We’ve been in Tlaquepaque for five weeks now, and haven’t seen a drop of rain – until last night, after we decided to attend our first outdoor sporting event in Mexico.
The three of us decided to go to a Mexican futbol – Americans know it as soccer – game. Guadalajara hosts two teams that play in the top Mexican league, Liga MX. I initially wanted to go and see the better team, the Chivas, but it turns out that their stadium is pretty far away from our apartment, not near public transportation and difficult to get an Uber from after the game. So we decided to go see Atlas play. They play in an older stadium, Estadio Jalisco, and currently sit next to last in the league.
Buying Tickets
We started looking online for tickets and the site we went to told us that there were less than 4% of seats available for last night’s game, with the cheapest tickets being in the $40-$60 USD range. I found that hard to believe, so we asked the owner of the language school, and he told us that unless the game was against the Chivas, we could get cheaper tickets at the stadium.
We decided to get to the stadium an hour early so we could get our tickets and hopefully avoid the crowds. Unfortunately, after waiting nearly 15 minutes for our Uber driver, we arrived later than we wanted and crowds were forming. We managed to find the ticket kiosk, got into a line, and buy tickets for really good seats for just $12 each. When we got inside the stadium, we discovered that there wasn’t assigned seating, and that our tickets were good for a fairly large section of the stadium. So we found three seats and settled in to watch the game, which was set to begin at 9 PM. I’m not sure why there is a 9 PM start, but that seems to be the standard start time. A little late for me, but I can make a special occasion out of it.
It was only then we realized a second difference from US events – smoking was allowed in the stadium, which was pretty unpleasant for Lexie and Lisa. Lisa was prepared with ear plugs for Lexie as the noise was pretty loud before the game. The game started, with thousands of empty seats, so we learned never to trust that online ticket site again. The noise also subsided a bit as people and the PA system focused on the game.
The First Half
The game was as exciting as any US football game, with lots of running back and forth across the field. Vendors walked through the stands hawking cervesas (beer), donuts, palmitas (popcorn) and an assortment of Mexican snacks, and half the crowd wore bright red and black Atlas jerseys.
In the first half, Atlas didn’t convert on several good scoring opportunities, but the goalie made some impressive saves. As the half came to an end, Lisa noticed that a light rain had started. Rain? We hadn’t even seen rain before in Guadalajara. We were sitting under an upper deck, so we stayed dry, but we saw drops plop onto the heads of people sitting a couple rows in front of us.
The Second Half
The second half was still scoreless, and we kept rooting for Atlas to hold on and tie the game, although the Tigres had a couple of scoring opportunities. Regulation time ended with the game still tied, but a late, very questionable (at least in my mind), call resulted in a penalty kick for the Tigres, which they converted to a goal 3 minutes into the 4 minutes of injury time. Final score: 1-0. It was a disappointing loss for our new team.
Uber Adventures
It was still lightly raining when we left the stadium. We tried to beat the crowd and inevitable traffic jam by walking a few blocks before calling Uber. Our driver was just four minutes away, but after keeping us waiting 20 minutes, and giving us a thumbs up that he was still coming, he unceremoniously cancelled on us, leaving us wet on a street corner in what was now a big traffic jam.. (Anyone know how to give a bad rating to shithead Uber drivers who ditch you and leave you standing in the effing rain?) We walked a few blocks farther down to a main road where we waited for another driver, along with two other groups doing the same thing.
We got back to the apartment a bit before midnight, a little soggy, but having had an enjoyable evening. We’ll definitely do it again. Go, Atlas!
(Lisa’s note: Rooting for the Atlas is like rooting for the Mets. Most people root for the popular, winning Chivas, Guadalajara’s version of the Yankees. But we prefer the underdog!)
