Tonight I took my 7-almost-8-year-old friend Zachary Beachy to his first ASU football game as an early birthday present. It was also MY first ASU game and I've now checked #89 off my 101 things list. It was definitely a win-win for both of us.
We looked great in our matching gold ASU Sun Devil t-shirts, but the night started off a bit rough when we encountered traffic on the freeway (as in, the freeway was closed due to a major accident, and we were forced to exit onto a side street). Thankfully I'd built plenty of travel time into our schedule. After parking near my downtown office, and catching the Light Rail over to Tempe, we made it to the stadium with just minutes to spare. Which was good because we had to climb up, up, up the switchback walkway to our seats! (Where are the escalators?!)
Our seats were pretty much at the 50-yard-line so we had a great view of the action (including the boisterous student section!). I had been warned that most people at the game are quite inebriated, but no alcohol is sold within the stadium. Folks seemed fairly well-behaved, but maybe that was because it was 'faculty and staff night'!
The pre-game activities were great--we enjoyed hearing and watching the band (check-out their pitchfork formation). And when the players ran out, the stadium went crazy--including me literally jumping out of my seat when the fireworks started going off (both on the field and from both sides of the stadium). The fog on the field was pretty cool too. This obviously ain't no high school football game!
Zach and I tried to follow the people around us in terms of the stand-up, sit down, shake the keys, make the pitchfork, scream and yell, etc. We were a little lost (like newcomers to church). But as long as we cheered when our team had the ball, stole the ball, made touchdowns with the ball, we were ok.
About half-way through the first half we decided to go visit our friends in one of the suites (ie, we wanted to find ourselves some air-conditioning). A work colleague had been gracious enough to share some extra suite passes with us--thanks Ivy!
Finding the suite was an adventure in itself! The complete opposite side of the stadium, back down the switchback walkway, around a dark corner and down a dark walkway to the suite-elevator (it all seemed very sketchy). There were about four bouncers at the suite elevator were we again had to show our game tickets as well as our suite passes. Then we stepped into the elevator, but it wasn't clear what floor we should go to. So, we didn't press any buttons and eventually the elevator started moving....all the way to the "third" floor. We got off, still with a lost look on our face, and immediately someone took pity on us, and asked us if we were looking for the President's box? Yes, because we obviously look like guests of President Crow?!? (I'm wondering if they say that to everyone, just on the off-chance that you actually ARE a guest of that suite?!) The nice gentleman took pity on us, escorted us back on the elevator, and walked us down to our suite--I'm sure we looked extremely bewildered--it was like a different world up there from our nose-bleed seats!
We eventually made it to the suite (and air-conditioning, and more food, and a private bathroom, and an ice drawer) and to my Cronkite School colleagues. The suite was like an oasis in the desert!
We had a great time watching the end of the second quarter, half-time, and part of the third quarter from the indoor/outdoor seats of the suite. Everyone was right--the suite experience is not a true football game experience, but I'm so glad we were able to have the best of both worlds!
Since the Sun Devils obviously had the game in the bag, I decided we should start our journey homeward (the score was 37-6 when we left and 54-9 at game's end).
The light rail ride was uneventful, the freeway was still closed (thankfully we were going the opposite direction), and we arrived home safely, a mere 5 hours after starting our birthday game outing.
Yea for trying new things! Yea for season opener wins! Yea for 8th birthdays!
1 comment:
You're a great writer! I love your descriptions - feels like I was there, especially the bit about getting lost - sounds like something I would have done.
I've sat and melted on those metal benches before, for a Packers pre-season game before they built the new stadium. Whew! It's like being baked alive. Kudos to you for supporting the university. :)
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