Seattle Sounders
For Shane's birthday in March, I bought him tickets to the Seattle Sounders. We were really excited! They are an MLS team. We have been to a game before, but Wesley was younger. I thought it would be really fun; we had good seats and it was an afternoon game against the Chicago Fire on a sunny Saturday in April.
I noticed something interesting when we were walking to our seats. All around the stadium were huge billboard-ish signs saying things like "Keep it PG-13" or similar. There were several of these advertisements, encouraging everyone to be good sports, be respectful, etc. I noticed them but didn't think much of them until later.
We were at the game with our 2-year-old son. He was happy sitting in his seat, eating a hot dog, watching the guys run around kicking a ball.
We were sitting next to what they call the "Emerald City Supporters," a spirit club of 2,000 enthusiastic, chanting fans. Enthusiasm and chanting don't bother me, mind you. It was the crudeness of this particular group that got to me.
Repeatedly when they didn't agree with the referee, they'd yell something (as a group), like "Go home ***hole!" (yes, the actual word). Then there was this song about how "we came to drink, we came to sing," and "can you hear the Fire sing, we can't hear a f****** thing!" SERIOUSLY. F bombs! During the entire game!
I couldn't believe it. It was so disrespectful. It was rude, and it seriously bothered me. I don't know if I'll go to another Sounders game, and if I do I won't sit anywhere near those guys. Although since there are 2,000 of them in a single section, they're pretty loud. I think the thing that was the craziest is that the whole stadium had this "keep it PG-13" message, and yet the game was nothing like that. It was the complete opposite! It was so weird to feel completely contradicted as I sat in my seat.
Seattle Seahawks
Our tale begins when a friend posted on Facebook not too long ago about how the Seahawks were doing an exhibition game on a Saturday night -- and the tickets were cheap. Hot dog the tickets were cheap. I've wanted to go to a Seahawks game for years (mostly for the experience, and since Shane likes football), but 1) the games are mostly on Sundays, except for Monday Night Football games which are really popular, and 2) the tickets are expensive. Like, hundreds of dollars expensive.
So, when I found out about this Saturday game where tickets literally started at $8, I was thrilled. I splurged and bought three $15 tickets!
The game started at 7, so we left our place around 6 PM. We live about 20 miles away, but we knew we had to factor in traffic. We didn't know how bad it would be.
By the time we hit Seattle (Northgate area on the freeway), traffic was getting really heavy. The stadiums can be accessed from the freeway, but we have always had better luck exiting early and taking Route 99 south to the Alaskan Way Viaduct, which has a direct exit right to the stadiums. This has always worked for us.
It took some time to exit and get on the 99, but once we did we had smooth sailing -- until we were got closer to Seattle. Traffic was stalling, fast, and one of those electronic signs alerted us that "Alaskan Way Viaduct Closed. Expect Delays." WHAT???? We had no idea! Now we were STUCK on the 99, with no other clear way to get to the stadium.
OK. Shane was fed up so he took the first exit we came to, which was Broad. OK, I thought, Broad goes west to the waterfront. We'll just get on the waterfront, turn south, and somehow get to the stadiums. This isn't rocket science. It's just navigating Seattle.
We were in traffic for what seemed like FOREVER before we hit the waterfront. Kickoff time, 7 PM, came and went. When the waterfront was finally in view, we realized we were in BIG trouble: It was Hempfest weekend. They hold Hempfest at this park along the waterfront, and streets were closed, police officers were directing traffic, people were EVERYWHERE. It was awful. I cried. We were still stuck, and going nowhere.
I think at this point Shane looked at me and asked if we should just turn around and go home. I was tempted. I really was... but I said no, let's keep going.
We turned left on First and started toward the stadium. By the time we got to the Central Business District I was begging Shane just to park somewhere so we could walk the rest of the way. He said it was too far. He didn't want to park yet. We passed Pioneer Square. Finally, we were at the stadium.
And we looked for parking. We looked. And looked. And looked. By this time, it was at least 8 PM, and all the "pay to park" lots had closed. Not because they were full, but because the attendants had given up and gone to the game. There was no place to park.
I was exasperated. I finally saw a place and told Shane to just park there. He said he was sure it was illegal. I said there are dozens of other people parked illegally, and there was no way they would ticket us. They'd ticket everyone else with the grosser crimes. He relented, we parked.
We got out. A woman drove up next to us and called out her window that she had parked in a similar place recently and gotten a ticket. She was sure we were parked illegally, and they were tough here enforcing the parking laws. We nodded; she drove off. I looked and Shane and just wanted to give up. At this point, after all that traffic, is when I wanted to go home. Sigh. But, we kept going.
We walked a long, long ways to the stadium.
Let me recap:
- We left our place at 6 PM.
- The game started at 7 PM.
- We sat in our seats at 8:50 PM. EIGHT FIFTY. The third quarter had just begun. We missed HALF of the game.
We were starving. We got some overpriced, disgusting cheeseburgers, sat in our seats for an hour, watched the Seahawks lose, and walked back to our car. Where a $42 parking ticket was waiting for us. Yup. Icing on the cake.
Many, many, many things bothered me about this experience:
- The viaduct was closed for a "scheduled inspection" or something stupid. WHAT CITY IN THE WORLD WOULD CLOSE ONE OF ITS MAJOR HIGHWAYS -- ON PURPOSE -- ON A WEEKEND WITH A PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL GAME, MARIJUANA-FUELED PEOPLE FEST, AND DOZENS OF OTHER DOWNTOWN ACTIVITIES GOING ON? Can you tell I was mad? MAD.
- The Seattle Sounder Train is an Amtrak service for commuters that usually runs during Mariners, Seahawks, and Sounders games. We looked into that. Wesley would have LOVED the train. But, on their Web site the Sounder train indicated it did not serve "preseason" games. Lovely.
- We physically had no other way to get to the game. We didn't want to take three different buses. Buses wouldn't have traveled any faster than our cars. We had to drive. And we were rewarded with awful traffic and absolutely nowhere to park. NOWHERE. The parking situation in SoDo is ridiculous. Cars everywhere, parked on top of each other, and STILL nowhere to park. The one official QwestField garage charges $50 to park during a game. FIFTY DOLLARS. We probably should have parked there and just paid $8 more than our parking ticket.
I was grateful for ONE PIECE of comic relief during this whole thing. Bless Shane for noticing this: in front of us, while stuck in traffic, was this beat-up white hatchback car. I can't remember what it was, like a Fiero or an old Honda or something. Anyway, the windshield wiper on the back window was snapped off -- broken -- but it was on. The little stub was moving back and forth, with no wiper attached. It was hilarious. It was good for just a second to laugh my heart out. I really laughed. I needed that beat-up goof car. Stuck in traffic, alongside me.
Who would have thought I'd have to endure two Seattle sports debacles this year?
