Football: ISU vs. SDSU

Our neighborhood feels the impacts of football games greater than any other residential neighborhood in Ames. If you enjoy football (or just rooting for the Cyclones in any context, as I do) then it's pretty easy to make the best of it. This year, like last year, the first game was on a Thursday night. This can depress attendance a little since it's difficult for faraway fans who normally make the drive on a Friday night to take of at least one, and probably two days of work. Even nearby fans (at least all of my friends working in Des Moines) had to take off a few hours early to have enough time to drive up and enjoy dinner. However, attendance was pretty impressive with just the corners of the upper level looking empty, and fairly full hillsides. The improvements to the stadium were also interesting -- I don't know how impressive they actually are since they were mostly to box seats, and even if I ever see the inside of one in the future, I won't have any basis for comparison. There were also improvements to the bathrooms, and while new facilities that way are always nice (at least when they are new) and added capacity is always appreciated, I found the women's nearest our seats a little claustrophobic compared to the old one.

The game itself was a pretty thorough win on our part, which always makes a game more fun. I'm not enough of an expert on football to give you a forecast on the rest of the season based on this one game -- it was, after all, an opponent from a smaller school, and not nearly so formidible as Iowa or our conference schedule. The best part (besides the win) in my opinion was the gorgeous weather. Tailgating was a little warm mid-afternoon, but the game itself being in the evening meant that the temperature was perfect, combined with clear skies and little wind meant that outside was the place to be, regardless of your choice of entertainment.

On my way back I grabbed a can out of the yard of a neighbor. I pick up nickles on the ground no matter what form they take. Often a neighbor or two who are on the main route out of the stadium (Country Club, mostly) will put out a sack for trash and probably get a dollar or two out of the cans. I think this is great -- people don't like to litter but if they don't have a recepticle they will. I suspect fans overally were pretty well behaved because of the Thursday night game, so we'll see how the next one -- 6:00PM on Saturday, the 6th -- goes. The evening on a weekend will mean much more tailgating, and therefore more potential for litter, but the greater distance that the opponent is travelling means that a smaller percentage of our guests will be strangers.