Debacle in the Desert... one Buckeye's experience.

You would think the Fiesta Bowl Committee had never hosted a bowl game before. It was the most unorganized sporting event I have ever been to. Once inside the dome, things weren't too bad. Outside before the game... what a fiasco. I parked in a lot that was maybe a 5-10 minute walk to the stadium. It was at a place called Westgate City Center. The entire Westgate area was closed off and you had to pay $20 to get in. Inside there was a band, beer (for purchase), maybe a restaurant or 2 I don't know (I didn't pay to get in). Outside Westgate there was absolutely nowhere to buy bottled water... bottled pop... any drink of any kind. 3 hours before the game there are probably 50,000 people wandering around this area and there is absolutely no concessions of any kind available. It's the desert. While it wasn't very hot, it was still DRY. So, basically, if you didn't pony up the $20 to get in the party at Westgate and you were thirsty, you were S O L.

I got to the parking lot at 11:30am as previous experiences taught me if you want a game program ya gotta get there early. I by-passed the Westgate party and headed straight for the stadium. There were probably 8 tables set up selling the programs. Cash only. No plastic. You gotta be kidding me... Anticipating being able to use the old credit card I did not have a lot of cash with me. Grrrrrrr... so I paid cash for 2 programs (I needed 12) and headed back to the car to drop off the programs and look for an ATM machine. Took a few shots of the stadium, picture of myself at the stadium, and struck up a conversation with an usher/security guy at one of the gates into the dome. I have a unique fire fighter's helmet I was wearing to the game (it is painted just like an Ohio State football helmet complete with buckeye leaf stickers) and this guys says to me... “you aren't going to wear that thing into the game are you?” “Yeeeeeeeeeees” I replied. “Why?” He responds: “I don't think they are going to let you in with that. Lemme radio security and see what they say”. Dude was nice about it and we chatted some more until they called him back with and answer. It was OK. I started the trek back to the car.

Now, let me back up a sec here... when I got my ticket several weeks before the game, I was shocked to see how large the tickets were. They are something like 5” by 9”. Flippin' huge! Easily twice the size of last year's Fiesta Bowl ticket. I tried to get a lanyard ahead of time that had a pouch big enough to hang the ticket around my neck (in an attempt to keep the ticket nice for future framing, etc.). Nothing to be found. I ordered the largest available through an Ohio State store in Columbus... and it wasn't nearly big enough. So I made my own from some stuff I found at Staples. After thinking about this I came to the conclusion that the Fiesta Bowl did this on purpose so you would have to buy one of THEIR lanyards for $10-$20 each.

Now back to game day. I hate it when I'm right. On the way back to my car, sure enough there were the vendors selling the over sized lanyards for $10. Bastards. They will go out of their way to print over-sized tickets so you have to buy one of their over-sized lanyards, yet you can't get a bottled water or soft drink anywhere near the stadium before the game. Dropped the programs off and grabbed a bottled water from the car (I had hit a stop-and-rob on the way to the stadium that morning), and went in search of an ATM machine. In the entire Westgate area there were only 2 ATM machines available (rumor had it there were more inside the $20 tailgate party). The line was impressive. I got in line. I stood there for 65 minutes, sipping on my warm bottled water. I could have made a fortune selling bottled water while standing in that line. I must have had 50 people ask me where I got the water. I get to within 3 people of the ATM... and it stops working. It was a temporary ATM and used wireless communications for account information. Thousands and thousands of people using their cell phones had the towers locked up, so basically the ATMs were out of service for the rest of the day.

*Sigh.*

Walked over to the other ATM machine (which required walking completely around the Westgate center) and it was messed up just like the first one. As I'm wandering around the Westgate area I found myself at the (get this) Jobing.com arena. That is where the Coyotes play. I had passed by it on the West side several times. Was locked up tight. This time I was on the East side. An usher type guy is standing outside announcing that the building is open if anyone needs to sit down or use the bathrooms. Not 100 feet from this entrance was a long row of porta-johns with long lines in front of them. I ducked in to check out the arena! There might have been 20 people in there walking around. I couldn't believe it. Airconditioned... comfy seats... Hooters restaurant... huge clean restrooms... and a hard wired ATM machine with NOBODY using it. Unbelievable. Got my cash, got the rest of the programs I needed, and carted them back to the car. Wandered around chatting with other fans until 4pm. Gates opened then so I headed into the dome. Got some more crap about my helmet, and (of all things) my camera (it had a detachable lens). Eventually got in and wandered around the dome taking pictures and just being in awe of the facility. I looked up and... the dome was closed. What? It was maybe 74 degrees outside. The dome was closed? It did eventually open. For 15 minutes. Long enough for the fly-by after the national anthem. Again, an example of the idiots running this bowl – they had an all-black stealth bomber do a flyover (all the way from Texas, btw) of a dome with the roof open... at night... in complete darkness. We heard it. Couldn't see it. One guy I talked to said he thought he might have seen a clearance light on a wing, but that was it. Could have been a cargo plane for all we knew. Must have been for the benefit of the TV audience, because we didn't see squat. The roar of the stealth bomber's engines hadn't even faded yet and the dome was closing. WTH? It was a beautiful night! I just don't get this... why spend 800 million on a dome with a retractable roof... if you are going to leave the roof closed all the time? They were acting like someone with a brand new convertible who is afraid to drive it with the top down. Unbelievable. Was the moon too bright or something?

Opening kick-off. Time to put a helmet on someone. Hit'em hard and hit'em fast! The first 14 seconds of the game was pure bliss. Elation. It had only taken us 14 seconds to take the lead! We were on our way. All was right in the world. Life was good. Then... poof. Gone. In the blink of an eye things went horribly wrong. Not sure what the hell happened... but happened it did. When I bought the ticket to the game I was under the impression I would be on the Ohio state side of the field. I wasn't. I ended up being one of only 8 buckeyes in the entire Florida dominated section. I was on the Home side of the field. Ohio State was listed as the home team. Yet OSU's bench and fans were on the Visitor's side of the stadium. OSU elected to wear the away uniforms, but were still introduced as the home team. Normally this wouldn't bother me. Why, might you ask, did it bother me this time? Obviously you have never sat with Florida fans. They were cocky, drunk, obnoxious, rude, classless, childish idiots who didn't know the first thing about the game of football, let alone sportsmanship. No, I'm not talking about the typical 20 year old college student who can't handle his (underage) beer and is one class away from flunking out of college because he/she can't resist any party within 20 miles of campus. Every college (including Ohio State) has their student population that fits this description. These folks were much, much worse. They were 40-60 year old “professionals” with $10,000 Rolex watches on their wrist and 3 carrot diamond wedding bands on their wife's finger. These are guys who are old enough to know better, who should know how to win and lose with dignity and class. They drive cars that exceed any 2 years of my salary, and are members of country clubs I couldn't even get a job at. Doctors, lawyers, business men. Not your average Florida trailer park trash. You know you are getting carried away when Florida students are telling you to tone it down a little. I'm not joking. I sat next to 2 lawyers from Miami. They were the nicest guys to sit and watch a game with... knew football, enjoyed talking football, watched the game with passion but without the attitude. They were in the minority. They knew many of the people in this section (that's how I knew what these guys did for a living). Even they turned around a few times and told these other bozos to shut the hell up. It wasn't just a few isolated drunks right behind me... it was almost the entire section. I never thought I would see students behaving better than alumni old enough to be their parents.

Before any of you Gator fans out there comment on this post beware: I'm ready for you. Just remember, you weren't there. I was. Don't presume to make assumptions on matters you didn't witness. You can generalize and say that this doesn't represent the typical Gator fan, but don't think you are going to lecture me on what happened Monday night. This has nothing to do with sour grapes. Losing is part of winning. You don't get your butt handed to you now and then winning loses it's value. Gets to be old hat. Not special anymore.

The Ohio state team that played Monday night wasn't the same team that beat Notre Dame, Texas, Iowa, Penn State, and Michigan. Just like that wasn't the same Florida team that squeaked by South Carolina, Tennessee, Vandy, and Florida State. You could argue that Monday night's version of the Gators could very well have beaten Ohio State even if the Bucks had played their best game. Florida was motivated, emotional, well coached, well prepared, and just plain pissed off at getting dumped on by the media for the 2 weeks leading up to the game. And I don't blame them one bit. Been there, done that (see 2002 Miami game).

That still doesn't excuse the way those guys (and gals) acted. It wasn't just a few people, it was damn near the entire section. It wasn't playful ribbing... it was malicious and intentional. This wasn't my first rodeo... I've traveled this fine nation coast-to-coast watching Buckeye games, and I have never seen or experienced anything to equal how I was treated at this game. I can sit with anyone anywhere and talk football on any level. Doesn't bother me a bit. Throw a few taunts my way? Eh... no big deal. You aren't going to bait me into a confrontation. But when you have Grandpappy telling Billy-Bob “Go ahead son, cuss that som'bitch out. We earned it”... that is so far over the line you can't even see the damn line anymore. TO BE FAIR, several Florida fans in my section were very, very gracious after the game. And I gave them a smile and a squeeze on the arm and told them to enjoy it! As for the other idiots? I just swallowed my tongue and took it. Mama always told me... never assault a Lawyer...

Winning is pretty darn cool and it should be enjoyed. I got to enjoy it 19 times in a row! But there is a right way and a wrong way to celebrate. Very few Gators at this game showed me they knew the right way. Too bad they made the rest of the Gator Nation look so bad right along with them. Every school has their 'fans' that go waaay overboard. But this was an unprecedented majority.

After the game I couldn't get to my car fast enough... lol. All the classless Florida dorks were starting to get on my nerves so I figured I just better get the hell out of there. Took me over an hour to get out of the parking lot. Now, mind you this is a BRAND NEW development. They started this entire area from scratch with nothing. The developers did absolutely nothing to design this place for traffic flow after events. It was a cluster f***. How do you build a complex with several large capacity venues... from scratch... and not design the road system and parking lots to move traffic out of the area? Spectacular facilities. Appalling infrastructure. And these rocket scientists are hosting the Super Bowl next year?? Good luck!

I'm still glad I went. Despite the incompetence of the people running this shindig, and all the idiots from Florida it was still a good time. A win would have been nice... but that goes without saying. As for the Gator Nation? You should be ashamed. Learn to win with class. And you wonder why the rest of the nation hates all the Florida schools...