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Thinking about making the trip to Ames

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Matador96

New Member
Oct 4, 2007
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I'm thinking about a road trip to Ames to watch Tech / ISU. A few questions:

1. How hard will tickets be to get? Where are "good" seats? Price?

2. Hotels: Any suggestions? What about getting a room in Des Moines? Ankeny?

3. Friday Night before the game. What to do? Where to go?

4. May bring the wife (who is an avid football fan). Been married for 11 years, 3 kids won't be making the trip.
 
I am of the opinion that there are no bad seats in Jack Trice.

Edit: not really counting hillside as seats, but it has its advantages.
 
There is a Baymont right on Highway 30 over in Boone, 15 minutes from Ames. Never been there but might as well check the price and see if it would be cheap enough to make the small drive.
 
Matador96 said:
I'm thinking about a road trip to Ames to watch Tech / ISU. A few questions:

1. How hard will tickets be to get? Where are "good" seats? Price?

2. Hotels: Any suggestions? What about getting a room in Des Moines? Ankeny?

3. Friday Night before the game. What to do? Where to go?

4. May bring the wife (who is an avid football fan). Been married for 11 years, 3 kids won't be making the trip.
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1) Tickets will be easy to get....id guess 50 bucks will get you second level opposite the press box. sit anywhere but hillside or endzone. i sat endonze one time (vs utah in 10') - sucked. will never do it again. you can pry get some good tix for 80 per...just depends on teams records and weather too.

2) Hampton in in east ames - outstanding hotel. holiday inn on north university drive (old elwood) is good too.

3) corner pocket bar. drink. play pool. great plains to go when you head back to the hotel. whiskey river is a cool bar too - completely redone. decent place to take the mrs.

Good luck and have fun!
 
1. Shouldn't be too hard to get. Really depends on how good ISU is, but either way, it shouldn't be too bad. There also isn't a bad seat in Jack Trice. However, some of the worse seats will be on hillsides and lower endzone seats. The price also depends on how well ISU is playing and how long you wait to buy outside the stadium, if you are buying from a scalper. You should be able to find a decent seat for $50 and a hillside for $20.

2. There are numerous hotels along HWY 30 in Ames. If you're looking at those I would suggest booking a room ASAP as those book full pretty fast, if they aren't already. Ankeny is another good option if you don't mind a 15-20 minute drive to Ames. There are quite a few right along I-35 with easy access to the interstate.

3. If you're a drinking type of guy, go to either Welch Ave (campus town) or Main st. Welch Ave will have a lot of bars with college students. Main St bars will have an older crowd. If you aren't into going to bars, I'm not sure what there is to do in the area because I haven't done anything besides go to bars on Friday nights when I was in college.

As for tailgating. Get there early and stay late. Tailgating is a big deal at ISU.
 
Matador...I've got four season tickets on the 50-yd line, with chairbacks, sec-O row-6. I can only make it back for a couple of games and sell the rest. Message me if you're interested.
 
Upper deck seats in the Jack are great, imo. Get as close as you can to the 50, but really nothing is bad up there. As a student, I prefer sitting in our upper deck student section rather than the lower deck, just a better view of the whole field.

From my understanding, getting hotels in Ames on game weekends is pretty hard. Driving up from Des Moines or Ankeny shouldn't be bad on gameday.

Get to the game early, be friendly, and hop from tailgate to tailgate. The scene around The Jack is awesome on gameday and the people are very hospitable.

Hope you make it up and have a great trip!
 
ISUCyclones2015 said:
1.) Tech game probably shouldn't be too difficult. Tickets go on sale 8/15 and range from $20 for Hillside all the way up to $65 I believe.

2.) This is a list of all the hotels/motels in Ames: Ames, Iowa IA � hotels, motels, lodging, accommodations, bed and breakfast � Ames Convention & Visitors Bureau

3.) Age and lifestyle of the people coming would help us give suggestions.

And also... are you a Tech fan?
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Wife and I are mid to late 30s. Looking for a road trip in the fall. I was counting on late September being a good time for that. I would assume anything after October it's 6-5 and pick em if you're gonna get good weather. Besides, its going to be 105 today here in Texas, so anything will be better from a weather standpoint.

Yep, life long Texas Tech fan. Mom graduated from Tech, graduated from Tech in 96, wife in 2001, named our children after Texas Tech. Wife was an Architect for the Texas Tech Medical School until a year ago when I got a new, better job, and she no longer has to work--outside of the home. I'm in politics, was a lobbyist, and now a public official here in Texas.

We like to "have a good time", which is to say we don't mind a few beers, hang out, but getting hammered was about 10 years ago.


I've been to every Big 12 stadium sans ISU, KSU, KU, and now WVU. Gonna take one off my list this year, and Tech plays ISU and KSU on the road.


You guys may not here this often enough, but I'm actually excited about going to Ames, and looking forward to it. Trying to get my schedule lined out so we can take a few days off (i.e. getting babysitters for the kids) and make the trip.

As for the game, I have no idea how Tech will do this year. Not a big Tuberville fan, and I personally know the District Judge in the Mike Leach trial, so as much as I love Mike Leach, he pretty much got himself fired. He is a hell of a football coach though. Tech had 16 surgeries in the offseason, which supposedly will lead to more depth just by having "bodies" back. Still, with our OOC, ISU will be the first test. Every Tech fan I know is circling the ISU game as literally the most important game of the 2012 season. If Tubs loses in Ames.....again.....and the wheels come off......again, he'll be fired and will do the halftime show on CBS talking about how awesome the SEC is. For the record, I think we'll be better--but there are two questions that need to be answered--how much will we improve, and how does that stack up to the rest of the Conference? We will have a pretty good answer after the ISU game.
 
I'm sure you already have it planned but make sure you plan on spending all day tailgating. One of our best features of isu football imo.

You can stay in des moines or ankeny if you wanted probably would be cheaper on a game weekend and about a 30-45 minute drive. i'd try to stay in ames though and check out campus friday night. great plains pizza and hickory park bbq are a couple of the more popular local eateries. Id actually hit up olde main for a nice microbrewry and restraunt for a meal with the mrs friday night if you're not feeling bbq or pizza. Their beer and food are both realy good and it's a nice date night kind of atmosphere that gives you a local experience.
 
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