10 tips for organising a US sports trip

Wrigley Field in Chicago, home of the Cubs.Credit: Getty Images

You've seen the game on television, you've bought the cap and now you want to experience the game first hand.

The way the Australian dollar has performed in recent years there's been an added impetus for travellers to make the trip to the US and experience everything the country has to offer.

One of the big lures for tourists is the US sporting scene. The country is home to many of the world's biggest boxing and mixed martial arts bouts, major golf and tennis tournaments, but it's the US's big four team sports which provide the biggest cultural differences.

Here I'll give you a run down on how to get the most out of your US sport spectator experience, and try to steer you off the beaten tourist path.

1. College football, not NFL

Despite the size and spectacle of an NFL game - and the game itself - the truth is an NFL game isn't too different to going to your average NRL game at a major metropolitan stadium.

We've been copying the over-the-top game day entertainment and bombastic gameday soundtrack for years now, and the big soulless, corporately branded stadiums with their over-priced food and watery beer are strikingly familiar to hulking behemoths like ANZ Stadium.

If you really want to get a feeling for American football you'd be much better off watching the purer form of the game - college football - with it's 100 year-plus traditions and passionate fan base.

The Saturday experience is significantly cheaper and the atmosphere is nothing like Australian sport.

Besides the culture shock of seeing people extremely passionate about where they went to school there's the experience of seeing small towns double in size as past alumni return to cities like Athens, Georgia or Norman Oklahoma to watch their teams play.

The buzz in these towns on game day has to be experienced, the university campuses and surrounding suburbs are packed with fans in the hours prior to kick off and the action on the field is punctuated by flashy marching bands (The USC Trojans and MSU Spartans boasting two of the best) revving up the crowd and the students sections chanting in unison.

You might be sitting on a bench rather than a relaxing seat at an NFL game, but you're much more likely to be swept up in the experience.

Each school has their own traditions which in many cases date back to the 19th Century and the action on the field is often faster and freer. There certainly isn't a significant dip in quality of the game itself.

2. Citifield not Yankees Stadium

Chances are if you're going to the US you're going to make it to New York. And if it's summer there are few more authentic New York experiences than catching a ballgame.

The lure of Yankees Stadium to tourists is huge. The Bronx Bombers are one of the most recognisable sporting franchises in the world and their fans among the most passionate.

You'll no doubt have a great time heading up to the Bronx for the game and the atmosphere won't be a disappointment, but the truth is the new Yankees Stadium isn't the best ballpark in New York. Not by a long shot. And it's not the House That Ruth Built anymore either. The new ballpark which opened in 2009 is more like one of the most beautiful shopping malls in the United States, equipped with a host of luxury trappings which at times makes the action on the field feel like an afterthought (adding weight to this is the fact a certain section of the outfield seats has an obstructed view of the game).

While it's more fun to tell your friends back home that you saw a Yankees game, the truth is the New York Mets Citifield in Queens is one of the finest ballparks in America, where the game itself is the attraction.

Opened in 2009 next to the old Shea Stadium site the new venue pays tribute: to the Mets old ballpark with the old stadium's "Home Run Apple" sitting out the front; to the Brooklyn Dodgers famed ballpark by employing Ebbets Field's iconic facade into its own frontage; and to Jackie Robinson in the foyer of the main entrance from the subway.

Sure, you'll have to travel off Manhattan island to see it but the authentic is experience is well worth the effort.

3. Behind the goal not on the side

For baseball, the closer you get to the homeplate the better the atmosphere is going to be. If you're an aficionado of the game a high up view of the action can be great, but if you're a first timer you're going to get more out of being close to one of the dug outs and picking up on the interplay between players and fans. You might be lured in by the attraction of snagging a home run ball but unless the prices are too steep around the plate, avoid the outfield seats.

By contrast it's not easy to score a bad seat at a football game. You'll get a good view of all the action from the side of a game. But the pay off of being at one of the ends is you'll have a better experience when there's a touchdown there.

For hockey I'd advise you try and get seats behind one of the goals. The game can move very fast and if you're foreign to the sport (which many of us are) the action can be even harder to follow when you're looking through two plates of glass down low on one of the sides.

With basketball you want to be as close to courtside as you can be. But that can be costly if you're going to a major franchise like the Knicks or the Lakers.

4. Tailgate

Of all the American sporting traditions we've co-opted in Australia why couldn't we have taken on board tailgating?

For the uninitiated: tailgating is when fans gather in the carparks, or school grounds outside sporting venues to cook food on their own barbecues, drink beer and play corn toss, usually behind their parked car (hence the tailgate moniker). Most commonly associated with football the DIY party atmosphere outside these games creates a great buzz.

It's unlikely you'll be travelling with a car loaded with a barbecue and supplies on holiday, but that doesn't mean you have to miss out. Most US sports fans are very friendly, accommodating and approachable - once they find out your from Australia they'll be more than happy to ply you with food and alcohol. Don't be afraid to bring along some beers and gatecrash!

5. Catch the anthem

If you've brought along a self righteous, anti-American mate THIS is the time to convince them to shut up about cultural imperialism for a second.

Quite simply the performance of the Star Spangled Banner before each game is a spectacle in itself. At certain cities - like Soldier Field in Chicago - the performance will be punctuated by a aircraft fly over. In others booming fireworks explode as the singer hits "the rockets red glare". At the United Centre for Blackhawks games the crowd cheers the entire time Jim Cornelius sings the anthem and in Portland the Timbers soccer fans sing the entire anthem themselves.

These are the kind of special moments you don't want to miss, Americans pride in their country is quite literally hair-raising (in a good way, I think).

I'll always remember running late for an Angels game in Anaheim and the attendants stopping the turnstyles as we were about to walk in. I immediately thought there'd been some security threat until the woman manning our entrance removed her cap turned 180 degrees and sang along loudly to the anthem as we waited until it finished to get back inside.

Get there early, remove your cap and your cynicism, and soak it up.

6. Older the better

It's the traditions and history of America's storied sporting franchises which make them so irresistible.

While on one level America is thought of as a country which is a big, bombastic and flashy, the truth is one of its greatest appeals as a tourist destinations is the way it commemorates and celebrates its history. A quick trip to one of its enthralling museums - such as the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis or the JFK Museum in Dallas - shows you how respectfully the US treats its past.

The same goes for sport. The greatest sporting venue I'veseen is Fenway Park. Immaculately restored, the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball is unique in the way it is configured with its high green wall (the Green Monster) jutting out behind left field and its old seats still facing forwards towards the ground rather than towards the plate.

Coupled with the atmosphere around Fenway before and after games, a Boston Red Sox home game is like no other. If you do go to a game take a tour of the ballpark beforehand. The venue, built in 1912, is the origin of hundreds of colourful baseball tales which will enrich your experience even further.

Fenway might be the best, but there's no doubt Wrigley Field in Chicago is a sentimental favourite. Built two years after the Boston ballpark, Wrigley hasn't been restored in the same glorious fashion. But from its ivy covered walls to its manually controlled-jumbotron free scoreboard Wrigley is special in similar ways to Fenway. The rooftop seats on the top of residential buildings across the road from the ballpark are a tourist attraction in themselves.

Do some research on the grounds in the towns you're going, and follow the history.

7. Pick a hockeytown

For baseball you want to go to a weekend game at a town that loves the game (Boston, Chicago, St Louis, New York and Los Angeles are home to some of the most devoted baseball fans) but if you are going elsewhere you want to go to team that is having a good season. With 81 home games played each year regular season games don't sell out unless a team is performing well, so you want to catch a team who are on the up where the atmosphere will be electric. Who the team is playing matters as well. You also want to research rivalries, namely teams that play in the same division. Last year I caught two games between the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers - one in Detroit and one in Chicago - when both teams were battling for the same AL Central playoff spot. The atmosphere was worth twice the price of admission on both occasions and the stadiums were getting close to capacity. A week or two later I was in Atlanta to see the Braves clinch their playoff spot against the lowly Miami Marlins and the atmosphere couldn't have been more different. Even though it was a playoff race and they were both in the same division the fact that the south is football territory, the game was on a Tuesday night and the Marlins have barely any fans lead to an atmosphere which was a tad disappointing.

Conversely if you go to a game to see a team which is struggling you can pay as low as a $1 for a seat, but there's a reason they're that low - the atmosphere will be dull bordering on morose.

With football you generally can't go wrong. But if you do pick a real football city the price of tickets can be enormous. For instance Chicago Bears tickets at the smallest of NFL venues - Soldier Field can be astronomical on the secondary market. But the payoff is you're going to be seeing the game with a packed house of dedicated fans.

And unlike baseball you'll still expect to see a near full stadium at an NFL game no matter where you go, these fans only get 8 home games a year (not counting playoffs) so tickets are heavily coveted.

Of course Canada is the country to see an NHL game, but there are plenty of US cities where hockey has a devoted following even if it isn't the dominant sport of the town. Cities like Pittsburgh, Chicago, Detroit and Boston have strong fanbases, while in some cases places like Columbus and New Jersey have no other pro teams but NHL franchises.

8. Stubhub is your friend

You'll often hear that certain games are impossible to get tickets to. I told friends in Chicago I was going to a Yankees - Red Sox game once and they couldn't believe I hadn't bought a ticket yet. "Fenway sells out every game," they told me. Well, the parameters of a sell out must be pretty liberal because me and a friend managed to score tickets from the box office on game day.

The moral of the story is as long as you've got the money you'll be able to get to a game. But forget scalpers and ticket agencies around the venues. Go to online ticket exchanges like Stubhub. Start monitoring the price a few months out and grab your tickets when the price is at its lowest. Your purchase is guaranteed, you'll be able to use an interactive map to know exactly where you're sitting and you're also able to buy tickets to other events like concerts.

9. Time your trip

Hockey season runs from October through to June, football from August until January, baseball from April until early November and basketball runs from October through to June.

In most cases college versions of the sport start earlier and the last month or two of each season is playoff time where - in everywhere but the NBA's case - less than half the teams in the competition play. So be wary of arriving too early or two late or you could miss out on a game.

10. Walk without fear

Through popular culture and highly publicised public massacres we've come to know the US as a very violent country. But it's amazing how comparatively civil the atmosphere is at US sports events between opposing fans. There aren't separate sections for opposing fans because there's no need. The banter between fans is generally good natured. In the fifty or so game I've seen in the country I've seen one punch up and a couple of verbal arguments. I'd expect to see that in one night out at a game here.

Don't be afraid to show your (borrowed) colours and get into the atmosphere.