Mavs!!!

This week has been pretty great so far.  We had an off-day Monday, half-day Tuesday, and have been done before 8 every other day.  AND we got to sit 2nd row at a Dallas Mavericks game on Tuesday night.  Let me tell you, there is quite an interesting story behind those seats.

First of all, I have always been kind of a closet Mavericks fan.  Whenever anyone asks who my team is, I just tell them I don't care for the NBA.  But really, all those years, I've been secretly loving the Dallas Mavericks.  And by the way, this was before Jason Kidd was signed and they won the Championship.

Anyways, Monday night, my teammates were telling me they found tickets about 11 rows up behind the Mavs bench for $60.  Well, I'm a cheapo, and even though they were about $100 cheaper than the original, I wasn't buying.  I would be perfectly content up in the nosebleeds with some binoculars.  The boys worked their magic, and negotiated the price to $50 a piece.  They also offered to pitch in so Ally and I only had to pay $40.  So we agreed.

We were to meet "Nancy" the next evening around 5:30 to make the switch.  Sounds more like a drug deal than a ticket purchase.  After arriving at the previously decided spot, we waited and waited at least 40 minutes when a pretty sketch man starts approaching our car.  Eventually, we discovered this man was the go-between between us and Nancy.  That should have been a pretty big warning sign, but we were too eager to get to the game.  Cash was exchanged, and the tickets were ours.

American Airlines Arena from our parking spot

As soon as we parked, I was able to grab a shot of the American Airlines Arena.  This place is massive, and it looks pretty sweet from the outside!

We walked across the street, up to the doors, unfolded our tickets, the beer and hot dogs are within reach and...

"I'm sorry, but these tickets have already been used."

WHAT?

Yeah, as you probably would have guessed from the Craigslist purchase, the sketch go-betweener, and the photocopied tickets, we had been scammed.  The best part is, only three of us six were scammed. This clever con had sold 12 tickets; six total seats he sold to twelve different people.  Funny thing is, there were other people sitting in the seats that myself, Ben and Aaron weren't able to use, and their friends hadn't come in time so Ally, Teddy and Max had used those tickets.

Needless to say, we were furious.  I knew this was a possibility, but seriously?  It's a Mavericks game on a Tuesday night.  Apparently we were dealing with some pretty desperate people.  We headed to ticketing, asked what we could do, and of course were pretty much told "You kids are idiots.  Why in the heck would you purchase tickets on Craigslist?"  Well, because we are young, cheap, and broke.  That's why.

What I saw walking into the arena

Ben, Aaron and I were fuming, on our way to a sports bar to watch the game, when we happened to run into a nice man on the sidewalk.  He casually asked if we were looking for tickets.  Of course, we immediately told him our sad story, how we had already been duped that day and really weren't in the mood for it to happen again.  This guy ended up being our lifesaver that evening.

He had connections with the Sacramento Kings (the team the Mavs were playing), and he had extra tickets for the family section.  He was willing to sell them to us for $40 a piece.  We made him walk with us to the door and get us in before we paid him anything.  We got in without a problem, and went straight to the beverage line.  You can guess what we purchased.

Turns out, we were sitting second row, right near the basket.  At one point, comedian Kevin Hart walked right past us to his floor seats.  We could actually see Mark Cuban, the Mavericks owner.  Sure, we had to spend $40 extra dollars, but it was totally worth it.  I had the best time!

Nancy" definitely got a piece of our mind.  We are currently scheming an idea to get this mastermind caught in the act.  Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated.

2nd row!

Yes, I do realize that we probably didn't use the best common sense with our purchase, but it all turned out well, and we all had a great time.  These are the great perks of this internship, among other things, but I love the fact that we have the opportunity to go and enjoy things like an NBA game.  Don't worry though - I did learn my lesson.  Even though I wasn't the one doing the actual negotiating, I did give some crazy my money, without a paper trail, and I was duped.  Next time, I'll spend a few extra bucks for insurance and use StubHub or Ticketmaster or something.

Anyway, it is pretty late here and we have a long day tomorrow.  On top of it all, I was an idiot and left my phone charger at the private housing I was in for a few days.  I have to drag my embarrassed self 20 minutes out of the way to pick up my iPhone charger.  Nice.

The team outside American Airlines