a ringside seat

ringside seat

1. Literally, a front-row seat next to a boxing ring (thought to be the best place to watch the match). Wow, you got ringside seats to that fight? They must have cost thousands!
2. By extension, a place in close proximity to a certain situation or event. I unexpectedly had a ringside seat when a fight broke out at the bar. Living near this forest my whole life, I've had a ringside seat to witness the change in the population of birds.
See also: ringside, seat

a ringside seat

or

a ringside view

If you have a ringside seat or a ringside view, you have an excellent and clear view of what is happening somewhere. From this hotel, you get a ringside seat at the volcano's performance. The first US presidential election for which I had a ringside seat was that which brought John F. Kennedy to office over 30 years ago. Note: In boxing, the ringside seats are the seats that are closest to the ring and have the best view.
See also: ringside, seat
References in periodicals archive ?
com was asking PS81,000 for a ringside seat, and a VIP package being sold by US secondary selling sites was PS122,000.
PS122k for VIP package as high-fliers jet in for clash
Manny Pacquiao showed he still plenty of energy by dominating Jessie Vargas in a WBO title fight on Saturday - and his rival Floyd Mayweather was there to see it with a ringside seat.
Mayweather invite stirs speculation of second fight
We have a ringside seat at conception, gestation, the birth and Joey feeding.
3TO SEE; SUNDAY June 15
The cookie brand Oreo is getting a ringside seat for the latest instalment of the Transformers' franchise, aACAyTransformers: Age of Extinction'.
Oreo gets in on Transformers action
The students will spend the morning having a taster session of various sports, before in the afternoon having a ringside seat watching the athletes train.
Kids have school training day with a difference..
Matthew fights for a world title while Ricky will be relegated to a ringside seat.
MAD MATT; BOXING WORLD TITLE
DEAN Harrison is set to turn down a ringside seat for the fight of the year in Las Vegas to have a few beers with his mates from Wolverhampton.
DEAN: MATES COME BEFORE HATTON
In 1963 a ringside seat was pounds 4-4sh and the 1966 fight was pounds 6-6sh.
Backchat
evacuated in the aftermath of events, and thus offers the observations of one who had a ringside seat to the politics behind the response to al Qaeda.
War By Other Means
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, scholar, writer, politician, and, as long-term member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, a man with a ringside seat on the slow unveiling of the troubling performance record of the $28-billion-a-year U.
Secrecy: The American Experience
The SOHO spacecraft, which stares at the sun continuously from a vantage point 1 million kilometers in front of Earth, had a ringside seat for the solar display.
Solar cloud hits Earth's magnetosphere
Here indeed was the place for me, a ringside seat at the circus.
Square milieu
HERE'S your chance to win a ringside seat when the world's greatest gymnastics event hits Glasgow next year.
WIN SET OF FAMILY TICKETS
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