Not even talking about how god awful bad the King's are. Oy vey! In the first quarter the Nuggets had about 5 or 6 blocks, and 5 or 6 steals... though most of the "steals" were just the King's GIVING the ball to the Nuggets. The King's just looked awful. Anyway, let me tell you about the evening.
My dude is turning 6 next week and my nephew is 8. Thus they are prime to go to the King's game. I can remember going to games about 1974-1975 down in LA. I actually turned my grampa down when he wanted to take me to the 1974 World Series (A's at Dodger's) but I was going to UCLA hoops and football games at that time. Starting in '75 I went to Dodger's and Laker's games with some regularity. I also remember going to Merlin Olson's last game for the Ram's but that was probably '77 or '78!?
I knew there would be plenty of tickets available but I checked on-line first. Knowing we wouldn't be there all game and not choosing to spend my money on tickets I checked for some upper level tickets. $25.50 seats look fine but WAIT... $6.75 PER F'ING TICKET finance charge!? ARE YOU F'ING KIDDING ME!? I opted to get them AT Arco... and save the twenty bucks of BS charges!
Well, anyway I wanted to make it a fun night for the boys so I let them choose where we would have dinner. I was hoping they might want to go to C'Webb's restaurant near Arco but they ended up battling between Mickey's D's and BK...
and of course Mickey D's won based on the idea they would have better happy meal's toys. I respect that choice because they don't care about the food quality anyway so why fake it.We hit Mickey D's. Surprisingly my health conscious nephew chose the Big Mac. You can't get a Big Mac in a happy meal so I got him a separate toy. It was some Bioncle toy that both boys seemed happy with. The boys ate their grub. At one point my nephew was disappointed to note his burger had cheese so I assisted in dismantling it. He commented that the Whopper does not come with cheese (which I recalled from my days working at BK was correct) but "the Big Mac has that special sauce... I really like that special sauce... I wonder what's in the special sauce...?" He had the cutest expression as he said it too... like he really was honestly curious what might be in that magical sauce.
We finished our fueling and headed to Arco. We parked pretty close, since nobody was there, and walked to the ticket office. A dude was scalping outside the ticket box but I didn't feel like negotiating so I walked inside. I told the lady I wanted twenty or twenty-five dollar tickets on the aisle. She said she could do row R, on the aisle up in one corner... or "wait, how about 211 row L?" I said, yes that would be great. We headed inside....
We made our way to 211 row L. Anybody that has been to Arco knows that is pretty high up but you have a nice overview of the game. Plus the fans can be good up there. Oh ya, we stopped at one souvenir stand and the main King's store on the way to our seats. We got to the seats and my dude asked when we could get some ice cream. Game hadn't even started yet! Oh ya, our seats were NOT on the aisle but instead dead center (seats 8, 9 and 10). Thanks ticket office lady for LYING to me about where the seats were. Luckily only a few people were in our row so I didn't feel cramped.
The game got going and the boys were into it for a few minutes. My nephew was great about yelling "Defense, defense...." My dude was good about asking for ice cream. Then we saw the cotton candy guy so we were good for the minute. The boys gobbled that down pretty quick.
As the first quarter ended I had something happen that had never happened to me ever at a sporting event. In my 40 years of life I have probably been to 1,000+ pro or college sporting events. Not to mention I have been to about 150 King's game since moving to SacTown in 1991. We were in row L. Nobody was in any row between about D and L. I suspect those were the $45 seats and nobody felt it worthwhile to pay for. Thus there were people in the first few rows of the upper deck and then nobody until our row. The usher came up and asked me for my ticket. I thought we must have sat in the wrong seats but no we didn't. He then asked the nice family behind us for their tickets. They said, "you already checked our tickets." He said, "let me see them again." I said, loudly, "ya, we are all sneaking into row L in section 211!" Seriously, the lower bowl is about half empty so if I was going to sneak anywhere it wouldn't be to 211 would it!? I found this ticket thing offensive. Had he asked again I would have asked for his supervisor and his supervisor would have gotten an ear full!
The game was uneventful but luckily the ice cream guy came around mid-second quarter. We got a pack of the Dibs which the boys consumed in about 24 seconds! I was allowed ONE Dib and only after many threats by me!
The boys told me they were tired. The King's were down 25 or 30. Then it was halftime. Oh I forgot about the misunderstanding at the ticket office. Ok, as the lady was processing the credit card a nicely dressed man, about 30 years old, comes up behind me. He was a little too friendly but asked if they still had tickets. I assured him they had plenty! He asked "are you here for the cheerleaders?" I replied, "no, I am here for the basketball." Sure, I am a guy and I am happy to look at attractive women but I don't like ogling and the cheerleaders at Arco are pretty trashy looking to me. After a split second of thought, I then added something like, "I'll look at the cheerleaders when they perform...." I wanted to validate my man card. I am not some prude or something. Ok, well it turns out the halftime show was a group of YOUNG cheerleaders. At least 100 of them. I would say junior high and high school. The misunderstanding could have been taken as I was only talking about LOOKING at the King's cheerleaders and I was NOT going to be ogling a bunch of kid cheerleaders. I just didn't know what cheerleaders he was talking about. It wasn't as bad a misunderstanding as it could have been....
The boys were bored, and didn't want to look at the girls at halftime, so we headed for the King's store. We spent a half hour there. I went in thinking $8 head bands or mini basketballs. I mean really I still have the $2 mini bat my gramps bought me at Dodger Stadium back about 1975. However, as we went through the store we found a rack of close out jersey's; mostly Brad Miller's... hmmmmm, I wonder if he is almost gone!? $18 for the gold jersey and that's what my dude wanted so I let him have it. What the heck!? You figure with $10 for dinner, $10 to park, $75 for tickets, $10 for junk food, we were easily over $100 already so what's another $18 for something my dude might actually wear!? Plus, when he wears something he wears it EVERY DAY for 6 months straight! My nephew didn't want a jersey and finally settled on a pack of old King's basketball cards. Ten bucks for about 50 cards.
Mostly 1990's and 2000's but also an '88, or so, Hoop's Rory Sparrow. You know the same cards I have given to Goodwill 100 times over because I have too many of them! Instead I paid ten bucks to buy them. Oh well!We headed to the car. It was now 3rd quarter. The parking lot at Arco was dark and there was no security to be seen. I would say they need to fund a little more money toward security. I paid ten bucks to park my rig. The last thing I want to do is get mugged on the way to my car. Just my two cents on that.
We headed home. I thought about a post game ice cream but opted out. I don't know about you but I still remember stopping at Apple Pan, on Pico, with my dad after a UCLA football game... back when they played at night at the Colisieum! Oh ya, the slumber party was still going full bore so NOBODY under age 11 wanted to sleep. Long night and early morning. However, the good news is my dude woke up with his Brad Miller jersey on and is still wearing it right now. I bet he wears it to school tomorrow too! I already got eighteen dollars of value out of it!
peace out.
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