A Night at The Garden Cheering WNBA's Liberty Team

A Night at The Garden Cheering WNBA’s Liberty Team

Written by Carol Cain on 28 August 2009

A week ago tonight, I was the lucky recipient of two tickets to watch the WNBA’s New York Liberty play against The Connecticut Sun at Madison Square Garden. I have written about events at The Garden before. But there’s nothing like watching a game at there.

It had been some time since I had gone to watch a game, and even longer since I had gone to watch a WNBA game. I believe that unless you watched these ladies play before, you really don’t know what to expect from them. And, honestly, I had forgotten.

I was feeling a bit drained from a list long of activities the days before. I was hoping to take my 11 year old, but alas, my failure to keep better track of things caused for conflict with his football schedule. Yes, it was one of those weeks. So, I went with my sister.

We entered The Garden on time, my sister full of excitement, me feeling as if each step required a bit of an effort. Our seats were great. We had court side seats, a row of about five seats, all to ourselves. We weren’t there too long before we were approached for our personal order from the concession stand (a service that is available when sitting in this area and which also comes with delivery of your order to your seat). My sister noticed almost immediately once we walked in how incredibly friendly and helpful everyone was there. Having gone to The Garden several times before, I had come accostumed to their great service and hospitality, which always makes going there a pleasure for me.

There was some entertainment from the Libery Mascot and The Liberty Dancers, announcing of the players, singing of the National Anthem, and so forth, and then the game started.

And with the first bounce of the ball the game became this incredible, intense sight of force, agility, speed, and skill. These women are no joke, and neither are their fans. My sister and I were surrounded by fans who knew not only the names of each player, but also of the coaches. It was incredibly entertaining to watch them yell and jump and cheer. But watching the players was even more entrancing, and before I knew it, I was joining the fans in yelling and cheering, and all the raucous that goes with being into the game.

And what a game! We cheered and jumped. At one point I swore we had won, but realized that there were 21 seconds left…and just like that a tie. Overtime. I sat there, twittering, nervously eating the chips that had been served to me, not believing it. We were ahead, then tie, then they were ahead, then tie…and then, just before the bell ran to single the final score WE WON!

We couldn’t believe it! We laughed and danced right along with all the other fans, people who you know have season tickets and never miss a game…yeah, there we were too. It was so fun, I had forgotten all about my exhaustion, or my bad week. I could feel myself loosing my voice, but as my sister and I walked out, going over and over our favorite moments, we were full of energy and excitement and all the adrenaline of a true fan who had just watch their team play an amazing game, and win.

Ah, good times.

It was such a great time, we had almost forgotten about the t-shirt that had been thrown into the crowd by one of The Liberty Dancers, had bounced off several people’s hands as they reached for it, hit my sister on the head, rolled off her cap, and landed right on her lap as she just sat there. That one t-shirt and how it came to her, was so exciting to us, that we screamed from the top of our lungs, and jumped up and down as we hugged each other in disbelief (I am literally laughing remembering this moment)!

And it was in that moment, when the fans we thought were “no joke” all turned and looked at us smiling and pointing, probably thinking that when it comes to hard core WNBA fans we’ve got them all beat. And, you know what? That night, we absolutely were.

There are still three (3) regular season Liberty games left! Check out this link for promo code and discount!

Check site for more information on Madison Square Garden Seating and Pricing for Liberty Games 2009.