Re: Please Post Your Ticket Location & Priority Number: 2010 Ford Field FF
High Priority, Low Visibility:
Summary of Seat Assignments
At The
Ford Field Frozen Four
Part II: Three Games, Six Locations: My Ford Field Odyssey
As mentioned in Part I, one of the Detroit scalpers proclaimed Thursday at the tournament to be my lucky day. It had been great to that point. We had a fine time at the Henry Ford Museum and the Ford Rouge Factory Tour. In fact, we were having such a good time that we lingered a bit too long at the assembly plant. But the commute into the city went well, and parking near Ford Field was a breeze. Even the fee was reasonable. Then we entered the stadium...
Bench Side Risers: Where It All Began
The Hallucination said:
Riser seats are probably going to be better than other seats, right?
Riser Section 37. Kind of a shame to be even a few minutes late with such great tickets. We showed our ducats to the usher, gaining access to the risers. What's with all the empty chairs? Late arriving crowd?
Then we sat down. The view was just as
jen described. (See Post #47) We left immediately. Well, almost immediately. Being good hockey people, we waited for a whistle.
We weren't alone; most of the section was already gone.
bgbill, assigned to the same section, left after the first period. He might as well have hung up a "Closed" sign on his way out. Our section remained mostly empty all tournament long.
The plain truth: The Bench Side Risers were a complete disgrace, and should not have been sold. You could have put chairs in the outer course facing a blank wall, and the seats would not have been worse. OK, to make things genuinely equal, the outer concourse seats could have a TV monitor with somewhat fuzzy reception.
I can understand why the rink wasn't placed flush against the permanent stands. Such a design would have further damaged the sightlines in the permanent seats. That part of the stadium simply isn't designed for viewing the small area between the back of the football end zone and the wall. So use the risers if you must, but leave the chairs in storage. One idea would be to cover the risers with tournament-themed tarps. Perhaps the the logos of the four participating schools could be displayed. Or, maybe such tarps would provide a nice marketing opportunity. But again, this area should not have been used for seating.
Behind The Net In Section 103
Scrambling to find a view of the action, we grabbed some open seats in Section 103. In doing so, we joined fellow posters
Rumpleman, ME Fan, hockeyeast fan & CO Hockey in that section. Our seats were most similar to CO Hockey's location in Row 23. Note that CO Hockey was a Priority 2 Ticket Holder for Detroit. So we had just accepted a voluntary downgrade of 10 priority levels. But voila! We could now see that there was a hockey game in progress! However humble, the seats were actually an upgrade.
Waterlover had a similar vantage point in Section 104, Row 13. He concluded that his location was a LONG way back from the ice surface. We were at least 15 rows removed from his position, yet feeling pretty good. Maybe there's something to be said for humble beginnings.
But it didn't take long for another problem to come to light -- the incline of the permanent seats simply wasn't steep enough for this rink configuration. On the bright side, anyone who brought kids to the game had a wonderful science education opportunity. The mini-lecture would go something like this:
Honey, do you see the man five rows below in the red jersey? The one with the mullet? OK, now watch when he stands up. Do you see how the entire rink is blotted out from view? That is called a total eclipse.
Now I'm all for science education. But after a period in Section 103 it was time to move on.
On-Field Risers: We're Not So Inclined
Next Stop, Section RS2, approximately Row 20. A member of our group described these seats as follows:
Well, they're not great. They're not even good. They're...acceptable. The comment hit the mark. Our adopted blue line seats were rendered mediocre by an almost total lack of incline.
Note that
The Freds, sitting in a comparable location, dismissed his assignment as
the worst seats I've ever had a Frozen Four... I could only see half the ice. I'm just disgusted.
Furthermore, the problem got progressively worse as you went to lower rows. According to my personal level of tolerance, the first 10 rows were unusuable. Moving up from there, the game slowly came into view, even as the distance from the ice increased at a maddening rate.
While in the lower rows, I decided to stop by and see
Brewmaster. Just as he posted, he had no sightline at all. He also left before I got there. Good thing, actually. The alternative scenario would have had Brewmaster sittting in his chair in a catatonic trance. It would have been my obligation to have him civilly committed. Who needs such a nuisance?
In any event, we completed the first semi-final in the RS2 location.
The Balcony Has More Soul -- And This Year The Best Vantage Point As Well
For the BC-Miami game, we decided to try out the seats in the 200's. Lo and behold, a vantage point recognizable to a hockey fan's eye! And priced at a $70 discount!
We nestled into Section 244, toward the top of the section. The sightline and the distance from the ice were no worse than nosebleed seats in an NHL arena. Deal, or No Deal? We took the deal. Thursday's wanderings were complete; we settled in for the evening.
DLG had occasion to compare seats in RS1, RS2 & Section 241, and reached a similar conclusion. He described his son-in-law's balcony location as the
best seat in a horrid venue.
Congratulations To Satyking, Winner of the 2010 Priority Lottery
Satyking made the shrewd move of opting for the $119 tickets. Using his top level priority to full advantage, he bagged a first row balcony seat at center ice. Well done!
And yet, this leaves a rather nagging feeling for the rest of us. How were we to know that in the Wonderland called Ford Field, the key to getting better seats was to buy cheaper tickets?
Behind the Net in Section 130
Returning to action Saturday night, we began the evening in Section 130, above row 30. Fellow posters
s11r9seat8, jdevoejr & manurespreader had assignments in that section. Priority Level 6 netted Row 16; Priority Level 3 snagged Row 25; Priority 0 claimed Row 29. So we were sitting in
zero priority seats! We later learned from
jen that seats in this specific area went unsold. Instead, they were being given out as replacements for riser tickets. So you might say we accidently wound up were we belonged.
Section 130 is at the opposite end of the ice from Section 103. But in general, the same comments apply. As long as the other fans remained seated, we had a mostly unobstructed view of the ice sheet. We did feel a bit removed from the action. This was due to the gap between the rink and the permanent stands, and the all-too-modest incline.
A couple of comments on the gap: The ice sheet is going to be 200 feet long; that's a given. The playing surface at Ford Field is wider than that, so gaps behind the end boards were inevitable. It appeared that the gaps on each end were roughly equal with one another, so no complaint there. The pain was shared equally between the two ends.
But I have to believe that the feeling of detachment caused by the gaps put a damper on the atmosphere at the FFFF. Granted, the lopsided nature of the games was probably a bigger factor. But the gaps took things in the wrong direction.
RIT! RIT!: On The Side in Section 135
With a little bit of wanderlust left, we moved on to Section 135, across the aisle from Section 136. Again, the openings were found in the higher rows. We wound up in the same neighborhood as
Zambonehead, a Priority 8 holder. That knowledge is somewhat comforting. The voluntary downgrade involved was now four levels, meaning that we had cut our losses fairly nicely.
The vantage point was, in fact, reasonably good. We had a nice sideline view of one of the nets, and an acceptable view of the rest of the rink. Perhaps the best feature of our ultimate location was that we were less than two sections away from the highly entertaining RIT Student Section. The RIT section was clearly the life of an otherwise dull party.
When all was said and done, I had to admit I rather enjoyed my rouge tour of Ford Field. But I must also say I'm fully satisfied that I've been there and done that.
Dear NCAA: We do NOT have to do this again!
Next Up:
Part III: 2010 Seat Assignments: Level-By-Level Breakdown
Sorry about the delay in posting Part III. I was swamped last week, and the next few days don't look much better. But it really is still coming!
