Agree 100 percent - priority seating and parking are given to the big donors.
Classless Hawk fans....
- Thread starter ketelmeister
- Start date
Agree 100 percent - priority seating and parking are given to the big donors.
It's the same everywhere. Usually I just pull into Finkbine, hand the blue-hair a ten spot and go on my merry way, but I've been lukcy enough to tailgate in the shadow of the press box without having to pay for it.
Not true. I have friends who are life long Iowa season ticket holders and their tailgates are not very close to Kinnick. Not big donors by any stretch, but they have switched tailgate spots all over Iowa City, and only 1 year were they on university owned ground (right across from Carver). They have never been closer than a 10 minute walk from the stadium. It is NOTHING like Ames. It's not bad, it's just very, very different. I wasn't slamming Iowa City tailgating, but its not like Ames where anyone can come in and park in sight of the stadium. In Iowa City, tailgating is spread through people's yards and random open spaces where available. This is because the stadium was built prior to the concept of tailgating, and they didn't include much space near it for this purpose. True, there are SOME people who can tailgate very close to Kinnick, but that was my point. If you think that most people attending Iowa games can just park and tailgate near Kinnick, you're either lying to get at us or an idiot.
If you aren't an Iowa season ticket holder, and don't know somebody who "has a spot" be it public or private, you're riding a shuttle from Coral ridge mall...
Last edited:
I don't "know" anyone, and I usually just park at Finkbine and make the 15 minute walk to the stadium about an hour before gametime. 15 minutes isn't that long of a walk, unless you stop to get a big-*** turkey leg on the way, or gyro, or whatever you want at one of the many food stands lining Melrose.
I don't need to park near Kinnick to enjoy an Iowa football game. Hell, the last time I went to a game in Ames, I had to park at Vet Med, and I'm pretty sure you can't see the stadium from there, either.
Basically what I'm saying is that where I park isn't that big of deal to me. I'm there to have a good time and see a football game.
Ok. I'm fine w/that, just say it off the bat. My point was that due to the lay out of the area around the stadium in Ames, you can park at Vet Med and still be a very short walk away from the stadium. My experience w/Iowa City is that finding a parking spot, tailgating, and getting to the game is far more difficult for the average person than it is in Ames. I've always had a good time there (iowa city) because I have friends who have gone to a lot of work to stake down a consistent tailgate spot for each season. In Ames, you could go straight to the public lots every weekend and set up a good tailgate. Nothing else required. That's basically what I'm saying. The tailgate scene in Ames is easier and more accessible than it is in Iowa City.
I'll put it this way. Imagine being a Northwestern fan in Iowa City or a Nebraska fan in Ames. Who is going to have an easier time finding and setting a spot to tailgate?
To cut off any smart *** comments about no one being in Ames for games, you know damn well that there are tons of people out for the tailgates in Ames.
Agreed. The one game I have been to in Ames, I thought the tailgating was really awesome. The tailgating for the games I have been to in Iowa City was awesome too.
I went to the Penn St game this year in Iowa City and pulled into town at abot 8:30am and parked 300 feet from the south entrance to the stadium. It was $40 and they crammed a bunch of cars into a back yard but there was tailgating everywhere before and after. I would pay $40 every game to do that, especially when you have 4 people in the car to split it. (of course we didn't make the driver pay)
I would disagree, as Finkbine is very easy to get to. Just take 218 south off of I-80, take the Melrose exit, and you're right there. I can't imagine that Finkbine is any farther from Kinnick than Vet Med or any of the outlying parking lots are from Jack Trice.
Finding a parking spot in Iowa City isn't pain in the *** unless you want it to be. Just park at Finkbine.
Another plus is that you can drink beer and cross the street at the same time in Iowa City. When I was Ames, everyone was either pouring theirs out or pounding them walking across Elwood.
I never claimed to be a top 10 team and people on the Hawkeye boards agree with me 110% for the most part. Iowa lost at Pitt by 1 "when Pitt was rated", they lost at Michigan St by 1 "when Mich St was rated", they lost at Illinois by 3 I believe and that was a game they just didn't play well in "worst game of the year" and they gave the game away to Northwestern "Iowa dominated 55 mintues of the game but couldn't close it out due to turnovers".
I'm not making excuses because they got beat by teams who all went on to have good seasons and play in good bowl games. But Iowa was a good team and the 4 games they lost were by 5 pts or less. I feel better about my team when I can point to a few plays that lead to getting beat rather than just getting beat down the entire game.
Let me get this right....so the all powerful SEC has a team that finishes tied for 5th in their conference and they don't deserve to play in the Outback Bowl. Most people have already acknowledged the fact that January Bowl really means nothing anymore....it's more about the payout at this point and the Outback has a very good payout. That's what makes it a good bowl game.
So the 5th place team from the Big Ten lays the smackdown on the 5th place team from the SEC and Iowa fans shouldn't think anything of it? Ok. It was complete domination from start to finish but...ok
South Carolina did manage to beat Ole Miss, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas which were all pretty good teams.
Al...I agree with a lot of the things you say but this is just not true. Iowa St only sells out 2-3 games a year at most so I'm assuming if the stadium holds 50k fans there are probably less than that tailgating. Just an assumption but if there are 45K in attendance, I would venture to guess that there are a few thousand more at most in attendance for tailgating etc. AGain this is paid attendance to the game, so just because there are 45K paid doesn't mean they all actually go to the game.
In Iowa City there are generally about 75-76K in paid attendance. Again, I will assume that a 2-3K of them don't actually make it into the game, but then for high interest games like ISU, Penn St, OSU, etc there are probably at least 10K extra fans tailgating.
It's all about scale and Iowa is working on a mucher larger scale when it comes to the fanbase and capacity. For the Iowa game when it is in Ames there may be 60K fans tailgating. When that same game is in Iowa City, there may be 90K fans tailgating.
The stadium has been full at kick-off every game for the past two years. Thats a sell out. Every single ISU game the past two years had higher than 45K in attendance. Pollard likes to say that Jack Trice holds 55,000, but thats with so many hill seats sold, that half the people on the hills can't see a damn thing. There are 45K actual seats and those are full every week, w/plenty of people on the hills. You're right about more people in Iowa City, it goes w/the bigger stadium, but it's not like Ames is 10 people sitting alone in a lot drinking grain alcohol.
TarHeel, as far as my comments about the ease of tailgating in Iowa City, alot of those are second hand from people who haven't been to tons of games there like you have. My point was that to an objective person w/no experience at either school, ISU is easier to tailgate at, get around, etc. Many Iowa fans can't imagine that ISU would be respected in any area more than Iowa, but when it comes to tailgating, anyone I've met who wasn't a Hawk or Clone, and has been to both places prefers Ames, both in ease of getting around and party scene. I know you guys can't imagine that, especially the 2nd part, but a hell of a lot of people feel that way. When people from freaking Austin, TX of all places are saying it's the best party in the conference, that's saying a lot...
Last edited:
What percentage of those got their undergraduate degrees at Iowa? Just curious.
I know more than a few doctors and lawyers who went to undergrad at ISU and grad school at Iowa. They are Cyclone fans, for the record...
