In Phoenix, on Eve of Super Bowl
Just did the power-drive across I-10 to Phoenix. No rain, decent traffic, nice run. I've done faster, but not by much.
So, I got to downtown Phoenix and the Super Bowl is ... invisible.
There is no one down here. The streets are empty. It's like any other big city on a weekend. Except perhaps even deader.
Presumably, spome focal point of SB enthusiasm exists out here, but it's not anywhere near the Civic Center or the Convention Center, where media people are working on their final pieces for the Sunday newspapers.
This Super Bowl is a little splayed, for sure.
The actual football game will be played at University of Phoenix Stadium, which actually is about 12 miles west of here, and not even in Phoenix. It's in Glendale, Ariz., next to the arena where the Phoenix Coyotes play.
The whole are is desert scrub steadily being gobbled up by the expansion of greater metropolitan Phoenix.
Last time (first time, too) that I was at the football stadium, most of the parking lots were unpaved. That was for the 2007 BCS national title game between Florida and Ohio State.
Maybe they've paved the parking lots, by now. Which would be nice, since I intend to park in one and because it's supposed to rain tomorrow ... and walking through mud late Sunday night trying to get to my car is not something I'm looking forward to.
Tonight, I'm wondering where everyone is. I thought the sports bars and restaurants downtown would reflect Super Bowl fever. But most are closed. No one is around, except a handful of NFL people, security personnel and journalists.
Weird.
Comments
Could you comment about the stadium's design.\? It's said the architect didn'[t want it to look like a typical domed sports stadium, but open & airy.
Posted by: Char Ham | February 3, 2008 5:07 PM
The structure very much seems enormous, inside. You don't get that closed-in, claustrophobic feel you sometimes get at other domes. ... The roof is very high, and then it has the oval hole in it, too. That allows in even more light, which makes it seem like you're outdoors, etc.
The impressive thing is the lack of obstruction in the sight lines. The load-bearing parts of the roof appear to be two endzone-to-endzone steel struts. I'm not an architect, but that seems to be the key to the building. Sort of like the curved beam over the top of the Staples Center are what holds its roof up.
It's a very very nice stadium. The rolling "tray" of grass is huge, too, because the field is immaculate. And real grass.
I read recently that in an architects ranking of the 10 most attractive sports venues in the world, the only North American structure on the list was this one. Too bad the only that goes on in here, normally, are Arizona Cardinals games.
Posted by: Paul Oberjuerge | February 3, 2008 5:40 PM