Our Friends of VenRoo made it to San Francisco to see the 49ers new stadium. Levi’s Stadium was an awesome experience and highly recommended.
Category Archives: Venues
Draft Day – 2011
With the NFL Schedule released last week and the NFL Draft this week, how can you not be excited for the 2011 season?
To celebrate, VenRoo is offering a reduced price and free shipping on its Pro Football stadium map poster, for a limited time. This makes a great gift for any football fan and is a great conversation piece in any rec room, man cave, office, or garage. Fans of all ages love looking at the locations of the stadiums and seeing where they want to go, or just where their favorite team is going to play.
Visit the new Venroo website and get a poster for yourself or a friend. Save more when you buy multiple posters.
Houston – Reliant Stadium
In 2004 we attended a Chargers / Texans game at Reliant Stadium in Houston. The Astrodome was right next to it and the new stadium was huge compared to the Astrodome.
Two things that stick out while visiting the Houston stadium – how nice all the people were and the spacious interior of the stadium.
We got numerous “Welcome to Texas” greetings as we walked to the stadium. Tailgaters were more than generous, even though we sported the visiting team colors. And inside, the Houston fans were just as nice.
We were also very impressed by the openness of the concourses. There was plenty of room to walk without getting in anyone’s way. Concession lines were never long and there was plenty of room around the concession areas to move around. The space inside the stadium was very impressive.
They say they do things bigger in Texas and Reliant Stadium in Houston is a testament to that.
Arizona Cardinals – Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe
Has anyone experienced the old home of the Arizona Cardinals? Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe was the home of the Cardinals before they moved into their new stadium in Glendale.
Our first visit to Sun Devil Stadium coincided with a nice little heat wave. The temperature was about 110 degrees. That sounds bad enough, but as anyone who has been to a game there will certainly remember, they have aluminum bench seats. It was definitely an adventure to try to sit on those seats in that heat. Luckily the Cardinals had misters in all walkways so we could escape the heat and cool down a bit.
Besides the weather, Sun Devil Stadium is actually a great place to see a game. The stadium is built between 2 mountains so the views are unbelievable. Add to that the surrounding desert and you get a truly unique game day experience for an NFL game.
Trivia Note: On October 27, 2003, Sun Devil Stadium hosted the Miami Dolphins and San Diego Chargers after the game was moved to Arizona due to the massive wildfires in San Diego. The Chargers’ home, Qualcomm Stadium, was being used as an evacuation site.
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.
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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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.
Dallas Stadium
The new stadium in Dallas is over the top! This is by far the best stadium experience we’ve seen. There’s not much around the stadium as it’s next door to a Wal-mart, and among residential houses. However, once you’re through the outside gate there’s plenty of entertainment before the game.
You’ll be impressed once you’re inside the stadium. The first thing we noticed was the huge bathrooms with plenty of room. Of course we realized why they had those, when the beer sales continued through the 4th quarter and after the game with music and dancing. Concession stands are everywhere with no lines and getting to your seat, is as easy as catching an elevator to your level and only walking a few rows up, rather than hiking a mountain for 40 rows or so.
Of course the huge video screen is fantastic, but it does kinda take away from actually watching the field.
What do you think of this new stadium? Leave some comments and answer the poll questions.
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