Cpher and I headed east for 3 nights and 3 games in a long weekend. Thought I would do a bit of compare and contrast as I talk about the weekend.
Games:
A 3-2 loss to UMass-Lowell for the PSU Hockey Team; a clear #3 for the trip in terms of results.
A 45-21 win for the Nittany Lions over Purdue on Saturday; a good win, but, expected, so, it ranks #2
A 37-27 win for the Steelers over the Lions; somewhat unexpected (they weren’t favored). Totally awesome; a clear #1.
Facilities:
The brand-spanking nice ice arena at Penn State is the clear winner here; still had that new arena smell! While the game was technically a sell-out, there were a smattering of empty seats out there and the student section did not fill up. Tickets were very hard to come by for this game….it took a lot of work to find tickets that were near face value (most resale outlets were almost double face value….found a guy on a message board who let me have the $26 tickets for $30 each).
We’ll call Heinz Field #2; the nice thing about having friends who have season tickets with a group is that if you just let them know you’re coming four to six weeks in advance you can get tickets at face value. And I had the thought that given the Steelers season that I was overpaying for those tickets….but, I had said ok so ok it was.
The boy grows so much that he has grown out of all of his Steeler gear! So, the Penn State sweatshirt is out here again tody…it sheds water pretty well too!
It rained cats and dogs yesterday at the game. The seats are under cover in the endzone. Worth every single penny I paid (gave Rob $180 for both of them).
(he did want the hat. And by the end of the game he knew what jersey he wanted, Le’Veon Bell…a good choice, the MSU connection and I’m always partial to #26…maybe he’ll get it for Christmas)
Nothing against Beaver Stadium, but, it is going to rank third here. Our seat were ok; I again wasn’t going to pay a ton over face value and I wanted them in hand before leaving so I bought them off of Stubhub for $5 over face + shipping.
Went into the store looking for lax shorts (for the most part, lax shorts are highly colorful, and the Penn State ones we bought are certainly that)…the helpful salesman pointed out that this hooded sweatshirt was part of the set…..an easy sale on his part.
A little underwhelmed by the Blue Band…..very stolidly traditional. When other bands are doing Michael Jackson tributes, etc, these guys brought out Tchaikovsky at halftime….
The only panorama that even remotely came out well…..
Scored on this play!
Ended up sitting about 12 seats over from the end of the student section on the east side about 50 rows up. Nice view, and the weather was perfect for a game in mid-November.
Music:
Hockey: The Penn State experience is a trip down today’s pop songs. Aside from the initial dose of Seven Nation Army, I was pretty happy to hear Bastille by Pompeii a lot….
Nittany Football: The full-on Seven Nation Army experience here.
More pop hits here; I think the Kesha/Pitbull “timber’ song is the one that sticks with me the most. And they did play Christopher’s favorite; What Does The Fox Say.
Heinz: No pop music here…..a definite turn towards rock and metal. From geezers Ozzy and Bret Michaels trying to cheer the fans on to the uniquely Steeler song rally song (played twice today, once in the third quarter and once in the fourth).
Fans:
The crowd at the hockey game was pretty subdued….I mean, it was good and all, but, the team was supposed to lose and did lose even though they played pretty well after the first period. That first period was a killer though….the freshman goalie gave up two soft goals.
I told Rob on Sunday I walked away from the PSU football game really impressed with the student section. I know we didn’t stand the whole time when I was there (we stood a lot, but not the whole time, especially in a game that was well in hand like the Purdue game was). But those kids stood the whole time! And while I had to know the alma mater because of Glee Club, the most often lyrics in the stands from the students was “we don’t know the goddamn words”. But these kids, in the post-Sandusky age, sing it loud, every word, and shout “MAY NO ACT OF OURS BRING SHAME”.
The Steeler game was more subdued than last time I was there…..part of that is the rain, part of that is the bright and shiny 3-6 record the team trotted into the stadium. Way more Honolulu Blue walking around than I ever would have guessed would be present in Heinz, and even with the rain, a lot more empty seats than I would have ever expected to see.
But they were loud and proud as the Steelers pulled it out in the fourth quarter. Cpher was happy (relieved) that the level of profanity he remembered from the Oakland game wasn’t there either (except for a few choice words directed at Ike Taylor!).
