And the UFC Fight Night Winner Was…Hyatt and Uber?
I took a little trip down memory lane this weekend when I attended my first UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) event in a decade. Before I was miles and points savvy, my hobby (or 5 night a week obsession) for several years was Muay Thai and a little bit of Brazillian jujitsu.
I used to travel to Las Vegas or Atlantic City to see my favorite fighters in person. The the Ultimate Fighter and ticket prices took off and my enthusiasm waned. But when it was announced UFC Fight Night was happening in Fairfax, VA my friends talked me into going. 🙂
But how to go? Parking and traffic would be horrendous and the “Fight Night” was actually “Fight Day” because the first fight was scheduled at 11AM so as not to compete with the Final Four.
I wanted to Uber, but that would be pretty expensive from where we lived. BUT it wouldn’t be too bad from the Hyatt Fairlakes and it was a perfect excuse to get a stay towards status the night before.
My friends could meet me there in the morning, at least two of us could get the breakfast buffet comped through my Diamond status (turns out all 4 of us did), and then we could Uber from there to the Patriot Center.
Plus, since all rooms are “suite-sized” I was guaranteed there would be enough room and comfortable seating for us to do a little pre-gaming on our bubbly/mimosas of choice.
Thanks to RideGuru it only took 60 seconds to confirm my idea was a good one, and I could even gauge if it was worth doing Uber Black to ensure the 4 of us were more comfortable.
We went with the Uber Black, a great use of one of my remaining free rides up to $30 and I was earning Starpoints 🙂 In retrospect we should opted to end the ride a block or two before the Patriot Center and walk the rest of the way to save $10 in waiting, but we eventually made there one or two minutes before the first preliminary fight.
It was a good time and an interesting update of my memories. I’m sure concession prices are on par with other sporting events, but as it had been a few years I was rather appalled at $10-$15 for a domestic beer and was glad I’d had a mimosa or two first.
But I did get to see the latest (at least to me) beverage technology that fills your cup from the bottom, using a magnetic flap to reseal it.
Overall the fights were pretty good. We were sitting in section 102 about halfway up, with a good view of the ring, and within earshot to hear the corners yelling things like “Suck it up” 🙂
Even with that benefit, not sure it was worth the $100+ ticket price.
Other than the thrill of live fights, my big highlight of the day was almost getting a chance to get another picture with Bruce Buffer, the announcer to update the one from a decade ago.
I took a little bit of ribbing from my friends for my plan, but the final verdict was it fun day made stress free thanks to Hyatt and Uber.
At breakfast on Saturday were you seated in the corner? I think we were at the table next to you.
We were! Were you the couple sitting to my left? Did you all go to the UFC?
Yep – that was us. We weren’t going to the UFC, just doing a cheap night mattress run ($65!). Overheard the table talking about UFC then saw this post and put two and two together.