Amateurish
by Straycat on 4/30/24Florida Blue Training Center - Fort LauderdaleI’m age 60. My neighbor is age 70. I was in West Boca Medical Center for two days earlier that week. My neighbor was my designated driver home from the hospital. Next day, he invited me to go with him to see the Sharks match. I felt obligated to go with him to thank him for picking me up from the hospital. I agreed and said I’d pay for both tickets. He cued up his car to pay for parking. He paid the rather expensive $20 for parking. There were cars in front of us still holding up the cue even after we paid. I don’t know why the parking girl attendant let them block us for two minutes. Parking attendant men flagged us towards a handicap parking spot. We had to take 2 minutes to ask him if he was allowing us to park in a handicap spot. He said it was okay. We had no parking ticket when we went home. We reached the stadium a few minutes before start time. I searched for a box office. The “box office “ is a joke. It consists of one guy under a tent instructing me to create a Ticketmaster account! Needless to say, we missed the opening minutes of the match because of that nonsense. General admission were $42.50 each. I expected as much though I feel it’s excessive. This was my introduction to rugby. My neighbor is familiar with rugby. He tutored me on it as we watched. It was windy and rugby balls repeatedly flew into the stands. I found that amusing. A couple times, I observed a man in a sport coat and jeans walking back and forth. I assumed he is in management. The sharks mascot walked near us in the stands. I also observed two groups of rowdy fans. They removed their shirts after halftime. I understand rugby traditionally is a macho, alcohol-approved rowdy event. Several men in the north end rowdy group were yelling profanities towards the pitch. IMO, management is trying to have it both ways. On one hand, the P.A. guy yells “free beer” into his Mike and encourages the rowdy fans to make noise. On the other hand, management has a cute mascot walking the steps and shaking hands with children to encourage wholesome family entertainment. It’s incongruous. It makes no social sense to encourage children to attend matches as well as drunken groups yelling profanities. They have a few 18 year old “security” employees standing by the railings without instructions to get involved with the encouraged rowdy groups. During halftime, intermittent rain showers began. There were few places to seek shelter from the rain so be forewarned to dress for such possible conditions. There were a couple tents where fans huddled for shelter. All in all, I shelled out $95 for a high school atmosphere event. I learned about a sport but I’m comfortable following the four major American pro sports leagues l.