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The Wreckoning Is Coming at You: Inside the Trainwreck Studio
Just about every major sports media outlet hands out grades or rankings with some clever theme. Since the USC Trojans are pretty well covered on the field, somebody needed to asses the game day experience for fans. Here’s a look at Saturday's USC vs. Washington matchup through the lens of everybody’s favorite spaghetti western (Troy is, after all, a film powerhouse).
Food/Beverage
GOOD: Push-carts always sell bacon-wrapped hot dogs outside the Coliseum gates, and it’s one of the tastiest traditions in college sports.
BAD: The food inside is still overpriced, and there’s still no beer.
UGLY: Nobody expects stadium food to be cheap, but at $6 for a soda, you’d think they could afford new souvenir cups. Instead, they recycled the old "2004 National Champions" cups.
Fan Support
GOOD: There were plenty of OC blondes among the 90,282 fans.
BAD: It was a sad showing for USC Family Weekend. Trojans were literally giving away tickets just before the game, and couldn’t find any takers. Inside, it wasn’t very rowdy.
UGLY: Early speculation plummeted, and a seat listed at $40 couldn’t even be traded for a can of Bud Light in the parking lot before kickoff.
Crowd Control
GOOD: After student attendance in the first home game shocked officials, everything seemed to move smoothly this week. Of course, only 5,800 students showed up for their 8,000+ seats.
BAD: Construction north of the Coliseum caused horrible crowding and delays. It was a foot-traffic version of the 101/405 interchange. Inside the gates, lines at the concession stands blocked all through-traffic and caused bad crowding.
UGLY: When it was all over, overwhelmed CSC employees blocked exists in an effort to regulate the exodus. Annoyed fans jumped barricades and walked through flowerbeds, aware that getting kicked out wasn’t a threat, it was a reward.
Media Coverage
GOOD: Local media worships the program, and the Daily Breeze has a pretty cool Sights and Sounds feature. National media has turned its spotlights elsewhere, allowing the program to hide close games and growing pains in the shadows.
BAD: We blame network TV scheduling for the 12:30pm start time. There’s never enough time for tailgating.
UGLY: ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit suggested that USC"should be apologizing for the last couple weeks the way they've played." He dropped them out of his top 5 and promoted Louisville to number 4 for the way they’ve overcome injuries. Somebody should tell him that USC has lost 9 starters and 5 backups to the injury bug.
Intangibles
GOOD: The sweet sound of a saxophone playing “Fight On!” wafted through the air as fans departed. The same guy has been doing it for years, and it will never get old.
BAD: T-shirt hawkers are loosing their touch. “I’m in the Moody for Booty” is just a bad remix of "I like Booty, But I love Bush," and neither compares to the presidential campaign logo of "BUSH/LEINART 06."
UGLY: Cell phone reception still stinks during games.
Photo by Husky fan Jay Tando.
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