[81alum]

Well, unlike my foray into the wok last time, I thoroughly enjoyed the game atmosphere this time.  This is simply a stadium made for evening games, and it was delightful.

Biking across Palo Alto to the stadium, the weather was perfect--mid to upper 60s. Once I got in to the stadium I was early, so I did a couple of laps--once around the outside of the old ring, and once around the concourse.  I have not really appreciated how attractive the outside of the stadium is, with an oak forest covering it.  That was the best feature of the old stadium and it is intact.  It is more like approaching a park than a hulking concrete behemoth.

I snuck into the Red Zone for pre game festivities and reveled in the presence of real, live students!  They were being educated in all the essentials of being good Red Zone fans.  The band came out and it was three times the size of the makeshift and motley crew that I saw last time, and it actually could be heard.  Their half time performance was somewhat clever--it was largely announced by Siri--and welcomed the frosh by giving them silly directions from Siri around campus.  Some of the jokes only worked on people in the know--such as when Siri could not give good directions because there were five buildings named Arrillaga.  The Wazoo people I was next to didn't get any of it.  They also were confused as to why Stanford had two sets of cheerleaders.  My efforts to explain left them mystified.

The only down side I thought was that attendance was light.  Even accounting for a lot of people in the concourse, I think at least 1/3 of the seats in the upper bowl were never occupied, end zones were half full, and there were a goodly smattering of open seats even in prime space.  I'd guess the stadium was 2/3 full.  The official attendance figures I've decided are completely bogus.  I have no idea how they came up with 44k for tonight, but even the official figures show the stadium was not sold out.  Attendance did improve by 7pm--quite a few people arrived late after work, I suppose.

Evening games when the students are back--the ideal time to be in Stanford Stadium.

[81alum]

Well, unlike my foray into the wok last time, I thoroughly enjoyed the game atmosphere this time.  This is simply a stadium made for evening games, and it was delightful.

Biking across Palo Alto to the stadium, the weather was perfect--mid to upper 60s. Once I got in to the stadium I was early, so I did a couple of laps--once around the outside of the old ring, and once around the concourse.  I have not really appreciated how attractive the outside of the stadium is, with an oak forest covering it.  That was the best feature of the old stadium and it is intact.  It is more like approaching a park than a hulking concrete behemoth.

I snuck into the Red Zone for pre game festivities and reveled in the presence of real, live students!  They were being educated in all the essentials of being good Red Zone fans.  The band came out and it was three times the size of the makeshift and motley crew that I saw last time, and it actually could be heard.  Their half time performance was somewhat clever--it was largely announced by Siri--and welcomed the frosh by giving them silly directions from Siri around campus.  Some of the jokes only worked on people in the know--such as when Siri could not give good directions because there were five buildings named Arrillaga.  The Wazoo people I was next to didn't get any of it.  They also were confused as to why Stanford had two sets of cheerleaders.  My efforts to explain left them mystified.

The only down side I thought was that attendance was light.  Even accounting for a lot of people in the concourse, I think at least 1/3 of the seats in the upper bowl were never occupied, end zones were half full, and there were a goodly smattering of open seats even in prime space.  I'd guess the stadium was 2/3 full.  The official attendance figures I've decided are completely bogus.  I have no idea how they came up with 44k for tonight, but even the official figures show the stadium was not sold out.  Attendance did improve by 7pm--quite a few people arrived late after work, I suppose.

Evening games when the students are back--the ideal time to be in Stanford Stadium.

[French Rage]

Evening games on Saturday would be even more ideal.

[French Rage]

Evening games on Saturday would be even more ideal.

[StanFan88]

The biggest difference for me was the student section - they were loud and fired up.

Attn Bernard Muir - please don't allow the conference to schedule half of the home games before school is in session.  That is a real letdown

[StanFan88]

The biggest difference for me was the student section - they were loud and fired up.

Attn Bernard Muir - please don't allow the conference to schedule half of the home games before school is in session.  That is a real letdown

[BobK]

FB and MBB report tickets sold not attendance, by rule as the refs say.  Of course no real refs present last night. >:(

Students bought 5,800 tix, amazing. 

[BobK]

FB and MBB report tickets sold not attendance, by rule as the refs say.  Of course no real refs present last night. >:(

Students bought 5,800 tix, amazing. 

[scorecard]

Here's a video released from Stanford showing some of the game atmosphere.  Looks like a great time, our videographers do an awesome job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b031T8C11vM

[scorecard]

Here's a video released from Stanford showing some of the game atmosphere.  Looks like a great time, our videographers do an awesome job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b031T8C11vM

[81alum]

FB and MBB report tickets sold not attendance, by rule as the refs say.  Of course no real refs present last night. >:(

Students bought 5,800 tix, amazing.

That is what I concluded.  I didn't decide to go to the game until a couple of hours beforehand, and found thousands of cheap tickets on StubHub.  Many of the tickets were in very large blocks--meaning I suppose that someone bought up large blocks of the cheap seats for resale purposes.  Most of those blocks remained unsold--I bought 1 ticket from a block of 30, and I do not think any of the other 29 were occupied.

So someone (someones?) bought a few thousand cheap tickets and resold only a small fraction of them.  Those would show up as "sold" but they were really unused merchandise that a middleman got stuck with.

It does make me wonder how Stanford Athletics sells block tickets.  There were literally thousands of tickets on Stubhub for far less than the lowest price you could buy a ticket at the ticket office.  The internet age seems to be wreaking havoc on the ticket sale count.

[81alum]

FB and MBB report tickets sold not attendance, by rule as the refs say.  Of course no real refs present last night. >:(

Students bought 5,800 tix, amazing.

That is what I concluded.  I didn't decide to go to the game until a couple of hours beforehand, and found thousands of cheap tickets on StubHub.  Many of the tickets were in very large blocks--meaning I suppose that someone bought up large blocks of the cheap seats for resale purposes.  Most of those blocks remained unsold--I bought 1 ticket from a block of 30, and I do not think any of the other 29 were occupied.

So someone (someones?) bought a few thousand cheap tickets and resold only a small fraction of them.  Those would show up as "sold" but they were really unused merchandise that a middleman got stuck with.

It does make me wonder how Stanford Athletics sells block tickets.  There were literally thousands of tickets on Stubhub for far less than the lowest price you could buy a ticket at the ticket office.  The internet age seems to be wreaking havoc on the ticket sale count.

[81alum]

Here's a video released from Stanford showing some of the game atmosphere.  Looks like a great time, our videographers do an awesome job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b031T8C11vM

Very nice.  The Navy Seals were very impressive, gliding in right over the stands and landing on cue.  They came close enough to the upper deck to wave and nod at fans.  The fireworks were a nice way to polish off the evening.  Of course I want to see the team continue to win and play in January, but whatever happens, last night was a few hours of real pleasure and an evening I won't forget for a long while.

ps.  That nice video does show Toboada pushing off ;P  The refs had a lot of bad calls--more that hurt us than helped, but I guess their incompetence was not completely lopsided.

[81alum]

Here's a video released from Stanford showing some of the game atmosphere.  Looks like a great time, our videographers do an awesome job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b031T8C11vM

Very nice.  The Navy Seals were very impressive, gliding in right over the stands and landing on cue.  They came close enough to the upper deck to wave and nod at fans.  The fireworks were a nice way to polish off the evening.  Of course I want to see the team continue to win and play in January, but whatever happens, last night was a few hours of real pleasure and an evening I won't forget for a long while.

ps.  That nice video does show Toboada pushing off ;P  The refs had a lot of bad calls--more that hurt us than helped, but I guess their incompetence was not completely lopsided.

[BostonCard]

Also, we got away with a blatant hold on sanders' big run.  But holds frequently don't get called because it's impossible to have eyes on all the blockers.  It should be harder to miss PI, because the refs should be focused on the play.

BC

[BostonCard]

Also, we got away with a blatant hold on sanders' big run.  But holds frequently don't get called because it's impossible to have eyes on all the blockers.  It should be harder to miss PI, because the refs should be focused on the play.

BC

[Nan3cy]

The announcers were sure scratching their heads when PI started to be called - especially when Stanford was being called for much less than WSU had done earlier.

[Nan3cy]

The announcers were sure scratching their heads when PI started to be called - especially when Stanford was being called for much less than WSU had done earlier.

[stupac2]

The paratroopers were a very nice touch, were we able to do that because of fleet week? I wish we could do that every year:

[stupac2]

The paratroopers were a very nice touch, were we able to do that because of fleet week? I wish we could do that every year:

[StanFan88]

Yes that was in part due to it being Fleet Week.

[StanFan88]

Yes that was in part due to it being Fleet Week.

[CowboyIndian]

Yes that was in part due to it being Fleet Week.

It did wonders for our offense, I thought.

[CowboyIndian]

Yes that was in part due to it being Fleet Week.

It did wonders for our offense, I thought.

[Mick]

[quote author=BobK link=topic=10858.msg101838#msg101838 date=1413043465]
FB and MBB report tickets sold not attendance, by rule as the refs say.  Of course no real refs present last night. >:(

Students bought 5,800 tix, amazing.

That is what I concluded.  I didn't decide to go to the game until a couple of hours beforehand, and found thousands of cheap tickets on StubHub.  Many of the tickets were in very large blocks--meaning I suppose that someone bought up large blocks of the cheap seats for resale purposes.  Most of those blocks remained unsold--I bought 1 ticket from a block of 30, and I do not think any of the other 29 were occupied.

So someone (someones?) bought a few thousand cheap tickets and resold only a small fraction of them.  Those would show up as "sold" but they were really unused merchandise that a middleman got stuck with.

It does make me wonder how Stanford Athletics sells block tickets.  There were literally thousands of tickets on Stubhub for far less than the lowest price you could buy a ticket at the ticket office.  The internet age seems to be wreaking havoc on the ticket sale count.
[/quote]

Would be interesting if Stanford were the middleman, no?  Sort of a different approach to dynamic pricing...one "official" price at the box office, and Stanford also gets the lower-revenue, stubhub revenue, all while proving 44,000 tix sold with 37,500 attendees(WAG).

[Mick]

[quote author=BobK link=topic=10858.msg101838#msg101838 date=1413043465]
FB and MBB report tickets sold not attendance, by rule as the refs say.  Of course no real refs present last night. >:(

Students bought 5,800 tix, amazing.

That is what I concluded.  I didn't decide to go to the game until a couple of hours beforehand, and found thousands of cheap tickets on StubHub.  Many of the tickets were in very large blocks--meaning I suppose that someone bought up large blocks of the cheap seats for resale purposes.  Most of those blocks remained unsold--I bought 1 ticket from a block of 30, and I do not think any of the other 29 were occupied.

So someone (someones?) bought a few thousand cheap tickets and resold only a small fraction of them.  Those would show up as "sold" but they were really unused merchandise that a middleman got stuck with.

It does make me wonder how Stanford Athletics sells block tickets.  There were literally thousands of tickets on Stubhub for far less than the lowest price you could buy a ticket at the ticket office.  The internet age seems to be wreaking havoc on the ticket sale count.
[/quote]

Would be interesting if Stanford were the middleman, no?  Sort of a different approach to dynamic pricing...one "official" price at the box office, and Stanford also gets the lower-revenue, stubhub revenue, all while proving 44,000 tix sold with 37,500 attendees(WAG).