thing - while researching my post for this thread, I happened across that Notre Dame / Navy game in Dublin. I actually found a package that gets you airfare, game tickets, hotel, shuttle, breakfast for 4 mornings, and tee times at 3 prestigious Dublin golf courses for 18 holes a clip. The cost? Only $1,600 per person. That's AMAZING. I may go.

 

[ITurnGirlsGay]

January- I've been to BCS bowls and the National Title game, bleh. I'm over that.

Cotton Bowl for me. Always wanted to see it even if it is an inevitable drubbing of a Big XII team by some overrated SEC team that will use it to claim their superior conferences' ability. I'm sure it's not all that amazing, but I'd like to say I went to the Cotton Bowl one time. There's also the first of the year UFC card in here and it's usually pretty good so I would hit that as well.

February- Super Bowl

March- I'd fly back and forth between the regions of March Madness based on the matchups I wanted to see. Also, the NIT Tournament might not be much, but it's in Madison Square this year and that's pretty damn cool.

April - The Masters, Opening day at Fenway, and the first series with New York Yankees.

May - UFC event

June - More UFC

July - It's an Olympic year and it's in London. I'm headed to fucking everything for the entire damn Olympics. It's a non-stop porn fest in Olympic village.

August - Same as IC25, closing ceremonies and such. Birthday month, probably Red Sox games and recovering.

September - Every USC home and away game

October - Every USC home and away game + World Series

November - Every USC home and away game PLUS a couple of bigger rivalry games. RRS comes to mind as something I'd like to see.

December- Probably some of the smaller bowls, some hockey and maybe the year end UFC show.

 

[Megatron]

Early January - MSU bowl game (hopefully Rose Bowl, but Cap 1/Outback would do); National Championship game
Middle Late/January - A Wings game vs one or two of Blackhawks/Blues/Sharks/Canucks
February - Super Bowl then Olympic Hockey
March - March Madness (specifically MSU's area)
Early April - Final 4 and Tigers Opening day
May - Yankees/Red Sox series in Fenway
June - Stanley Cup Finals
July/August - various MLB stadiums + Summer Olympics
September - NFL opening day
October - MSU/UM football game; World Series later games (5/6/7)
November - Since I've been to a Lions Thanksgiving game, nothing really catches my eye
December - Big 10 Championship game (in Indy), maybe go to a Lions road game.

Yes, most of my stuff pertains to Detroit/MSU stuff. What, you're surprised? Also I know both Olympics don't fall on the same year, but this scenario would be if they were occurring during this frame.