Last week, @ablaze wrote a post about his bucket list of sports events that he'd like to attend and at the end of it, he wrote:
Let's see if we can get something going here with a nomination. I nominate @the-gorilla to share his bucket list events.
Which is a tough challenge so here we go...
All photos are my own unless referenced
Sports Excluded
I've been to a lot of sporting events in my life, the image above is from Wimbledon in 2015 when I saw both the Men's and Women's winners that year play (Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams). In other years, I've seen Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Venus Williams so have been fortunate enough to see some of the best players in the game's history. I don't feel that I need to see these players play in the final but I wouldn't turn down a trip to any of the Grand Slams (or any other tournament for that matter). Perhaps I'll go to the Masters Finals in London at some point in the future.
I've also been to Wembley a few times to watch my beloved Reading. The above photo is from the FA Cup Semi Final in 2015 with a goalkeeper error leading to a painful 2-1 defeat in Extra Time. A visit to a cup final of some sort would be high on the list but I've been to so much football that it doesn't make my top 3.
So what does?
🏎 A Formula 1 Race - Probably Baku
As I mentioned before, I've been to a lot of sport and the above photo was taken at a test session at Silverstone back in 2005. I went with a few work colleagues who knew people - it's great to know people who know people and I got to go into the Jordan and Williams pits. It was a great day and I can only imagine what it would be like on race day. So my first choice is a Grand Prix weekend and given the choice, I'd choose Baku in Azerbaijan. It's one of the races I look forward to every season as it's always exciting and often full of crashes. If I could choose where to watch it from, it would be in the pits with the option of jumping in the safety car every time it's sent out.
🏒 Stanley Cup Final
Back in 2008. I went to watch Vancouver Canucks (v. Florida Panthers) and despite being on my own, got sucked into the atmosphere and loved every minute of it (it helped that the home team won). It was the closest atmosphere to football that I've experienced and I would love to go to the showpiece event in the sport. The stadia are impressive (a significant improvement on the Bracknell Bees or Guildford Flames) and the fans noisy and passionate. It would be a great experience.
Summer Olympics
One of my photos should be here but it looks like I deleted all of my photos between 2010 and 2013. Which is a bit 💩 to say the least. So this one will have to do...
When the Olympics came to London in 2012, I was living next to Tower Bridge. So when I couldn't get tickets to anything, I wasn't very happy about it. Some of my colleagues were a part of the opening ceremony and I could get nowhere near the Olympic village in Stratford, regularly seeing it out of the train window on my occasional work trip to Chelmsford. I did get to go to the Paralympics that year though, in which I saw some incredible feats of humanity and the atmosphere was amazing so this is my 3rd and final choice.
As incredible as it would be to see another home Olympics, I'd happily go anywhere in the world.
So these are my top 3 Sports events that I'd love to go and see. If I get the opportunity to go to something else, I certainly wouldn't pass up on the opportunity. There are many more sports and events that could have been chosen - The Superbowl was in my original list and an Extreme E X Prix would be incredible if fans are allowed to watch it. Not to mention the football derbies around the world. So many sports, so many venues and so many great match-ups. I've seen a lot but barely scratched the surface of what's available. (I'll leave the golf for @ablaze 🥱😴)
Please let me know your thoughts on my choices and I hope to see others write about their sporting bucket lists. If you do, please tag me (and I'm sure @ablaze would be interested too) 👍
Continuing on from @ablaze's nomination theme, in the hope that they have time to take part, I'm nominating fellow moderators @frafiomatale and @titopx and everybody who's read this.