The Bruising-full Game

One of the best ways to get in touch with a culture is go and see a game. In most of Europe, that would be soccer (yes, I know, they call it football) as it would be in South America. In the US, you have quite the selection: baseball in the summer and either football or basketball in the winter. In Canada, there is no doubt that it's hockey that you have to see.

There is a National Hockey League team in most of the country's larger cities, and if you can get a ticket, then you're in for a slick, action-packed evening of entertainment. But it can be hard to get tickets, and even if you get them, they're plenty expensive. The Vancouver Canucks have sold out about eight seasons in a row, and you can not purchase two seats together anymore.

So what's the alternative? A couple of weeks ago I went to see the Vancouver Giants play and remembered how fun it was to see a game at this level. The Giants are part of the Western Hockey League, a feeder league for the NHL. The players are young and they play like they have nothing to lose. The 14,000 seat arena was packed with vocal fans of every age, but because the best seats in the house top-out at CAD $19.50, there are loads of families and school groups in there too.

So it made me think about experiencing these sports on a more local level when I travel. I'll be in Boston net month and would like to see a baseball game, but the Red Sox are playing the Yankees, and, well, good luck getting tickets for that. But there must be a Minor League team that we could catch somewhere. In India, we're going to try to find a cricket game, and if you're ever in Australia, I highly recommend an Australian Rules Football game, especially those played at the regional level (like the mighty South Fremantle Bulldogs).

After all, what makes a sport quintessential to a nation is not that it is played at a professional level, but that it is played at every other level as well.

(Photo by willowbrookhotels via Flickr)