Cincinnati Stadium

We went to Cincinnati several years ago, which was one of the first stadiums we visited. Four of us drove from Illinois, one flew from California, and two others lived in Cincinnati. We were so excited to experience tailgating at the stadium, but the local guys wanted nothing to do with tailgating. So, they planned to hang out at the local Hooters on the other side of the river and take the shuttle boat (giant ferry) over right at game time.

The rest of us, non-locals, crammed into the car in search of the best tailgating spot. We were a little upset with ourselves as we got a late start and didn’t get downtown, until 10am. For a 1:00pm game that wasn’t leaving much time for quality tailgating. Well, to our surprise, we found a great spot, but nobody was there. This photo says it all. Lot Full. People didn’t start to show up until 11:00am and after. We made the best of it, and immediately put a Red “X” in our book for Cincinnati tailgating (or lack of). We will say, in a future post, a few years later we did find some quality tailgating and just realized we were on the wrong side of the stadium the first time. Rookie mistake.

Number of Pro Football Stadiums Visited

Traveling to various stadiums and cities is a fun experience, which is why we started VenRoo. We started out visiting a different football stadium within driving distance in the midwest, and one year when there wasn’t a location in the area with the teams we wanted to see, we decided to take to the air and fly to our first stadium: Denver.

In fact, that year, we thought it would be fun to see the football game on Sunday and stay over Monday to catch a baseball game on Monday night. That was a long weekend that wore us out. We probably won’t try that again anytime soon. Three days over a weekend for one football game is enough to keep us busy.

How many different cities have you visited to watch a pro football game?

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What do you look for in pre-game activities

What are some of the good things you like about stadiums? Which stadiums have those traits?

It all starts with the outside of the stadium before the game. If we all flew into the city and don’t have a car, we usually prefer to find a local establishment near the stadium. Tailgating is fun, but you have to pack all the supplies and fight the traffic after the game. Some stadiums are very receptive to the opposing team, and the fans are great to hang out with. Indianapolis is a great example of good fans at the tailgate.

Green Bay is awesome for pre-game activities. All the local bars and resturants offer some sort of drink and food special (many with all you can eat and drink for a fixed price), along with some good tailgating at the stadium lot.

Overall,

It’s nice to be within walking distance or easy public transportation to the stadium (Indy, Green Bay, St Louis)
Friendly local fans (Indianapolis)
On location activities (Dallas, Green Bay)

What are you favorite stadiums for pre-game activities? What do you like to do before games?

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Weekend Trip for Seattle Game

Seattle is a great town to spend the weekend for a football game. The airport is centrally located to the stadium and downtown and easy to find reasonable transportation. South Lake Union is a few miles north of the airport and four miles north of the stadium. We found it a nice place to stay with great restaurants and bars within walking distance of the hotel. A new park was recently opened with a farmers market on Saturday and plenty of activities to keep you busy.

The downtown shopping area is about two miles south of Lake Union area and the public trolley is easy to ride. If you’re going straight to the stadium, you need to take the trolley (Seattle Streetcar) to its endpoint, walk a few blocks, then take the underground buses another mile, or so, to the stadium. You can travel on the public transportation for two hours on the same $2.25 fare. Otherwise taxis are very reasonable and much quicker.

The stadium area is nice with parking available right around the field. Plenty of tailgaters are setup, having a great time. If you don’t want to tailgate, several restaurants and bars are right across the street. Of course they are pretty crowded but fun, nonetheless. Everyone is very friendly, even though there was an occasional Boo given for the opposing team.

Quest Field

Inside the stadium it’s very easy to get around and plenty of places to take a ‘break’ and get refreshments. You are limited to two alcoholic beverages in your hands at one time, so don’t plan on brining up a full round for your entire party.

View from our seats at Quest Field

Which football stadiums are shown on the poster

There are a lot of stadiums within the professional football and many have been replaced by newer ones over the years. Which stadiums are shown on the VenRoo poster for professional football? The current poster for 2010, displays the current stadiums, as of the 2010-2011 season. New York is new for the year, Indianapolis was new in 2008 and others were replaced several years back.

The concept of VenRoo, is tracking where you’ve been, so we decided to include the current stadiums. You can still show a date on the stadium even though you haven’t been to a newer one. Unless you want to track the actual stadium, which is just fine too. We may offer stickers, in the future, of all the older stadiums, if you want to see the image of those past stadiums.

Customizing your VenRoo poster

Tracking your visits

The venues on the VenRoo poster are inside a colorful ring, with a lighter shade on the bottom quarter of the ring. You can use this lighter area to write anything you want about the venue. Use it to write the date of the first time you visited, such as Sept 2005 or 9-24-2006. Add the score of the game or the opponent played. Be creative, add your on personal style. Track the number of times you’ve been, wins or losses, or if it was a good or not so good venue.

What is VenRoo?

VenRoo is all about tracking the various venues you’ve visited. Just as a kangaroo hops from one place to the next, you visit a variety of venues. Venues could be stadiums, arenas, sporting events, amusement parks, concerts, or anything else that you visit.

People like to keep track of the places they’ve been and we are trying to make it fun and interesting to present those travels in a geographical format.

So, with the combination of Venue and Kangaroo, VenRoo was born.

The Tracks

Tracking the Venues you’ve visited.

What are the graphics below the tag line? Those are the tracks of a kangaroo. As the kangaroo hops from place to place, they drag their tail along the sand, causing the solid line between the foot prints.

Seattle Trip

Chargers at Seattle – September 26, 2010

Visiting Seattle for the first time. Staying at the Residence Inn, Lake Union. It’s got some great views and good resturants nearby. The stadium is four miles away, so public transportation may be required.

VenRoo Poster

The VenRoo poster is full size (24 x 36). Each stadium is surrounded by a color ring representing the teams colors. A lighter shade of color is on the bottom of each ring to allow you to write anything you want. Use it to write the date of your first visit, the opponent, or the score. Add additional dots, or lines, to track how many times you’ve been to the stadium.