天天都是特惠季

Kelly Dwyer

Up until this week， the biggest NBA fan you know had never bought an NBA ticket.直到本周，你所知道的最忠实的NBA球迷也从未买过一张球票。

Ive had League Pass① since 2000， and have watched endless amounts of games through the years. Ive written about the NBA since 1997 online， during off hours in high school and college， and then on to working double shifts in my early 20s bartending and then rising at the crack of dont-even-ask to write for various sites you probably dont remember. Since the year 2000， from those fledgling sites to SI.com to Ball Dont Lie② in 2007， Ive had the distinct privilege of being afforded a press pass to see and write about games whenever I ask. Ive been to games before in the seats — a couple of parentpurchased excursions in my youth， and Roto Arcade②s Andy Behrens was kind enough to gift me a ticket a few years back — but never on my own dime.

从2000年开始我就有“联盟通行证”，过去这些年我看过数不清的比赛。从1997年开始我就在网上写与NBA有关的文章，我会利用高中和大学时的空余时间写，20岁出头时，我会在酒吧服务员这两班倒的工作空闲时写，之后还会在那些你也许都记不得的网站上写过稿子。2000年从那些小破网站开始，到《体育画报》网站，直到2007年开始在Ball Dont Lie写文章，我拥有了媒体特权，当我需要看或写某场比赛时，我就可以提出要求。我以前也去现场看过比赛——小时候父母买票，要么是几年前Roto Arcade的安迪·拜伦斯送给我的票。总之我从来没花钱看过比赛。

Mainly because， living with a wife and two kids for the last seven years on a sportswriters salary， every dime counts. Other factors go into this — I dont want to spend my off hours living a busman③s holiday at an NBA game. My two daughters and wife are not sports fans plus we live two hours away from where my beloved Chicago Bulls play， and an hour away from where the Indiana Pacers play.

究其原因主要在于，过去七年，以一个体育写手的薪水养着妻子和两个孩子，每一分钱都很重要。而其他原因的影响则是，我不想把自己的休息时间变成一场NBA比赛里的工作时间。我的两个女儿和妻子都不是体育迷，此外，我们住的地方距离我最爱的公牛有两小时路程，距离步行者的主场也有一小时。

The Pacers are one of the best teams in the NBA this season， and though the teams attendance has improved along with their play， it has only jumped up from 29th out of 30 teams to 27th. Were I not an NBA freak who is afforded free press passes by the team， I would fall into the sort of typical category that is ignoring the Pacers to stay home and watch games for free on TV — local guy， fan of all sports， father of two. So how much of an investment is it， for this dad who freezes homemade soup and clips coupons while turning down the thermostat when the kids and wife leave the house， to go see a game live with the whole fam-damnly？

步行者是本赛季NBA最好的球队之一，随着表现的提高，观赛人数也在增加，但步行者的上座率也仅仅从30支球队的第29名上升到第27名。假如我不是一个享有媒体免费资格的NBA狂热爱好者，我也会成为最典型的一类人——居家男人，各种体育的爱好者，两个孩子的父亲——而且会忽视步行者的比赛，呆在家里看电视上的免费节目。所以说，像我这种在妻子孩子离开时都会把家里做的汤放进冰箱冷藏，剪下优惠券的老爸，去现场看一场比赛能花多少钱呢？

As mentioned， Ive never clicked on a ticket brokers website or used StubHub④before. Ive taken my kids to many other sporting events — high school football games， motorsports， minor league baseball and hockey contests — but those tickets are so cheap that I just go straight through the various official websites or buy at the box office.

如之前提到的，我从没点击过买票网站，也没用过StubHub。我带孩子去过其他不少体育活动——高中橄榄球赛，摩托车赛，棒球小联盟赛以及冰球赛。这些比赛的门票很便宜，我可以直接去他们官网或去买票点。

After perhaps 10 minutes worth of clicking on Sunday， though， I was able to find four seats for Wednesdays Pacers/Minnesota Timberwolves for less than $18. In the highest section， to be sure， but I was also mindful of the fact that the Pacers recently installed a massive high-definition scoreboard. Just in case the 10-year old-wanted to see if Derrick Williams closed out properly on the replay.

星期日花了10分钟上网浏览，我找到了周三步行者对森林狼，四张只需要不到18美元的球票。可以肯定，这些座位都在最高层。不过我想到，步行者最近才安装好了一个巨大的高清记分牌，如果10岁的孩子想看看德里克·威廉姆斯的动作回放，这正好用得上。

From there， the planning. Wednesday night is a school night （that phrase， as an exkid， still gives me the creeps） so Tuesday night meant a far earlier bedtime. Theres no way in hell Im feeding my kids concession fare for dinner， much less spending huge gobs of money on it， so stir-fry chicken was made the day before — ready to quickly reheat after I got off from work and before we got on the road.

从那之后，我就开始各种计划。周三是正常要上学的日子（曾经作为孩子，这个词还是让我不寒而栗），所以这意味着周二晚上睡觉的时间要提前很久。我绝不可能让我孩子把乱七八糟的零食当晚饭，当然我也不会在这方面花太多钱，所以炸鸡是前一天准备好的——这样我就能在下班后去看比赛前，很快把饭热好。

Once we got to Indianapolis Bankers ， Im not a Pacers fan and the team doesnt know Im writing this column， but the “whoa！”you get from each kid as they make their way toward the court is worth every penny. Its not just the massive scoreboard， but the lights and speaker setup and gleam of the court and the whole bloody spectacle.

当我们踏上印第安纳波利斯的球馆后，我不是步行者球迷，他们也不知道我在写这篇文章，但两个孩子在走向场地时发出的“哇”的惊呼就已经让你付出的每分钱值回票价了。这不仅仅因为巨大的记分牌，还有灯光、音响、球场的光亮，以及所有耀眼的东西。

The seats were way up. Way， way up. To the kids， though， this doesnt matter. And to my wife， who could watch the game on the screen， this doesnt matter. And to the NBA nerd， always in love with watching the action from above （when given press passes I prefer the second tier to courtside）， I was back at my work station. Even though I had to ignore emails and Twitter so as to （very） happily answer 2 1/2 hours worth of questions from the kids about what that was and what that meant and “is it OK if I dance？”

我们的座位在很高的地方，非常，非常高。但对孩子们来说，这不重要。对我老婆来说，她能在大屏幕上看比赛，所以这也不重要。对于一个NBA宅男来说，我总喜欢从高处看比赛（所以和媒体席相比，我更喜欢二层看台，而不是在场边），我又回到了自己工作时的位置。但我会无视那些邮件和推特，这样才能（非常）高兴地回答两个半小时里，从孩子嘴里所问出来的各式各样的问题，以及“我能不能跳舞”这样的提问。

We cant get our （very well-behaved） children to sit through a 3-D movie in a theatre without getting bored and asking what were having for dinner. Theyre kids， and theyll get restless； and yet at no point did the stimulation and entertainment at this game cease. All the things （contests， fan interaction） I roll my eyes at while attempting to write during timeouts at press row kept their attention. Trips out to the concourse between quarters and halves felt like cool trips to dads personal basketball mall， as my youngest daughter gawked at a vintage shoe display stuck up in the top concourse. All the songs that dad has no idea about — your Ganghams and your Brunos⑤ and your whatevers — were grooved to.

我们没法让（其实很规矩的）孩子在电影院里安安稳稳地看完一部3D电影，他们总会感到无聊，然后问晚饭吃什么。他们是孩子，总是精力充沛。但在这场比赛里，各种刺激和娱乐活动永远不会停止。暂停时被平时坐在媒体席的我视为无所谓，宁可赶稿子也不愿看一眼的一切（小游戏、球迷互动），却能吸引孩子的注意力。每节和半场休息时去的各种集会活动，感觉都像一次很酷的老爸个人篮球商场，我最小的女儿盯着一支展览的静电球鞋发呆了半天。那些爸爸完全不知道所以然的歌——什么江南啊，火星哥啊什么的，都能让孩子们兴奋。

It was so， so worth it — and especially from that vantage point. We had to squint harder at a gymnastics meet earlier in the week to see the younger daughter perform. These seats were cheaper， seriously， and better.

这一切太值了，尤其是从座位角度。本周早些时候，在一次体操比赛里，我们非常用力才能看到小女儿的表现。而现在这些座位更便宜，说真的，也更好。

The total price， and this is without exaggeration， came in a few cents under$110. Thats a chunk of change — thats something we have to plan around， and something we have to account for as a yearlong expense. Mom and dad wont be seeing Steely Dan⑥ this summer， but thats fine.

全部的花费，我毫不夸张地说，不到110美元。这笔钱可是会让我们的生活发生不小的变化——花这笔钱我们要做好计划，这笔钱也会进入全年预算。爸爸、妈妈今年夏天都没法去看斯蒂利·丹的演唱会了，但无所谓了。

Just under $18 for the four tickets. The gas， parking and two foam fingers for the kids went into that final tally. Concessions included two beers apiece for mom and dad， two sodas apiece， and one giant tub of popcorn that came with free refills. My oldest daughter got to put a dollar in a tenor saxophone players busker bucket as we left the stadium.

四张球票不到18美元。汽油钱、停车费，给孩子买的两个泡沫手指是最后一笔花销。额外的花销包括爸妈一人两杯啤酒和汽水，一个超大桶且可免费续杯的爆米花。我的大女儿在离开球馆时，还给了一个吹萨克斯风的艺人1美元。

And if mom and dad had cut back on those $7.25 beers， maybe just one per game instead of one per half， it would have been even cheaper. In the end， though， we were covered in salt and butter， with sugary pop and malted hops in our various systems， and more than happy at a Pacer win over the Timberwolves that saw two of Kellys favorite players in Roy Hibbert and Ricky Rubio play excellent ball. And I got to yell at Violet Palmer， without press row scorn！

如果爸爸、妈妈能在7.25美元的啤酒上少花点钱，也许每人一场一杯，而不是半场就一人一杯的话，我们花的钱还会更少。总之呢，我们的花销维持在了预算之内，而更让人高兴的是，步行者赢了森林狼，看着凯利我最喜欢的两个球员——罗伊·希伯特和里基·鲁比奥都打出了漂亮的比赛。我还能自由地大吼大叫，而不会收到媒体同行鄙视的眼光。

The kids wer e already up past their bedtime， so we let them linger and take pictures for a half-hour after the game ended. Even with that， and the hour-long ride

home， everyone was still in bed a little after 11 at night. They did just fine waking up the next morning. For $110， I cant think of a better way to make my crew happier.

孩子们早就过了睡觉的时间，所以我们让他们多留了一会，在比赛结束后用半个小时拍照。即便算上这个时间，加上一小时开车回家，每个人也都在11点后不久就躺在了床上。第二天早上他们也都正常醒了。我不知道还有什么其他方法能把110美元用得让我家人更开心。

Which takes me back to the original point. Its worth it， as a parent or individual or fair-weather fan， to take in the live NBA experience. Im not a shill， I dont work for the league， I dont care for its owners， and Im not even a Pacers fan. Im also mindful of the fact that， after $110， the whole crew wont be going out to dinner for a while.

这又让我回到了最初的起点。无论作为家长还是一般的球迷，现场看一次NBA比赛都是值得的。我不是托儿，我不为联盟工作，我不关心球队老板，我甚至不是步行者球迷。我还很清楚地意识到，花掉110美元后，我们一家子很久都不能出去吃饭了。

I got my hoops fix in， watching one of the NBAs better teams take down one of the NBAs more entertaining crews. For the three members of my family that dont know who Orlando Johnson is， though？ It was an absolute blast. You can go to Pacer games， Indiana， and come out of the stadium without having to wear a barrel and suspenders. Give it a shot.

而我实现了自己的篮球梦想，看着NBA一支更好的球队赢下了另一支更有观赏性的球队。对于我家里其他三个都不知道奥兰多·约翰逊是谁的人来说，又能怎么样？这事绝对值得。印第安纳的同志们，你们完全可以去看步行者的比赛，离开球馆时也不必穿着水桶型的吊带裤。试一试吧。

①NBA官方推出的一种每天都能收看所有比赛的套餐服务，在美国境内可以在电视、移动客户端等三种方式进行购买。联盟通行证目前在NBA收视方面占据了不小的市场份额。

②都是雅虎体育旗下的体育博客，在美国有比较大的名气。

③固定搭配，指在休息日还要工作。

④美国一个专门转让各类门票的网站，转让范围包括体育比赛、演唱会等等，网站会收取买票人10%的佣金。

⑤Bruno Mars，美国著名歌手，因为姓Mars，国内一般戏称为火星哥。

⑥美国摇滚组合，自1972年组团至今，一直以Donald

Fagen和Walter Becker二人为主要搭档，团名取自美国文学大诗人William Burroughs的经典作品《裸体午餐》。《everything must go》和《Two Against Nature》是他们最著名的两张专辑。