Posts Tagged ‘Concierge Services’
Holidays in the Usa – a Sports Extravaganza
Andy Adams asked:
They say that they do everything bigger over in the good old United States of America; buildings, technology and even food (leading to bigger waistlines too). This fact can be attributed to their sports too. American sports are popular all over the world not just for the average Joe American.
Major sports such as American Football, Baseball and Basketball games are syndicated all round the world for fans to watch on TV. But nothing quite beats being there in person, cheering with the crowd, taking in the electric atmosphere. Many British holidaymakers are timing their holidays with sporting events in the States so that they can add a bit of variety to their holidays.
There’s plenty of regular season games for all the big four (Basketball, Baseball, Football and Hockey) and tickets are rather easy to get hold of, with many arenas and clubs using online booking systems such as Ticketmaster so you can get your tickets sorted early.
In other cases most hotels’ concierge services have connections to the stadiums and may be able to pull a few strings for visitors looking to make the most of their holidays.
One point to be careful of is ticket touts, yes these vultures exist stateside too, and prey upon impressionable tourists, my advice is to stay clear, it isn’t uncommon for tickets to be fakes or getting a child’s ticket instead of an adult’s one. After all you didn’t come thousands of miles to get swindled.
The main attraction of American sports is how much effort and style goes into their big events, the Football has Superbowl, a national treasure in itself. American football is as popular (possibly even more) than football, sorry, I mean soccer, is in the UK.
This is the ultimate in sporting entertainment with fireworks a plenty, pulse pounding action and the halftime shows. The halftime shows are like an arena concert unto themselves, with past performers such as Prince, Paul McCartney and the infamous Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake incident! This year Superbowl XLII is going to be taking place in Phoenix, Arizona and is in March.
The NBA basketball goes above and beyond Superbowl with not only an All-Star game but an entire weekend devoted to the festivities. Apart form the game itself showcasing the cream of it’s NBA basketball players there are other events such as a celebrity game (last year including names like The Green Mile’s Michael Clarke-Duncan and Oscar winner Jamie Foxx) and the high-flying Slam Dunk contest. Basketball is a growing sport over here in the UK and what better way to see the pros than getting to New Orleans for February the 17th.
These are just two stand out spectacles on offer, people that have gone on holidays to America and seen sporting events like these have had a great time, especially families. One activity I have done myself is visit the historic Madison Square Garden arena in New York which was due to host a boxing match between Lennox Lewis and Michael Grant in 2000, and whilst we were unlucky in trying to get tickets we were still able to get a great guided tour of the arena including trophy rooms, locker rooms and the Theatre upstairs that has hosted awards shows and events such as VH1’s Divas Live. Many arenas in the United States offer these tours normally during the day even whilst they’re setting up for events like the boxing match previously mentioned.
In general if you can get tickets good and early then you could easily add some interest and value to your holidays this year!
They say that they do everything bigger over in the good old United States of America; buildings, technology and even food (leading to bigger waistlines too). This fact can be attributed to their sports too. American sports are popular all over the world not just for the average Joe American.
Major sports such as American Football, Baseball and Basketball games are syndicated all round the world for fans to watch on TV. But nothing quite beats being there in person, cheering with the crowd, taking in the electric atmosphere. Many British holidaymakers are timing their holidays with sporting events in the States so that they can add a bit of variety to their holidays.
There’s plenty of regular season games for all the big four (Basketball, Baseball, Football and Hockey) and tickets are rather easy to get hold of, with many arenas and clubs using online booking systems such as Ticketmaster so you can get your tickets sorted early.
In other cases most hotels’ concierge services have connections to the stadiums and may be able to pull a few strings for visitors looking to make the most of their holidays.
One point to be careful of is ticket touts, yes these vultures exist stateside too, and prey upon impressionable tourists, my advice is to stay clear, it isn’t uncommon for tickets to be fakes or getting a child’s ticket instead of an adult’s one. After all you didn’t come thousands of miles to get swindled.
The main attraction of American sports is how much effort and style goes into their big events, the Football has Superbowl, a national treasure in itself. American football is as popular (possibly even more) than football, sorry, I mean soccer, is in the UK.
This is the ultimate in sporting entertainment with fireworks a plenty, pulse pounding action and the halftime shows. The halftime shows are like an arena concert unto themselves, with past performers such as Prince, Paul McCartney and the infamous Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake incident! This year Superbowl XLII is going to be taking place in Phoenix, Arizona and is in March.
The NBA basketball goes above and beyond Superbowl with not only an All-Star game but an entire weekend devoted to the festivities. Apart form the game itself showcasing the cream of it’s NBA basketball players there are other events such as a celebrity game (last year including names like The Green Mile’s Michael Clarke-Duncan and Oscar winner Jamie Foxx) and the high-flying Slam Dunk contest. Basketball is a growing sport over here in the UK and what better way to see the pros than getting to New Orleans for February the 17th.
These are just two stand out spectacles on offer, people that have gone on holidays to America and seen sporting events like these have had a great time, especially families. One activity I have done myself is visit the historic Madison Square Garden arena in New York which was due to host a boxing match between Lennox Lewis and Michael Grant in 2000, and whilst we were unlucky in trying to get tickets we were still able to get a great guided tour of the arena including trophy rooms, locker rooms and the Theatre upstairs that has hosted awards shows and events such as VH1’s Divas Live. Many arenas in the United States offer these tours normally during the day even whilst they’re setting up for events like the boxing match previously mentioned.
In general if you can get tickets good and early then you could easily add some interest and value to your holidays this year!