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I’m a bit of a contest hound. I’m not an extremest like those people that spend hours every day entering contests online (at least I’m not anymore) but being equal parts math-y and gamble-y I do love me some good odds. And while I’ll admit that contests generally don’t offer odds that could be described as anywhere near “good”, the fact that contest entries tend to be free amps up their investment value considerably.
I don’t usually bother with the Hail-Mary type of contests; ones with worldwide entry and only one prize. No, I prefer contests that are open only to Canadian residents (except people living in Quebec. For some reason those poor souls never seem to be allowed to enter contests) or even better, ones that are open only to my province or even my neighbourhood. I especially like the contests that require a physical ballot or some sort of writing requirement…I’ve got my tricks. And they pay off too. For example, in the months leading up to this ticket story I won 2nd prize in both the Glebe Spree ($1,000 to be spent in local shops) and an M&M’s online contest ($500 cheque) and in the months following it m’lady and I won a pair of ZZtop tickets from the local paper and two different prizes from a nearby furniture store (a rug and a comforter). Not bad, huh?
Getting to the win at hand, I noticed that the Ottawa Senators were having a contest at their annual fan-fest and that there would be about a hundred prizes to be given away. The contest would be ballot-only and furthermore the ballots had to be picked up in advance at Canadian Tire. I further noticed that the weatherman was calling for rain on the day of the outdoor event so I figured maybe a thousand people (tops) would show up and less than half of them would know (or bother) to bring a ballot with them. In short it looked like a slam-dunk of a contest entry so I drove all the way out to the rural rink through the driving rain and dropped my totally-legal-but-specially-doctored ballot into the box.
Of course my name got pulled.
But instead of winning one of the big prizes (which included trips to Montreal to watch the Sens take on the Habs) I won one of fifty pairs of tickets to an upcoming game. But here’s the catch (and why it’s good to read the rules): the promo claimed that the tickets would be in a corporate box but when I picked them up I immediately noticed that the tickets were in the upper 300 levels, which are the cheapest seats in the house. I called and wrote (and called again, and again) and finally got through to someone at SensCo that took my complaint seriously, and they offered me 100 level tickets. Feeling cocky with my success I pressed my already extended luck and asked specifically for tickets directly behind the players bench and to my joy and surprise the dude told me he’d see what he could do.
Turned out he did pretty good.
So on October 5th, 2019, following an afternoon whiskey-wake at Irene’s Pub to honour my dear late friend Bradm, I stumbled to my soon-to-be brother-in-law’s house and we drove out to the game – okay, he drove while I passenged (and slurred on endlessly about everything but hockey) – where we took in what might stand as my final live Ottawa Senators home game (it’s not like I’m dying or anything – not noticeably anyway – rather, I’ve moved away) from just across the aisle from the row behind the player’s bench. Matter of fact I was seated adjacent to the backstage tunnel so I was able to rain high-fives down onto the players’ gloves several times over the course of the evening.
And while this was an enormous step up from the only other time Phil and I saw a game at the Canadian Tire Centre together (when I discovered that yes, I was indeed alone in appreciating the super-cheap standing-room-only section behind the upper rim of the bleachers), the game itself was lousy. The Sens were at the beginning of an embarrassingly bad season – one that was only improved when all sports worldwide were cancelled due to a planetary pandemic – and the fumbling, stumbling team was painful to watch, especially from up close.
Sure, I might have won the tickets, but the stupid ugly stinking Rangers won the game. The final score was 4-1.
Todd Man Out 