Strange Day At The Stadium

We pretty much have a routine when we go to games at The Crystal Cathedral.  Try to get there before or right when the parking lots open 5 hours prior to game time.  That gives you plenty of time to set everything up, relax, cook, eat, relax, visit the neighbors, see what everybody is cooking, visit with people from out of town, and get ready to watch the Heroes beat whoever the opponent is that day.

This week started off weird and got weirder.  First thing was that tickets were going cheap,cheap, cheap, if they were selling at all.  I had 2 folks from out of town who couldn’t make the game and they both were going to send me their tickets to try and sell in the parking lot.  Normally I have 3 or 4 people ask me if I have any extra tickets.  This week NOBODY asked and everybody I asked couldn’t or didn’t want to go.  One of the guys whose tickets I had told me he didn’t care what they sold for, he just wanted a Cowboys fan to have them.  We walked through the lot 2 times trying to sell them with no luck, our neighbors made phone calls, all to no avail.

I sensed it was going to be different when for the first hour we were pretty much alone in the lot except for the guys with the customized Cowboys bus.  The tailgate spots go early but not this week, at 11am there were still empty spots for tailgating.  Crazy.

The parking lot crowd was more subdued than normal, even for a noon game.  No loud music, no “characters” dancing through the crowd, very laid back.

We finally talked to a lady who had just come to meet her nephew from out of town and tailgate with him and his buddies from New York.  She didn’t have tickets and said she couldn’t afford them being a widow.  Luckily the guy who had given me the tickets had already said to find someone who had a party pass and just let them have his tickets so my wife gave the lady the tickets.  She had never been inside the stadium so she was super happy.  That made it a better day, but I wasn’t expecting much once we got inside.

Inside you could see that it wasn’t going to be a full house.  I was amazed considering there was going to be inductions into the Ring Of Honor, with great players from the good old days. 

The game actually had the same feel as the parking lot, at least for the first half.  Lackadaisical seems to be the right word for both teams and the fans.  The halftime inductions got the crowds attention and the Boys made some headway and the crowd finally seemed to wake up a little bit.

After the game we walked slowly to the car, took our time getting in and then promptly drove straight out of Lot 11 like we had a police escort.  30 minutes after the game we were home.  I guess a few people had left early sensing the Good Guys had the game in hand. (they are a lot more confident than I ever am !)

Had a great time,  game ended with the right result, felt bad about not being to actually sell the extra tickets and I am still astounded by that.  Just wait, when The Boys pile up some wins people will be fighting over those tickets.  Oh well.  That’s the way football go.

later Poke