2024 in review: Expanding my sports and travel horizons

As we do every year on Itinerant Fan, here’s a review of everything I accomplished in the name of this site in 2024 — from visiting new, far-flung places to getting ever closer to the goal that this whole operation is built around.

After not really leaving the country in 2023, I managed to wear out my passport a little bit in 2024. That included trips to the United Kingdom and France, visiting some sites that readers have indicated are of interest to them.

For the international soccer fans who visit this site, I hope that our recent guides to venues like London Stadium and Wembley Stadium are of use.

One of my goals in the coming few years is to expand our content as it relates to not just soccer but also the NFL International Series. For example, the UEFA Champions League final in 2025 will be held at Munich’s Allianz Arena — a venue I’ve already visited and one that has also hosted NFL games.

Beyond that, I have at least two more international trips planned for 2025. I have family reasons for both, but I’m excited to sneak some cool sports experiences into those travels and create content around them to help others hoping to craft similar vacations.

Meanwhile, I’m getting ever closer to achieving something many of you have communicated with me about.

‘Club 124’ membership is within sight

OK, at this time last year I said I hoped to complete my quest of seeing every current stadium in the four major sports leagues — the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball — by the end of 2024. I’m sorry to say that didn’t quite happen.

But … everything’s set up for me to accomplish it by the fall of 2025, and you’d better bet my focus is on making sure that happens.

I enter 2025 with four NBA arenas remaining, and I’ll check one of those off the list by the end of the first weekend in January. I’ve also made plans to knock off another by the end of the month.

As for the final two, I’m making plans to visit both before the end of the regular season, completing my NBA list. (I won’t reveal which ones they are yet, but they’re both arenas that I have previously visited for NHL games but not for NBA.)

Meanwhile, the NFL regular season will end with two stadiums still on my list — and neither of those teams are making the playoffs, so I’ll definitely have to wait for the fall. But I’ll be waiting with bated breath for the 2025 NFL schedule to come out in May so that I can plan trips to see both as early as I can.

Like with the NBA, I’ll keep the two remaining stadiums a surprise, but I have also visited both in the past — just not for NFL games.

As for 2024 in review, I’m happy to have paid a visit to the LA Clippers’ Intuit Dome and the Utah Hockey Club’s Delta Center in the last month. The latter helped close the circle of current NHL arenas, and I’m back to 32 out of 32 visited.

I got closer to completing my NFL list this year by seeing games at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and a Rams game at SoFi Stadium in L.A. (I had seen several Chargers games there but not the Rams).

And my MLB season was filled with re-visits to several ballparks, including Wrigley Field in Chicago, Chase Field in Phoenix and Truist Park in Atlanta. In 2025 I’m already planning on visiting several parks that I haven’t seen in more than a decade, so that should be fun!

Itinerant Fan continues to evolve

I’m excited that when we review all that happened in 2024, the focus of Itinerant Fan didn’t waver from sports — but still managed to focus more on the travel.

For example, I’ve gone ever deeper into the world of points and miles. There’s no doubt that travel can be a very expensive pursuit, and I do appreciate that I have the time, money and support to take several trips each year.

But I mitigate a lot of the expense by earning and spending points and miles, and while many travel aficionados know this already, I’ve become a big proponent of playing the points and miles game to enhance sports travel experiences as well.

How can you maximize your points/miles earning and spending? There are many tools out there worth researching. But a good place to start is Daily Drop, which has a free newsletter as well as a paid Pro tier for you to do hardcore research into how to spend your points and miles.

If you’re looking to get started with credit cards, check out our page on the top cards to consider, maintained by Daily Drop. (Full disclosure: Itinerant Fan has an affiliate partnership with Daily Drop.)

Also, have you signed up for the Itinerant Fan newsletter? We share some of our best content on that platform, and are working hard to offer more exclusive content that you wouldn’t see on the site. Check it out — it’s free!

I-Fan’s audience trends in 2024

It’s always interesting to see what our audience is reading. Our 2024 in review continues with our top five most viewed posts in the last year:

For the second year in a row, our post on how to buy Premier League tickets was our most-read. We constantly hear from fans looking to make their own journeys to see big-time football in the UK, so we’re grateful to play a small role in helping you have the experience of a lifetime.

Meanwhile, I’ve long been an advocate of going to games alone if you have to, and apparently many of you feel the same. And no, I’m not lonely! I just don’t let other people’s lack of availability prevent me from going to see the games I want to see.

Road trip ideas and stadium rankings continue to be popular views on our site, and as I get closer to joining Club 124, I’ll be creating more of these types of posts in the future.

What comes next in 2025?

As alluded to above, I’ll be balancing some international travel with my pursuit of finishing up my lists in the NBA and NFL. A lot of this I’ll have to do economically, but I have a couple multi-city itineraries already in the works.

Beyond that, we’re definitely expanding our horizons in 2025 with another content offering in the works. But you’ll have to wait for the reveal to find out what that is! Hopefully we’ll be able to announce something in the first few months of the new year.

As always, the goal of Itinerant Fan is to inspire like-minded sports fans to travel and see their favorite teams and games up close. If you’re looking to take your own trip in 2025 and need some advice or inspiration, we’re here to help! Please reach out at [email protected] and let us know what you’ve got in mind.

Whatever you have in mind, here’s to an epic 2025! I’m looking forward to seeing what the new year brings.