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September 17, 2008
used trojans
I went to the Ohio State/USC game Saturday, the ticket for which I bought long ago, before it became clear what a lousy game it would be. Sigh. On the upside, I changed over Sarah's New Year's Eve plane ticket in order to fly there, so there's still some level of satisfaction.
USC has a great football program, and its star players' parents' free houses are second to none, but what a lousy gameday experience. I couldn't find a parking lot within two miles of the stadium. Not a parking space, mind you. A lot. Not even a full lot. And thus did I drive through gridlock for two hours and end up at the Staples Center, where I waited for a half hour for a free shuttle, which dropped me off a mile from the stadium, where I stood in line for another half hour, jockeying with 95,000 drunks to enter through one of two gates. It's as if Cal Poly suddenly had 95,000 people attend a game. They would be totally unprepared for it. I'm not sure what USC's excuse is.
Not surprisingly given the parking situation, the tailgating is bush league. The USC band is pathetic. The fans have no traditions and are utter football illiterates. ("Go Stanford!" yelled a Buckeye fan. "GO LSU!" a Trojan fan yelled back to applause, because losing to a great LSU team in the championship game is clearly worse than losing to pathetic Stanford at home.) The stadium is woeful. Therein they proudly claim to have won LSU's 2003 national championship, about which, if I were LSU, I would file an injunction. But at least they retired an enormous orange AT&T logo right next to where they retired O.J. Simpson's huge orange number, so at least there's a touch of class.
Oh, and the free shuttle that was to take me back to my car? Never showed up.
posted by john at 12:41 PM • permalink