I love sports and love attending professional sporting events. I’ve been to an MLB game in San Francisco, 5 NFL games (Minnesota and LA), CFL games in Winnipeg and Montreal and obviously NHL with the Jets here at home in Winnipeg. I have always wanted to go to a Toronto Raptors game but haven’t gotten around to it. So, when we were planning our trip to Chicago, I knew that attending a Chicago Bulls game was a must. The Bulls are one of the most famous franchises in the NBA, so despite a mediocre season for them, I knew it'd still be good.
The Chicago Bulls share the United Center with the Chicago Blackhawks. Despite being one of the older NBA arenas in the country, the arena didn’t feel too old, and was kind of nice. The United Center is also the largest arena in terms of shear size in the USA. We sat in the 300’s but near half court. The seats were cheap but the view was great, but like all arenas, there isn’t a ton of room. Anyways, after taxes and fees, the tickets cost us $75 CAD a person. Not only were the seats cheap but the fan gear was too. I didn’t get a chance to buy any Bulls gear before heading to Chicago, and on game day Target was sold out. I settled for a Jordan hoody and a Bulls hat which I bought in one of the stores at the arena. There was a wide variety of fan gear and it was all reasonably priced. After I bought the hat, I even found discounted jerseys, wishing I would have noticed them earlier. But like all professional sports games, the food and drinks were pricey. Oh well, c’est la vie.
Asides from the expensive beer, it was a fun night at a reasonable price. Part of the reason was because of the Bulls’ mediocre season and also who they were playing, The Wizards. Despite being one of the worst teams in the league, it was one hell of a game. The Bulls found themselves in an early slump, down 15-0 in the first quarter. Towards the end of the first they started to slowly find some rhythm. By the end of the second it was a close game, but they were still down. Then throughout the 3rd quarter the Bulls fought towards a tie and eventually tying it up on a number of occasions. And once or twice in the 4th they took a lead. But being down so bad early, coupled with the turnovers was too much to overcome. Despite the close loss, the game was wild. The comeback and the back in fourth kept the fans on the edge of our seats. Like I said, it was my first NBA game and it was a lot of fun. The amount of points scored in the NBA, coupled with the shear size of the players makes for an exciting experience. It was a lot of fun seeing vintage Andre Drummond come off the bench and score a double-double and accumulate a couple of blocks too.
I went to the game with my fiancé and baby and we all had a lot of fun. The baby was enjoying, to see the video click here, until she fell asleep. The fiancé had been to a Raptors game before too and said this game was even more fun. Besides being a good game, the atmosphere was lively and there was a lot of interaction with the fans, including trivia, fan races through the stands and so forth. I even won an order of wings from Wing Stop, which I never got a chance to try out. The music selection was good and got the fans going; but it was a bit loud for the baby. Luckily, we brought her ear muffs and she cooperated enough to keep them on most of the time when it was loud. It was also easy to bring in our diaper bag and there was no hassle with security. We also checked the stroller in which was a breeze and didn't take more than a minute to get it when we were leaving.
Chicago is easy to get around and it was easy to get to there. We bought a day pass for the CTA and the trains and busses were included. We took two busses to the United Center on a smooth route. The way home was a bit different, tons of people waiting for the bus, but at least they had charter buses brining the fans back downtown. The only problem was that it was raining. We were soaked but luckily, we brought the plastic stroller cover and kept our baby warm and dry.
Overall, it was a reasonably priced and amazing experience. Chicago was a lot of fun and attending my first NBA game added to the experience. The game was exciting and the arena was nice. I’ll definitely go to another NBA game, and if I’m back in Chicago I’d go to another Bulls game.
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