Went to my, what is becoming increasingly year after year, my one time trek to War Memorial Stadium to watch the Pokes. With me was my 3 year old daughter and 7 others who drove 9 hours from Nevada. Seems like every game is either a nightmare with weather, i.e. Northern Illinois and another game delayed by lightening which escapes me, or a nightmare on the football field, i.e. Nebraska, Texas, Oregon, et al. I agree with others assessment that the entertainment, atmosphere, and football was not ready for a magnitude of what was upon Laramie last weekend. I didn't even venture downtown on Friday night or Saturday after the game so I don't know if that was a shit-show also. We just stayed in the room Friday and had drinks and watched games and then Saturday no one wanted to tailgate in the cold and wind so we had indoor tailgating in the room. Saturday morning we went to the Campus Bookstore and checked out campus which looked fabulous and then went to the Pepsi Tailgate to get our beer wristbands; however they weren't set up at that time and the lady told us not to waste our time in that line and to get the wrist bands in the stadium.
We went into stadium a hour early to get situated and to get a beer and whatnot. We got ready to get our ticket scanned and was told that I needed to go to a different line because of the bag for my daughter and a purse needed to be checked. So retreated from that line and got into another line that stretched almost to the IPF. Once inside some in group had already got a wrist band and beer and said that we need to get ours now as we would never be able to get one once we got to our seats in GG so that what we did. That was the one and only beer we were able to get - a beer 1 hour before the game even kicked off. No wonder there was only 8,000 beers sold last week. Luckily one in my group sneaked in a pint of jack because in his words, 'I've been to enough UW games to know that this will be F'd up" So we ended up with the best War Memorial drink: the ol' jack and flat pepsi. People in our section were gone for over 30 minutes to get beer, food, and use the bathroom. In fact one concession closed up early. The whole setup needs to be reevaluated. Why have two beer sales located next to each like there was down in the corner of the northwest endzone? Take one of those stands and move it to another location. Instead of 6 "macro" serving stations why not have 12 "micro" serving stations located all over the stadium or within the concession stands themselves? Don't get me wrong, I love the idea that I can get a beer at the game but I was only able to purchase one because of the ineptitude of the set up. With our group that meant a loss of revenue of $127. Doesn't seem like a lot on its own but you multiply that by say 5,000 and now that number becomes $635,000. Last year I wrote an email asking for a trial run at one the end of the season football games to assess and correct any problems but it looks like that email went into the circular filing bin.
As for the game there was nothing new. No utilization of the video board, the ribbon boards on the fascia of the stadium were pointless and very hard to read. Being on the north end of the stadium I missed having game information i.e. game clock, play clock, down and distance easily viewable. I find it difficult to locate it on the big scoreboard. In the game atmosphere is still lacking, stale, and boring. The Pokes are trying to get back in the game after a big turnover and the script calls for a lame video of players favorite potato chip? Please fool. Just inane the way the in-game logistics are run. The video of the volleyball - sheesh. I'm sure her parents appreciated it. The W-Y-O cheer is awesome but its scripted for the end of the 3d quarter. Boy that's great as we are getting our ass handed to us 42-10. How about breaking that out when we got the turnover on the punt? How about some spontaneity? Here is the script for the next game: there is no script. Let the band play on its free will. Do all the lame videos, and such before kickoff, at halftime or when there is a lull in the action and can fit in. Utilize the video boards for more stats, graphics, game scores, and such. I don't know why this is so hard.
As for the game itself, yuk. I said after the Iowa game that there was a huge gap in talent between the two teams and some people on here said there wasn't. Well it really showed up on Saturday. Oregon toyed with us the whole game. It was like watching Laramie High School against Rock River. Even today on the Dan Patrick Show, Dan mentioned tuning into to the Wyoming game to watch Josh Allen and he said that he could see Allen had good talent but was on a terrible team and that Oregon is pretty good. That was my assessment after Iowa. This team offensively could be as bad as we seen since Joe Glenn. I don't get what we are doing offensively with our personnel. I don't understand how two returning starters on the Oline get benched for two freshman and the result is worse. How do the coaches not look at the RBs after one game and especially after the Gardner Webb game and not do something different? Where is Mike Green? Give him a chance. Give Trey Woods a chance at more than one carry. If Trey Woods can't pass block maybe move him to WR. Where is Scott? He may of played but since we can't have names on the jerseys I don't know who is who. This three man rotation is terrible. How do the coaches get caught with not having a punter ready? Wood was there for 4 years; somewhere along the way wouldn't you bring in a guy in say Wood's senior year and have him ready when we graduates? What the heck. The TE's aren't explosive as receivers and are not standing up in run blocking. Enough has been said about the WRs. Josh is luck if he will make out of this season alive. This football team reminds me of the basketball team during Josh Adams' senior year: best player in the conference with a team that is not up to his level of play and the result is a wasted year.
As for the Oregon fans overall I thought they were pretty good. Very complimentary of their experience at UW but of course it's easier to give platitudes when your team is crushing the competition.
Add ons: the WiFi was not working for me either. Since score updates are not in the script I wanted to keep tabs on the CSU/Bama game. Also, the HAPC looks like a federal prison or a common school building. I preferred the first architectural rendering but then again my name isn't on the building. Another question is why don't businesses in Laramie take advantage of game days more? Like I mentioned above we were pretty much captives at the Holiday Inn. It would be nice if there was something to do at that hotel or the Hilton Garden Inn. The Hilton Garden Inn has the conference rooms. Been nice to have a bbq with a band or some sort of CJC function the night before. Something. I know there was the downtown event which I didn't go to and I believe there was a concert there. It just would be nice if those two other hotels offer something for that end of town. Just a thought.
We went into stadium a hour early to get situated and to get a beer and whatnot. We got ready to get our ticket scanned and was told that I needed to go to a different line because of the bag for my daughter and a purse needed to be checked. So retreated from that line and got into another line that stretched almost to the IPF. Once inside some in group had already got a wrist band and beer and said that we need to get ours now as we would never be able to get one once we got to our seats in GG so that what we did. That was the one and only beer we were able to get - a beer 1 hour before the game even kicked off. No wonder there was only 8,000 beers sold last week. Luckily one in my group sneaked in a pint of jack because in his words, 'I've been to enough UW games to know that this will be F'd up" So we ended up with the best War Memorial drink: the ol' jack and flat pepsi. People in our section were gone for over 30 minutes to get beer, food, and use the bathroom. In fact one concession closed up early. The whole setup needs to be reevaluated. Why have two beer sales located next to each like there was down in the corner of the northwest endzone? Take one of those stands and move it to another location. Instead of 6 "macro" serving stations why not have 12 "micro" serving stations located all over the stadium or within the concession stands themselves? Don't get me wrong, I love the idea that I can get a beer at the game but I was only able to purchase one because of the ineptitude of the set up. With our group that meant a loss of revenue of $127. Doesn't seem like a lot on its own but you multiply that by say 5,000 and now that number becomes $635,000. Last year I wrote an email asking for a trial run at one the end of the season football games to assess and correct any problems but it looks like that email went into the circular filing bin.
As for the game there was nothing new. No utilization of the video board, the ribbon boards on the fascia of the stadium were pointless and very hard to read. Being on the north end of the stadium I missed having game information i.e. game clock, play clock, down and distance easily viewable. I find it difficult to locate it on the big scoreboard. In the game atmosphere is still lacking, stale, and boring. The Pokes are trying to get back in the game after a big turnover and the script calls for a lame video of players favorite potato chip? Please fool. Just inane the way the in-game logistics are run. The video of the volleyball - sheesh. I'm sure her parents appreciated it. The W-Y-O cheer is awesome but its scripted for the end of the 3d quarter. Boy that's great as we are getting our ass handed to us 42-10. How about breaking that out when we got the turnover on the punt? How about some spontaneity? Here is the script for the next game: there is no script. Let the band play on its free will. Do all the lame videos, and such before kickoff, at halftime or when there is a lull in the action and can fit in. Utilize the video boards for more stats, graphics, game scores, and such. I don't know why this is so hard.
As for the game itself, yuk. I said after the Iowa game that there was a huge gap in talent between the two teams and some people on here said there wasn't. Well it really showed up on Saturday. Oregon toyed with us the whole game. It was like watching Laramie High School against Rock River. Even today on the Dan Patrick Show, Dan mentioned tuning into to the Wyoming game to watch Josh Allen and he said that he could see Allen had good talent but was on a terrible team and that Oregon is pretty good. That was my assessment after Iowa. This team offensively could be as bad as we seen since Joe Glenn. I don't get what we are doing offensively with our personnel. I don't understand how two returning starters on the Oline get benched for two freshman and the result is worse. How do the coaches not look at the RBs after one game and especially after the Gardner Webb game and not do something different? Where is Mike Green? Give him a chance. Give Trey Woods a chance at more than one carry. If Trey Woods can't pass block maybe move him to WR. Where is Scott? He may of played but since we can't have names on the jerseys I don't know who is who. This three man rotation is terrible. How do the coaches get caught with not having a punter ready? Wood was there for 4 years; somewhere along the way wouldn't you bring in a guy in say Wood's senior year and have him ready when we graduates? What the heck. The TE's aren't explosive as receivers and are not standing up in run blocking. Enough has been said about the WRs. Josh is luck if he will make out of this season alive. This football team reminds me of the basketball team during Josh Adams' senior year: best player in the conference with a team that is not up to his level of play and the result is a wasted year.
As for the Oregon fans overall I thought they were pretty good. Very complimentary of their experience at UW but of course it's easier to give platitudes when your team is crushing the competition.
Add ons: the WiFi was not working for me either. Since score updates are not in the script I wanted to keep tabs on the CSU/Bama game. Also, the HAPC looks like a federal prison or a common school building. I preferred the first architectural rendering but then again my name isn't on the building. Another question is why don't businesses in Laramie take advantage of game days more? Like I mentioned above we were pretty much captives at the Holiday Inn. It would be nice if there was something to do at that hotel or the Hilton Garden Inn. The Hilton Garden Inn has the conference rooms. Been nice to have a bbq with a band or some sort of CJC function the night before. Something. I know there was the downtown event which I didn't go to and I believe there was a concert there. It just would be nice if those two other hotels offer something for that end of town. Just a thought.
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