My Season Tickets

[BigFatMeanie]

I've been in Hawaii the past 10 days so when I got home my football season tickets were waiting in the mail. Nothing better than opening up the ticket envelope to see where you drew out!

I've been a Golden Cougar for a number of years now and have been steadily working may way to a lower and lower row each year (and secretly hoping that some of the original stadium donors might eventually return back to the Good Lord That Made 'Em so the prime seats on the west stands would finally start opening up).

Anyway, last year I finally got to row 9 in section 7 (about the 30 yard line on the north side of the stadium, west stands). Originally I was worried about row 9 because it is the row immediately above the lower concourse and I thought the foot traffic would be too distracting. After sitting in those seats last year I came to really enjoy them for the following reasons:

- You can hang your coat and jacket on the blue railing
- You can put your feet up on the blue railing
- You can stretch your feet out past the blue railing
- Nobody can stand up in front of you
- The foot traffic is entertaining during time outs and half-times for a devoted people-watcher such as myself
- The foot traffic doesn't interfere at all with the game
- You can be the first one out of the stands when the clock hits zero - first in line for the bathroom and the concessions and first out of the stadium to beat the crowd.

There were only a couple of drawbacks to the seats:
- The angle wasn't great for seeing plays on the southwest side of the field.
- There was a complete yewt sitting behind me. Every play he would yell at the players, coaches, call the team stupid, say "we suck, I can't believe how bad we suck", second guess the coaches on every play call, etc. I don't mind congenial conversation and analysis among the fans. I'm even perfectly happy with well-placed/well-deserved hectoring. But this guy simply wouldn't shut his trap for the entire game.

This year my son is old enough to start going to games without being a complete pain in the rear (4 years old) and my girls are old enough to babysit themselves so I can take Mrs. Meanie as well. Thus, I decided to increase my order to 4 tickets instead of my usual two. When I opened the package, I found that I got my 4 seats on row 9 only they were in section 8 instead of section 7 - one section closer to the north end zone. Now the angle drawback will be even more severe and I'm concerned that the up/down-aisle traffic will interefere with my view. On the plus side, I probably won't have that complete yewt whining in my ear the whole game. All in all I'm satisfied with my seats.

I'm definitely a row 9 convert. Any lower would be too low. Any higher and I won't enjoy all the fringe benefits of being right on the concourse. Now that I've found my dream row, the only thing left is to work towards my dream section - right on the 50 yard line. If only some of those original stadium donors weren't so darned long-lived. Is it evil for me to hope that some of them kick the bucket so that I can get their seats?