VenRoo

Tracking the venues you've visited – Poster of the NFL Stadiums on a Map of the United States

Category Archives: Tailgating

Tampa Bay Bucaneers at San Diego Chargers 2016

San Diego is a great city and the weather is always great.  There is plenty to do over a long weekend and you will enjoy the tailgating and game.  We were glad to make it to the Tampa Bay at Chargers game this year, as we don’t know if they will be there or move to another city.

Tampa Bay vs San Diego Chargers

Tampa Bay vs San Diego Chargers

Tampa Bay vs San Diego Tailgating in the inner ring

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

What a great day to visit Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay.

We saw a great game between the visiting Atlanta Falcons and the Buccaneers.  You can’t beat the beautivual weather of central Florida and the hospitality of the fans.

Game Day at Raymond James StadiumTailgating ATLvsTBRaymond James Stadium - VenRoo Poster

Interview with Quest For 31

VenRoo – Tracking the venues you’ve visited.  This is our tag line for our posters of stadiums on a map of the U.S., where you can display and track the stadiums you’ve visited.  We created the poster for ourselves, as we started traveling with a group of friends to a different NFL stadium each year.  As we started to grow and promote our business through blogs, social media, and our website, we started to meet new people around the country who loved to see various stadiums too.

 

One person, in particular, was Hans Steiniger and his Quest for 31 – One Man’s Crusade to Attend an NFL Game in all 31 Stadiums in the National Football League.  What a great combination; we have a poster to track your NFL stadium travels, and Hans is on a crusade to see them all and experience the game from the perspective of the home team.  We have since communicated through email and discussed various travels and tips and Hans has been very helpful in spreading the word about our poster.

 

Hans Steiniger with the Venroo Poster

We recently spoke with Hans to get more information on his ‘crusade’.  He first attended games in Buffalo, as a Bills fan and moved to the Detroit area.  While in Detroit he made it to a few Lions and Browns games and then traveled to Tampa to visit some family.  While in Tampa he realized that the stadiums and games were a great opportunity to experience the various locations and thought it would be cool to see all 31 NFL stadiums.

 

Hans made it to all 31 stadiums, in only four years, while wearing a jersey from each home team, and saw a little over 50 games.  He made some great friends along the way and always tried to find the ‘spot’ at the game where the locals hung out.  He said he would even get calls from people asking when he was coming back to their stadium.

 

After experiencing all those games and stadiums, you get a good feel for various traits that make a stadium stand out.  It was hard for Hans to pick out his single favorite stadium, but he did like: Quest Field (Seattle)– for its design (and 12th man noise) and awesome food varieties at the concessions;  Lambeau (Green Bay) for its all around classic feel; Cowboys Stadium (Dallas/Arlington) for just being over the top on everything; and you can’t beat the pirate ship at Raymond James Stadium (Tampa).  If you ever go to Minnesota you should buy a hollowed-out horn as a ‘glass’ to drink your beer.

 

With his quest for the 31 NFL stadiums complete, Hans continues to visit stadiums and maintain relationships with people he’s met on his quest.  He’ll pull out one the team jerseys from a foot locker, where they’re safely stored, and hit the road for another fun weekend.  Of course his favorite jersey is a Bills #31 with the name “Quest For” on the back.

 

Hans isn’t stopping with the NFL.  He’s started other quests for NHL and NBA and even has a Sports Themed Wedding Invitation website, which is real cool.  So, be sure to look out for Hans at your next tailgate and stop by his websites to catchup on his travels

http://www.questfor31.com/

http://www.sportsthemedweddings.com/

Denver – INVESCO Field… A Mile from Where?

We visited Denver in 2008, which was our first trip with all of us flying into the town. We highly recommend booking a car ahead of time to get you from the airport to Denver, especially a Limo. With 10 of us in our group, a large limo was very reasonable, and fun, for the 20 mile ride into the city.

We stayed at a Residence Inn Hotel, near the 16th street mall. The Residence Inns are fantastic hotels and offer great breakfast and happy hours with huge rooms. We always try to find a Residence Inn for all our trips.

The stadium is near downtown, but not within walking distance. We chose to stay near the 16th Street Mall area, which has great bars and restaurants to keep us busy the day before the game. One tip is to use the FREE Trolley to take you up and down the street. We didn’t see the big “FREE” sign all over the trolleys to know that we can get on and ride for FREE, until late afternoon. Now we know.

Getting to the stadium was an adventure, but we finally made it. By taking the Free trolley, walking to the train station, finding the right train to take us near the stadium, then walking about half a mile we finally made it. Denver’s tailgating is pretty good, but we were surprised the parking lot didn’t really fill up until late morning. Everyone in the lot was friendly and fun to hang out with.

When we finally went into the game and walked up to our seats, which were on the 20 yard line (four rows from the top), we realized why they call it Mile High Stadium… It’s a mile from the top of the sky, not a mile from the ground. Wow, that air is thin.

Tailgating at Mile High Stadium

 

San Diego – Qualcomm Stadium

If you’ve ever been to Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, the first thing you notice (besides the perfect weather) is the round parking lot.  This is one of the few stadiums in the NFL that has parking on all sides of the stadium.   During game day, people can walk completely around the stadium, making it easy to find friend and tailgates.

Speaking of tailgates, San Diego has some of the best in the country.  The players and coaches drive in right through the tailgaters – if you’re lucky some of the players will even stop and say Hi.  And the “inner ring” tailgaters are literally feet from the stadium’s main gate.  If you go, make sure to stop by our tailgate at D2.  Just look for the 4 yellow flagpoles and you’ll find us…

Wherever you tailgate at Qualcomm Stadium, you’re sure to smell the food the locals bring.  Some of the favorites to fire up on the grill are fajitas (carne asada is the best), pizzas (yes, on the grill…), tri-tips, and fresh fish caught right off the Southern California coast.

But whatever you’re tailgate plans are, get there early.  The parking lot usually closes about 3 hours before kickoff.

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.