Two Games One Weekend
The second weekend in November usually means taking a trip somewhere for me and my wife to celebrate our wedding anniversary. This year our favorite collegiate and professional football teams happen to be playing in the city of Nashville on consecutive nights. For University of Kentucky fans the journey into Nashville is pretty routine. The football team plays there every other year and also has played a couple of games at LP Field vs Western Kentucky. The basketball teams have a game there every season but also turn Nashville to UK blue when the SEC basketball tournament is being held at Bridgestone Arena (is it still Bridgestone?) The Cincinnati Bengals have a far less frequent history with Nashville with the last game there against the Titans being in 2011. For a Bengal fan living in Northern Kentucky it is a short four hour drive to the Music City. There are many fans, like myself , who happen to be fans of both football teams and I would expect a number of those fans to be populating the restaurants and bars of Lower Broadway that weekend.
Book That Room Now
I usually stick to a rule of getting my room booked at least 90 days in advance but I missed on this one by a few days and that probably cost me a few extra bucks. Nashville is one of those towns that, if you know for sure you are going, it's best just to go ahead and grab something that has a flexible cancellation policy. I usually book something flexible and continually check for better rates. My current reservation for this trip has us staying at the Embassy Suites near Vanderbilt. It's a property that I've stayed at before and any property that offers shuttle service to the downtown area is a huge plus in my book.
Outside The Box
Sometimes the high prices of staying in downtown Nashville are just too much to justify. You will find the rates to be slightly, or even signifcantly lower as you look toward the West End of Vanderbilt area. I've known others to book near the airport or Opryland and, even with the ride sharing fees, have that extra cash available to find a better event ticket or that extra round of drinks on Broadway. For the 2017 SEC Tournament, I found an apartment listed on www.Booking.com that we found for a lower price than nightly hotel rates. My wife and her friends have also used sites like www.VRBO.com to book condos for long weekend trips.
Ticket Strategy
I am not too concerned about aquiring a ticket to the UK game at Vanderbilt. I've attended a couple of these games in Nashville before and would expect there to be plenty of availability right up until kickoff. I will be keeping an eye on all of the ticket sites for the NFL game on Sunday. The proximity factor is the one thing that could make for a higher than normal demand for these tickets. If one, or both, of these teams are having subpar seasons (let's face it, we are talking Bengals and Titans), then the demand may not be there. Based on those factors, it may be best to take a wait and see approach here. So here's to a fun Saturday for Wildcat fans and a fun Sunday for Bengal fans. For those of us cheering for both, remember to pace yourself and have a great weekend in Nashville. Thanks so much for reading.
