Popular Post TrinityRoadSteps Posted August 11, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted August 11, 2015 This year my holiday takes me to Dallas and it would be rude not to indulge in a bit of sport while there. I will be in Texas from 9th-19th October so no baseball this time (unless Texas Rangers go on a massive run and make the post season) but luckily still plenty of choice. After looking at fixtures and trying to fit it all in to my planned itinerary I have decided to stay in Dallas for sport. So my first game will be Cowboys v Patriots on Sunday 11 Oct. Tickets for this aren't cheap at all so have had to settle for tickets up in the gods. But looking at a few seat review websites the views still look good. I will be finalising the tickets next week but it looks like I will be in section 410 and the two tickets will set me back around $500. Next up will be on Tuesday 13th and a visit to the American Airlines Arena for a bit of NHL action. Dallas Stars v Edmonton Oilers. Much more affordable this one and the two tickets for section 328 have come to $110 Finally I will be dipping my toe into the MLS for the first time with a visit to FC Dallas v Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday 14th. Currently both teams riding high in the standings so should be a decent game. Two tickets in section 108 in the west stand have set me back $90. I could have gone to Texas v Oklahoma football on the Saturday or a couple of other college football games in the area or gone to Houston for NFL or MLS but have decided on those three games. Hopefully will be a good experience and three enjoyable games. Will report back with some pics after the events 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tegis Posted August 12, 2015 VT Supporter Share Posted August 12, 2015 Sounds fantastic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 Enjoy yourself! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted August 22, 2015 Share Posted August 22, 2015 Wear a big foam cowboy hat just to piss off the guy behind you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrinityRoadSteps Posted August 22, 2015 Author Share Posted August 22, 2015 Wear a big foam cowboy hat just to piss off the guy behind you I assumed that everyone would be wearing those anyway 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrinityRoadSteps Posted October 10, 2015 Author Share Posted October 10, 2015 (edited) Well. Here I am in Arlington. And to make matters worse the flight from New Yoik had a fair few Patriot fans on it. So that was nice Roll on Sunday! Although with Rangers going 2-0 in the series against Toronto it looks like my hopes of attending my first baseball post season game are diminishing Edited October 10, 2015 by TrinityRoadSteps 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 Can you get me a job with British Rail? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrinityRoadSteps Posted October 10, 2015 Author Share Posted October 10, 2015 Can you get me a job with British Rail?Sure. Might need a time machine though. What you wanna do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maqroll Posted October 10, 2015 Share Posted October 10, 2015 Go to ballgames all over the place Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrinityRoadSteps Posted October 12, 2015 Author Share Posted October 12, 2015 One down three to go. Cowboys 6-30 Patriots (uuurgghhhh)First off, the stadium. Without a doubt the best sports stadium I have ever been to. Breathtaking. The one thing I always notice about sports in America is how loud everything is. Even walking up to the stadium everywhere is noisy. Music from the tailgaters. Fans whooping and hollering!. A general air of atmosphere. It doesn't stop inside the stadium either. A constant cacophony. Compare that to the trudge up to Villa Park from Aston station!!The stadium is massive. Absolutely massive. But easy to navigate around. Everywhere is well signposted and the concourses are wide and spacious. Entry was made simple due to having the tickets on my phone so no turnstile as such just a guy with a scanner. We did have to pass through a metal detection before entering though.Once inside it was easy to find our section even way up in the gods. (Thank McGrath for escalators) The club shop was huge and well stocked. I picked up a Cowboys Nike polo shirt and the obligatory cheerleader calendar!Our seats were in section 416 which were pretty much level with the left hand goal line on the Cowboys side. Wonderful view of the action even though a long way up. You could always watch the action on the jumbotron if you wanted to. And when I say Jumbo I mean Jumbo. It's 60 yards long!! and dominates the scene.The game itself went pretty much as expected with the Patriots easy winners. The Dallas D showed up first half with 5 sacks but offensively they were terrible. I'm glad I am not a Cowboys fan that was going all that way to see their first game! Despite them being terrible the crowd didn't really show their frustration too much. I think they were just resigned to a beating.The official attendance was given as 93,054 which is the largest crowd I have been in since the days of 100,000 crowds at WembleyAll in all an amazing start to my sporting events. This afternoon at 3 it's round two with Game 4 of the ALDS. Texas Rangers v Toronto BlueJays. Which will be fun in 95 degree heat! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrinityRoadSteps Posted October 12, 2015 Author Share Posted October 12, 2015 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrinityRoadSteps Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 (edited) Game two. And this time its my first experience of a baseball post season game. Texas Rangers v Toronto BlueJays. Texas won the first two games in Toronto and last night the BlueJays ensured there would be a game four with a 5-1 win. It was hot. Very hot. Very very hot. So much so that we had to move from our booked seats to a part of the stadium with some shade. The game was effectively over after just three innings as Toronto leapt into a 7-0 lead. Rangers made a half hearted attempt at a come back but to no avail and the game ended 8-4 Toronto. So my status as a bad luck charm for the home teams so far continues. The stadium was big as baseball stadiums go. Capacity of just over 49,000. The crowd was announced as 47,679 but it didn't look that full to me. Don't know if the afternoon start on a holiday Monday made a difference but I would have expected a sell out for a game 4. Enjoyable enough game all in all and the crowd were enthusiastic. And I know you are all wondering who won the 7th inning dot race so I can confirm it was won by the red dot!!!! Game 5 is in Toronto on Wednesday and all the momentum is now with the Canadians. Toronto become the first team I have seen play twice. I have now visited 7 MLB stadiums and watched 13 teams in action in those 7 games Tomorrow is another day and another sport. Dallas Stars v Edmonton Oilers Ice Hockey. I hope for the Stars sake my home team jinx comes to an end Edited October 13, 2015 by TrinityRoadSteps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leviramsey Posted October 13, 2015 VT Supporter Share Posted October 13, 2015 Wouldn't surprise me if a lot of those 49k were watching from the concourses under the stands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrinityRoadSteps Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 Wouldn't surprise me if a lot of those 49k were watching from the concourses under the stands.Was certainly hot enough to think some would have. Many of the people in the section we moved to had also moved because of heat when sitting in direct sun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrinityRoadSteps Posted October 14, 2015 Author Share Posted October 14, 2015 On to tonights game. Dallas Stars v Edmonton Oilers. It was NHL ice hockey that first got me into American Sports when I visited New York in 2002 and watched The New York Rangers at MSG. I hadn't been to an Ice Hockey game since Feb 2008 so was nice to get back into the NHL groove. 16265 fans watched tonights game and The Stars eventually scraped out a 4-2 win. Leading 2-0 half way through the 2nd and seemingly cruising they let The Oilers back into it with two quickfire goals. 2-2 going into the final period and with the home fans starting to get restless with some sloppy play The Stars finally retook the lead with just under 5 mins left. An empty netter late on completed the scoring. Jason Spezza completing his hat-trick The American Airlines Centre is a pretty modern arena and has decent sightines and comfy padded seats. The home fans were enthusiastic but did start to moan a bit at 2-2. There were around 100 or so Edmonton fans dotted around the arena After a 7 year absence it was great to get back into an NHL game again. And I enjoyed it immensely 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Nice! You going to a pre-season game for the Mavs? I'm hoping to get all 4 sports done in NY this week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrinityRoadSteps Posted October 14, 2015 Author Share Posted October 14, 2015 No. The one sport I can't get into is basketball. Never been to a game and never really thought about going to one. My last sports event of the holiday is tonight when I go to FC Dallas v Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelVilla Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 If Conor McDavid becomes that superstar that most people think he will be you can now say: - I watched the game when he scored his first NHL goal! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrinityRoadSteps Posted October 15, 2015 Author Share Posted October 15, 2015 My final port of call of Dallas sports was FC Dallas v Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS. My first experience of American "soccer" The game ended 2-0 to FCD and they also missed a penalty and had a late goal disallowed. The visitors had few chances but did hit the post. The standard, although nothing special, was OK. Nowhere near as physical or fast as we are used to but it was over 90 degrees at kick off. But it was a watchable game and I've certainly sat through worse games at Villa Park lately. The crowd was 11848 but enthusiastic and noisy. With small bands of fans at each end constantly singing and banging drums. So all in all I have had 4 very different sporting experiences in the last 4 days. All offered something enjoyable. My wife ranked the games as follows 1.Stars v Oliers 2 FC Dallas v Whitecaps 3 Cowboys v Patriots 4 Rangers v BlueJays Myself 1 Cowboys v Patriots 2 Stars v Oilers 3 FC Dallas v Whitecaps 4 Rangers v BlueJays 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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