I Don’t Think We’re in the Cheap Seats Anymore, Toto

In case you hadn’t noticed – I’m a big sports fan. Even better than that, I absolutely ADORE going to live sporting events. I am that nut who can (and has) stayed on a computer for HOURS to get tickets to a game (3 hours on a dial up connection for: Game 2 of the 2001 World Series, 5 tickets, Upper Bowl, $60 each). Hardly anything can beat a day game at the ballpark or a few hours at the rink. Being there just contributes to the love for sport.

However, BEING there can sometimes cost a pretty penny. You can usually break down ticket prices into two categories. You have “The Cheap Seats” (on average $6-$50 per person depending on your means). And “OMG YOU PAID WHAT?!?!” a.k.a “Club Level” (angling in the mid-high hundreds per person). Needless to say, Lenny and I usually sit in the Cheap Seats.

But every once in awhile, the sporting gods smile down upon us in the form of a “freebie.” This time, it was tickets to a Phoenix Coyotes hockey game won during a charity golf tournament by my father-in-law. Both Lenny and I grew up with hockey in our lives, thanks to that historic (and boneheaded) trade of Wayne Gretzky by the Edmonton Oilers to the L.A. Kings. With the Great One came hockey to the “sun belt.” Funny enough, he now coaches and partially owns our hometown team.

To date, this would be our third Coyotes game. Time and money haven’t always been our friends, despite our hockey love. We’d probably go to more Coyotes games – if the new arena wasn’t so damn far away! But free tickets are free tickets…and when Lenny found out they were primo Lexus Club Level seating, we were just a little bit more excited.

The Lexus Club Level at the Glendale Arena is the level that only the Arizona well to do can afford on a regular basis. Regular Joes like us can probably afford it as a rare treat (Think: Awesome birthday present!), but most of the time you pass by the entrance of this section wondering how the other half lives.

Boy...do they live nicely. Really nicely. Really. Nicely.

Now that I’ve had the opportunity to sit in the Club Level, I am a sport fan at conflict. The Cheap Seater in me is screaming “Traitor!” The Bourgeois Princess in me is going “How did I watch sports BEFORE THAT?!” I’m sure some of you are pretty much laughing at me right now, secure in the idea that I must be blowing this way out of proportion. It’s just not that simple. Let’s mull this over:

Ticket Prices: Cheap Seats
At the last hockey game we went to at the arena, I popped for seats behind the goal at $50 per person. We received the standard paper tickets.

Ticket Prices: Club Level
The Lexus Club Level seats were free this time. However, they retail for $175 each. We received a credit card like ticket that looks like a backstage pass!

Getting to Your Seats: Cheap Seats
Walk into arena, go through security. Locate seats via overhead signs that mark off each section of the arena. Hallways are usually tiled and crowded. Climb stairs if necessary if upper bowl seats are secured.

Getting to Your Seats: Club Level
Walk into arena, go through security. Take elevator up, enter the carpeted hallway that is decidedly less crowded. CHECK-IN at the club level table. There you receive your lanyard (to HANG you ticket around your neck) and a blue bracelet (usage to be determined later).

View: Cheap Seats
I think as long as you’re in the arena – ANY seat is a good seat! There are just variations in proximity and maybe a little obscured viewing higher up. But hey, if you miss something, there’s always the Jumbotron!
View: Club Level
Unobstructed view midway up the bowl. Far enough away from stray pucks. Not so far away that the players look like ants in an ant farm. You don’t miss a single play from this vantage point.

Food and Service: Cheap Seats
All sorts of stadium goodies! Candy, hot dogs, nachos, soda, etc. Of course, since you’re at a sporting event, you do expect to spend about $20-$25 for two on dinner. Then expect an additional $10-$15 on snacks. And that’s if you don’t drink. Food is taken back to your seats. In general, getting food requires getting up and getting into line with the majority (75%) of the attendance to retrieve it. Good luck with that in between periods of the game. Oh...there are a few monitors every 100 feet or so, that way you can catch a glimpse of the game.

Food and Service: Club Level
Holy crap…it looks like an upscale lounge! Tables, chair, bar stools all over so you can sit in a separate area from your regular seat. And so you don’t miss the game? LCD flat screen TVs. Five star cooking. The menu for the evening was a buffet of roasted pork, salmon and crab cakes with rice, dragon chicken, pasta salad, fruit plates, cheese plates, and a dessert bar. Someone from wait staff passes by every couple minutes asking if everything is okay. Add a soda to that meal and you could be at any downtown restaurant, not at a hockey game. And how much did it cost? Remember that blue bracelet? Blue bracelet = free food and non-alcoholic drinks.

Common Area: Cheap Seats
Concrete/tile concourses. Crowded, noisy, and a mass of humanity between play stoppages. You are guaranteed to brush against a person every 5 seconds. Sometimes, there are high top tables you can stand near if you want to hang-out and check out some of the other televised games.

Common Area: Club Level
Carpeted concourse. Decidedly less crowded. If you brush against someone – one of you has had too much to drink. Feel like you need a break from the game action? Have a seat in the comfy chairs that are set about in a living room setting around small coffee tables. Chat it up and watch the less fortunate mill around their common area from your second floor perch.

Restroom: Cheap Seats
Excessively long lines full of crying children and haggled mothers. When you finally get in there – good luck finding a clean stall that locks.

Restroom: Club Level
Hotel style public restroom with private cubicles instead of stalls. Shuttered doors with real locks! There’s even an attendant who apparently checks all the stalls every half hour for cleanliness! Ran in there with a full bladder fully expecting to do the “I Reallllly Gotta Go” dance. But it was half empty! Even the kids that were in there were quiet.

Final Verdict
Basically – all seats are the same. It’s the little things that make it different! While I enjoyed getting pampered and served in the Lexus Club Level and probably would do it again if the opportunity came up; I completely missed the buzz of being part of the general crowd! I like good food – but I missed my hot dog, pretzel, and nachos!

Oh…and the people around you in the cheap seats are always highly entertaining. You never know who you’re going to strike up a conversation with or who’s going to get tossed out for being drunk. In the Club Level – it felt like a corporate Happy Hour – except instead of office casual, it was hockey formal with jerseys everywhere.

In the end – you spend the same money anyway. Just spend it someplace that will make you enjoy the experience even more!