Packers Huddle

Thought I would give some quick thoughts on Ford Field. We traveled there for Thursday's match, it was our 20th stadium. 12 to go yet! We road tripped it this year instead of flying, stopped at the University of Notre Dame and saw Touchdown Jesus, and partied at the college bars. Pretty fun.

Ford Field:

Pregame:
After seeing this many stadiums, lots of teams do lots of different things. The pregame here was pretty lame to tell you the truth. Very little going on since the stadium is right downtown. Not much tailgating (Not much room for it). Energy seemed really low for how big of a game it was. But this was one of the worst pregame atmosphere's we have seen.

Stadium:
Ford Field is actually pretty nice. I am not the biggest fan of dome stadiums, but it was pretty nice not freezing my butt off like normal. HAHA. We always walk in 2 hours ahead of time and walk concessions, walk to the top of the stadium to see the view, check everything out. It seemed very clean, warm, inviting. Not really a bad seat in the place, if we would do it all over again we would buy tickets in the 300 section (we always buy lower bowl tickets) to save some money because tickets were NOT cheap.

Fans:
Ford can be loud. The fans are obviously jacked up this year with how good the Lions are, and they get loud on every down, not just third. I don't want to sound like a butt-hurt fan here, but oddly enough the Lions fans were the most arrogant out of any in our 20 stadiums. Kind of obnoxious all over the place. You can tell they are new to winning, and they do not know how to act. Pretty wild. But we were never in fear it would get out of hand, so there is that.

Overall Experience:
After we left we always break it down and talk about our thoughts. All three of us were in agreement that overall it was definitely in our lower end of game experiences. Just kind of "meh" all the way around. Nothing super exciting or cool with what they do or how they do it. We had to knock it off the list, so we did so.

After that game I have no fear of the Packers going there in January and getting a win. If a few things go our way or a couple more big plays happen, we can beat this team. They are solid everywhere, but not unbeatable. Hope we get a chance to see them again. Anyway, just thought I would drop a few words about my experience as I normally do. Go Pack!

Love it! Thanks for the report!

I did Ford Field in the Thanksgiving Game of 2007. I did the 300 level. We were literally right behind luxury suite seats so I was right below the family of Travis Fisher, cornerback for the Lions.

Agreed on pregame. One of the worst pregames in the league but honestly that's the story for almost every downtown team with the exception of the Broncos.

As for stadium, I think Ford Field is simply incredible. I love the warehouse feel the atmosphere, the darkness. It's unique to them and I think it's fantastic. Yes it can get really loud in there but not like Metradome loud.

As for fans, it was a completely different fan base when I was there. The Lions were actually off to a hot start in 2007. I think they were like 6-3 going into that game with John Kitna but the fans were definitely humble at that time as they knew we were the big brother. The Lions fans at the time was probably some of the friendliest fan bases I had been with. What was also lucky for me was Travis Fisher's family was super, super cool. Especially considering Greg Jennings ate Fisher for lunch that day. They just saw how passionate I was and thought it was funny a white boy loved the Packers so much.

Detroit is in my top half of stadium experiences (I've been to 11) but keep in mind a few things:

1. 2007 was magical.
2. It was Thanksgiving when Thanksgiving games still had more "umph" behind it since there were less primetime and specialty games. (only one NFC team got to play the Cowboys/Lions per year)
3. The concessions sold turkey legs and stuffing
4. The Packers won
5. Ford Field was 5 years old
6. I was 16 years old. Literally everything with the Packers was magical
7. It was football pre 2011 CBA. The actual game itself was just a million times better. Doesn't hold a candle to the game today. I will always believe the peak of NFL football was 2003 - 2010.

Thanks for the reviews. If anyone is attending the Seattle game I'd like to hear about that as well.

I quit going to away games mainly due to "Ringo's getting too old......." Gimme another NFCCG and I might change my mind. But not in Philly......

Love these threads! Thanks for sharing your experience!

Ringo- went to Seattle for Fail Mary. Was a long time ago, but great stadium. I will say it’s the only stadium that seemed like it was fake noise. Like when the noise turns off it literally makes a sound. Loud as hell even during times when you look around and no one is screaming. Odd. Kansas City was way louder.

Other than that the only other knock was tailgate. You cannot drink in their lot. No tailgating in it. Kid of crazy. Lots of little lots around stadium to tailgate but they are only like 5-15 car lots. Weird.

Stadium is badass though.

Packfntk wrote: ↑

07 Dec 2024 16:11

Ringo- went to Seattle for Fail Mary. Was a long time ago, but great stadium. I will say it’s the only stadium that seemed like it was fake noise. Like when the noise turns off it literally makes a sound. Loud as hell even during times when you look around and no one is screaming. Odd. Kansas City was way louder.

Other than that the only other knock was tailgate. You cannot drink in their lot. No tailgating in it. Kid of crazy. Lots of little lots around stadium to tailgate but they are only like 5-15 car lots. Weird.

Stadium is badass though.

I used to live in Seattle and went to a few Kingdome games in the 1990s including the 1996 Packers game at the Kingdome. I went to the new stadium once when the Chickens played the Lions (Stafford was the Lions QB). I have almost no memory of the game ......... so I can't say one way or the other if the noise was fake. GO PACK GO!

I've been to Ford Field once, a Thanksgiving game when Brett Favre threw something like 22 consecutive completions. And every play was a pass as well; it wasn't like the defence had to worry about the run game. It was just too easy.

I don't remember there being much in the way of atmosphere!

dsr wrote: ↑

07 Dec 2024 20:04

I've been to Ford Field once, a Thanksgiving game when Brett Favre threw something like 22 consecutive completions. And every play was a pass as well; it wasn't like the defence had to worry about the run game. It was just too easy.

I don't remember there being much in the way of atmosphere!

We were both at that game. It was 2007.