San Francisco 49ers - Not Fan Friendly!

Monster Park, where the San Francisco 49ers play, is a beat up, rundown stadium. It's about as ramshackle as it gets. The seats are often covered by bird crap - and the ushers don't clean the seats. The concessions are lousy and overpriced. Water is $4.75 a bottle this season. The jumbo soda in the souvenir cup is a bargain at $6.00.

There also seems to be a problem lately with crowd control. Yesterday's debacle at the hand of the New Orleans Saints probably had more violence in the stands than on the field! The section where my group sits is normally pretty much filled with season ticket holders. There were 3 fights in my immediate area yesterday - when there hadn't been one the past 3-4 seasons. It was pretty ugly.

My real gripe, however, is the awful parking experience. We pay $25/game for the optional parking pass (which has a waiting list) so that we can park close to the stadium. Sometimes we just want to park and head into the game, sometimes we may want to tailgate. The problem is that nobody is regulating fan behavior in the parking lot. Except for the absence of blood, you'd think you were at a Raiders game. It's virtually impossible to drive down the aisles looking for a parking space as the tailgaters spill over everywhere. And they won't move to allow you to pass. Many of the tailgaters are taking up 3 or 4 parking spaces, some set up tents, others just put stuff in other spaces to prevent people from parking too close to their party. It can take up to an hour of white-knuckled (frustration) driving just to find a place to park. And nobody from the 49ers is there to assist. There are a lot of really drunk people wandering about, behaving in a manner that is completely inappropriate - especially when there are lots of young kids around. For some reaons, the 49ers seem to feel this is a set of behaviours to prize as they want to preserve the "tailgating experience" at the new stadium. I find it interesting since it must pull alcohol sales out of their pockets with everyone getting hammered in the parking lot!

In any event, why not create a separate area for tailgaters? Then those who just want to park and watch football (at least what is supposed to be football) can do so without it being a physical experience?