So TCF Bank Stadium had a soccer doubleheader Saturday afternoon: A Guinness International Champions Cup (an event Patrick Redford, writer for the blog Screamer, called "a fake soccer tournament," but I didn't give a shit) match between Manchester City and Olympiakos, defending league champions in England and Greece, respectively, followed by a North American Soccer League match between the local team, Minnesota United Football Club against the Ottawa Fury Football Club. After all the stuff I had to do the weekend before, I felt I was entitled to a five hours of "scintillating" soccer by myself. And you can't beat getting to both games for $27 through a special on LivingSocial. (Thanks, by the way, goes out to the guy who couldn't scan the Quick Response code on my smartphone but let me in anyway. I totally am legit, dude.)
I don't think the ticket I got specified a seat. And since I didn't think it was a sellout (I saw several scalpers in possession of handfuls of tickets; I kind of think that I could have gotten in for less than $27, but I don't want to think about it too much), I figured I had my pick of the seats, and hopefully no one will swoop in saying I'm taking theirs.
So where to sit? I was taken slightly aback at how humid it was, but I felt the moisture in the air as I walked the almost-mile from where I parked to Das Bank. I knew that I couldn't withstand sitting in the sun for two, let alone four, hours, especially when I planned on going to the final round of the senior golf tour's tournament close to my neck of the woods today (I'm going after I blog this) where there's no escape from the sun. So I made sure I had a seat in shade. I avoided the lower bowl because I thought ushers would be there to check tickets; I was supposed to be in the upper level anyway. But I made it all away around to the other end of the bowl, went up the stairs and happened to find myself directly at midfield, where I got a seat with no one around me. First-row seats, I'm beginning to think, is vastly overrated. You feel as if you're closer to the players, but you can't see the whole game like you can midfield, upper deck. And for the first game, this was the only part of the entire stadium that was in the shade (although as that game [won by Olympiakos, surprisingly, 5-4 on penalty kicks, unfortunately] wore on, the sun seemed to rise in the sky because the rows below me, one by one ascending, were getting hit with its rays).
By the second half of Man City-Olympiakos my view of the game was frequently blocked by groups of people emerging from the stairs below and walking past me, where I was stationed on the aisle, to find seats out of the view of the sun. But the very upper reaches of the stadium actually were roped off, and by the time the first half ended a the seats that were available were taken. And I was one of the first because I had the foresight to know that I would eventually bake. So yeah for me.
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Most of the 37,000+ (do I have the attendance figure correct? ETA at a little before 3:30 a.m. on August 4 the answer is no; announced attendance was 34,000+) left inbetween the almost 60 minutes before MNUFC-Ottawa began a bit past 5 (?), but the sun was at an angle in the sky where even I got hit with it. Once I got back to my seat to see the start of the match I thought I could tough it out, but after about two minutes of the heat along with the humidity I said fuck it. The orientation of the sun meant that there were some bleachers erected specifically for this event that were blocking the sun, so I decided to forfeit a great vantage point of the game to sit there.
But when I went down the stairs I looked out at the view. That's when I realized I didn't have to go all the way to that end of TCF Bank to see the game. I could just stand about where I was sitting one level above and watch with the infrastructure blocking the sun. Plus, from where I was standing, the seats above squeezed that area of the stadium causing a breezeway. No sun + a breeze to cool me off? Heaven. And later, as people started leaving after the MN United game began, there were seats in the handicapped area in front of me that were empty. When I sat down I had the best seat in the house, almost like I was watching in front of a giant TV screen.
Then the wind really started to whip, not just where I was standing/sitting but everywhere. The humidity apparently was too much for the sky to handle because, even though I didn't think it was in the forecast, it started to rain. People who could brave the sun started to jog, then run up the stairs as the wind started to blow fast and then as the clouds turned dark, then after the precip really came down (near the end of the first half, I think) most of the crowd escaped to under the seats ... where I was sitting pretty because I had the foresight/good luck to get there first. Heh-heh-heh.
Yeah, cheap self-congratulation. Give me this one.
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