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Sunny Side of the Stadium: Settling in Week 1

The adventures of Jeffrick (filled in this week by JDMill) on the visitors side.

By JDMill
Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

After a few years of saying we were going to do it, Jeffrick and I finally went ahead and bought season tickets. There had been talk over the years of getting tickets so that our wives, or future children could attend with us, but in the end we said "SCREW FAMILY" and just got two tickets.

We settled in an upper deck, chair back section on the visitor's side of the field. One of the reasons we decided to go with the visitor's side was because the seats would be in the sun on those cold November mornings.

For that reason, GN asked Jeffrick to write a "Sunny Side of the Stadium" piece each week for TDG. For this post-first week of the season, there are two problems with that idea. 1) Jeffrick is on vacation so he's not writing anything this week. 2) We really have no clue what Jeffrick had planned for this.

I can only solve one of those problems. You might get something completely different when Jeffrick returns. Who knows?

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It's been well-documented that it was "hotter'an blazes" (as my dad used to say) at kickoff of last Thursdays game. Jeffrick and I had spent the afternoon tailgating in the shade of riverside trees at the East River Flats parking lot, and while it was certainly hot and sweaty even in the shade, the sun added a new element to that heat.

The SSotS is a bit different for an evening game. We still got some sun, but we were hoping for it to go away as quickly as possible as it beat down on us. Nobody in our general vicinity was comfortable and there weren't too many dry shirts as the game kicked off.

We were lucky enough, however, to catch a bit of a breeze at different points during the game which was nice as it had the effect of helping me remember what wearing dry clothes feels like.

The upper deck definitely was not full, but we did have a great view of the student section, whose praises I have already sung in another TDG piece. The nice thing about the crowd in our area, despite being well below capacity, was that almost everybody was REALLY into the game. We did have the "why is the chipmunk doing pushups" guy, but outside of he and his wife, everybody else seemed to be veteran Gopher footballers.

The participation rates while singing the rouser were very good, while the participation rates on the "first down" cheer diminished throughout the game, which I believe to be the norm. (By the way, I don't love the "another Golden Gopher first down" cheer, but I tolerate it. Having said that I do absolutely HATE that this cheer is brought up when the Gophers get a first down on a penalty. Completely ruins it for me.)

The beer consumption by those around us was... adequate. Jeffrick and I stopped for a beer at the plaza on our way to our seats after entering the stadium, and we went to the outdoor area at halftime for some suds (which was a long, arduous and insanely hot experience). Except for a group of 20-30-somethings directly to our side/front, the rest of the area seemed to keep their evening barley-pop free.

Most of all, I was happy exuberant beside myself overjoyed with the fact that nobody in our section or general vicinity tried to start the wave. I hate the wave.

While I do not approve of this practice, it's possible that people were just trying to avoid getting up and running the stairs because of the heat.

Time will tell the tale of the SSotS. I expect warmth. I expect jubilee. I expect lots of maroon & gold.

What are your surroundings at The Bank like?

Beer consumption?

Wave starters?

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