The stadium that will host Super Bowl XLIX seems bigger from a distance.
Visible from 3 miles away, University of Phoenix Stadium towers over the surrounding farmlands and housing tracts like a metallic alien mothership.
As if pulled by a tractor beam, I was drawn to that stadium one day before the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots finally face off after a week of hype, hordes and hassles.
The tailgating had already begun. Thousands of football-jersey clad fans milled around the stadium parking lot. Hundreds more crammed nearby cantinas and pubs, quaffing beers and margaritas like parched camels at a desert oasis.
The mood was jovial. One couple — he in a Patriots jersey, she in Seahawks gear — told me they’d been together four years. They had no worries about quarrelling during the game.
At the stadium, Seahawks fans again outnumbered Patriots partisans, which has been the case all week. Some 20 miles away in downtown Phoenix, as estimated 25,000 fans at a Seahawks rally covered the playing surface at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was billed as a 12s Takeover, and I couldn’t argue with that name.
Back in Glendale, the only thing more ubiquitous than football fans was the security presence. Hundreds of law enforcement manned barricades that kept the public a quarter mile from the stadium. On game day, you’re not getting any closer without a ticket.
If you do have a ticket and want to drive to the game, that will cost you. A parking space a mile from the stadium can be had for $100.
Finally, the Super Bowl is nearly here. It has been a long week, but well worth it for a journalist just trying to soak it all in.
The game could go either way. But one thing is certain — it will be an unforgettable event.
Oh, and the crowd inside the stadium will definitely be pro-Seahawks.
