I am not sure why it was a bad experience, but I would be willing to guess it was far more than a muddy parking lot or the aluminum bench seats.
I had my share of incidents with drunks at both stadiums. The Sullivans did try to curb the drinking by only serving LA “Low Alcohol” beer after a Monday night came vs the Cowboys in the early 80’s.
Now Kraft has a system now where you can text security. I had my 7 year old with me at a 1 pm game about 4 years ago. There was a guy behind me who was drunk as a skunk & was yelling 4 letter words at the opponent and anyone who asked him to shut up. The women next to me texted security & when they did not show up, I texted security. I gave the exact seat location of the drunk. When security arrived they wanted to know who called them & why. I spoke up & pointed out the drunk. He was drunk enough to be taken into protective custody. After I spoke up a few other people also mentioned his language. Security was totally useless & just warned the drunk to keep it down. When security left, I overheard the drunk tell his friends he was going to get me after the game. I turned around and warned his friends that the season ticket holder was going to lose his tickets if this jerk kept it up.
I am a big guy & this drunk put no fear in me, but it did put fear in my 7 year old. The clowns buddies came down hard on him & he left at half time. I understand that if the drunk was escorted from the stadium when we notified security. Kraft would have lost the sale of a few $10 beers.
I only take my children to 1pm games. I would never take them to a prime time game at either stadium.
I have encountered drunks at both Gillette & Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro stadium.
I also have enjoyed the games at both stadiums.
When Larry Bird was in his prime the Celtics played at the old Boston Garden. The old Garden didn’t have air conditioning, was dirty & had obstructed view seats that showed about 1/4 of the court.
I didn’t go to enjoy the abieance of the Garden. I went to see Celtics. At the time they had a 50 year season ticket waiting list. I use to go the second day tickets were on sale because they only had obstructed seats left at that point. I would buy a couple $9 obstructed view seats to 10 games at a cost of $180.
I would never go to those seats, instead I would stand at mid court behind the stadium seating. The view was great, but we had to stand. I didn’t care, because I was there to enjoy the game, not the stadium.