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Review of first South Carolina game by an Iowa fan

hawk263344

New Member
Sep 8, 2012
9
35
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Hello South Carolina fans. This past weekend I got to watch your game vs Tennessee in Williams Brice Stadium. I was really pumped about it. It was honestly tops on my college football bucket list. My five year old son told me a few weeks back that he did want to go with me to the game. Originally I was going to go by myself while my wife and son did something else. It turned out that all three of us went. Overall it was indeed a great time! You all have a program to proud of, and I hope you realize your blessings and are grateful for them. I'll leave a good, bad, and ugly type of review.

Good: Lots of tradition from an SEC school. The stadium and the area around it are beautiful. It was cool walking through the fair grounds and the parking lot seeing all the people tailgating. We ventured over to the area across from the stadium for a little while. My son was to shy/scared to try and games. I thought he would want to go in the bounce house. We walked by all of those old trains next to the stadium. What was the deal with those? Looked like a private tailgate area? They were painted up nice, it looked cool. We saw the gamecock on our way around the stadium and got our sons picture with him. You guys have easily the coolest intro in all of sports. I was really pumped up for being their in person for it. The song that is played right before kickoff and between USC scores and kickoff is great! Even one Tennessee fan in front of us commented that the intro is really cool. Most fans around us were pleasant. The weather was pretty good. It was a little cold way up in the upper deck towards the end. It gets much worse up in Iowa though. It was a good game to watch. It got fairly loud. The food we had in the stadium wasn't bad. We took the shuttle from downtown and I was pleased with how quickly they did make their way to and from the stadium. We didn't have to wait around to get boarded or for it to fill up either. I was very impressed with the behavior of the students to and from the game. Overall they were well behaved.

Bad: I read about the shuttles to the game. It didn't mention about needing to find some place around the pick up to park. We wondered around for a while till we found a parking garage to park in. We were worried at first because it said it had a five hour limit. We asked some other people dressed for the game about it and they said all the other cars had expired metere so apparently it would be fine. Thankfully it was. As it turned out they were from Davenport, Iowa! Just an hour from our house. They saw my Iowa hat and asked where we were from. The parking situation is not very ideal. Obviously there are a lot of people to get over there. Back in Iowa City I don't mind parking on a street in a pretty nice housing area and then walking like 10 -14 blocks. It's free and you can come and go on your own time. Wasn't so at Williams Brice. I couldn't believe there weren't any food vendors outside the stadium. In Iowa City you definitely want to eat outside the stadium. There is some great food across the street!

Ugly: My wife and son went to get some food at halftime and they had already run out of most of the food. How does this happen? This doesn't technically have to do with the game but, we were on an eight day vacation and camped along the way. When we got back to our campground at 12:30 there was a gate there locked closed. That sucked.

Overall it was a great time! I hope to make it back again some day. I have been to the following places for a game: Iowa, Iowa State, Illinois, Wisconsin, Louisville, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Big Ten Championship, Orange Bowl. I would rank the South Carolina game right up at the top with the Wisconsin game. If you get a chance to go to an Iowa game someday take the opportunity. You will enjoy it. Good luck the rest of the year folks!
 
I'm with you, I wish we had more food vendors outside the stadium. There used to be some in the Fairgrounds, but I'm not sure if they're still there.
 
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Hello South Carolina fans. This past weekend I got to watch your game vs Tennessee in Williams Brice Stadium. I was really pumped about it. It was honestly tops on my college football bucket list. My five year old son told me a few weeks back that he did want to go with me to the game. Originally I was going to go by myself while my wife and son did something else. It turned out that all three of us went. Overall it was indeed a great time! You all have a program to proud of, and I hope you realize your blessings and are grateful for them. I'll leave a good, bad, and ugly type of review.

Good: Lots of tradition from an SEC school. The stadium and the area around it are beautiful. It was cool walking through the fair grounds and the parking lot seeing all the people tailgating. We ventured over to the area across from the stadium for a little while. My son was to shy/scared to try and games. I thought he would want to go in the bounce house. We walked by all of those old trains next to the stadium. What was the deal with those? Looked like a private tailgate area? They were painted up nice, it looked cool. We saw the gamecock on our way around the stadium and got our sons picture with him. You guys have easily the coolest intro in all of sports. I was really pumped up for being their in person for it. The song that is played right before kickoff and between USC scores and kickoff is great! Even one Tennessee fan in front of us commented that the intro is really cool. Most fans around us were pleasant. The weather was pretty good. It was a little cold way up in the upper deck towards the end. It gets much worse up in Iowa though. It was a good game to watch. It got fairly loud. The food we had in the stadium wasn't bad. We took the shuttle from downtown and I was pleased with how quickly they did make their way to and from the stadium. We didn't have to wait around to get boarded or for it to fill up either. I was very impressed with the behavior of the students to and from the game. Overall they were well behaved.

Bad: I read about the shuttles to the game. It didn't mention about needing to find some place around the pick up to park. We wondered around for a while till we found a parking garage to park in. We were worried at first because it said it had a five hour limit. We asked some other people dressed for the game about it and they said all the other cars had expired metere so apparently it would be fine. Thankfully it was. As it turned out they were from Davenport, Iowa! Just an hour from our house. They saw my Iowa hat and asked where we were from. The parking situation is not very ideal. Obviously there are a lot of people to get over there. Back in Iowa City I don't mind parking on a street in a pretty nice housing area and then walking like 10 -14 blocks. It's free and you can come and go on your own time. Wasn't so at Williams Brice. I couldn't believe there weren't any food vendors outside the stadium. In Iowa City you definitely want to eat outside the stadium. There is some great food across the street!

Ugly: My wife and son went to get some food at halftime and they had already run out of most of the food. How does this happen? This doesn't technically have to do with the game but, we were on an eight day vacation and camped along the way. When we got back to our campground at 12:30 there was a gate there locked closed. That sucked.

Overall it was a great time! I hope to make it back again some day. I have been to the following places for a game: Iowa, Iowa State, Illinois, Wisconsin, Louisville, Tennessee, Notre Dame, Big Ten Championship, Orange Bowl. I would rank the South Carolina game right up at the top with the Wisconsin game. If you get a chance to go to an Iowa game someday take the opportunity. You will enjoy it. Good luck the rest of the year folks!
Thanks for visiting & for leaving feedback. And good luck to you guys the rest of this season.
 
Glad you had a great time. They have done a lot of work outside the stadium the past 12 years. It is much improved.
 
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If you had only visited for the UGA game in 2012.....I have no doubt it wouldve topped your list. A lot of apathy in the program right now.

As for the food...we've been complaining for years and we get crickets. I've been to Arkansas and some other stadiums and they actually have local restaurants inside and outside. Pretty simple concept but one our athletic department cant grasp.

Now my turn. I've been through Iowa a few times around July 4th and everytime I've seen barns, literally in the middle of nowhere, converted into firework stands. What is up with that? Strangest thing to drive through 20 miles of corn and come to a firework shed lol

Oh and when we going hunting? LOL
 
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If you had only visited for the UGA game in 2012.....I have no doubt it wouldve topped your list. A lot of apathy in the program right now.

As for the food...we've been complaining for years and we get crickets. I've been to Arkansas and some other stadiums and they actually have local restaurants inside and outside. Pretty simple concept but one our athletic department cant grasp.

Now my turn. I've been through Iowa a few times around July 4th and everytime I've seen barns, literally in the middle of nowhere, converted into firework stands. What is up with that? Strangest thing to drive through 20 miles of corn and come to a firework shed lol

Oh and when we going hunting? LOL

Certainly I would have loved to have been there a few years back to see guys like: Lattimore, Jeffrey, Garcia, Clowney, Mutterlyn, and those other great players on those teams. I sat in near the top in the Northwest corner. Probably one of the least noisy parts of the stadium I would guess. Still the loudest stadium I've been in other than Kinnick (Iowa)
As for the fireworks barns. I'm not sure. Fireworks were legalized In Iowa just a few years ago. You get some pop up tents at gas stations or along roads for a short time period. I haven't seen them in barns. There are numerous places in the middle of no where, so I guess having one in a barn works :) Go Gamecocks!
 
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I agree with @JeffTweedyFan . Please forward your review to Coach Tanner. Perhaps an unbiased, third party review, especially about the food situation, will hold some weight on what REALLY matters in stadium upgrades.

addirect@mailbox.sc.edu - CRT's email (Before any freaks out that I posted an AD's direct email, it's listed on Gamecocks Online.)
kristid@mailbox.sc.edu - Kristi's email (his admin asst)
 
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