Man U - by Kyle

I think this is my third blog contribution in 18 months, but I had a cool experience this week.

Work took me to Manchester in the UK for a few days and it happened that my trip also fell on a Manchester United home game. My co-worker arranged for us to have tickets and we set off for the game and my first ever professional football match. They played Wolverhampton (Wolves) in a third round Carling Cup match. This is one of several cups that English football (football=soccer) teams play in and Man U is the defending champ. The lesser opponent and the lower prestige of this championship led Man U to play the “B” team. However, I could only name one player before the game so it did not matter to me.

Man U won the match 1-0 on a goal in the 66th minute. This was significant because they allow gambling in the stadium (think U.S. horse races). I placed a bet of 10 pounds on Man U to win 1-0 and the bet paid 5/1. Thus, I paid for my ticket thanks to a little luck! This was an extremely memorable experience and one I would love to do again.

A few other observations:

• As I mentioned above, they allow gambling at the stadium. It is quite a fascinating situation to be at a game where gambling is embraced. U.S. sports pretend to hate gambling (like the NFL) but they secretly encourage it because it drives up fan interest and increases revenues. Imagine how many of you would not care about the NFL if they made Fantasy Football illegal.
• There were 51,000 people at the match on a Wednesday night. Not close to full ( about 70,000), but still impressive.
• There are no jumbotrons. Everyone is there for the game – not for the cheerleaders, piped in music or anything like that. No one leaves their seats during the 45 minute halves.
  The opposing team’s fans were given their own section at the top of the stadium and that section was partitioned off by about 25 police officers. Can you imagine needing to separate or have police officers separate Aggies and Longhorns everywhere you went (work, church, etc)? Of course, it might be helpful to have more police officers around for Tx Tech fans so they do not shove goalposts into visiting sections.
• I was amazed at how difficult it was for the players to get close to the goal with the ball. The game has a real flow but, despite the size of the field, it is quite difficult to get close enough for a decent shot. The players are fast and constantly challenging the player with the ball. It is much easier to score on FIFA 09 for the Wii!