![\"grizzlies](\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2095\/2048937517_6c805f46d3.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nIt only took me three years, but I finally made it to a Grizzlies game tonight. <\/p>\n
We bought the $5 nosebleed tickets (next cheapest were $18 apiece … um, as if) and threw a grappling hook over a beam and climbed our way all the way to the top of the Forum. <\/p>\n
Even the crappy seats aren’t all that bad, though. The Forum isn’t that huge. And yet, they can’t fill it up. I actually started feeling bad for the Grizzlies when I saw all the empty seats. (It filled up steadily over the course of the game, though, so it wasn’t too dismal.) And then I remembered the price levels of the tickets and my pity melted away into absent daydreaming about a better way to sell tickets in Memphis. <\/p>\n
(Like, wouldn’t it be cool if, on game day, they reduced the price of all the leftover tickets by, hell, $5 or $10, just to see if they could get a packed house in there? It’s an imperfect idea, so don’t go telling me all the ways it sucks. I was just daydreaming, sheesh.)<\/p>\n
And then, as I was leafing through the game booklet, it occurred to me (again, since this thought hit me the other day when a Grizzlies MATA bus passed me) how nice their graphic design<\/a> is this year. I don’t know if they had the tri-color geometric lines thing going last year, but I’m digging it. I think the bear head is a good logo anyway, and the colors are nice (yellow plus two tones of muted blue). But the tri-color lines, dude. Dig. Them. <\/p>\n So, yeah, about the game. Um, it was exciting. There were dunks and layups and free throws and T-shirt cannons! I fantasized about Pau Gasol getting an effing haircut, and squirmed in my seat when I realized how cute Juan Carlos Navarro is. I yelled things (“Get it, Headband<\/a>!”) and kvetched at the children dancing inappropriately during halftime because I am eighty. The Griz won, which my super-sleuthing abilities lead me to believe is something rare and magical. <\/p>\n Man, $5. I’ll be back. <\/p>\n