Spokane Ticket Sources

Here is the seating chart for the Spokane Arena. The Stanford seats are located in sections ... they don't know yet! As of thursday, they say they will not have assigned sections until they get there. In other news, we hear that Spokane Arena is "nearly sold out." For tickets in whatever section the NCAA finally assigns, call 1-800-STANFORd (1-800-782-6367[3]) and keep hitting "1" at every opportunity until it rings through. If you don't get satisfactory seats from Stanford you can try these:

• Pittsburgh: 1-800-643-7488
• Vanderbilt: 1-877-44-VANDY (1-877-448-2639)
• Maryland's web site

Remember, anyone can append comments on this blog (just below here). If you find something out, please do add a comment! Responding to one comment: the team hotel has usually been the Doubletree, but it has been booked up for some time.

Planning for the Regionals

According to all the pundits, the Cardinal will be a #1 or possibly #2 seed at the Spokane Regional, to be held in Spokane, WA on March 29/31 (Sat/Mon). However, the NCAA selection committee is notoriously unpredictable and one must always allow for the possibility they would go nuts and send the team to New Orleans or to Oklahoma City (Greensboro NC seems too unlikely for even the NCAA). We won't know for absolutely sure until Selection Monday. And of course, there is always the requirement that we (whisper it) have to win two games at Maples first. All right, supposing our team is indeed slated for Spokane, how do you get game tickets? You can order tickets right now from the Spokane Arena website. Of course there is no telling where you will end up sitting (here is their seating chart). The NCAA will not allocate a block of seats for Stanford itself to sell until after the second round game has been played at Maples on March 24th. Those tickets will go on sale at the Stanford Ticket Office the next day—so clear your calendar for Tuesday morning 3/25. Do plan to order these right away that day. Or if you can't, then note the other three schools who are headed for Spokane, some of whom will be farther away and thus would likely have spare tickets. We'll post their ticket office numbers if we can. If you go through either Travelocity or Expedia you can find hotels and motels in the Spokane area which will allow you to cancel a reservation more than 24 hours ahead with no more than a service charge. But read the fine print carefully. If you are in doubt about their policies, it's a good idea to call the hotel's 800 number directly instead of going through the web intermediary. (The team hotel is probably the DoubleTree but forget it, it's booked.) A very useful tip from Su Schaffer: If you book a Senior Citizen fare through Southwest Airlines then if you need to cancel the reservation, your prepaid money is available as a credit with SWA for another flight (like, to New Orleans...). Spokane is a pleasant, compact city and the Spokane Arena is a 3/4-mile walk from the center of town, so it is not essential to rent a car for this trip. However, you will have all day Sunday 3/30 and most of Monday 3/31 to kill, so perhaps you will want a car to go sightseeing. Peter Elderon compiled a good list of local attractions in our FBC Fan Plan. Looking further ahead, the Final Four is in Tampa on April 6/8 (Sun/Tue). Again, the Stanford ticket office will not have seats to sell until the morning of 4/1. Getting to Florida from either SJC or SFO is a tedious business, with very few direct flights. In looking for flights you should investigate all four regional airports: Tampa itself, Fort Meyers (which has many flights, apparently it's a big cruise hub), Orlando (many flights owing to Disney World) and Miami. Figure a 2-hour drive to Tampa from either Orlando or Ft. Myers, and 4 hours from Miami. Most of the large hotels in Tampa are already booked for that weekend but there are lots of outlying ones. Note you can add comments to this entry. If you know anything about these trips, please do!

—Dave Cortesi

Three Fans in Pullman

by Peter Elderon

Peter, Wally Mersereau and Su Schaffer celebrate

Sunday was the second game for this week's FBC road trip, and on Saturday, the hotel in Spokane was basketball central: the St. Mary's team was there to play Gonzaga in a huge game for both teams and the WCC; the B State High School Basketball Championship was ongoing; and then the Stanford team showed up. There was not enough room in the inn, and (KZSU announcer) Jake (Kelman) and a few others had to wait 2 hours before getting a room. While there was still some snow on the ground, winter was retreating, and Sunday was a bright sunny day for driving over the high plains from Spokane to Pullman. This area is apparently the lentil capital of the country with Pullman as host to the yearly National Lentil Festival. The "crowd" in Pullman was somewhat sparse (a reported attendance of 675 in an arena that looks like it could hold 15,000 or more), and only 3 members of the FBC made the trip. These 3 were easily outnumbered by parents of current and former players. However, this meant we all had very good seats for what became an historic day for Candice and Stanford Women's Basketball. Candice started out strong with a series of 3s, but with about 5 minutes to go in the half, the game well in our control and "only" 14 points, she took a seat on the bench. We speculated whether it was likely she would score a point in the second half, but with under 2 minutes to go, Candice was needed back in the game. She promptly scored on a driving lay-up and was fouled. The three of us jumped up to cheer extra loud, but the game went on: she sank the free throw, and then the stadium announcer halted the game to explain why we three were cheering. The ref gave her the game ball, and she somewhat sheepishly handed it to Cissy for safekeeping while the whole crowd gave her a generous round of applause. Unfortunately, the first half also had one very down moment a bit later: Jayne and Heather Molzen, a big, tough player for WSU, got entangled while fighting for a rebound and both fell to the floor where they were clearly hurt. The refs called a foul on each. While Jayne's right hand seemed hurt, Heather appeared to have perhaps broken her wrist or forearm. (Molzen did not return to the game, but fortunately Jayne came out after half-time with only a bandage on her right thumb and played for a few minutes; she rested once the game was clearly won.)

As yet another indicator of why we love Candice, when she was taken out a little bit later, the first thing she did was go down to the end of the bench and ask Jayne if she was ok. The second half was somewhat uneventful, but Stanford did win and thereby clinched the Pac-10 championship. However, Su had gone to the Kinko's near the hotel in Spokane and had made a very nice sign to honor the occasion, and right after the game, the team posed with it to honor Candice once again. - Peter

Wally and Su join the team in celebrating with Candice

Phoenix Car Rentals

Dave Cortesi

On our latest AZ trip we were, if not exactly burned by Thrifty Car Rentals, at least lightly singed by them. We'd used Travelocity months ahead to reserve a "premium" car at a very reasonable $35/day. But when we returned the car the rate had somehow ... swollen ... into a bottom line of $424 for four days. I'm going to break this down and then suggest how to avoid some of it. (And, please don't be shy about adding your comments at the end!)

The Bill

Here's the bill, slightly expanded from the indecipherable abbreviations of the computer printout, based on the explanation from the nice young man at the counter (large blank space courtesy of Blogger)

Item	Cost
Rental fee $35/day times 4	$140.00
Loss Damage Waiver $19.99/day	79.96
Customer Facility Charge $4.50/day	18.00
"Tripsaver" at $4.99/day	19.96
State car rental tax	36.84
State tax 5%	17.39
County Stadium Tax (3.25%)	11.62
"CONCRECFEE" aka "CONCFEERECOV"	32.98
Prepaid fuel	65.78
Total	424.00

Kind of amazing, huh? And not pleasant to find out that your $35/day car had turned into a $106/day car. Now let's take some of those items in detail.

The Infamous LDW

The Loss Damage Waiver is a special insurance policy that protects the renter from owing the rental car company for lost revenue. Suppose the car is damaged, doesn't matter whose fault. Your own, or the other party's, insurance would kick in to cover the cost of repair. But typical policies do not reimburse the rental company for the loss of income while the car is off the road being repaired. So in theory at least, they could come after you for the value of the rental for every day it's in the shop. Or you can kick in $20/day up front and they'll promise not to do that. I have a query in to our insurance company (CSAA) about whether I needed this. Certainly Thrifty did not explain it up front and I feel I was mislead by a deceptively-worded "explanatory" sign at the counter. Normally I'd decline all coverages; now I'm not sure. But certainly this fee, $20/day, ups the original $35 rate by almost 60%.

Customer Facility Charge

At PHX, you take a shuttle to and from the snazzy new Rental Car Terminal. This fee is what it cost you for those shuttle rides and the privilege of using this fine new building. It does seem strange, however, that it is charged per day of rental. So the longer you stay away from the rental terminal, the more you pay. I strongly suspect that if you rent your car in downtown Phoenix, you'd avoid this charge.

"Tripsaver"

This is a flat fee to cover roadside assistance in case of a breakdown. It is useless if you have AAA already. I was fooled into this by that same deceptively-worded sign at the counter. I thought by opting for the "Basic" contract I was declining everything. In fact I was accepting LDW and this. Absolutely needless if you have an AAA card; and in any case, since I didn't know I had it, I wouldn't have known to use it, or how to use it, if I had needed it. Shame on me for being hasty, and on Thrifty for not being more explicit.

State Taxes

AZ apparently levies both a %10 tax and a separate, 5% tax on all car rentals. This is over and above the normal sales tax, which is already included in the $35/day base fee.

County Stadium Tax

The county in which Phoenix is located (Pinal?) is building a stadium and one way they are paying for it is a 3.25% tax on rental cars. All three of these taxes are levied on the total contract including LDW, Tripsaver, and Facility charge. Sheesh.

The Mystic CONCFEERECOV

I have no idea what this is. It is CONCFEERECOV on the contract, and CONCRECFEE on the bill. Concert fee recovery? Concrete Recreation fee? But it came to 11.11%, effectively another day's charge.

Prepaid Fuel

No problem here; pre-buying the fuel in the tank means you don't have to return the car fueled-up, which is convenient, and the amount charged was at or below the street price for gas.

Bottom Line

Be very, very suspicious of offered rates at PHX. Check with your own insurance company to find out if LDW is a good idea or not. Pick up the car in town if possible to avoid the $18 facility charge. Be suspicious of offered rates in general. At Travelocity, they claim their "TotalPrice" is guaranteed. That would be a guarantee of the $140 price of my reservation. Oh, well, except, "Charges for optional services, fuel, insurance waivers, etc. are not included." So the Travelocity TotalPrice Guarantee isn't worth very much.

HOWL!

Dave & Marian Cortesi

"The Pit" -- the basketball arena on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque -- is as impressive as people say. We knew there wouldn't be a lot of Stanford fans there, but Marian had discovered that if you use the mirrors in the Hyatt just right, there could be a lot more Stanford shirts than before! Here is what The Pit looked like an hour before game time. It soon filled with 8711 incredibly supportive fans:They greet every Lobo point with thunderous cheers. They all boo every foul called against the Lobos, not just the questionable calls. And when they are not cheering or booing, they: We enjoyed their time-out entertainment including Sumo-Suit Wrestling,...racing motorized toilet seats, and the mascot, Lady Lobo.Almost lost in a sea of red were 20 or so Cardinal fans including Cissy's Mom and Morgan's parents, Marcella Shorty's sister, and FBC members Wally Mersereau, Su Shaffer, Harriet Benson, and John Melton plus various relatives and friends. The Cardinal wore their black suits and got down to business, We tried to take action shots and as usual were not very successful, but this one was a little less blurry than most, What's happening here? Over on the right, Jayne is taking a shot. But look at Jillian! Before the ball is up, she is already accelerating toward the paint, anticipating a rebound. That, kids, is how you get O-boards... As there was not a lot of suspense in the second half of the game, it probably was appropriate that we had a little post-game suspense. This came about because The Pit is very symmetrical and we came out a different door than we went in by. Which way is north? Which street do we cross? Can Wally find his rental car in an unlighted lot? Where the heck have they hidden the Hyatt Regency, it was right here this morning! & etc. But like the resourceful FBC travellers we are, we solved these problems easily, completing a most successful evening.

How Often...

Douglas Lee ‘85 I’m not sure when we heard about the Paradise Jam, but I decided we had to go. How often do you get to watch your favorite team play in St. Thomas? I have realized the question - “How often…” - has caused me to spend money, but it has also led my family to unique experiences that we cherish.

How often do you get to see your favorite team play in Boise? That was our first trip out of Northern California to watch Stanford play. How often will we get to watch Stanford in the NCAA tournament? This was two seasons ago and we went to Denver and San Antonio. Hopefully, we will have many more of these opportunities.

We planned early to attend the Paradise Jam. Traveling during Thanksgiving is always a challenge, but we found some reasonable flights. The weather cooperated and we had no delays flying from SFO to Dallas to San Juan to St. Thomas or back.

The tour company picked us up at the airport. There was another family on the shuttle. The parents graduated from Stanford in the 90’s, but now they lived in Washington. Their two young daughters didn’t quite understand that they were there to cheer for Stanford. One wanted to cheer for Virginia, a place closer to home for them.

We decided to stay at the team hotel, because how often do you get to do that? The Marriott’s Frenchman’s Reef is a beautiful property perched at the end of a rocky isthmus. It overlooks Charlotte Amalie Harbor. Our room was in a wing built into the rocky hillside that looks out to the Caribbean Sea. The view outside our room was stunning. It was a short walk down to the beach where we had breakfast one morning.

On the path to the beach we encountered many iguanas. They look ferocious... ...but are only aggressive if you have fruit, or red toenails. They chase red toenails because they look like berries.

One morning we rode the water taxi to the downtown area.We shopped for t-shirts and jewelry (there are about 400 shops downtown and over 75% are jewelry stores).For lunch, we found the delicious Gladys’ Café that served more traditional Caribbean fare. The jerked chicken sandwich was delicious as were the fried plantains. Every restaurant has hot sauce, but here they made their own and it was one of the best I tasted the entire trip. The cover of the menu shows Gladys with a platter of scotch bonnets in her hands and another platter balanced on her head. The restaurant is in a converted brick warehouse from the colonial days. We ate well the entire trip. One other memorable meal was at the Banana Tree. It is located on top of a hill in Blackbeard’s castle. Bluebeard also called St. Thomas home. The view of the harbor is stunning and if not for the ugly pool house, the sunset would have been beautiful. The moon was silvery and full as we dined in the open air. The dark rum and brown sugar glazed salmon and double cut pork chops were delicious. St. Thomas has many gourmet restaurants. Oh yeah, there was a little basketball too. All the games are played at the University of the Virgin Islands. The gym is intimate (think mainland high school size). We had great seats for all the games we attended. We sat behind the bench and had a close-up view of the action. We attended some of the other games, even in the St. John division, and got to watch many teams we otherwise might never get to see. Each team has its own personality and style. For me this brings an appreciation of how our team plays and how well they are coached. The games themselves were very exciting. The Stanford versus UCONN game felt like an NCAA tournament game. The ODU game was a very exciting back and forth contest, but we pulled it out at the end. The Temple game was a great comeback and really showed the resilience of this young team. My take away from these three games is how well we played as a team and how each player’s contribution made us successful. I don’t know if Stanford will ever play in St. Thomas again, but if they do, I recommend asking “How often…” Go Stanford!

Stanford vs Temple -- a tale of two halves

By Diana Cordova We are just getting back to the hotel from the game. I must say that this, IMHO, was one of the most impressive comebacks I have witnessed in the 20 years I have been following Stanford women's basketball. Stanford came roaring back in the second half and overcame what seemed to be an insurmountable 17 point halftime lead. The team showed great courage, character, and determination in this most gut-wrenching and stirring comeback. For those of us in the stands, it was an exhausting, emotional night as we did our very best to cheer on the team (especially at the beginning of the second half during the monster 15-0 run). I did not recognize the team that showed up to play that first half. Nothing seemed to work. The offense stalled, everyone was missing shots left and right. What's worse, other than Candice and Jayne, no one seemed to want to shoot the ball. Temple, on the other hand was shooting the lights out. They have a tiny point guard (#21 - Morris) who was simply spectacular. She was very quick and made quite a few 3's in the first half along with some circus shots. She is reminiscent of her coach (Dawn Staley) with the no-look passes, speed, etc. Lady Comfort also played very well for Temple in the first half. The second half was a completely different story. Stanford came out with fire in their eyes and proceeded to shut down the potent Temple offense. Stanford did not allow a point for about the first 8 minutes of the second half while going on a huge offensive run of their own. It was a team effort. Jeannette Pohlen and Jillian Harmon made very important shots and rebounds. Roz draped herself all over #21. The fans were on their feet and before we knew it Stanford had tied the game! There was a worrisome stretch after Stanford tied when they looked a bit tired, Temple began making a few shots, and the refs decided to help the Temple cause with some cheap fouls (leading to Jayne's early departure). Stanford was undeterred, though, and kept playing hard. Candice in particular stepped up her game and saw Stanford through. All in all, this was a very good tournament for Stanford. They got two quality wins against good teams and they found out just how much character they really have. Even in the loss against an outstanding UConn team, they never gave up (the UConn fans were still commenting on Stanford's determination at tonight's game). The season now looks a lot better than it did tonight at half time.

NY Frame of Mind (3) Dogs of Manhattan

Walking at random around Manhattan we kept noticing two things, very sharp-dressed women and some equally stylish dogs. We thought the women might object to being photographed, but the dogs didn't seem to mind...

NY Frame of Mind (2) Streets of Manhattan

Saturday and Sunday we had time to wander the streets of Manhattan. Here are a few pictures. The Lake in Central Park... Joggers in Central Park... View of Liberty from Battery Park... Tourists play with the Wall Street Bull... Old Grumpy walks the Brooklyn Bridge... We noted a lot of women dressed so sharp they could cut... We had a very nice lunch in an upscale food-market. Actually most of the food prices were quite reasonable. Late Sunday there was a basketball game... Quite enough has been written about it elsewhere. "The RAC" is quite a friendly venue. The lower bowl is about the same size as Maples's. The roof is much higher and the cheap seats climb wayyyy up. The band looks good but didn't have a very interesting repertoire or much excitement. But the announced crowd of 4,300 was very noisy and supportive.

NY Frame of Mind (1) Crack Of Dawn

We started this East Coast expedition with a 10pm departure from SFO, arriving in Newark at The Crack Of Dawn. Still in the airport we stopped in a coffee shop so Marian could add a headline to the FBC website before we started the day's travelling. While there we bumped into Richard Nancarrow and Dal Miranda, who unknown to us had been on our same flight. They were flying on to New Haven, but we were going by train, which we shortly did: New Jersey Transit to Penn Station, and an Amtrak train from there to New Haven. Here in Penn station we got considerate, helpful service from two Amtrak employees, which was the start of a trend. Every single clerk, driver, or waiter we dealt with this long weekend was responsive, friendly, and helpful. This in what is supposed to be the home of the brusque attitude. Anyway, off to New Haven. A half-hour walk across New Haven in chilly (40-degree) air... ...brought us to our hotel for a short break; then out again into the cold for a five-minute walk to the modest gym where the lady Bulldogs play. This small place, and the small crowd in it, reminded us of WCC venues like St. Mary's and Pepperdine. There was quite a sprinkling of Stanford fans. Ros's mom was up from NYC and chatted with Richard Nancarrow and Wally Mercereau. The game was mostly fun; blowouts are always fun because there's no worry about winning. The only suspense is, will they reach 100 or not? Which Mel's free-throw did. But Michelle's injury took some of the fun out of it. Tomorrow: at large among the Dogs of New York.

30 Hours at Large in NYC

It is not too soon to start planning your travel to away games in the 2007-08 season. (Ever wonder why other people get those nice window or aisle seats near the front of the plane while you are in the middle at the back? They booked their flight six months before you did, that's why.) The 2007-08 schedule is out. It's still a bit tentative (lots of "TBS" scattered around) but you can get a birds-eye view of the whole season on the new calendar page. For details on the away games, go to the travel page. The first away weekend is November 9-11, an east coast jaunt with a lot of possibilities. The Cardinal plays Friday night at Yale, where the coach is Chris Gobrecht and the assistant coach is Milena Flores! (Do you think Chris would feel warmly nostalgic if a bunch of red-shirted fans started chanting "sit down Chris" in her home gym? Perhaps not...) Then the travelling fan has all of Saturday and much of Sunday free to sample New York city before heading to a Sunday night game at last season's national runner-up Rutgers, in New Jersey. What could you with 30+ hours free in Manhattan? The itinerary we're working on looks like this:

• Fly in to NY Friday (avoiding JFK if possible)
• Bus or airport express to Grand Central or Penn station
• Train to New Haven, CT
• Check into hotel near campus; see game; sleep
• Train back to Manhattan, check into modest uptown hotel
• NYC ad-lib Sat/Sat night/Sunday
• Train to Newark
• Check into hotel near Rutgers campus, see game, sleep
• Monday morning train back to NYC, bus to airport, fly home

That's the version for people who have to work and can only finagle two vacation days to make a 4-day weekend of it. Us retired folks might go earlier and/or stay a bit longer. If you have any ideas on how to improve that itinerary, please add a comment to this post to share them!

When the going is tough, the tough...

...go to the Caribbean! An early feature of the 2007-2008 season will be the Thanksgiving weekend at the Paradise Jam, an annual event in St. Thomas, Virgin islands. Per the Paradise Jam website, in 2007 Stanford will compete with UConn, Duke, ODU, Purdue and Temple—quite a field!

For more information, links, and prices, see the FBC Travel page.