Sunday, November 22, 2009

The View from Club Seats

Lambeau Field is sacred ground. It has been consecrated in the blood, sweat, and tears of great athletes since 1929. Only a handful of them have played in my lifetime. I always get choked up whenever I first see the field every time I walk into the seats for a game...the light green color of the grass, the Green Bay and Packers lovingly painted in the end zones, images of past championships up on the Jumbo-tron.
But today's game was different. For the first time I watched a Packers game inside while at Lambeau: yes, I had Club Seats.
Talk about a different game experience! First, we had a parking pass and actually got to park in the Lambeau lot. We had an exclusive entrance to the stadium where the security pat-downs were not nearly as invasive as they are in general seating. Then we had an exclusive elevator that whisked us up to the 6th floor (I had no idea there were that many floors at Lambeau) and we were escorted to our seats. We were in the third row in what looked like a really really big living room with stadium seats. There are a maximum of six rows so it's not like there's a bad seat where somewhere is suffering by not being able to watch the game. We had a menu and waitress that took our food & drink order and served it to us. Then we sat back in really comfortable, padded seats and looked through tempered glass at the game below. The radio transmission was piped in play-by-play. At first the crowd was a bit subdued, we couldn't hear anyone near us singing along with the National Anthem, but as the game got underway and the Packers started scoring, there was hooping and hollering just like we were outside...almost.
We couldn't hear the G Force drum corps. We couldn't hear the music before kick-off. We couldn't hear "Go Pack Go" pumping from the speakers and 69,000 people shouting along. We all eventually screamed and cheered, but I didn't feel like Donald Driver was pumping his fists for me. I didn't feel like the defensive line, arms in the air, waving toward the crowd to make some noise, were doing that for me. Because they couldn't hear me. Other fans, sitting in padded seats, with carpet under our feet could. Other fans, who were wearing only tee shirts because it was an ambient 74 degrees in the Club Seats could. (Granted, it was a balmy 54 degrees outside, but still.) But roughly 69,000 other fans could not hear me. I was not a part of that crowd, that mob, those fans.
If I had a Lambeau Field "bucket list", (and I don't, really) one of the items on it would be to watch a game from the Club Seats (or better yet the private suits where the food is brought into your own little living room)and I can now cross that off of my imaginary list.
The next thing on my Lambeau Bucket List? Being on the Jumbo-tron. What is yours?
Enjoy.

1 comment:

  1. I've to Lambeau Field twice,(both expedition games) Had the thrill of taking my son there the last time I went. We had decent seats behind an endzone. I would never go to a game in the sub-zero, snowy weather. I don't like the cold. Instead I'll stay home with some hot wings and a beer.

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