This evening I had to take a short trip down Loop 101 to pick up press credentials for tomorrow night's friendly between América y Chivas de Guadalajara at Cardinals Stadium (note to University of Phoenix ... send a naming rights check to my attention, even a few dollars will do, and I'll change the reference on my blog.)

For those not in the know, I've been writing free-lance sports articles for the Associated Press since the fall of 1992, when my parents invested about $200 in a Radio Shack TRS-100 - used only by a handful of students and a legion of newspaper reporters - and I started covering Arizona State Basketball and the Phoenix Roadrunners of the International Hockey League.

This afternoon I got the call asking me to cover the game, the first live soccer match at the three-month-old stadium. It's the Mexican League's second visit to the Valley in just under two years; in 2005, the league staged a playoff doubleheader at then-Bank One Ballpark in downtown Phoenix.

Cardinals Stadium features about 37 color-coded parking lots (fuchsia go left, periwinkle head south) and, naturally, I chose the wrong one in the dark this evening which led me to Gate 3, where a few dozen fans were waiting for a glimpse of the players on América. Somehow, a few people got inside and proceeded to open the door for the rest, and there was a mad rush at the gate ... all to watch a couple dozen soccer players going through rudimentary drills (which I soon relayed to my son, a midfielder for the local Arizona Fury Boys 97 United.)

After convincing security I really was a media member I was sent the long way around to Gate 1 - the long way meaning a journey 3/4 of the way around the stadium - where I picked up my credential, got some help from a friendly security guard who walked me back toward my original door rather than forcing me to walk around the canyon dividing Gates 1 and 3 (literally - this is where they roll back the retractable grass field) and high-tailed it back to my car before someone noticed I was holding a press credential and free entry.

Most remarkable of all? Early estimates are for more than 30,000 people to make their way to the stadium to watch the game - a friendly match that doesn't count in the league standings. An exhibition.

But if tonight's any indication it will be one wild, energetic evening at the stadium tomorrow evening.

P.S. One tangential stadium naming note. During tonight's Patriots-Vikings broadcast on the Vikings radio network, the play-by-play man re-christened the San Francisco 49ers new field (nee Candlestick Park, 3Com Park and Monster.com Stadium) as 3-Com-dlestick Park.

Not bad.

(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes