Sports
This Week's Games, Ranked by Miles From Bradenton
Lightning tonight, Bucs Thursday, our Gators Saturday at noon, Sarasota Paradise Saturday night. One is 12 miles away. One is 940. I did the math so your gas tank doesn't have to.
There are two ways to plan a sports week. You can rank the games by importance, which leads to arguments. Or you can rank them by how far you'd have to drive from downtown Bradenton, which leads to math. I picked math.
Distances below are straight-line miles from the Manatee County Judicial Center on Manatee Avenue to each venue, computed from OpenStreetMap coordinates. The road is always longer. The road is always the road.
Every line is the current DraftKings number via ESPN. Information, not advice.
1. Sarasota Paradise vs. Richmond Kickers: 12 miles
Saturday, Oct. 10, 7:30 p.m. at Premier Sports Campus in Lakewood Ranch, per the club's 2026 home schedule. USL League One. It's the last home game on that list before Westchester SC on Oct. 24.
Twelve miles. You can get there before the ice in your cup gives up. This is the only game on the list where you can forget something at home and go back for it.
Line: not posted (ESPN match page).
2. Lightning vs. Flyers, tonight: 32 miles
Monday, Oct. 5, 7 p.m. at Benchmark International Arena in Tampa, per ESPN. The Lightning are 1-1-0 after beating Washington 3-1 on Saturday (box score). Philadelphia comes in 0-1-2: three games, zero wins, and two of them went past regulation. That's the hockey version of almost.
Thirty-two miles and one bridge. If you leave now, you're fine. If you leave at 6:30, you're watching the first period on your phone in a parking garage, which is also a way to watch hockey.
Line: Lightning -1.5, moneyline -218 (Flyers +180), O/U 5.5 (DraftKings via ESPN).
3. No. 16 Florida vs. South Carolina: 150 miles
Saturday, Oct. 10, 12:45 p.m. at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium in Gainesville, on SEC Network, per ESPN. Our Gators are 4-1 and still No. 16 in the AP poll (15th in the coaches poll). South Carolina is 2-3.
I'm still not over Saturday. Missouri 45, Florida 17 (box score). I wrote it up at midnight and I'd like to stop thinking about it now. A home game against a 2-3 team is the football version of a friend calling to check on you.
A hundred and fifty miles is a commitment. It's also, on paper, a doubleheader: a 12:45 kickoff in Gainesville and a 7:30 kickoff in Lakewood Ranch on the same Saturday. On paper. I-75 has never once read the paper.
Line: Florida -13.5, O/U 61.5 (DraftKings via ESPN).
4. Bucs at Cowboys: 940 miles
Thursday, Oct. 8, 8:15 p.m. at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Prime Video, per ESPN. The Bucs are 0-4 after a 17-14 loss to Green Bay on Sunday (box score). Dallas is 2-2.
Nine hundred and forty miles. That's not a road trip. That's a custody arrangement with your sofa. The good news is the sofa has never lost a Thursday night game. The Bucs are getting ten points. Nobody in Texas expects anything. That's usually when it happens.
Line: Cowboys -10, O/U 47.5 (DraftKings via ESPN).
The wine part
If the Gators win by two touchdowns Saturday, I'll open something Spanish and old, a Rioja that's been sitting long enough to forget what it was mad about. If they don't, I'll open the same bottle. It doesn't know the score. That's the whole appeal of wine. It's the one thing in the house that has never watched SEC football.
Pick your mileage.
— Kevin
21+. Lines move. If gambling stops being fun, call 1-800-GAMBLER.
