United Center, Chicago, Illinois USA – Chicago Bulls host Washington Wizards – 15 Jan 2015 – NBA

Extreme laziness means I write this post nearly a good two months after visiting Chicago with work. Like when visiting Boston, I thought it important to break up business trip by watching another US sport. This time the NBA. The Chicago Bulls at the United Center.

Similar to when I went to see the Bruins play in Boston, I decided to go to this match quite late and had to get the tickets last minute. AGAIN, the tickets were cheaper when opting for ticket resale on http://www.ticketmaster.com. Two tickets set me back $76. On the cheap side in my opinion for a good evening out.

Unlike ice hockey, I do know the rules and have played basketball countless times. Side point – I am not good. But compared to my UK friends, I am a player! I say that being a mere 5’7″ and an important half. Point being Basketball is not commonly played in the UK.

When I was young and would watch basketball, the Bulls were the top team and had the likes of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Denis Rodman (who still always seems to pop up in my life’s news feed! For example http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/30/short-history-dennis-rodman-north-korea) cleaning up. All I wanted to do on the night was get a Bulls top with Jordan 23 on the back. Unfortunately there was no such offering. I could not actually (easily) find this anywhere in the city. Someone open a shop! There was a statue of Pippen inside the Center which didn’t in my opinion look anything like the man. Still, I found myself looking at the statue trying to remember Pippen actually playing. Funny it seems I remember him more as a Sega animation then a real person.

Winning ways

Anyway, I have veered of course massively. This time I made the national anthem. Lights dimmed, players in arms. As you would expect but overall not a memorable occasion and can understand why people don’t seem to mind missing it. I believe the singer was a former Xfactor contestant. Not much more to say here.

Before the game started, I found it hilarious that there was an actual DJ (turn tables and everything) on the court while the players were warming up. The atmosphere in general was very similar to the NHL. Lots of loud music, lots of people trying to get on the big screen, noise meters, etc. The big screen being something I probably watched equally as much as the game. The cheerleaders played a much less prominent roles than I expected and had hoped, doing their thing in one of the 3 in-between quarter breaks. In writing this post, it actually occurs to me that there is only 3 properbreaks in 4 quarter sports. You imagine there being 4. Or atleast I do. That is maths for you.

The other two breaks had much more entertaining events going on.

1. Dunk contest. What’s good about this was seeing the dunk attempts actually fail! And the reaction of the contenders.
2. A race by very weirdly dressed beings. Imagine bubble football kind of attire running laps in a tight space.

Spot the DJ

Worth mentioning I had the worst hotdog ever there. It was everything a hotdog should not be. Especially one from the US! Yes, I stereotype hotdogs. This was microwaved (atleast it tasted that way) and tiny. This time, though, I took my precious passport and was therfore able to have a beer with the hotdog! Offsets the dissatisfaction. Definitely.

In game action

My mate and I did leave the venue saying we were going to start following the Bulls because in reality the match was quite enjoyable and easy to take in. A father going to the match with his son overheard us speaking and told us we were coming to see the Bulls at a good time and for a good match. Both the Bulls and Wizards supposedly have good teams this year and therefore it was to be a good match. It was, but the Wizard’s came out on top. Writing this post I see that since then the Bulls have played the Wizards again AND won. That is the the most I have done in terms of following the NBA since I attending this game!

Camp Nou, Catalunya, Spain – Futbol Club Barcelona host Real Club Celta de Vigo – 1 Nov 2014 – La Liga

A quick Google search for ‘Barcelona’ returns a results list headed by the city’s football club instead of the city itself. The technicality of why this happens is more to do with the way Google Search Engine biases results based on links and popularity of content instead of a true understanding of what one is actually looking for. This being said, in this case, I find Google’s preference of the football club over the City relevant for the reasons shown this video http://www.theguardian.com/football/video/2012/nov/22/fc-barcelona-catalonia-independence-video.

més que un club

Walking towards the stadium, I was surprised by how modest it looks. It sits there almost invisible. The Camp Nou has near 100,000 seats (98,787 for stats sake) – I was expecting to see it from everywhere, towering above the surrounding area. It slowly comes into view and quickly disappears out of view as you leave the stadium. This was the first time I was going to watch FC Barcelona play at home, and the first time I was going to visit the stadium.

 

Tickets, sweet tickets

Up and close to the stadium, I absolutely loved the ticket collection gates. It felt like those stalls had been there since the beginning of time, and what goes on behind the windows is only known by the ticket officers. I was also surprised that a spur of the moment decision to buy tickets the week leading up to the match would be so easy, and so cheap (I bought two tickets for 83.00 € – including card fees). This shock was quickly explained at kickoff when I realised the stadium was not at capacity. In writing this article, I can check what the average capacity is at the Nou Camp. I probably would have been surprised had I seen this before the match agaisnt Celta de Vigo, but the 71,235 (taken from http://www.stadiumguide.com/figures-and-statistics/lists/europes-highest-attendances/) does not surprise me. Some logic and you can appreciate it being hard to fill a stadium that large week in, week out. For some reason, this doesn’t stand out on TV, but perhaps I just don’t pay attention to the empty seats when watching Barca on telly. I will keep a look out next time I watch them play a non-title challenging team.

The stadium itself is in a compound with surrounding walls. The difference between outside and inside the walls is night and day. I was taken aback by the modesty of the stadium from the outside. Sponsorship (for example, Qatar Airways was plastered everywhere), merchandise stores, restaurant franchises filled the inner walls, giving it a very ‘North American’ feeling. That was my first impression anyway and probably a consequence of the gate we came in through. Walking around the ground, towards our entry stall, the stadium darkened and the age of the stadium shone. Probably a reflection on me, but as a way of showing where my interests lay, I only took one photo of the area (I call it the commercial hub of the stadium)  we walked into but took about 10 of the age-old reflection of the stadium. One thing I absolutely loved were the badges of the different FC Barcelona supporters clubs that were plastered all around the stadium walls, just above the stalls.There must be 100s of them on display – I had never see anything like this before at any other stadium.

 

Barcelona Supporters Clubs

Our seats were literally on the top row (Boca GENERAL -547, Row 26, Seat 24). Climbing the stairs was similar to other older stadiums I have been to. I call them raw. They are the football stadium stairs. The serve one purpose – to get us in, high. Not to sell anything. There is an echo. They vibrate as you climb up. All of that that was there; you feel the stadium walking up there stairs. Camp Nou has that.

Getting to the top, I had a peak out in the direction of the city. We were high up, facing away from the sea and towards the mountain. This is the North stand or GOL NORD. I did some research before choosing north or south stand for my tickets. I wanted Barcelona to be attacking our way in the second half. I couldn’t find this information but from reading a couple of match reports, I guessed that Barcelona attacked this goal in the second half. In this case, I was right. I would be interested to know if this is always the case…(?).

It is fair to say that I have been in big football grounds before. I didn’t think the size of a stadium could surprise me the way Camp Nou did. The moment I went through boca 547 and could take in the sheer size of the stands, and the pitch in comparison; I was blown away. I couldn’t stop saying how big it was. I took countless pictures to try and capture what my brain was telling me it was seeing. Unbelievable. Looking at these pictures now, they don’t do it justice. You have to go there to appreciate it. I will share one shot in any case so you can see where we were sitting:

Porta 89, Boca 547, Fila 26

So, the match. Barcelona lost 1 nil. Suarez’s home debut; he could and should have scored. Barcelona were unlucky to not win, but Celta de Vigo didn’t deserve to lose. I won’t say more.

A few things that caught my attention in the build up to kickoff. There were a lot of non-Spanish and non-Catalan speaking people in the stand. There was a lot of English people there. In some sense, it makes sense, cheap football tickets and cheap flights means great holiday (my flight into Barcelona that morning cost me 30 Euros). No wonder I get all these last minute offers saying Barcelona flights + football match for £100. Interestingly also, there were very few ground staff and security where we were sitting; and beer purchased inside the stadium can be taken to the stands.

Now, it may very well be the stand that I was sitting in, but I found myself wondering where the atmosphere was. Where was that pre-match buz that hovers over football stadiums? That buzz that means ‘yes! My team are about to play, and I can’t wait’. In this particular match, there were 71468 people in the stadium. I have been to football grounds with 10 times less people and had a better atmosphere. The ground was quiet throughout the match. You can see from the picture above how high we were; it is not an exaggeration for me to say I could hear the Celta de Vigo players shouting orders at one another when defending a late second half free kick from a dangerous position. This is when Barcelona were chasing the match. Where is the intimidation – home advantage!

There was a small section of the stadium, directly behind GOL SUD, where Barcelona fans were chanting throughout but the sounds didnt traverse the stadium at all. Once or twice, it caught on and the other sections chanted ‘Barca, Barca…’ but it quickly faded. I have to admit, I didn’t chant once but I was, of course, supporting the underdog. My personal favourite moment was the sole Celta de Vigo fan who went loco when his team scored what was a very well taken goal. I loved the way everyone in our stand looked at his celebration in good humour and there was a lot of laughing going on afterwards.

On this one occasion, I would say the atmosphere was a let down. I intend to go again soon but will probably reverse my seating and try to be a bit closer to the pitch and perhaps closer to those noisy bunch behind GOL SUD (if that is where they always are!)

I do love the fact that the majority of seats in the stadium are uncovered. From my personal experience, it is not uncommon for the occasional storm to hit Barcelona. It would be interesting to be there on a rainy day.

The guy in the next picture didn’t move all match. I could feel his frustration without seeing his face.

One final thing, because leaving a stadium is always a massive pain, it is worth a comment. Getting out of Camp Nou was very quick and the stadium very quickly goes out of view.