So I'm here to report to you guys of my experience at the Nuggets game. First thing I notice, Pepsi Center is located near Coors field and not far from Invesco field (where the Broncos) play. Great location downtown. Its similar to the location of the Toyota Center. Pepsi Center appears smaller and has less cool technology than the Toyota Center. I like the big HDTV scoreboard at TC. I go to buy tix at their ticket center inside the Pepsi Center. This box office was pretty small and slow. Toyota Center has the better setup for buying tickets. Maybe they do this in Denver because it gets cold. The good news is that tickets were cheap. I got lower level (row 14) seats behind the basket for $35/each. Like other NBA arenas, as soon as you walk into them, its spammed with marketing. A big Nuggets store. A freaky statue hanging down from the wall of the lobby of sports figures. The first thing I decide to look for (or was forced to look for) was food. there was plenty of food vendors there. Some of them, big names that I like: Arbys Good Times (a denver chain) that sells frozen custard and burgers. some interesting places: DiGirgno (yes the frozen pizza is now a food vendor). dipped cones ( the dairy queen favorite) fresh lemonade (yes, how refreshing) Curious ommisions: No Pepsi brand companies like Taco Bell or Pizza Hutt. No Chipolte or Quiznos (shockingly both were Denver creations) The crowd: lots of... KIDS, all types of them. High School. Middle School, Elementary school. Yes, this was on the lower level! No Shell excutive or Chevron clients here. They all had signs. One kid had a pacman sign. Denver=pacman . Ghost=golden state. Ethnicity.. well you guessed it. lots of blonde people in denver. Women. they were some nice looking hoties there. they were all blonde and had Carmelo Anthony Jerseys. Some kidds had Boykins and some had Marcus Camby. The Game. I wasnt happy that Jason richardson was hurt. But the Warriors played well without him. they only lost by 3 points. Derek Fisher airballed a 3 that would have tied the game. The fans were all energetic and they were all families and kids. I sat near the Crown Royal part of the stadium. nice little bar area. pretty comon in new arenas. The Denver fans LOVE THEIR MASCOT. The Rocky 'mountain lion' mascot is pretty much a hybrid of Clutch the Bear and Turbo. He does dunks and half court shots and does silly skits (including the ballon costume). The kids even wanted his autograph.. Yes the mascot! I have no ill will to Clutch the Bear (I was at his/his wife's house that nice Halloween party), but the Denver mascot does more and makes sense. There's no bears in Htown. but then again, there are no animals in houston. What? should we have a giant Mosquito as our mascot? back to the game. my observations of the teams. 1. Carmelo has lots of size. I didn't realize how big and tall he was. he plays well in on the break, and has a good 1on1 game. 2. Ruben Paterson is a great pickup for Denver, he plays good D, and he takes it strong on the offensive end. 3. Ike Diogu of the Warriors is physical! he's beating all the Denver bigs with his rebounding and post up game. They had some questionable calls against him. This game was his coming out game. I'd love to see this dude play with Yao. he's a beast down low. 4. Derek Fisher is better than I thought. He's not just a cheap BJ Armstong that I thought he was. He makes pretty smart plays at the PG and he shoots well. Better than Rafer?? yes.. worth the 40mill Mullin signed him for? ..questionable. So I know you guys have some questions, I'll answer them: 1. im on vacation, taking advantage of the cheap rates for late season skiing. 2. dude, off course there's a ROCKETS CONNECTION. Real Rocket fans know it was a chess match between two premier assistant coaches. The ENERGIZER BUNNY VS THE JUNK YARD DOG. VS ill post some pics tommorow. always here to serve the Rocket fans..
Arby's = Quiznos > Subway Chipotle = (unless you're looking for authentic mexican food) Taco Bell + KFC = I don't know, I'll eat about anything and like it. I'm in college.
Sounds like you had a good time. Great to hear man. Isn't it though? Plus it's right by the 16th street mall/LoDo where there are tons of resteraunts and places to hang out. My buddies and I usually park by the ESPNZone (never eat there though) and then walk to whatever game we're going to (Nugs, Avs and Rockies.....Broncos we usually catch a bus). Yeah, the ticket office is a bit of a pain at times. Gotta love the cheap tickets though. I think that era might slowly be ending though. That's ok. I just landed playoff tickets for $12 each. They're nosebleeds but there's not really a bad seat in the house IMO. LOL! That statue is interesting isn't it? To those that haven't seen it, it has a bunch of hockey and basketball players, but they're all upside down for some reason. Seriously, and this is coming from someone that hates mascots -- Rocky is THE MAN. IMO, the best mascot in all of sports right now. Just a blast to watch. Did he make the halfcourt shot for the GS game? Now I need to ask you something. You've obviously been to the Toyota Center and can compare it to "the Can". Is it just me or are the seats at "the Can" small? Granted, I'm 6'6" and 225 lbs., so everything's small to me, but there are some seats in there that are unbearable. Also, are you going to be n the Denver area for a while? If so, post here about what you're interested in and I'll see if anything's going on. EDIT -- If you go to another game, I highly recommend teh Blue Sky Grill at "the Can". I kept avoiding it because I figured it would be ridiculously overpriced and not worth it, but it's surprisingly good and fair. Plus Nugs dancers are usually required to hang out there for a while after games.
yes he did. it seemed pretty impossible, but it seem cooridinated that it took him the whole timeout and at the VERY end, he makes it. I can't tell. I like the little cupholder at 'the can'. I just got back to texas tonight. Denver is cool city. its very similar to houston, with light rail etc. I think that that's what Houston's 'new downtown' was based on. NBA dancers are nice! Thanks David Stern!
You are the TINMAN. Awesome post, $35 for a seat where you can actually see the players without binoculars.
yeah it was a good deal. Nuggets tix were cheaper than Rockets tix. But Toyota Center is newer. Behind the backboard seats are not that bad at all. I know some people dont like this point of view. Its like End Zone seats. Kiki Vandaway is a good GM. We'll see what happens to the Rockets next year without CD.
Great post, just a few questions though 1) How close is the nearest strip club to the Pepsi Center? 2) Is there a SFII turbo machine in the food court? 3) Did Eduardo Najera seem out of place?
1. didn't check the clubs at the pepsi center. i've only visited Colorado a few times, but I've visited 'THE COLORADO' many times.. 2. i dont think they have video games at basketball arenas..maybe in baseball arenas since baseball is so slow and boring 3. i didnt see him. must be protesting or something that night
