That Time I Won the 50/50 Raffle at Wrigley
I go to 15-20 games a season, and on occasion, I'll buy a 50/50 Raffle ticket. If you aren't familiar with the 50/50 Raffle, there are folks roaming the stadium that sell tickets at every game. The more money you spend, the more numbers/chances you have at winning. The ticket with the winning number gets half the net proceeds from that game's ticket sales, and the other half goes to Cubs Charities.
Graphic courtesy of the Chicago Cubs
Every season I take my sister to a game for her birthday, which is around Labor Day. This game was against the Braves, Montgomery was starting. We got into the park early, had lunch, and I bought a $40 ticket, which gave us 120 numbers. When we do play, my sister and I usually split the $40, but since it's her birthday, I bought her half for her birthday.
Around the end of the 8th inning, the number was announced on the video board, and I took a picture of the winning number on my phone. I looked at our ticket. I saw that the 1st 3 digits matched on one number, and I thought to myself, "dangit, that was close. " Then I looked at the number right next to it. That looked like the number that just flashed on the board. I looked at the pic on my phone to double check. Holy cow.
"Um. I think we won. Will you look at the ticket & pic??" I said quietly to my sister. She looked and confirmed that we had the winning number. "What do we do now?" she asked. "I think we need to go to Fan Services downstairs after the game," I replied.
For the rest of the game, our heads were spinning. Usually I'm pretty attentive to the game. Peña Party was pitching and he gave up another 2 runs and we eventually lost the game, 5-1, but it was a game that I couldn't care less about at that point. I started texting some of my friends about our winning.
We made our way downstairs to the concourse to Fan Services. I handed my ticket to them and told them I have the winning ticket. They confirmed it, and we spent the next 45 minutes filling out paperwork. My sister and I split almost $20,000 that day. After taxes, we netted almost $7000 each. Happy birthday, sis!
The question I got asked a lot was, "do they give you the money right then and there?" The answer is no. They will mail a check to you in about 4-6 weeks.
Literally, on the 6th week, I received an envelope with the return address of 1060 W. Addison St. on it. OMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMGOMG, could this be it??
YES. There it was. My winnings from the 50/50. My third favorite Cubs game (that I've ever gone to)!
(Postscript: Another friend started buying 50/50 raffles after hearing about my win. Guess what? He also won!)