Wizards Basketball 2016

The kids' school had a special deal for the DC Wizards game against the Milwaukee Bucks. The ticket (which was in the nosebleed seats) included a free t-shirt from Custom Ink. We took the Metro into DC which was convenient as Gallery Place Metro lets out on the same block as the Verizon Center. The ride was half an hour, occupied by a DS.

Not playing a basketball game

We got their easily and avoided all the guys looking to buy and/or sell tickets to the game. We had half a hour before the start of the game, so we explored a bit. My son said he didn't have desert at home, so we bought donuts.

Some of the shopping available at the stadium

This particular night was kids' night, so a bunch of activities were set up. My son was not interested in trying any. Some of the tables were also trying to build buzz about the new Star Wars movie. Some cosplayers were in attendance too.

Not my son posing with the cosplayers

We took an escalator up to the 400 level and found our seats. The view lets you see everything!

View from our seats

We were still 15 minutes early. Munching on our donuts, some guy and his son came up to us and made us a offer. Their tickets were upgraded and they wanted to give us their original tickets further down in the stadium. We gladly accepted. The guy told me that one of the tickets still had $15 in concession credit that we could use (they used the other ticket's credit). We headed down to find our new seats.

The old ticket on top, the new one on bottom

On our way back down the stadium, we saw the concession stand giving out the t-shirt, so we grabbed our new shirts.

New shirt!

After finding the stairs (all the escalators were set to going up!), we were able to locate our new seats near the main floor. They were great.

View from our new seats

Looking back up at the old seats

The game began soon. To get the crowd excited, the announcer started naming the players as they entered. The announcement was accompanied by a massive flame burst for each player.

Firing up the crowd, almost literally

The game was fun and action-packed. The Bucks did well early on, taking a small lead over the Wizards. The lead never got large and our team was able to tie things up by half time.

Game in action

One of the entertaining activities at half time was the cheerleaders doing a Star Wars performance with light sabers! Our seats were on the side considered the back, so we saw mostly the backsides of the cheerleaders for most of the performance. Parts of the choreography had them facing different parts of the stadium.

Dance of the Light Sabers

We went out to get a snack with our ticket credit. A tub of cotton candy and bottle of water cost $11! We still had some credit left over, but not enough to get anything.

Another fun time-killer during the break between third and fourth quarter was a baby race. Three babies (who were up awfully late, if you ask me) were brought to a track and had 45 seconds to make it to the other end. Or as far as they could. For the first 30 seconds, only two of the tots put their hands across the starting line. It was not the most exciting race ever.

Tot race

The announcer thought it would be a good idea for the crowd to make some noise to get the babies going. It didn't work. One of the babies finally got going after about 35 seconds, cinching a victory.

We have a winner in lane 2!

The game ended with a Wizards' victory, 110 to 105. It was a very satisfying game and a happily uneventful trip home. The Metro wasn't too crowded and the car ride was traffic-free. We had a very fun night.