Well with under a week to go on #sportsgeek I thought I’d give a quick recap of the trip so far…

I started with a Sports Geek Bucket List…

Here’s just some of what I’ve done so far:

• Attended a College Tailgate but also the game! BCS Championship Game at Rosebowl with 94,000 of my closest friends.  Go Longhorns!
• Got my picture taken with the BCS Coaches Trophy.
• Saw the NBA’s best player Kobe Bryant (3 times) unfortunately he hasn’t been at his best but does enough to win.  Including a cross town match against the LA Clippers with Baron Davis at his best & Aussie Andrew Bogut’s Bucks who unfortunately had no fight left in them.
• Watched Dirk Nowitski score his 20,000th NBA point against the Lakers from the a private suite at American Airlines Center.
• Saw Mark Cuban at Mavs game unable to meet him he is too excited about his Mavs in season.
• Toured the American Airlines Center with CEO Brad Mayne including the terrific facilities the Mavs in their locker room.  Terrific facility Brad, best HD scoreboards I’ve seen (excluding the ridiculous screen at Cowboys Stadium).
• Fell in love with the beauty & history of Dodger Stadium, will be back for a game.
• Jaw dropping amazement of the magnitude of the Cowboys Stadium with the Cowboys on the field practicing!
• Saw Big Ben Wallace from the Pistons turn back the clock against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.  Great history in that arena, even walking around met Walt “Clyde” Frazier & John Starks.
• Watch some great hockey thanks to the LA Kings at the Staples Center & Dallas Stars at American Airline Center.

That is just the venues, games & sports stars you may know but I’ve met a lot of cool people as well. All the time taking notes on the promotions, marketing and watching offline fans to see how to best connect them with online fans.

If you’re in New York come & say G’day as I’m hosting a #sportsgeektweetup on Wednesday night 7pm at ESPN Zone.

After checking out the Clippers defeat the Lakers at Staples on Wednesday night (blog post to follow) I decided to check out the BCS Championship Game at the Rose Bowl.

The Rose Bowl web site didn’t provide that much information on tickets sales, as it was the BCS Championship Game I assumed it was sold out with so many Alabama and Texas fans in LA.  Either way I thought I’d see what was on offer at the ESPN Tailgate Party.

I arrived in Pasadena and parked on the golf course next to the Rose Bowl (the greens keeper definitely earns his money after 90,000 people park, walk and tailgate all over the course).  Several “traditional” tailgators were setup in the parking lot – no expense spared: big screen TVs, satellite dish, , BBQs and large eskys (or coolers as they are called in US).  This was 7 hours before the game kickoff!

The ESPN Tailgate cost $25 to enter but with little else on offer it was the place to be.  ESPN as presenting partner was everywhere, including the College Football team broadcasting the pre-game show.  Other sponsors included Taco Bell, AT&T, XBox, All-State & Direct TV.

Getting fans active was a big success with most fans drawn to attractions where they got to throw, pass or kick.  Giveaways were a close second no matter how small the freebie on offer was the fans were attracted like bees to honey.  Taco Bell did will with the Couch Touchdown and the Obstacle course.  AT& T tent was always full, fans lined up for hours to get autographs from former Alabama & Texas stars like Vince Yound and Ricky Williams

There was plenty of food stalls all doing a roaring trade, unfortunately the bar service was deplorable.  I don’t know if it was by design or not but I did talk to a few fans who were more than annoyed at the slow service.  Perhaps ID verified wristbands and more bar staff would have made an improvement.

Not expecting to attend the game I headed off to watch the game on TV, I avoided several people trying to sell tickets upwards of $350 (by people I mean scalpers at 150%+ of face value (side note: 15 arrests for scalping)).  After talking to some Texas fans tailgating near my car I found out the game wasn’t sold out and single tickets were available.  So with ticket in hand I entered the Rose Bowl.  Other than it being a hard stadium to get navigate (then again 94,000 people do provide logistics problems) it was an awesome game.  Unlucky for the Texas Longhorns to lose QB Colt McCoy in the first quarter, but congrats the Alabama on winning the game.  Fans of college football love their teams, everybody I mean everybody was wearing team colors I have no doubt you could pick me out in the TV coverage as I was wearing a grey hoodie amongst a sea of orange and crimson.  It’s easy to see the why the focus on pre-game activities as most fans stood, cheered, hollered ALL game never leaving their seats.

I have so much more to report but I’ve gotta go… more sport, never enough.