Arrowhead Adventures! A Ticket’s Life!
I got called up to the front of our office today, the Fed Ex man wanted to talk to me! That can only mean one thing to an Arrowhead Addict; my tickets are here!
Not my KC tickets, but the tickets to the Chiefs – Rams game this year in St Louis. Not as cool, but damn close. For me this means one thing…..the 2010 NFL season has officially started.
Ticket acquisition and subsequent endless examinations are for me, an important part of the total NFL experience.
Season ticket acquisition for me means countless studies of the Arrowhead seating chart, number crunching so that my budget will allow it, negotiations with the KC Chiefs ticket agents, and calls or emails to my game day buddies announcing that they have been chosen to sit by me in the second row of Arrowhead Stadium to rally the Chiefs to victory, and report and photograph our game day experiences to Arrowhead Addict.com.
As I look at these tickets that have, to my coworkers annoyed glances and apathetic stares, made the rounds of the cubicle farm here at work, I think about the journey they will take with me in the 2010 season. These tickets are going for quite a ride, I hope they can handle it.
I’ll put them in my safety deposit box tomorrow in order to thwart thieves, even though I’d have trouble giving them away, then show up at the front desk next week with my safety deposit box key in hand, I’m sure I’ll need to verify they are indeed the tickets I ordered, and show them around the bank to the customers and tellers while I’m there.
The process will likely be repeated multiple times, until finally, in mid December, they will see the light of day for a brief moment before being stuffed in the pocket of my Ed Hardy’s for the short trip home.
“Yeah I’m holding them now” I’ll tell Gary Minkler that Friday when he calls, then I’ll put them in a little baggie just the right size to keep them dry from any rain, snow, or perspiration that might threaten their usability.
They will be the subject of approx four to five frantic searches to verify I didn’t leave them at home on the ride to St. Louis, then Gary and I will divide them up, and grasp them tightly in our fists as we make the walk from the parking lot to the Edward Jones Dome. We will stop multiple times to compare them with the treasured tickets held by other fans along the way.
It will hit me about fifty people away from the guy that pats you down at the entry gate that I didn’t buy these from an official source, so I’ll have a weird feeling in my stomach that they might be fake. That feeling will sweep away like an ocean wave when I hear the beep from the ticket scanner, and Gary and I will run toward the common area, then gasp at he enormity of the Dome when the countless blue seats are finally revealed to us.
The tickets might make an appearance or two during the game when suspicious ushers ask to see our tickets for the first level, and we will act confused when we are told we are in the upper most section rather than field level, and awkward apologies will be offered as we drop our heads and head back up to the top of the arena.
As rough as the life of those St Louis tickets will be, it shall be no picnic for the Arrowhead tickets either.
One poor KC ticket will be left at home, never to see the stadium again.
Another ticket next year will give us both quite a scare, as it blows underneath huge a Red and Gold RV parked on One Arrowhead Way. The tailgater who looks under it from the other side will see a backwards KC hat on top of my ancient set of prescription Wayfarers, inching beneath hot exhausts, stretching my outreached mitt to within inches before it blows into the tailgaters welcoming hands.
Most of those tickets will smell the freshly made cheddar at Osceola Cheese, and will wait patiently in my pocket as I cram cheese samples down my gullet, and jokingly try and convince the pretty 55 year old with the braided brunette hair to come with us again this year, and some will share the pocket their in with a half melted snickers bar.
As excited as those St Louis tickets were to see the inside of the dome, their experience won’t even compare to the sight of the players running onto the field from the tunnel as my tickets and I sit breathless on the second row of Arrowhead and feel the warm rush of Arrowhead excitement sweep through our bodies like a drug.
They will probably come back out in the car a couple of times on the way home as we review the game highlights, critique coaching decisions, and evaluate post season prospects for our beloved army of red and gold.
Most of the 2010 tickets will end up in a shoe box to be sifted through in the summer of 2011, each one will be held up and tell me about games I played, food I ate, people I met, and games we won.
As tough as the NFL season will be on those tickets, it will be even tougher on the tailgater wearing my clothes and driving my car, but I am ready.
What about it Addicts? What are your tickets and your TV remotes gonna be put through in the 2010 season?!?