gregz0r

I JUST regained my voice back from the yelling i did. I did my part dammit!

BradyFTW!

Sucks, but it's a reality of having ticket prices where they are. You can't price the diehards out then be mad when you're left with a lot of the wine-and-cheese crowd.

Patspsycho

The old Boston Garden was the same. The ticket prices drive out the true fans.

FebruaryThirdOhTwo

He's not going to be able to change the traffic pattern overnight, but Kraft certainly can get some of those restaurants and stores there in Patriots Place to honor some type of discount for fans that stay the whole game, maybe presenting their ticketstub for 10% off a whole meal, or 15% off a purchase over $50 at EMS or whatever. It's not exactly a perfect solution but it's certainly a compromise that will help keep people there for the duration.

SuperPatsFan

Then maybe Tommy should point a finger at Kraft's rapacious greed.

(JMHO).

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mcsully

Tom's actually wrong. I've been to more Jet games then him and I've seen their fans leave for years when their team is winning or losing..

Problem with Gillete and people leaving is for three reasons

1. State Police.. They let people cross the street in herds at different times instead of saying every 7 minutes let everyone move from one end of the street to the next.. Plenty of times before I lived in Foxboro I would be leaving a game, drive out and watch people cross the street and then drive 10 feet and get stopped again.. Plus I had a couple of experiences when a way was supposed to be open and the troopers blocked it.. When asked why, I basically was told to screw..

2. Parking when going into the stadium. Multiple times I've seen on attendant point a car one direction and when the car gets there another attendant tells themnot to park there.. No ryme or reason

3. Route 1. ONly way in, only way out. Should have expanded the lanes..

nabwong

What about having a separate parking lot further away and providing a shuttle service? I don't think that costs a lot more money. Give the priority to the people who take the buses in.

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jmt57

While comfy seats and tickets to the Pats being a chic trendy item with the whine and cheese crowd may be a part of it, in my opinion the biggest issue is the way the stadium was constructed; it simply doesn't retain sound as well.

As for the old crowd versus new crowd topic, perhaps society's (and the law's) view of drinking and driving comes into play a little bit. The percentage of inebriated fans when Schaefer Stadium opened was higher then it is with today's crowd, and that portion tends to be louder (unless or until they pass out.) They were also more likely to stay till the end, planning a post-game tailgate while the parking lot cleared. On the other hand there are not as many fights, fewer people puking on your shoes, nobody gets electrocuted, and the Pats can even play games at home at night.

I'm not giving a pass to that segment of the crowd that doesn't use their vocal chords enough; just saying there's a little more to it than meets the eye. As for those that look for a reason to leave early, that too is unfortunate; however that has as much to do with the location as anything. If the stadium was more centrally located and fans did not have to deal with Route 1 and the corresponding amount of time to travel home from the game, then it stands to reason fewer fans would leave early. Swap locations with Fenway Park or TD Garden, and there'd be no issue with Pats fans leaving early but there certainly would be with fans of the Red Sox, Celtics or Bruins.

I'm not saying low crowd noise or early exiting is acceptable; just suggesting there are circumstances when comparing to early Pat fan bases or other team's fans that should be considered.

hyperpat

By building a comfortable stadium with good sight lines, Kraft made the game experience better for the fans, but made it worse for his team -- the stadium is too open and doesn't hold sound, so less home field advantage. Wonder if the sound holding aspect of the stadium was ever considered by the architects or by Kraft's people.

It seems that adding seats to the open end would make it louder, make more seats available to fans and increase the Kraft's revenue. Only big downside would be to further increase traffic problems.

TheGodInAGreyHoodie

Why even go? If you want to save time and don't mind seeing the game on TV you can save plenty of time (and money too) by just watching the whole game on TV.

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