American Sport 3 You Must See

We are big fans of American sport and we even have our favourite teams that we follow, usually with plenty of heartache and disappointment.

Sadly none have delivered a title in at least 25 years.

Never the less we still support them and wear their colours. I was fortunate in my younger days to attend the odd game however we wanted to share the excitement, passion and entertainment with our kids.

And let’s face it (in our opinion) no country offers a more entertainment sports package than America.

Baseball

How best to spend a warm Southern Californian Sunday, at the baseball. This is one American sport that the whole family wanted to do.

We’ve supported the LA Dodgers for a long time, spent afternoons watching them on TV. Now we were finally heading to a game… Angels v Red Sox’s.

The Angels are LA’s other team, based in Orange County and only 15 minutes away, whereas Dodger stadium was over an hour and with traffic who knows how long it could have taken.

So the Angels it was.

Queuing can take up a bit of time as security is pretty tight but in general, everyone’s there to ensure you have a great time. We had great seats down the foul ball line, in the hope we could catch something.

With the singing of the national anthem complete we settled in for a great game.

One thing you realise from the start, you eat and drink lots if you are not careful.

With food vendors always walking up and down aisle calling out their various snacks, sometimes you are like ‘ok I’ll do it’.

However, there is nothing more fun than passing your money along the line of people, followed by the return of your food and change.

You never have to leave your seat.

The game keeps you entertained and if you miss anything there’s the big screen to watch the replays.

People around us loved to chat too, I think this was mainly because Sawyer was wearing a Mike Trout fish hat.

At the 7th innings stretch, we all linked arms and sang ‘take me out to the ballpark’ (we practised this on the drive there).

As the sunset and the game came to a close the night was completed with a 20-minute firework display which the kids loved.

Americans know how to put on a sporting event. Like baseball MLB teams have different promotional and themed nights over the season.

Always look on their website before booking as games are played frequently and this might help you select a day to go.

Tickets: These can start as little as $9 but I think you should pay a little more and sit where the action is. One American sport the whole family can enjoy.

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Ice Hockey

If there is one American sport to checkout, then Ice hockey is the way to go. It’s action-packed, full of excitement and lasts about an hour and a half. We are Vancouver Canucks supporters so when they visited Anaheim to play the Ducks at the Honda Centre, it was a must see.

The game itself is played at great speed, so there is very little rest time.

Depending on your seats you could be forgiven for feeling like you are part of the game, with the loud crack of the stick connecting with the puck or the players smashing each other against the glass.

Our seats were about halfway up but you still felt every hit. Though it can be a little challenging keeping pace with the puck as it flies around the ice you definitely know when a goal has been scored.

The loud blow of the foghorn and the flash of the lights especially when the home team score.

Between each 3rd we were entertained with the ice cheerleaders and t-shirts being fired from shirt guns into the crowd (we narrowly missed one).

Sadly it wasn’t the Canucks night going down in overtime but the night, the experience for the kids and the pace of the game all added to a great night out. 

If you fancy seeing a game at the Honda Centre there are certain nights where the Ducks have a variety of promotions and giveaways throughout the season.

Just check their promotional schedule. However I think every NHL team has these theme/promotion nights, just check their websites. Overall another great american sport for the family.

 

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American Football (NFL)

You’ve seen the heap on TV and now we had the opportunity to watch a game… in Arizona just a 6 hour drive away from Laguna Hills.

Mainly because our friends are 49ers supporters and arranged it for us. No worries a couple of nights in Phoenix will be great.

The build-up to an NFL is something to experience, cars with the boots open, gazebo’s setup all with food, drinks and great conversations flowing.

This is something special about this sport, an opportunity for friends and family to gather before kickoff.

As with many major sporting events security is pretty high so only small bags ladies, nothing over 11×16.5cm’s.

Once in and with our seats found, it then dawned on me the share size of the stadium. It felt massive (holds up to 78,000 people) and as our seats were around halfway up, the field seemed a long way away but that was ok.

Now, we watch a lot of NFL on TV but it’s not until you go to a game that you realise just how long it takes to play it.

With kids, there is plenty of walking around but the great thing is there’s also plenty of TV’s throughout the stadium so you never ready miss a play.

As with any America sport, it is entertainment driven for the fans. There is always something going on during timeouts and breaks between quarters.

While all the time scores from the other games played around the country consistently flash up.

One thing that totally blows us away was how friendly everyone was. Even though we were at a 49ers v Cardinals game there were so many people wearing different NFL team shirts.

Jazz had his Redskins shirt on and the number of people who high fived him saying ‘Redskins rock buddy’ was incredible.

It’s an atmosphere I’ve never experienced at a sporting venue before.

Very friendly! I think we constantly walked around with a smile on our faces.

Luckily for us, this turned out to be a cliffhanger game with the 49ers winning in the last 3 seconds, so lots of cheering and jumping around.

This is something we would recommend for the family as long as you are happy sharing your time between the game and going for walks with the kids.

Finally Thoughts

If you are coming to America then you must check out at least one game. You will not regret it! Los Angeles is a great place to grab a game with so many teams now based there.

American sports teams know how to entertain the fans as there is so much going on off the field as there is on it.

Prizes are pretty reasonable depending on the seats you purchase and how close you want to be to the action. If you are lucky, you might even pick a ‘game day’ where the fans are offered free souvenirs from bobble heads of players to commemorative coins… the list goes on.

 

 

Scott - 4 Degrees of Destination

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Hi, I've been fortunate enough to have travelled for over 25 years. My parents gave me the travel bug when I was 10 years old by taking my sister and I to the USA and Mexico for two months. I've travelled by myself, with mates, with my wife and now as a family of four. My goal is to inspire our families to get out and see the world.