Do you still enjoy attending games?

My sports attendance is hit or miss. I would never go to an NFL game, and Red Sox games are above my pay grade these days. Go to the occasional Bruins game and college hockey games as my BU alum kids can get cheap, well, cheaper tickets. There's Cape League baseball and a semi-pro team in my suburb I check out. It's pass-the-hat for admission to both of those.

 

Bronco-
When I covered NFL I saw people getting tanked at 10 a.m. for a 4 p.m. kick.
That isn't going to end well. Then you get to share a road with them on the way home.
It is the NYE/St. Patrick's Day taxonomy of drinker- unable to have fun with it and unable to stop.

I am stunned anyone pays good coin for a gameday experience as great as the home one has become.

 

In order of preference:

Hockey--will go any time -- just a great in person experience

Basketball -- college and pro -- also enjoy in person. How skilled these folks are, especially the pros, is pretty impressive and evident in person.

College football -- enjoy the pageantry and pre-game, the people watching in the stands, would rather watch the actual game on TV--better viewing experience.

Football (pro) --- go once every couple years -- personally prefer the experience from the couch surfing multiple games than sitting at one.

Baseball -- go when I get comped tickets through work. Often that might be in a suite, which isn't watching a game at all, but more like attending a party with a live baseball game in the background. Too slow and boring overall for me--know that goes against the grain of the baseball populists on this site.

 

I forgot one thing. Have gone to a couple of Harvard football games. Tailgating is fun, and except for the Yale game every other year, tickets are easy to get. Spent $20 for a seat on the 45-yard line.

 

Completely agree about baseball. The last few times I've gone have been for work and have basically been parties in a suite and when I walked out of the stadium I had no idea who won the game, much less what happened. I would never think of doing that at a NFL, NBA, NHL or college football or basketball game. I'm convinced that covering baseball ruined the sport for me. I liked it until I covered it and have struggled with it ever since and didn't have the same problem with basketball or football.

 

Is that the one where people get run over by U-Haul trucks?

 

Will go to a game pretty much anytime I can afford it. But while my favorite sport is pro football, it's my least favorite to attend. Just too much of a pain in the ass, too hot, and too many drunkards. I usually hit one game a year. Love watching hockey live, and go see the local MLB team whenever we get a deal on tickets. Actually went to see my alma mater play in the women's tournament this weekend and really enjoyed it. Spring training is the best of the bunch.

 

Being chained to the desk, I'm not nearly as jaded as all of you are. That said, driving to watch my favorite team play several hours away is fun once a year or so but I don't know if I'd be bothered to spend that type of money to meld with that madhouse in the breezeway more often than that.

 

It depended on the sport when I was still in the sports business. As I get older, the whole crowds thing is starting to bother me a bit. I just don't like being herded in and out of a facility like cattle.

• A city with a MLB team or a cool minor league park, you betcha. My wife and I went to see the Asheville Tourists at historic McCormick Field (it had a cameo in Bull Durham as the place where Crash Davis ended his career) and it was one of the best experiences I've ever had a ballpark. It was like a baseball time machine.
• College football to me is such a hassle. Just go to my alma mater's stadium requires an hour in traffic to get in, an hour to get out and that's riding a shuttle bus from the mall. On top of paying $50 for tickets in the nosebleeds and having to get a hotel, I'll pass. I love going back to campus, but it's such a pain that it makes it almost not worth it. Even the annual free scrimmage that I attended every year is becoming less and less of a priority.
• The NBA is a no go. I haven't been to a game in 10 years and don't see myself going back. I guess everyone who attends games there is deaf, because the speakers booming out music during play tended to drive me batty. The last time I was at a game, my ears rung for two days afterwards from the booming music.
• The NFL is better on TV. I've gone to plenty of New Orleans Saints games in the Superdome and it's a pain to park and expensive to boot. It's nice to be able to say you caught some great game in person, but on TV, it's just better to me. As an aside, I was at the miserable game when Mike Ditka flipped off the booing crowd.

 

I did make a point to go to Yankee Stadium in 2008 before it shut down. Not really interested in flying back out there for the new stadium unless we're going to New York anyway

 

Hockey is about a million times better in person than on TV.

 

I still enjoy it. As much as I soured on the business of sports journalism and left it a few years ago, the sports are what drew me to that career and I still love watching them (though far less frequently than when I was single and childless).

I'll go to just about any baseball game at any level. At worst, you get to enjoy a nice day at the ballpark with, presumably, good company. If it's at a stadium with cold beer and good feed, so much the better. And if happen to get a great game, it's fantastic. Baseball is naturally more affordable than the other sports as well, which is nice.

The same is probably true of any hockey game. It's just a great sport to watch live.

My uncle has season tickets, so I've been to a bunch of NFL games, and I've been lucky that all but maybe one or two were very good games. I have fun when I go, but it's just not as good of an experience as it is to watch a game from home.

I enjoy going to college hoops games, though I hate that they've followed the NBA by pumping up the volume to 11. Makes it hard to talk to someone a couple seats down from you and, having just brought my son to his first game in December, it was a bit much for him to tolerate. He did great and enjoyed the game, but it took him a while to get used to the noise.

NBA games don't hold much interest to me anymore. I've said I won't go to MSG until Dolan is out, but that probably won't ever happen. I'm sure I'll take my kid to a Knicks game at some point, but not until they're worth watching, or he begs to go.

Golf isn't a great spectator sport, but it's cool to be able to get really close to the pros and marvel at their ball striking. And that's one sport where the women's game is fun to watch in person as well.

And seeing the Ironman World Championships in person is a helluva thing.