Last night was my first time at the stadium, the first time in my new seat selected off the virtual seat selector.
I wanted to try the bus - it seemed the simplest way - and I thought I would get there a bit early to have a good look around. So I humped down to my local bus stop about 90 mins before the game. One partially populated bus sped past me despite my hand sticking out. Fair enough, three minutes later another bus sped past - only half full. I yanked out my phone and phone the TransPerth number at the bus stop. As the prerecorded menu was playing another empty bus pulled up in front of me and actually stopped - the doors didn't open. I held up my Freo Membership card, pointed to my Heath Black jumper and asked wtf? The doors opened and the bus driver said she was waiting for me to exhale my smoke before letting me on. Odd, but fair enough - I told her I was there because a bus stop was the place where busses supposedly stopped (and thanked her for doing so).
Within 15 minutes we were doing the long circuit through the Burswood building site - bus after bus after bus converging like a big Detroit conga train winding through the gravel and demountable city surrounding the Colindome. Then off the bus and straight into the place - I've been to NFL stadiums, Candlestick Park and Yankee Stadium, the big Blue Jay stadium that's now owned by a cable company, and heaps of ice hockey places across N. America. I've also been to Wembley and Arsenal's new Emirates place, I've been to Bayern Munich's big stadium next to the BMW manufacturing centre outside Munich.
But this place is impressive - it seemed like an open chequebook place that lived up to all the 3D modelling that it was born from. I got an $8.50 beer had a stroll around until 15 minutes before bouncedown, then I went to my seat. Yes, this was way better than Subi - I could see everything without any problem at all - in fact, it was every bit as good as any place I've been to before, perhaps even better than some. I wasn't hungry and I didn't need to go to the toilets. My seat was good, the cup holder intact in front of me - the view fantastic.
But then some yabbering idiot got hold of a microphone and the limitations of the sound system at the place exposed itself and the big screens filled with his face. The music started, then stopped for the horn, then started, then stopped for the horn, then started, then changed, the next tune interrupted by the horn then changed before it continued on with a package of video highlights that I reckon was designed by the same idiot who figured people supported Freo because they think the colour purple is 'neat'. Fair enough again, the world seems full of these people now - lol, couldn't wait for the bounce.
Great game, great screens, great company, fantastic night. The stuff on the field during the breaks was about as stupid as stupid gets but easily forgotten when there's a decent game of footy in front of you. After the songs, the rousing laughter and a full round of high fives with all my new neighbours it was time to go. No panic, I just went down all the stairs, through all the gates/barriers and along the pastel coloured sloping concrete footpaths with everyone else. I stopped and took a shot on my phone and walked straight onto a bus - guided on by a whole bunch of eager TransPerth people watched over by an equal number of anxious TransPerth people with old school paper clipboards that they were madly scribbling on. As we wound around the Burswood wastelands behind at least another dozen busses heading this way and that, we passed tens of thousands of people stacked up/down and around the train platforms - all of them. 'Wow' I thought, what a mess. But the bus wizzed along and I walked through my front door at 8:10pm. Too easy - 15 mins there, 20 mins back.
In a nutshell that was it - had a ball, thoroughly enjoyed the night and the win over the Bummers. Yep, top place.
