The CardBoard
The Frying Pan - Printable Version

+- The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board)
+-- Forum: C-House! (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-4.html)
+--- Forum: The CardBoard (https://thecardboard.org/board/forum-5.html)
+--- Thread: The Frying Pan (/thread-7637.html)


The Frying Pan - 81alum - 08-30-2014

Those of you watching the game on TV probably have no idea how miserable the game was from the stands.  Palo Alto got up to 87 today, but it felt much warmer than that in the stadium.

I am one of those who has waxed nostalgic for the "good ol' days" when games were always played in the afternoon.  I think this is the first game in the new stadium I actually attended in the afternoon--at least on an August afternoon.  As much as I might have preferred afternoon games in the old stadium, I will never be nostalgic again for afternoon games in the new one. 

This stadium is built for evenings or late autumn afternoons.  The plastic seats get much hotter than the old splintery wooden benches, the metal superstructure gets much hotter than the old dirt, and the stadium is deeper and steeper which reduces the breeze. 

The season ticket holders all seemed to stick around, but the neophyte families who brought their youngsters (they were free today) were leaving by halfway through the first quarter.  I sat behind an extended family who brought about a dozen kids to the game.  Several of them would not sit down on the scorching seats, and most of that family was gone by halfway through the first quarter.  The concourse became increasingly crowded with people seeking shade--the standing room spaces behind the blue lines where you could watch the game from the concourse became prime real estate.  The stadium looked about 3/4 full once everyone got settled in, but probably 1/2 full coming back from halftime and 1/4 full or less by the end.  Of course, the complete shellacking of D.avis probably contributed.

In short, I have learned my lesson.  Given the architecture of the place, I'll avoid afternoon games on hot days from now on.  Give me a breezy, sunny day in the 70s in October or November--but otherwise I'll stick to the evenings.

Now, this has me deeply worried about next week and SC.  It is scheduled for 1230.  The students are not back and the red zone looked a little depleted today, the band was a shadow of itself that could barely make itself heard across an empty stadium.  The heat not only drove people to the concourse and entirely out of the stadium, it also sapped enthusiasm and energy and the place was as quiet as I can every remember hearing it.  SC will no doubt inspire better attendance and more noise, but this will be far from the home field advantage that we would have had later in the season in the evening.

The one consolation in all this was...the good guys played very, very well.  So I left with a smile on my face--my sweaty, sunblock caked, dehydrated face ;)


Re: The Frying Pan - needle - 08-30-2014

Thanks for the report! The optics on television were, frankly, a little embarrassing at the game's start. But a little bit later the crowd did appear respectable.

Re: The Frying Pan - yvonne - 08-30-2014

Many were watching from the concourse due to the heat.

Re: The Frying Pan - Fresbone - 08-30-2014

Quote:In short, I have learned my lesson.  Given the architecture of the place, I'll avoid afternoon games on hot days from now on.  Give me a breezy, sunny day in the 70s in October or November--but otherwise I'll stick to the evenings.

Honestly... That's a little weak.

Re: The Frying Pan - Leftcoast - 08-30-2014

Evening games are gorgeous in August and September!  Or July.

There were some first timers near me whose young kids melted down into whimpering piles of sunburned goo and were scraped off the cement and carried out at half time.  I encouraged the parents to hang in there and bring in lots of water and frozen grapes.  The Wok is a lot nicer to children later in the season.

I don't get the nostalgia for 12:30 starts in August ...

Re: The Frying Pan - stupac2 - 08-30-2014

I actually left early because my wife couldn't stand the heat. Well, and because it was a brobdingnagian blowout. If the game had been close I would've stayed, but as the 4th quarter came around the starters were all out and the only suspense was "can we keep up the shutout?" so we headed out. First time I've ever left a game early, in fact.

But I wouldn't worry about next week. People didn't come out because it was Davis, and people didn't make noise because it was Davis. It'll be better when it's USC.

Re: The Frying Pan - Rally - 08-30-2014

(08-30-2014, 05:23 PM)Yvonne link Wrote:Many were watching from the concourse due to the heat.

Very simple solution:  just pool 81alum, stupac, garvin and yvonne funds to endow the Cardboard.org cardinal Misting System.  Problems solved.  Well, there is a drought but, well, priorities!

The all metal upper deck... - Redrum - 08-30-2014

is The Wok.  Hell, maybe the whole stadium is. 

My friend at the game (lower shadyside) and i were trading texts.  I mentioned how sparse the crowd looked.  He agreed it looked sparse, but said the concourse was flipping packed and it just doesn't show on TV.  I didn't see or hear any attendance figures, but even if they shoo the people out of the shade,  it was pretty low for our standards set lately.

Re: The Frying Pan - oman - 08-30-2014

It looked bad, but hats off to those of you who went out. 

The down side of the west coast micro-climates....

Re: The Frying Pan - Red State - 08-30-2014

I enjoyed the heat! Sat at the top of the sunny side with my shirt off and drank plenty of water. Stayed until the last tick. Crowd didn't look too bad from where I was sitting.

Re: The Frying Pan - CompSci87 - 08-30-2014

It didn't seem that bad to me. I was expecting it to be hot, dressed for it, drank a lot of fluids and was fine. I sit in the lower bowl on the sunny side.

Re: The Frying Pan - pefloresjr - 08-30-2014

We sit in the lower deck on the sunny side.  It was very hot today, but we've been there when it has been worse.  The key is to wear a shade hat, bring frozen bottles of water, and carry a spray bottle to create your own cooling mist zone.  Those seated near us beg then bless us for sharing the spray bottle. 
Cheers,
Pete F. 

Re: The Frying Pan - BobK - 08-30-2014

Interesting upper deck on the sunny side just fine to me.  Oh after the Natioanl T&F meet in Sacramento in June high 90s I guess I would feel fine.  Seriously I'm sure I've been to a 100 or more hotter athletic events.  Not bad at all. 

Re: The Frying Pan - 81alum - 08-31-2014

As the stands emptied out in the second half, there were people moving around, trying to find cooler locations.  I saw one father shouting to his son to follow him down to the lower deck where it was "much cooler down here."  Was it?  I wonder if the portion of stands built over earth and concrete is cooler than the portion built over air--at least when the air is hot.

I did get up and move upwards and North in the 4th quarter and picked up some merciful breeze.  By the time I left section 238 I was one of a handful of people sitting in that section which must normally seat a few hundred.  Maybe we were just the "sweet spot" for misery, neither low enough for earth-cooling nor high enough for breeze.  I was one of the last to give up on the section.

I can say that I much preferred my experience in the rain at the Pac 12 championship game in 2012.  Like yesterday, thousands gathered in the concourse to avoid the weather, but I do not remember many of them leaving and most of them were back in the stands for the fourth quarter.  Of course, that one was a real game to the end.

By the way, yesterday's official attendance was 49,500 or so which is near capacity.  I have no idea how they compute such things, but even when the stands were at their fullest there were entire rows in the upper deck that were empty.  I guessed at the time that the stadium was about 2/3 full.  If there really were 49k people there, 15k of them never came out of the concourse.

Probably much of the exodus in the upper decks and general admission areas was caused by the free tickets for kids--there were thousands of kids who don't often go to games and who may not be as hardy about football.  They were less willing to put up with discomfort than fanatics like us.

Re: The Frying Pan - Farm93 - 08-31-2014

The 6 or 7PM kicks are the way to go for August or September games.  In theory, the late ending time will scare away the family with kids 10 and younger, but the potential for daytime heat does the same thing.  AYSO consumes a lot of family mornings and early afternoons, so later kicks probably are better for most sports oriented families anyway.

After a few years of OC living I am now able to tolerate the heat. In reality, I stayed the whole game because my AYSO commitments will make it impossible to attend the next two games.  Which is killing me, but even if I lived in the SF Bay Area I would probably have similar schedule conflicts.  My kids are only in this range once, but it has helped me appreciate that while nostalgia drives some loyalty to afternoon kicks, AYSO, skin cancer awareness, and the stadium layout make evening games the obvious choice.  It may be the better option for any football Saturday, but the night kicks are definitely better for August and September.

The lack of students at early season games is just a Stanford reality.  I discovered in the stands that 43% of the undergrads are from California, but California is a big state and I would not expect an LA/OC/SD based student to drive up just for that game. I did it, but I think most 20 year old kids would just opt to watch the game on a home TV, or even on a mobile device. 

Re: The Frying Pan - yvonne - 08-31-2014

Next week, use the ticket exchange on gostanford.com and give your tickets to someone who will appreciate them.

Re: The Frying Pan - terry - 09-02-2014

(08-31-2014, 07:28 AM)Farm93 link Wrote:The 6 or 7PM kicks are the way to go for August or September games.

Yes, definitely. But we don't control that. The TV networks control it. We take their money, and they tell us when to play. The interests of the fans who actually attend just don't weigh in the balance against the TV considerations.