I will share my SUPERBOWL experience
Right out in front of Ford Field - Loud and Proud, My brother and I went to XL...
(not pictured was that we took our mom too)
let me tell you, the week leading up to that game was nuts. After winning the NFCCG my brother and I debated it, we decided we were gonna go if we could somehow "afford" it so we started looking at ticket prices. Upper level seats were starting out at around $1000ea. Between he and I both looking at prices everywhere trying to get good priced seats, that was about the going rate the weekend BEFORE the superbowl. Come monday tickets were going bye bye fast and the prices were going up. Tuesday prices were no less than $1500ea. Then looking for last minute airfare, hotel costs, it was getting outrageous. By wednesday seeing that upper level tickets were still $1700-2000ea we just decided to scrap the thought BUT, we received a call from a person that knew how much my brother was a fan who happened to be on the Seahawks practice squad. We were offered 3 tickets from the player (i can't recall his name, but he was allotted 5 tickets from the team). $2500ea BUT they were located in the Seahawks family section - corner endzone (endzone where D-Jack "pushed" off) - 17 rows off the field. Brother and I debated it for a few hours and came to the conclusion that we would take all 3 of them and take our mom with us...
Next came booking flights. We couldn't find a flight into Detroit from Portland, so we opted to fly into Cleveland on Friday from Seattle and rent a car and drive. Ended up staying the night in Cleveland friday night, then booked it over to Toledo to our next hotel location that was still at "normal" nightly rates. Checked in, and then traveled the 2+hrs north to Detroit to do the whole Saturday NFL experience thing and get souvenirs...
After hours of waiting in lines, horrible shuttle bus services for fans, cold, wet rain/snow mix, we got out of there and went back to Toledo. I don't think I slept more than 2 hours that night because of adrenaline and we were instructed to arrive back to the game at least 4 hours prior to kickoff because of numerous security screenings, etc...
Needless to say we made it, we were doing the "SEAHAWKS SUPERBOWL EXPERIENCE"
Driving from Cleveland to Toledo we were probably the ONLY Seahawks fans on the Ohio Turnpike and we were absolutely outnumbered and felt so small but PROUD to be there taking on 1000's dawned in black and gold. Steeler fans everywhere, passing us on the turnpike, but we decked out our rental in BLUE and GREEN. Had fun with many of those drivers that looked at us, flipped us off, some gave us thumbs up, but it was literally like we were in a nasty lowgrade nascar race with how much scum we saw that day on the road. A few highlights were on some of the overpasses there were Cleveland Browns fans rockin their brown and orange, yet holding signs supporting the Seahawks and writings of "Get the F**K out of our state Steelers fans !!"
Gameday was rediculous... i could NOT imagine more of a hostile environment for a superbowl. 1000-1 ratio of stealers/seahawks outside Ford Field. I felt like i was in Pittsburgh stuck in one massive welfare check line that wrapped around every building, into every bar, everywhere was the stealer fans that were just there for the experience - not even attending the game. By far the rudest fanbase i have ever encountered or dealt with. My brother and I had 3-4 little punk kids (10yr olds) come up and shove us, swore at us to the likes of "you guys f*ckin suck. F*CK the Seahawks.... etc etc" and their parents stood there and laughed with them at us. We were getting interviewed by ESPN for being a few of the Seahawks fans in attendance and were absolutely swarmed by black and gold and pushed out of that interview, getting whipped by terrible towels... it was horrible
So on to the game... EVERYTHING was flying by so FAST. Minutes felt like seconds. but we were there...
I could post dozens more game pics, but i don't think we want to re-live that day in hostile land... BUT, I will share the one thing that absolutely pissed me off as a fan that day
There were ushers walking up and down the isles (like beer vendors) about 3-4 times every quarter handing out yellow terrible towels to steeler fans that did not have one - YES... HANDING THEM OUT !!
since our seats were right on the isle, midway through the 4th quarter i asked him where were the seahawks towels to which he replied, "that shipment never arrived" (to which was later determined to be true but never discussed because all eyes were on the officiating - that there was a shipment of 10,000+ green seahawks towels that mysteriously never got dispersed at the game). I then just said "well, if you're just passing these out i wouldn't mind one just for souvenir sakes" and he replied "I've been instructed not to disperse these towels to Seahawks fans"... YEP, i am still speechless to this day over that moment. Feeling like nothing more than an outsider at what was supposed to be a "neutral site" I don't even know what to say.
Many ask... was it worth it ? YES
nearly $4000 for my ticket & airfare, souvenirs, the experience.... etc ??
despite shaking my head in disgust at how hostile the place and the experience was.... YES, I WAS PROUD AS HELL THAT DAY !!
One thing about that game, seeing it in person... there were never any replays shown on the screens within the stadium so most of us Seahawks fans in attendance never got the looks of the officiating as those at home did on TV... we didn't know how bad it was until we got back to the rental car and turned on the radio and listened to all the sports analysts tearing the officiating apart.
It was a long drive back to Cleveland, in the snow, middle of the night... then the feeling of getting screwed, hosed, jobbed, betrayed by the league, all started setting in.
Got back into Cleveland to get on our return flight, only have it delayed by snow, but the lovely people at Delta that supported us as being few and far between Seahawks fans, tired, worn out, upgraded all 3 of our seats to 1st class and I was finally able to close my eyes and get some sleep kinda stretched out in first class seats.
Our flight got back into Seattle about 2 hours before the Seahawks team plane flew in. We were leaving SeaTac and on the radio they were announcing the welcome home gathering down at Qwest so instead of heading south home to Portland, we went and welcomed the team back and enjoyed every moment of Holmgren's speach...