The scramble to find alternate places to watch is, to be quite honest, a pain in the ass. For seasons prior, not only would we need to find a place that would take us in whenever there was a UFC PPV, but also when our university's Game was on The Pac-12 Network, that oft-derided channel that apparently no one in the United States got. I had to ask for help to find places that had satellite carriers that had the P12N. Fortunately, we finally found a place out in St. Paul that had it, so we were able to watch there one, two or, as was the case last season, four times. They were a good place, but there is nothing like having only one restaurant to which we can all regularly go, and once our college moved into the Big Ten, the need to have a back-up bar vanished, thankfully.
Still, there are conflicts, and I need to be aware if and when I need to find a secondary place (like the one in St. Paul) if and when there is a Saturday in which there is little to no chance the people who want to watch our Game will have any space. I swear that would happen by now. It hasn't, not really. The UFC PPVs are monthly, but so far there we have completely missed each other. Meanwhile, there was one week where our Game overlapped this other alumni groups Game by, like, an hour, but their Game was a non-conference one against some low-major or second-division team, so none of their alumni cared to come and therefore we had plenty of space to watch what we wanted to watch. Every other week so far, either our Games have been on separate time windows, one of our teams is on a bye, or, in this week's case, our Game is on Friday while theirs is on Saturday. (Want to note that there is a UFC PPV this Saturday afternoon at 1, and both of our Game Watches are going to be able to avoid that. Our Game is Friday night, their team has the week off!)
Sadly, that bullet-dodging ends next Saturday -- at least for me, not the group, and not for either conflict I detailed above. Our Game is at 6:30. The other alumni group's Game is at 2:30, and there obviously is no UFC PPV. However, I am a Minnesota United FC season-ticketholder, and there is an MNUFC playoff Game going on at 8 for which I have automatically been charged for a ticket. Whenever there has been a conflict between the Loons and my alma mater, I have always sided with watching with my fellow alumni and friends, and I would either sell or give away my MNUFC ticket to a friend. However, because I have already paid for this ticket, because this is a playoff Game, and because my college football team absolutely sucks right now, I'm going to the Game. But first, to make sure everything is all set, I am going to get there early, buy a beer so I don't look like I'm loitering, make sure there are people coming in to watch and then, around kickoff, leave for St. Paul. I don't like doing this, but considering the sorry state of my alma mater, I don't have a whole lot of angst, to be honest.
I think I can pull this off. What I worry about is my good luck ending because one of our Games later on in the year will finally be on at the same time as the other group's. There is the November UFC event I am scared will cause a conflict also. In either case, I will be in charge of telling everybody where else to go. And by the way, there is an outside chance I will be hired to work a Minnesota Golden Gopher football Game to which I will accept. In that case, I will pray that everything will be alright with my fellow friends, either at our main bar or, worst case scenario, another place I will have to scramble to find, organize, then hope for the best.
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