America's Road to Wealth

"In the blink of an eye, my little Abel is so big."

Houston, in a villa in the River Oaks neighborhood.

Arya Smith looked at the heroic young man in front of her with emotion and couldn't help but say.

Alex said: "As time goes by, you and I are getting older~"

Seeing the sighs of the two old men, Abel quickly changed the topic:

"That's right. When I was on the road, grandpa, you said there was a program in the evening. What program was there?"

"Hey hey hey~"

Alex laughed hearing him say this.

In his wife's helpless eyes, the old guy fumbled in several pockets on his body.

Then - "Dang Dang Dang~~" Alex shouted loudly and took out three things that looked like movie tickets.

Abel took a closer look and found that there should be three football tickets.

He took it, looked at it, and found that it was a ticket for an MLB game.

MLB is the abbreviation of Major League Baseball and is one of the four major professional leagues in the United States.

The NBA, which is well-known to people in China, is also one of the four major players.

Among the four majors, if we have to talk about rankings, we can look at the data of ratings, number of fans and attendance.

In terms of ratings, the most popular one is obviously the NFL, that is, football.

The NFL's annual Super Bowl can be called America's Spring Festival Gala, a big party.

The Yankees, a famous NFL team, are more famous in the United States than the Bulls, Lakers, Celtics, etc. combined.

Below the NFL, it’s the turn of the MLB league, which is baseball.

At the bottom are ice hockey and basketball, which are constantly competing for third place.

Sometimes it's third in the NBA, sometimes it's third in the NHL, which is hockey.

But this is only if you count the United States, if you include Canada.

The NBA is completely at the bottom because ice hockey is very popular in Canada.

And if in the United States, in terms of the number of fans, baseball ranks first!

This is related to its extremely high popularity rate. Basically, every American has a favorite baseball team, but not necessarily a favorite football team.

As for the attendance rate, it’s hard to say. The basketball court is the smallest, so maybe the basketball attendance rate is the highest.

Like most American families, the Smiths have their favorite baseball teams.

That baseball team is the Texas Rangers.

The reason why I like the Rangers is not only because the family has a small share of the team.

Also because the Rangers play home in Arlington, which is only about twelve miles from Fort Worth.

And the city of Arlington is under the jurisdiction of Tarrant County.

This is a hometown team, and if Tarrantians don't support it, why should they support the Astros in Houston?

"Astros vs. Rangers~Oh, the last cross-league game is Texas' own derby."

After looking at the tickets, Abel smiled and said: "It's still a VIP seat. Dear Alex, it cost you money. Okay, I'll go find two girlfriends to watch the game together. Don't waste money." These three tickets.”

The old man puffed his beard and glared, trying to grab the tickets, "Give it back to me, I can only give you one. The rest belong to me and Arya. If you have a girlfriend, go buy it yourself!!"

Abel stepped aside to prevent the ticket from being snatched away by his grandfather, and said with a smile: "Be careful, don't tear the ticket!"

Alex didn't really want to grab his tickets, he was just pretending. The grandfather and grandson were used to this way of getting along.

"Okay." As usual, Arya smiled and came out to be the peacemaker:

"Stop grabbing it. Abel, if you can really find two girlfriends, then I can give you the game tickets. So, where is your girlfriend?"

"My girlfriends are all working and they are very busy. So in the evening, I can only go watch it with my grandpa and grandma."

Seeing Abel saying these words indifferently, Arya felt something in her heart.

She had some ideas.

But seeing that Alex was about to confront Abel again, she suppressed this idea in her heart for the time being.

He smiled and made peace between the grandfather and grandson.

After dinner, Abel drove.

Alex and his wife sat in the back car, while other bodyguards drove in other cars in front and behind.

The motorcade set off for the venue of tonight's MLB Texas Derby.

It is also the home stadium of the Houston Astros, and is still known as the Houston Astros Stadium.

In parallel time and space, this stadium will be two years from now.

The Coca-Cola Company paid an annual fee of approximately US$6 million to name Minute Maid Park.

It's not a long drive from the old couple's villa.

In about half an hour, we arrived near the stadium.

This half hour was mainly wasted on getting near the stadium, as the road became particularly congested.

Tonight is the Astros VS Rangers, a big showdown between the only two MLB teams in Texas.

Still in Texas, the last game of this year's MLB preseason.

Not only local fans in Houston, but also a large number of capable and wealthy Texas fans.

Especially the fans from Tarrant County, almost all of them who had the ability and money came over.

The stadium obviously cannot accommodate so many people, and the tickets have long been sold out.

But these loyal fans can't even enter the stadium to watch the game.

They are also happy to watch the real-time broadcast and listen to the cheers inside the stadium from a distance of hundreds of meters in the square outside the stadium.

As a result, too many people will come.

So much so that the stadium was so crowded and blocked.

"It's so lively." Abel, who was driving, couldn't help but sigh.

After being born again, Abel rarely drove.

At the beginning, I just made money in New York and bought several sports cars.

Ferrari, Porsche, Pagani, Lamborghini and America’s own supercar, the Corvette.

It was okay at the beginning, after all, you can't be said to be poor before rebirth, but you won't be able to get something like a sports car in your life.

After rebirth, if you have money, you can open these things that you couldn't touch before.

He was naturally quite excited at the beginning and enjoyed it very much.

But New York's traffic jams are famous, and Manhattan's traffic jams are famous all over the world.

Driving a sports car while stuck on the streets of Manhattan.

This kind of taste is sour and refreshing.

After the novelty wore off, he quickly got tired of supercars.

Later, except for a few times when picking up girls, he rarely drove by himself.

This time it was mainly because of his grandparents that he volunteered to be a driver.

It's fine when you're in the city center, but when you drive near the stadium, it's extremely congested.

Fortunately, he is not "fighting" alone, but also with the Cadillac Escalade he drives.

There were four other cars around, driven by his bodyguards.

Four cars surrounded him in front and behind, and they also opened the way for him.

Abel only needs to follow behind the Toyota Sequoia in front, and he doesn't have to worry about being rear-ended or rear-ended.

In other words, you are not afraid of being rear-ended, since it is your own car anyway.

Traffic jams for rich people are so simple and unpretentious.

"There's going to be a big game tonight." Alex is obviously a baseball fan, and he still loves it even though he's seventy years old.

"Everyone is here, so of course it's very lively. Alexander said he wanted to come, but I didn't prepare a ticket for him!!"

Arya was eager to expose her husband's boast, as her son Alexander did not express it as such.

Also, Alexander is not a baseball fan.

But Abel was able to expose his grandpa's bragging without Arya appearing.

"Don't come here. Grandpa, my dad doesn't like baseball. He only likes football." Abel exposed it mercilessly.

Alexander, who is more than two meters tall and as strong as a bear, was the captain of the school team in college.

Alex was a little angry, but couldn't argue.

They are all family members, who can be deceived by this kind of thing.

The old man changed the subject, "Humph. Let's not talk about it anymore. Look, the stadium is beautiful, right? The Astros' home stadium just opened this year."

Already arriving at the parking lot, the motorcade did not enter the public parking lot.

Under Alex's guidance, the motorcade drove into the VIP parking lot of the stadium.

This parking lot is not large and there are not many cars parked there.

But they are basically luxury cars, because this is where only fans who have bought VIP tickets can park and enter.

After parking the car, Abel looked towards the stadium not far away.

The former site of this baseball stadium is Houston Union Station. The architectural design of the stadium cleverly retains the old building of the station and serves as the entrance.

It looks a bit retro, but is surrounded by modern buildings, which is very beautiful.

It was obviously not Alex's first time here, and the old man was familiar with the way to lead the way.

As he walked, he said, "This golf course is quite well built. It's much more beautiful and much bigger than our American Stadium."

Abel shrugged, "There's no comparison. American Stadium opened in 1994, when I was only fourteen years old. Now I'm twenty, and this stadium just opened this year."

For things like stadiums, new ones are certainly better than old ones.

What's more, Houston's population, economy, etc. are far larger than Arlington.

It's normal for Astros Stadium to be better and bigger than Ameriquis Stadium.

"Okay. What you said makes sense. But I still like American Football Stadium. Hey, I designed its locker room!" Alex said.

Three generations of the Smith family all graduated from Rice University.

Albert University studied fine arts, Alexander University studied business, and Alex University studied interior design.

It's just that after graduation, Alex and his son went back to inherit the family business honestly.

The grandfather and grandson walked into the VIP channel of the stadium while chatting.

They are not the only ones here at the VIP channel.

There are other guests who bought VIP seats, and these guests are all wealthy people.

It is said that the price of tonight's game tickets, the most common ticket, has been raised to 80 US dollars a piece.

You should know that in normal times, it only costs $12 a piece.

In the MLB league, the home ticket prices of each team are different.

Generally speaking, prices in the Eastern Division, especially on the East Coast, are a little more expensive.

For example, the tickets for the famous Yankees are usually 15, 25, 150, or 325 yuan.

Here in Houston, it's usually 12, 20, 100, 220.

Now because it is a special derby, scalpers are getting fired.

It is said that the 220 US dollar game tickets were obtained for thousands of dollars.

But these are actually just ordinary tickets. In addition to these tickets, there are also VIP tickets.

There are two ways to get VIP tickets.

One is rich and can buy it directly. The usual price is one thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight dollars.

The other is having a relationship, such as having a relationship with the team's top management, such as the team's top management taking the initiative to send you tickets.

As for Alex and Abel, they didn’t know whether it was the latter or the former.

If it's the former, it will probably cost a lot of money.

Unless purchased in advance, today's VIP tickets are estimated to cost at least five to six thousand US dollars.

VIP tickets are expensive for a reason.

VIP parking lot, VIP entrance channel, VIP seat guide, seats with the best view, VIP gifts, free drinks, snacks, etc.

For wealthy people, this kind of cost can enjoy this kind of superior service.

It couldn't be better, or even cheaper.

Ten minutes later, Abel was already sitting on the bustling stadium with his grandparents.

After sitting in his seat, Abel judged that Alex's game ticket should not be simply bought with money.

Because their seats were right next to the away team's Rangers dugout.

Not far away on the left is Anthony, the head coach of the Rangers, who has already entered the stadium.

Even if you have money, you probably won't be able to buy this location.

Reminiscent of the fact that the Smith family is a minority shareholder of the Rangers, Alex is also a senior baseball fan, and he probably participated in the rebuilding of the Rangers back then.

Being able to sit here is most likely because of this relationship, not just money.

"It's so lively."

After sitting in his seat, Abel, who was watching such a large-scale competition for the first time since his rebirth, couldn't help but sigh.

He looked around and found that all the seats were basically occupied.

Alex just said that this new stadium can accommodate about 41,000 spectators.

If extra seats are provided, 42,000 to 43,000 people can fit in.

In this situation tonight, it is obviously a case of extra seats.

In other words, there are likely to be more than 42,000 spectators at the venue.

In terms of atmosphere, it was naturally packed with people and loud drums and gongs.

In this atmosphere, even Abel couldn't help but feel a little excited.

It is difficult for people who have never been to a large sports match or a large concert to experience this feeling.

Humans are group animals. When a group gets excited together about something.

That feeling is indescribable in words.

The young billionaire was as excited as a child.

But he suddenly saw his grandfather, Alex stood up.

He also saw Alex saying hello to the lower left, where the Rangers dugout was.

"Hey, Herbert. Good evening. I didn't expect you to come too." Alex said loudly with a smile.

The team dugout on the lower left.

There were several entourages behind him, and an old white man who was smiling and talking to the team's head coach and staff looked up and saw Alex and Abel.

Then a smile broke out on his face and he shouted back to Alex:

"Hey, it's you. Alex, I knew it. The others might not come. But you will."

"Haha~" Alex said with a smile: "I can't help it, because I love baseball!"