The Roger’s Cup was held this week at the Rexall Centre at York University.  It was the men coming to Toronto this year. Sonia had premium VIP tickets to go see some of the action on Tuesday but had to decline at the last minute because O.G. was going through the midst of a strept throat incident. Tuesday was reserved instead for picking up antibiotics and nursing our little one back to health.
Not to be swayed, Sonia worked the web to get 2 tickets to the early session on Friday. 1st row of the bronze (section 136) for somewhere approx $70 a seat. With these tickets there was a good chance that Nadal or Federer would be playing.
It turns out that I was to be the holder of ticket #2 – so with Grandma willing to babysit, we journeyed to York to watch some tennis action.
Due to stupid T.O. traffic, we didn’t make it there until after the noon hr so we missed the 1st match in its entirety. We were early enough however to be able to walk around the grounds and check out the booths/promotions/eating facilities. If you’ve ever been to a golf or tennis event you’ll know what I mean: the grounds are kind of like a temporary village and shopping mall where the corp sponsors peddle their wares for outrageous prices. There are deals to be had but you have to look very hard. And the $$ of the food is ridiculous: 6 bucks for a hotdog. 4.50 for a BOTTLE OF WATER!!! We were able to find what we thought was the best deal: A chicken nacho salad for $10 – and it was large enough for one salad to satisfy us both.
Fortunately I had my Amex card which allowed us access to the AMEX VIP lounge where we could drink free (yes free) water and eat free (yes free) snacks. No alcohol but for a couple of normal non-VIP access attendees, that ain’t bad.
We did catch some of the tennis: Andy Murray vs Jerko Niemenin – one a young British hopeful, the other a tour lifer. The match played out the entire 3 sets so I kind of felt that I got my money’s worth. I’ve seen matches complete within 1 hr so I was hoping for at least a 2hr match which this one turned out to be with Murray taking it in the end.
After the match – instead of watching some doubles (which doesn’t really interest me), we walked around the grounds and took in the atmosphere. We went to the grandstand (the other, smaller court) and watched a few points of another doubles match after unsuccessfully finding an outer court where there were some big names practicing. Admittedly, in such a small arena it is very interesting to watch these pros play up-close and pick up some hitting tips.
The atmosphere got to us and we rationalized a reason to purchase 2 more tickets for the night session to watch number 1 Federer play young phenom (yet unseeded) Xavier Malisse. With the blessing of Grandma we hung around to watch the highlight match. Since Nadal was eliminated the day before, the day session didn’t hold any famous or exciting players so we felt a little bit cheated. With the night tickets we were guaranteed to see a star….even though we were up in the nose-bleeds. But the nose-bleeds at a tennis stadium are not really that bad — nor are they cheap! We paid roughly the same for these tickets as we did for the very respectable seats we had earlier that day.
The match was excellent although we did have to leave before it completed. It was clear that Federer was going to prevail even though he was taken to a 3rd set.
Some tips when going to these events:
1) Bring your own water and food
2) Try to score corporate seats – allows you to get the best seat in the house as well as some complimentary food and drink in the VIP lounges
3) Bring a sweater in case you do end up sitting in the rafters. That wind blows up there and you’re not protected! Even though it’s a beautiful sunny day it can get chilly up there at night.