The Mile High (Stadium) Experience

My son and I got two free tickets to yesterday's Niner-Broncos game at Mile High Stadium. On the way there, we heard the parking lot was already full. We'd planned on taking the Light Rail there, anyway. We got on it at the second stop from the southern outskirts of Denver heading north to the stadium. It was standing room only already. After @ 14 stops, packed in like sardines, it finally got next to the stadium. Once past the train gates, we were among thousands standing in the heat (90's) waiting for a very long commercial train to pass. Yes, they built the new Mile High Stadium across the tracks from the main Southern Pacific rail lines. You'd think they would've built a pedestrian overpass instead of forcing fans to walk across half a dozen train tracks, but no. Once the train passed (a 10-15 min wait), the hordes walked what amounts to 3-4 city blocks on a circuitous route to the stadium. It took forever to get inside.

Once inside, it's a pretty nice stadium. We found our seats easily enough, in row 36 of the west end zone, about 10 yds left of the goal post, with a great view of the field. The stadium perspective you get is much different than what you see on TV. The seats go up, way up and most are "on top" of the field, so you get a good view of it. Instead of solid concrete, they have a "false" floor that gives. If you stomp on it, it makes noise, a lot of it. We found that out due to a jerk a half dozen or so rows behind us. He yelled at the top of his lungs and stomped his feet the entire game…until a lady sitting nearby said something to him. He retorted "that's why I pay $80 for my seat". He was "that guy" who dampened an otherwise decent football experience.

While I realize Candlestick is no joy to get into or out of, the new stadium in Santa Clara looks to be much more fan-friendly. There'll be plenty of parking plus multiple routes and conveyances available to get there. No train tracks! Still can't believe they'd be so dumb as to do that in Denver, but they did. The moral to this story is once our new stadium's built, appreciate the meticulous planning that's gone into it. It should truly be a state-of-the-art stadium, built with the fan as the focus of their planning and construction efforts.

Cool synopsis of your experience. One thing i dont like is you calling out "that guy" for making noise. Its a football game not a golf tournament. If he was just obnoxiously loud all the time then maybe i can see being upset, but cheering for your team shouldnt be frowned upon at a game.

great post

I hate fans that tell other fans to shut up. If you don't like the noise just stay home and watch the game.

Originally posted by ninerfan4life:
I hate fans that tell other fans to shut up. If you don't like the noise just stay home and watch the game.

sometimes i feel like the people around me want to tell me to shut up... .but i just scream louder

I understand some fans think it's ok to yell at the top of their lungs the entire game...but, it can and does irritate most fans around them. I get this particular dude paid his $80 for a ticket...but so did everyone around him. Shouldn't they get to enjoy the game, too? It's about common courtesy...nobody should think it's cool to infringe other's rights, because it isn't. At least that's my humble opinion. My focus of the article wasn't the guy yelling...it was about how the ownership in Denver allowed construction of the new Mile High stadium in a place not conducive to maximize the fan experience. But, I agree, if you don't want to subject yourself to yelling so you can't enjoy the game, stay home and watch it on TV, which is exactly what I'll do.

There is smart yelling and then there is obnoxious dumb drunk yelling.

Not all yelling at a football game is created equal.

Originally posted by JoseCortez:
There is smart yelling and then there is obnoxious dumb drunk yelling.

Not all yelling at a football game is created equal.

this....

it seems like i ALWAYS get the drunk moron two rows right behind me constantly yelling even through timeouts

I went to the 49ers vs seahawks game last year at Century Link and i sat next to some drunk guy who was a season ticket holder. He was pretty cool at first, but half way through the game he was so drunk he couldnt even stand up strait and he kept bumping/leaning on me and i got extremely annoyed. At the end of the game, we obviously won, so i patted him on the back probably harder than i should have and said "Good Ga...." I stopped mid sentence because my little pat on the back sent him tumbling down to the row in front of us. I tried to catch him, i really did!

I went to the Chargers/Broncos game in SD last year... due to typically sh*tty access friends dropped us off about 1/2 mile away and we walked it in, you walked down this big ass hill into Qualcomm which is a nice relatively scenic entrance to the stadium, but OH MY GOD that hill was like Mt Everest walking back to our pick up point (all you need after a day standing in the 90's).

Due to the heat (and cheap tickets) everyone was wasted by the end of the game... funnily enough, some d*ck was banging a metal bleacher non stop all day (I'm all for making noise on at start of D play etc but this dude just never stopped)... there was one obnoxious Tebow fan surrounded by SD fans in our area, I thought they were literally going to kill him by the end of the day lol. It was an entertaining day (no stress like a Niners game lol).

This kinda illustrates what im talking about:




PS - Whilst Candlestick is old and crappy, at least they've put some lipstick on the pig... Qualcomm was just plain old and crappy! Big screen, audio etc were worse than Candlestick. Cheerleaders were still hot though!