The view from the cheap seats

Cheap, as in very inexpensive, or free. Zero is what I paid to sit way up in the Xcel Energy Center last night, as our Minnesota Wild scored in the closing seconds for a 3-2 victory over the storied New York Islanders organization. But rather than re-hashing the game, which does warrant a closer look simply because it was a rare win for the home team (rehashes can be found on all other Wild blogs), I wanted to give a view from the 5th level.

Winner winner, chicken dinner

News Radio 830 WCCO runs a contest on Wednesdays, which are labeled 'Wild Wednesday's', where the first caller who correctly answers a trivia question is the winner of tickets for two to a Wild game (they also on occasion determine the winner via choosing the phone number from the 'Wild' text messages received). The catch, and this is a big one, is that these tickets are not your ordinary tickets in the lower level, club level, or even the upper level, but instead reserved seats in the Al Shaver Press Box, located near the rafters of the X.

It's the nosebleed

If you have ever looked up at the press box above, you have noticed that there are two rows to accommodate the working media. The bottom row (press row) consists of chairs and a working counter that is reserved mostly for print media, along with a few online media sites, as well as the Wilds' top end communications personnel. The second level of the press box is primarily a row of booths which house the local and road radio & television broadcast crews. Also mixed into those booths are two reserved for the Wild top executives and two reserved for the NHL off-ice crews. And mixed in on either side of the booths, are again chairs that are used by scratched players and other Wild employees. Now story goes that Wild radio personalities Bob Kurtz and Tom Reid wanted a closer look than the one given from their booth (you have to lean over a bit to see over press row to get the full view of the ice surface below from the booth), so they moved down to the chairs in press row, leaving their radio booth empty. So winners of this contest are the beneficiary's' and sit in the spacious booth above.

It's a who's who

Not only can you get a glimpse of the players scratched, the local and national media are at arms length as well. Icon Sid Hartman made an appearance last night as well as Lou Nanne, Larry Fitzgerald, & Cliff Fletcher, father of Wild GM Chuck Fletcher. And the list of local media goes on and on from our favorite Michael Russo (Star Tribune), Bruce Brothers (Pioneer Press), Doug Johnson (Let's Play Hockey), Eric Nelson (WCCO), Wild television broadcast crew of Dan Terhaar & Mike Greenlay, and Wild radio broadcast crew of Kurtz & Reid. On top of that, as I mentioned earlier, the two Wild booths house Fletcher and other Wild front office executives. And finally, there was a sighting of Wild owner Craig Leipold in the press box last night. One lucky WCCO Wild Wednesday winner actually had a conversation with Leipold as he breezed on by and asked "how's it going?" The quick and smartly worded reply went like this, "good", as they backed into the booths opening.

Bonus on top of bonus

If the winning the tickets were not enough, get ready for the pre-game meal. That's right, they treat you to dinner downstairs, along with all of the other working media, Wild employees, and NHL personnel. And once situated in the press box, there is an endless supply of snacks and refreshments. Finally, the radio crew sit almost directly below you in press row, and it is a real treat to watch those two professionals work the game.

Opportunity of a lifetime

I have had the fortune of sitting about as close as you can get to about as far away from the action as possible. The very first game attended, year one & third home game (the teams first ever regular season win), the club randomly selected ticket holders to 'upgrade to the glass', where they would move the selectee's down to the first row to occupy the Anderson Window seats. And guess who had those seats against Tampa Bay on October 18 2000? And as for this latest adventure, truth be told, I am a two-time winner of these press box tickets. I also had the fortune of occupying the same booth two season ago when the team lost another close game to the San Jose Sharks. In fact, that was a shootout win for the Sharks which featured Pierre-Marc Bouchard making his his spin-o-rama move on his attempt, which ended up in the back of the net. Topping that game however, was last nights dramatic finish, where Owen Nolan scored the winner with 67 seconds remaining in the game.

To steal a line from 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off' regarding these press box seats, "It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up"...and I was lucky enough to pick them up twice.