Finally got it solved with a few more days of work and an AI change. I moved from Base44 to Cursor and managed to get past the biggest roadblock I had. Once the base functionality was figured out the rest came together pretty quickly. For basic design and structure it's pretty good at making my vision come to life with a few prompts.
So for a guy with no coding experience I was able to create a pretty cool webapp. +1 AI there.
It started as just a concept about 6 months ago and then I spent a bit of time over 3 months doing research on everything since I had 0 knowledge of websites, tech startups, APIs or anything like that. Then I made a react app prototype in Gemini as a proof of concept which took some moderate time over a few months. After that I actually tried to get several people/companies to build my site but they either couldn't grasp my vision or said it was too complicated. I actually used a lot of AI's to figure out where to go next to get myself from a locally made react app to a node.js app. Once I had a bit of a roadmap I spent a couple months evenings and weekends trying to get it up and running.
I thought it would be quicker but even once I had the data filtering and searches working I had to figure out how to make the UI user friendly, get it to look good on mobile, create algorithms to accurately estimate ticket and flight prices (this was actually pretty cool, but challenging). I'm still working on the pSEO, blogs and creating a social media presence. Bugs like not having Halifax in the flight list!
TLDR: 6 months from idea to launch
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Interesting idea. Do you have a multi-city search in your gameplan? Often people like to follow a team, say to NJ NY and NYI.
In the CFL a lot of fans try to hit Toronto and Hamilton, sometimes Ottawa/Montreal over back to back weekends. Even when it's totally different teams playing.
I don't have a multi-city search but the SportCations do filter by date, that's an interesting idea though, maybe have zones or something that you could filter by? Thanks for the feedback!
I do have a search option to follow a single team though! It's the single game search to follow just the team, or the team search to find SportCations that your team has.
It started as just a concept about 6 months ago and then I spent a bit of time over 3 months doing research on everything since I had 0 knowledge of websites, tech startups, APIs or anything like that. Then I made a react app prototype in Gemini as a proof of concept which took some moderate time over a few months. After that I actually tried to get several people/companies to build my site but they either couldn't grasp my vision or said it was too complicated. I actually used a lot of AI's to figure out where to go next to get myself from a locally made react app to a node.js app. Once I had a bit of a roadmap I spent a couple months evenings and weekends trying to get it up and running.
I thought it would be quicker but even once I had the data filtering and searches working I had to figure out how to make the UI user friendly, get it to look good on mobile, create algorithms to accurately estimate ticket and flight prices (this was actually pretty cool, but challenging). I'm still working on the pSEO, blogs and creating a social media presence. Bugs like not having Halifax in the flight list!
TLDR: 6 months from idea to launch
It would be cool to expand this eventually to include other entertainment and cultural events for people who want to maximize their itineraries.
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It would be cool to expand this eventually to include other entertainment and cultural events for people who want to maximize their itineraries.
Love it. I think it's somewhere I would like to go if this ever takes off. I think there's a lot of potential to tie in other events and advertising for local restaurants/bars and stuff. I'm trying to stay grounded but I'm really excited for this to gain some traction - from what I've read this is the hardest part, the 6-12 months where I wait to start ranking on google and coming up in searches.
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Love it. I think it's somewhere I would like to go if this ever takes off. I think there's a lot of potential to tie in other events and advertising for local restaurants/bars and stuff. I'm trying to stay grounded but I'm really excited for this to gain some traction - from what I've read this is the hardest part, the 6-12 months where I wait to start ranking on google and coming up in searches.
You’ve done the hard part and built a framework that can easily extend to other segments. Good luck!
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I disagree. I remember feeling that way when walking robots looked like toddlers (10 years ago?). I had no idea they had advanced so much.
No kidding. Also worth noting that this is clearly a step ahead of what Boston Dynamics can do right now, for example.
It's important to note the difference of having a prototype that can do some flips maybe, vs. a whole bunch of robots that can seemingly reliably do a quite long fairly complex choreography. Those Chinese robots look ready for mass production, this doesn't.
It started as just a concept about 6 months ago and then I spent a bit of time over 3 months doing research on everything since I had 0 knowledge of websites, tech startups, APIs or anything like that. Then I made a react app prototype in Gemini as a proof of concept which took some moderate time over a few months. After that I actually tried to get several people/companies to build my site but they either couldn't grasp my vision or said it was too complicated. I actually used a lot of AI's to figure out where to go next to get myself from a locally made react app to a node.js app. Once I had a bit of a roadmap I spent a couple months evenings and weekends trying to get it up and running.
I thought it would be quicker but even once I had the data filtering and searches working I had to figure out how to make the UI user friendly, get it to look good on mobile, create algorithms to accurately estimate ticket and flight prices (this was actually pretty cool, but challenging). I'm still working on the pSEO, blogs and creating a social media presence. Bugs like not having Halifax in the flight list!
TLDR: 6 months from idea to launch
Silly question, but... why did you want to make this concept a reality? You had a bunch of "no" and a longish duration. Do you do that type of travel enough that it'd save you and buddies a lot of time + have interest in just making things a hobby with the ability to ultimately attempt to monetize it as a pure bonus on top?
A few years ago, I had an idea. As far as I know no one else has done it. I spoke with a few programmers/engineers and no one wanted to be involved in the concept, so I just shrugged and put it away. I'd still be wary about building it with AI and gifting the concept away, but it might be a tool to set up a proof of concept to explain the concept to an engineer/programmer.
No kidding. Also worth noting that this is clearly a step ahead of what Boston Dynamics can do right now, for example.
It's important to note the difference of having a prototype that can do some flips maybe, vs. a whole bunch of robots that can seemingly reliably do a quite long fairly complex choreography. Those Chinese robots look ready for mass production, this doesn't.
I honestly believe those robots are remote controlled, not AI choreographed. Controlled like the video clip of the guy wearing the control suit and accidentally kicking himself in the balls with the robot.
However, that's all we technically need for now. A human controlled robot with some AI "standby sequences" and then incrementally add stuff until the human isn't required.
Not being dystopian, but something like that might be fantastic to deploy for search and rescue or natural disaster situations. Dumping off a storage container of those and organizing remote controllers from a distance might help deploy resources faster. Plus robots and continue doing work in an area with the pilots taking shifts, which also help to reduce down time due to return HQ.
Silly question, but... why did you want to make this concept a reality? You had a bunch of "no" and a longish duration. Do you do that type of travel enough that it'd save you and buddies a lot of time + have interest in just making things a hobby with the ability to ultimately attempt to monetize it as a pure bonus on top?
A few years ago, I had an idea. As far as I know no one else has done it. I spoke with a few programmers/engineers and no one wanted to be involved in the concept, so I just shrugged and put it away. I'd still be wary about building it with AI and gifting the concept away, but it might be a tool to set up a proof of concept to explain the concept to an engineer/programmer.
At first it was just because I thought it was a great idea. While I don't do a ton of this type of travel (I wish) I'm like the go to booking guy for my extended family. My in laws travel frequently and are always asking what sports they can see and who's playing. There's just no way to easily look it up and cross reference multiple sports. From there I started searching and using AI to look for a business case. Apparently SportCations (really need to make this stick haha) are a massive industry. Once I saw the number of people that make trips like these every year(est. 5-11million) I thought I might have something here.
Then once I started I just couldn't stop. It's honestly been a ton of fun learning the coding, troubleshooting and just making something that I think is super cool. I've always loved problem solving and finding creative solutions to problems so apparently web dev is right up my alley. I'm currently just obsessed with working on the site and fine tuning everything. Even if it doesn't work out and never makes a dime I'll be proud of myself for making something and I'm just enjoying the experience and excitement from working on something new.
I did stress a lot about the IP thing to start, as I didn't want to give it away either so I get that! When I was pitching it I made sure to only use reputable, large companies and not fiverr or a friend of a friend.
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I think it's an interesting project and may be useful for a bit. Once we have personal AI agents(that you can trust with your credit card) you won't really have to worry about stuff like this at all, though. You can just ask the agent to show you a few options, and they do all the background stuff. Travel booking is one of those things I think most of us would be happy to turn over to an AI you could trust to take all the tedious work away.
"I want to go to a Mammoth game in the spring. Find me a few options for something for 5 days that provides the best chance of a great powder ski day, avoiding any busy events, with good access to transit for the game, and a rental car to get to the hill for two days. Avoid any days in my calendar with stuff I can't miss."
It's going to be interesting as these things develop and become widely used. All the pricing tricks will fail as bots on both sides are battling to maximize profit and minimize spend.
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"I want to go to a Mammoth game in the spring. Find me a few options for something for 5 days that provides the best chance of a great powder ski day, avoiding any busy events, with good access to transit for the game, and a rental car to get to the hill for two days. Avoid any days in my calendar with stuff I can't miss."
"I'm sorry but Mammoth are extinct. Would you consider a game of chess instead? You could bring a set to the ski hill. It will be something you can carry easily on transit, though you could walk instead as you will get exercise on the way to your chess game on the slopes."
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I think it's an interesting project and may be useful for a bit. Once we have personal AI agents(that you can trust with your credit card) you won't really have to worry about stuff like this at all, though. You can just ask the agent to show you a few options, and they do all the background stuff. Travel booking is one of those things I think most of us would be happy to turn over to an AI you could trust to take all the tedious work away.
"I want to go to a Mammoth game in the spring. Find me a few options for something for 5 days that provides the best chance of a great powder ski day, avoiding any busy events, with good access to transit for the game, and a rental car to get to the hill for two days. Avoid any days in my calendar with stuff I can't miss."
It's going to be interesting as these things develop and become widely used. All the pricing tricks will fail as bots on both sides are battling to maximize profit and minimize spend.
There's really no reason you can't do this now. An AI agent, if you trust it with your CC details, can fill out forms for you.
Quote:
Let me pull the Mammoth schedule and check conditions.The sports data tool doesn't cover NLL lacrosse. Let me get the Mammoth schedule directly.Good — there's only one March home game: **Saturday March 21 vs. Calgary Roughnecks**. That's actually the ideal pick for you — a Calgary guy watching his hometown rival get stomped in Denver. Now let me check Denver events that weekend and Colorado ski conditions for March.Good intel. Now let me check March ski conditions in Colorado and typical powder windows.I have everything I need. Here's what the research surfaced:
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## Colorado Mammoth Trip — March 2026
### The Game
**Only one March home game: Saturday March 21 vs. Calgary Roughnecks, 7:00 PM MT at Ball Arena.**
This is actually the best possible pick for you — it's the Mammoth hosting your hometown team. There's natural rivalry edge to it, Roughnecks fans travel well, and it typically draws a louder crowd than a neutral opponent. The March 21 date also anchors the trip perfectly.
One flag: **the Denver March Powwow runs March 20–22** at the Colorado Convention Center, which is right downtown near Ball Arena. Hotels in LoDo will be slightly busier and pricier that weekend, but it won't cause the kind of gridlock you'd see with a Nuggets playoff game or a big concert. Not a dealbreaker, just book accommodations early.
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### The Skiing
You want two ski days with a rental car. The best options within ~2 hours of Denver for maximizing powder odds in late March:
**Best bet: Breckenridge or Keystone** (1.5–1.75 hrs from Denver via I-70). Both are in Summit County, high-altitude snowpack holds well into late March, and Breck specifically at 9,600+ ft base keeps snow drier longer than lower resorts. Vail is also excellent but a bit farther (2 hrs) and more expensive. Copper Mountain is the locals' underrated pick — less crowded than Breck, same snowpack quality.
Reality check on "powder" in late March: Colorado March skiing is fantastic, but it's shoulder season — you're more likely to get spring corn or groomed hardpack than fresh powder unless there's a mid-week storm before your ski days. Your odds improve significantly if your ski days fall on a Tuesday/Wednesday after a weekend storm, not on a Saturday when everything gets tracked out. Plan ski days **Mon–Wed** if possible, and watch the 10-day forecast once you're ~10 days out.
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### Three 5-Day Trip Options
All options anchor on the **March 21 game** (Saturday evening). You fly Calgary (YYC) → Denver (DEN); direct flights on WestJet run ~2.5 hours.
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**Option A: March 17–21 (Tue–Sat)**
- Arrive Tuesday March 17
- **Ski Day 1: Wednesday March 18** (mid-week = shorter lift lines)
- **Ski Day 2: Thursday March 19**
- Friday March 20: Rest/explore Denver; avoid downtown crowds from the Powwow starting that day
- **Saturday March 21: Mammoth vs. Roughnecks, 7 PM**
- Fly home Sunday morning
*Best option for powder odds* — mid-week skiing means you hit the mountain before weekend crowds, and if a storm rolls through Mon/Tue before you arrive, you catch it Wednesday. Game is the trip finale, which works well logistically.
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**Option B: March 19–23 (Thu–Mon)**
- Arrive Thursday March 19
- **Ski Day 1: Friday March 20** (still relatively quiet before the weekend)
- **Saturday March 21: Mammoth vs. Roughnecks, 7 PM**
- **Ski Day 2: Sunday March 22** (post-game recovery day on the mountain — mountain will be busier but you can leave early)
- Monday March 23: Buffer/explore, fly home
- Fly home Monday evening or Tuesday
*Tighter schedule around the game.* Sunday skiing after a late Saturday night game is genuinely rough — late game (~10 PM finish), then a 5:30 AM wake-up to beat the crowds on the hill. Only pick this if you're the type who powers through.
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**Option C: March 18–22 (Wed–Sun)**
- Arrive Wednesday March 18
- **Ski Day 1: Thursday March 19**
- **Ski Day 2: Friday March 20** (before Powwow crowds get heavy in LoDo)
- **Saturday March 21: Mammoth vs. Roughnecks, 7 PM** — return rental car before the game, use Denver transit to/from Ball Arena
- Sunday March 22: Rest, explore Denver, fly home
- Fly home Sunday evening
*Best balance.* Two solid ski days, easy return of the rental car before game night (downtown parking near Ball Arena is a headache and unnecessary), and a leisurely Sunday before flying.
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### Logistics Notes
**Transit to Ball Arena:** The light rail RTD W/C/E lines connect Denver Union Station to the arena area (10th & Osceola stop). If you're staying in LoDo or downtown Denver, you don't need the rental car for game day at all — return it before Saturday and take the train.
**Rental car:** Pick up at DEN on arrival, drop at a downtown Denver location the morning of the game. Budget ~$200–300 for 3–4 days depending on timing.
**Where to stay:** LoDo (Lower Downtown) or RiNo gives you walkable access to the best bars, restaurants, and easy transit to Ball Arena. Avoid staying right next to the Convention Center that weekend due to the Powwow foot traffic.
---
**My recommendation is Option C (March 18–22)** — two clean weekday ski days, no Sunday-morning-after-a-late-game regret, and the smoothest logistics around the rental car and transit.
This is with Sonnet 4.6, it used up 3% of my quota.
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If you don't pass this sig to ten of your friends, you will become an Oilers fan.
Ya, I figured that was probably the case. Probably a decent success rate, but not so much I'd trust it with my credit card yet. But it can still do most of the work.
