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!
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!