Welcome to Back Pages, the space where I share the notes from home games that I scribble in the back of the notebook rather than the primary game notes pages. These are the observations that are important enough to take note of, but not necessarily relevant to the result of the game being played. In short: this is the juicy stuff.

My biking/walking route to the game can very easily take me to Lazy Days Brewing, which mapped out to be a 10-15 minute walk to the Moda Center. I found that that was a perfect amount of time to spend walking to and from a big event. Build up excitement upon approach, and release extra energy upon leaving. The nachos at Lazy Days were good, they had a dozen beers on tap, many of them interesting styles, and two of them definitively good. There is street parking that you can pay for on event days for 5 hours. I did not pay for my spot, and I did not get punished. My friend K did the same one block north of me, and got ticketed. Act at your own peril.

Lazy Days gets a B+ for a Fire Pre-Game Venue.

I hope to try a new place as frequently as I can, and will continue to make recommendations. Let me know if you’d like to meet up before any of the home games!

Los Angeles Sparks star Kelsey Plum was my favorite thing on Sunday evening. She was talking shit to all of the first-game fans in the stadium, and rightfully so, because they were chirping at her as well. She is one of the premiere Gamers in the league, someone who isn’t afraid of the moment, who embraces the support and the antagonism of stardom, and who is a total killer. Thankfully, some brave man sitting in row 10 defeated Plum in a game of 30-yards-away-from-each-other Rock-Paper-Scissors. Plum dutifully took a seat upon defeat.

Texting with several groups of friends and being able to piece together exactly where they were sitting throughout the game was a really special occurrence. I’ve never had that many, or that broad of a selection of friends attend the same basketball game, or any sports game. I basically knew someone in every corner of the building, and I’m sure I knew another 50 people there, if not way more. I cannot wait to run into friends, teammates, coworkers, neighbors, enemies, celebrities, fellow bloggers, city council members, my local librarians, and so many more people this season.

I really liked the communication and engagement from the bench players in street clothes for the Fire. Emily Engstler was talking to everybody, Meg Gustafson seems like a consistently vocal teammate, and everybody was on their feet whenever they could be. I really do think this group is invested in their own and each other’s success in this expansion season experience. I think we have a great group here.

I spend the second half of the game sitting with my friend K who sits in the lower bowl, and I want to give a big shoutout to the person who decided that this was their section, and we were going to be engaged and on the same page as a group. They organized a synced chant and arm wave that was deployed to distract the Sparks players while shooting free-throws. The Sparks shot 64% from the line in that half. That is really bad. Great job, Fire fans.

This blog is based on optimism and good faith, but you simply must give yourself moments to vent. I’ll be doing that here, when I really need to let people know about something that could definitely be improved at gameday.

For this first home game, which is being staffed by tons of new people and almost exclusively new bosses, had a huge problem with admission: the bag policy. Every bag that was bigger than a medium or small fanny pack was deemed “too large”, and everyone with said large bags had to go wait in a single, giant, slow line to get into the building. I ended up taking out all of the things in my shoulder/camera bag, put them all in my pockets, folded the bag up and put it in my pockets, and then they let me walk in.

If you were stuck using the line, you had to stash your bag in a locker. You weren’t even allowed to have the bag in the stadium!

This policy stinks, and it needs to be better communicated, or excommunicated. Pick one (or both).

This will be an ongoing season where I hopefully try most, if not all, of the concession booths at the Moda Center, home of the Portland Fire, to let you know where you should be spending your half-times.

I skipped any real food for this first pre-season game, but one of my partners in Portland women’s sports, V, came through vital Moda Center research: you can get cans of “cheap” beer for under $6. She told me this while I was walking out from getting a Premium Draft at a Good Local Brewery stand which cost me $18.50 after tip. Portland loves a can of domestic beer, and we’re gonna love this surprisingly affordable version of it at a professional sports venue.

Concession Rankings:

Coming Soon!