A sure sign of having become a grownup and well into the process of maturation leading to the sweet release of death. So sad. so sad. By the way, I know you like margaritas. I was driving past TJ Ribs on Acadian the other day and they had a sign that said $1 margaritas every day.
$1 margaritas every day...I'm in. I thought the $4 margaritas at a Tex-Mex joint in Sherman, Texas, on the way to the Duran Duran concert last weekend were good.
I bought tickets in that section for the LSU/Arkansas game in '11. Sure, I had to stand for the whole game, but I thought the seats were great. They really weren't a season ticket holder section, but rather, the players' families section. My daughter made friends with Ryan Baker's grandma and aunt, high fiving them when he made a good play, etc. It was fun to watch what actually goes on during games and timeouts.
I was in the south endzone last night. The guy next to me kept looking up at the dark clouds and asked if it was lightening. I told him it was the scoreboards. I bought three tickets from the guy. Was that you?
It happened when I was there. Two years of student tickets in 06-07 and 07-08. I never missed a second of any game. At least half of those were about a third full after halftime. Makes me sick to see all the empty seats. I would give a lot to be able to go to a few games now but 4500 miles is a long commute.
My dad was a production manager at a textile plant in NC. He was always being given tickets, taken out to eat, the whole deal by chemical and other, various salesmen. Of course I was young and clueless about how life works. Did not seem special, just regular. Swear to God, we went (or could have gone) to a game every weekend, either UNC, Duke, Wake or NC State (I know not SEC, but did see LSU at Chapel Hill). Thing is, we were ALWAYS on the 50, about 20 - 30 rows up. Perfect seats. My dad made no deal, we just went. He would ask several weeks ahead of time, who I wanted to see. I thought it just worked that way. At least 7-8 games a year, from 8 to 18, more or less. Unbelievable. First game as a plebe at USNA, we "marched on," and ended sitting one the 1 or 2 yard line, 2 or 3 rows up. My brain just could not compute. I had never seen a college game not from the 50.
As other's have alluded to, it's a multitude of things. Wine and cheese crowd, who can't even name 3 starters, traffic, etc. But I think it really boils down to type of football they're seeing. Exciting team, excited crowd. Boring team, bored crowd that leaves early so they don't have to sit in traffic for 2+ hours to get home. The opponent and score contribute to it as well. If it's a blowout of a cupcake team, no chance people stay to the end. But a close game against a conference opponent it's as loud as ever and no one is going anywhere. The crowd at the Fla game last year was pretty rowdy and sounded pretty loud and since the game came down to a last second Hail Mary attempt by FU, it seems like most people stayed stayed until the end from what I could tell from the TV. Admittedly though, I wasn't at the game, so someone that was may disagree.
That's one of my greatest TS memories. They were the 'greatest team in history' and we had them beat until a defensive penalty towards the end of the game saved their ass.
I sat 3 rows up on about the 35 - 40 behind LSU bench for the Bama game 2 years ago. Lowest I've ever sat for a big game. We could talk to players and you could feel the energy of the stadium experience as if you were on the field. Of course, you couldn't see the play on the field most of the time. And when you could it was hard to tell what was going on. Never want to sit there again. Caught another game 3 years ago. I live in Houston so those are the first two games I've seen since late 90s. It just doesn't feel like Tiiger Stadium I grew up with. Of course I don't feel like I did 50 years ago either. We've both lost some personality.
