The Beginning...

It's Thursday, August 2nd. I'm walking home from work at about 7:30 PM CST. It has been approximately one year since what my friends deemed "Summer of Drew," when I toured America visiting all of the sites and baseball stadiums. I begin to think how challenging, if not impossible that would have been to accomplish in 2006 had I been responsible for a job and not had several thousands of dollars saved in my bank account.

A few steps later I realized that I had just challenged myself to complete a similar task with a real job and without the money I once had. I try and ignore this idea, but unfortunately its not going away.

My goal is to visit all 29 NBA Arenas around the nation. Now many of you may say "Wait, there are 30 teams!" Yes, there are 30 teams, but the LA Lakers and LA Clippers both play at the Staples Center. I will however, be sure to attend both a Lakers and Clippers game, making it 30 games.

This will clearly be a much more difficult challenge for several reasons:
1) I'm out of disposable income. I pay a hefty price for monthly rent and have spend so much money in the past 14 months that I'm left with little finances to pursue such a goal.
2) Availability of tickets. NBA Arena seat about 1/2 as many people as Baseball stadiums. The rules of Supply and Demand tell us that ticket prices will be substantially higher than a $7 upper deck baseball ticket.
3) Location of NBA cities. Teams are located in spots such as Salt Lake City, Denver, Memphis, and New Orleans; making it difficult to group games together.
4) Career. Believe it or not, I have a career now and I only have weekends and very limited vacation time to make these happen.
5) Weather. In case you forgot, I now live in Milwaukee. Between this city and Chicago, there are numerous flight delays, making it difficult to plan to be at a game on time if I have a flight the same day.

So that's how my thinking got started...Stay tuned for future updates on this project...Will it become a reality, or will if fizzle?

oh, and in case you forgot what happened last time and how motivated I am:

30drew2006.shutterfly.com