ringside seat

Idioms  

1. A place providing a close view of something, as in We lived right next door, so we had ringside seats for their quarrels. This term presumably came from boxing, where it denotes the seats just outside the boxing ring. [c. 1860]

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Example Sentences

He’d paid for a ringside seat, boasted to all his friends that he’d be “right there” to witness the action and never saw a thing.

From The Wall Street Journal

A ringside seat at the White House was something earned through decades of slogging through the political and journalistic mud.

From Salon

Joe Biden had a ringside seat for Jimmy Carter’s presidency — its failures as well as its sometimes unappreciated successes.

From Los Angeles Times

More than £14.1m was recouped from ticket sales alone, with one VIP group package which included a ringside seat and photographs with the fighters costing as much as £1.6m.

From BBC

Earl Slick’s "Guitar: Playing with David Bowie, John Lennon, and Rock-and-Roll’s Greatest Heroes" affords readers with a ringside seat for many of popular music’s most iconic moments.

From Salon