Vrable sticks up for the common fan
 

Per Reiss

http://www.boston.com/sports/footbal.../reiss_pieces/

"1) Mike Vrabel on the fans. The outside linebacker seemed touched by the show of support at a Sunday morning rally at Gillette Stadium. “When I was first pulling into the stadium I thought ‘man, we’re going to have to go out in snow before we leave’ and then as I saw everyone lined up, the kids, and the families, and the parents, it was cool,” Vrabel said. “We were excited to go out on the field and see everybody – 15,000 or 20,000 – and those people were excited. We need to get those people at the games. Those are the type of fans that we need to get back into our stadium. I think that they deserve to experience this just as much as the people who can afford to come out here and to buy our season tickets. Those are the people who I think sometimes get left out with the cost of this game, to watch it, to travel. Those are the ones I'd like to see experience this.""

good to see a player saying what a lot of people feel :rocker:

Re: Vrable sticks up for the common fan
 

Yeah it was nice to see that quote. At least someone from the team recognizes how limiting the cost of Foxboro can be.

Re: Vrable sticks up for the common fan
 

if you put 68,000 of those fans in the stadium. there wont be an issue of crowd noise. I'm sure of it.

Re: Vrable sticks up for the common fan
 

The players try to let it be but they sense the change in the level of passion in their 12th man in attendance at Gillette since the wine and cheese crowd moved in. The fans at the rally, sans kids, were reminicent of the last crowd in attendance at Foxboro in the snow in 2001. The ones who were braving the elements and rocking the old stadium only hoping for a home playoff game or as Junior says, a chance.

Unfortunately winning costs and it attracts deep pocketed fans of winning...

Re: Vrable sticks up for the common fan
 

I was at Gillette two weeks ago for the Chargers game, and the fans I saw were no different than the Foxboro crowd. It was cold there, and I suspect the wine and cheese people were not braving those elements. The crowd stood for 3 hours, never sat down once, yelled loudly. I didn't see that much difference. Nor do I think the crowd there seemed like they had a lot of cash to throw around.

Re: Vrable sticks up for the common fan
 

THAT guy is awesome! I hope he has a huge Super Bowl. Nice post.

Re: Vrable sticks up for the common fan
 

Until you realize that the stadium isn't designed to be loud. Its the only BAD thing about Gillette.

Re: Vrable sticks up for the common fan
 

I expect another SB TD for #50. I also hope #80 gets some play time.

Re: Vrable sticks up for the common fan
 

That's the impression I got from Gillette too. I tell people the same thing about the Chargers' field because it was built to be a baseball stadium and people laugh but there's just certain ways to build stadiums to increase the crowd noise.....or you could always just pump them in from the speakers ;)

Re: Vrable sticks up for the common fan
 

He's right. The NFL, and in particular the Patriots, are distancing themselves from the average person, inch by inch, 5 dollar increase in parking by 5 dollar increase in parking. The Super Bowl is either a rich man's game, or a broke man's game, depending on whether you are either privileged or a fool-consumer.