Inside the arena

Yesterday Sweet Hubby and I did something I didn't even know until recently was available to do.  We took a tour of this city's big indoor sports and concert arena.

Yesterday was our 18th anniversary, so I had signed us up for the tour to give us something special and interesting to do.  And it was,  indeed, very interesting to be given a glimpse into stars' dressing rooms, press rooms, equipment rooms, private lounges, upscale restaurants, passageways; to see the arena from below and high above.  When we walked from one dressing room down a hallway that led to the arena itself, I got a strong sense of how it might feel to be somebody like Tim McGraw (the next concert act on the schedule), a normal sized person walking into a gigantic open space full of up to 18,000 cheering people who have paid and gone to some logistical effort for you to entertain them.  No wonder stars have big egos.  You would have to have a strong sense of yourself in order to believe that you can give all these people their money's worth; that you can hold their attention and deliver value.  Wow.

The tour took about an hour and a half, and we got about 6,000 steps on our Fitbits.  Our tour guide was working way too hard to be entertaining, which was a bit annoying until we realized he is a trainee and that the man who was trailing us, supposedly just to make sure we didn't get lost, was actually the trainer.  Then I became more compassionate for how hard the guide was trying to get it right and not embarrass himself.  He, too, was someone who was doing his best to give us value for the money we had paid.

I came away from this tour determined to go back to the arena as an audience member, to attend an ice hockey game and women's basketball game, to cheer on my city's teams.  One of each sport might be plenty, but I'm more interested now than I was before I got to know this gigantic complex, which is widely known for being the first net zero certified arena in the world, setting a standard for climate action with a commitment to be at net zero carbon by 2040.  It is even called the Climate Pledge Arena.  I'm proud to live in the city that is home to such a forward-thinking business and business model.