The wife and I left our home in Maple Valley at 8:45am to head down to the city. We decided to drive through Renton and take Airport Way. We think it was a great choice as traffic was fairly light given the situation. There was no parking anywhere we could find. Finally as the anxiety was exponentially rising, we found a small sign that said JAXX TAILGATING. It was $30 bucks to park, only about a mile south of the stadium so we were glad to pay it.
We made our way right into the stadium. No bag checking, no real security (not like at the games)...They scanned our tickets and we were in the door. A bummer because had we known we could bring food/blankets, etc in, we would have done so. We found a spot in the lower bowl south endzone and set up camp...
It was bone-chilling freezing! I had long johns on top to bottom, a sweatshirt, my jersey, a full face mask (successfully employed by bank robbers the world over for decades), two pairs of socks and boots. We had those warm packets as well, and we slipped them in our gloves. Even still, it was nearly unbearable. We sat in our chairs for nearly 5 hours, waiting for the team as they made their way through the parade route. Q13 had a broadcast showing on both big screens so we got to enjoy the festivities as it happened.
Here's Cindy (my wife) anxiously awaiting the rally...
What was really strange and makes no sense to us at all, is that they had the entire west side lower bowl blocked off. Absolutely no fans were allowed in the club and charter section of the west side. You could not access the Pro Shop from the inside as well. So what you ended up with is the Hawks Nest, South endzone and east side lower bowl filled. There was smatterings of fans in the lower portion of the west and east upper bowls but that was it. Why they did this is beyond us. We were expecting (and kept hearing the stadium was sold out) a full stadium with a pour over into Safeco. Why they felt the need to open up Safeco and not fill the CLink will remain a mystery to us.
They also only opened up a few concessions so the wait in line was over an hour. Pretty brutal I must say. At any rate, it was finally time to welcome the players and coaches. It was a pleasant surprise to have HoFer Walter Jones raise the 12th Man flag...
The 747 fly over was pretty cool and fired up the crowd...
With the stadium half empty and a crowd that had been waiting for up to nearly 5 hours in freezing weather, it was understandable that the noise level was nowhere near Volume 12. When the players were introduced, it was painfully one player at a time. The players looked visibly tired and cold. We felt bad for them. The loudest cheer was of course reserved for the star players and especially when Russell Wilson was introduced, walking out holding the Lombardi.
The rally itself was fun. The players danced and hopped up and down, smiling and laughing a lot while the speeches were made. It is clear how much the team loves the 12's. That's 100% real folks. They know this could not have happened without the support and dedication and NOISE the 12's bring all season long. While I have many suggestions to improve next year's SB celebration (see what I did there?), at the end of the day, it was worth it to say I was there for the Seahawks first ever Super Bowl Parade/Rally. The fireworks and ticker tape was a nice touch to give us there in attendance a feeling of what it was like at the past game ceremony of SBXLVIII.
WHAT'S NEXT?
We made our way right into the stadium. No bag checking, no real security (not like at the games)...They scanned our tickets and we were in the door. A bummer because had we known we could bring food/blankets, etc in, we would have done so. We found a spot in the lower bowl south endzone and set up camp...
It was bone-chilling freezing! I had long johns on top to bottom, a sweatshirt, my jersey, a full face mask (successfully employed by bank robbers the world over for decades), two pairs of socks and boots. We had those warm packets as well, and we slipped them in our gloves. Even still, it was nearly unbearable. We sat in our chairs for nearly 5 hours, waiting for the team as they made their way through the parade route. Q13 had a broadcast showing on both big screens so we got to enjoy the festivities as it happened.
Here's Cindy (my wife) anxiously awaiting the rally...
What was really strange and makes no sense to us at all, is that they had the entire west side lower bowl blocked off. Absolutely no fans were allowed in the club and charter section of the west side. You could not access the Pro Shop from the inside as well. So what you ended up with is the Hawks Nest, South endzone and east side lower bowl filled. There was smatterings of fans in the lower portion of the west and east upper bowls but that was it. Why they did this is beyond us. We were expecting (and kept hearing the stadium was sold out) a full stadium with a pour over into Safeco. Why they felt the need to open up Safeco and not fill the CLink will remain a mystery to us.
They also only opened up a few concessions so the wait in line was over an hour. Pretty brutal I must say. At any rate, it was finally time to welcome the players and coaches. It was a pleasant surprise to have HoFer Walter Jones raise the 12th Man flag...
The 747 fly over was pretty cool and fired up the crowd...
With the stadium half empty and a crowd that had been waiting for up to nearly 5 hours in freezing weather, it was understandable that the noise level was nowhere near Volume 12. When the players were introduced, it was painfully one player at a time. The players looked visibly tired and cold. We felt bad for them. The loudest cheer was of course reserved for the star players and especially when Russell Wilson was introduced, walking out holding the Lombardi.
The rally itself was fun. The players danced and hopped up and down, smiling and laughing a lot while the speeches were made. It is clear how much the team loves the 12's. That's 100% real folks. They know this could not have happened without the support and dedication and NOISE the 12's bring all season long. While I have many suggestions to improve next year's SB celebration (see what I did there?), at the end of the day, it was worth it to say I was there for the Seahawks first ever Super Bowl Parade/Rally. The fireworks and ticker tape was a nice touch to give us there in attendance a feeling of what it was like at the past game ceremony of SBXLVIII.
WHAT'S NEXT?
