New Real Stadium

I'm sure bloggers and die hard soccer fans all over Utah, who had the opportunity to go to the first game in the new stadium, have weighed in on the first game at the Rio Tinto stadium. So, I now join their ranks! The stadium was beautiful, sparkly, new, and there is not a bad seat in the house! The concessions, however need work. Jordan was all excited to have hot wings. In fact he read all of the choices in the paper ahead of time and that was what he planned on. Unfortunately, the employees at that concession did not show up for work and the staff at the stadium had to take over at the last minute. Needless to say, no wings. So, on to choice number two and Dylan's first choice, pizza! Guess what? It was a 35 minute wait for pizza. So, Dylan and Jordan were "forced" to eat nachos at Chili Verde. Of course, they did still have pizza later. They did run out of peperoni! It was nippy weather, so hot chocolate sounded good to me. That was apparently a "hot" commodity as well. They had one hot chocolate machine at the concession and everyone was ordering the same thing. Twenty minutes later, I finally had my hot chocolate! Planning, people! Planning! OK, so I am starting to sound food obsessed which is far from true when it comes to stadium food. Usually we eat before we go, but we were trying to get into the spirit of the new stadium (and help with funding). Enough about the food. The game was mediocre. As least we didn't lose. A tie did seem rather anticlimactic though. The pictures of players on the jumbo tron of the old stadium and Jason Kreis playing would have brought any Real fanatic to tears. The highlight of the evening besides snuggling up to Larry "to keep warm" was the crazy shuttle ride back to the car. The driver was "no holds barred" and drove like a New York City taxi driver. He was hilarious too, talking to the other drivers and proclaiming that they better get out of his way because "I am bigger than you!" It was a fun evening and Dylan and Jordan really loved it. It was soccer, so of course Larry and I loved it too! It's been a long and controversial time coming, but it sure is nice to have a new soccer stadium. I do, however, miss the yardage marks from Rice Eccles. "And he could go all the way, from the 40, the 30, the 20.....GOAL!!!!!!!"