All In!

Well, we finally did it.  We have been season ticket holders for the Chicago Fire for the past three years.  We had wonderful seats in section 125 - row 1.  We had great neighbors.  I used to joke that these were life time seats - seats that you would never want to get rid of.  But then the economy happened.  Those seats weren't the most expensive, but they weren't cheep either.  For the past four months I had been trying to figure out what to do.  Do we suck it up?  Do we go to half season?  Do we move?  Oh what to do.

Cindy and I finally sat down to talk about it earlier this week.  Although finances were an issue, Cindy brought up another - her knee.  For the past two years Cindy's knee has been causing her issues.  She had seen a Doctor but he didn't offer a lot of help.  The issue with her knee is simple - stairs are hard and painful.  She takes the elevator up to the top of Toyota Park, but she still need to take the stairs down to our seats.  Last year our ticket reps were wonderful - they would get someone to help her usually taking her through the locker room.  With the layoffs of our reps, we weren't sure of the same service (we were actually worried at one point that we were the reason for their layoff's because of the help they have given us.)  Cindy wanted to move up.  And that is where the solution came.

For years we have been supporting Section 8.  We gave money, baked cookies, went on a road trip or two, wrote letters to the FO when there were issues, even participated in the protest at the DC united game a few years ago.  What if we moved to Section 8?  Wouldn't that be really supporting Section 8 and the team.  Cindy reminded me that it was Section 8 that got her interested in the Fire - not the game on the field.  Perhaps this could be a solution.  Cindy and I could stay up top, the kids could go down low.  Cindy could even sit by Ben Burton's mom if her knee was bothering her.  Plus the tickets are about a third of what our seats were.  But what would the kids think?  No more "hi-fives" to the players - would they mind?  I pulled the kids together and asked them what they wanted to do and they all want to move - they were actually excited about it (even Nathan!).

So here we are - new members of Section 8.  This should be an interesting year.  I usually stand with them a couple of times a year and quickly remember that I am no longer 21.  So, between now and opening day in March, I think I'm going to need to get into shape so that I can last the entire 90 minutes.  This will definitely be an interesting year.