As always, observations like this are mainly in remembrance of our late friend Gatorama.
The main purpose of my trip to SoCal this weekend was to attend the Breeder’s Cup, but this being a college football board, we just had to go to the LA Coliseum for Pac 12 after dark so we took in the Arizona at USC game late Saturday night.
First a word or two on the Breeder’s Cup held at Del Mar (44,000 seats or so) in the San Diego area. It is indeed the premier horse racing event of the year. I’ve attended the Kentucky Derby, the Belmont Stakes (with Big Brown contending for the Triple Crown), and a few other high stakes races at other cool tracks (Keeneland most notable). I enjoyed this trip to the track more than any of the others. First, it is way easier/cheaper to attend than the Derby (if you ignore cost of travel/lodging). We bought good seats when they went on sale, we were then aided by my brother to get access to owners boxes (outside) on Friday. Nearly every race is a Grade I race, which means you are seeing great horses, many from overseas. It is a laid back but enthused crowd, and there’s a lot more room to breathe, stretch out, enjoy the grounds, than the Derby, which is insanely packed by comparison. I did hit a modest trifecta (a .50 cent box on 5 horses, which is a $30 bet) in the second race, and won a few other tickets on the 10 race card, but probably ended in the black by about twenty bucks when considering food/beverages… Beautiful venue on the coast, though tough to see Ocean from the grounds, only Keeneland is better IMO (haven’t been to Saratoga yet).
Arizona at USC: Thanks to the late start (7:45 pst) we were able to casually head out from our Newport Beach hotel (Little Inn, a nice spot) into LA/USC campus. One note for our local friend on the board, bwarbiany, Newport Beach Brew Co. was a good spot for food/drinks/hanging out Friday night. Rudy’s on the other hand…that’s a Bar Rescue episode waiting to happen. Can’t imagine they will last, despite a nice TV set up. I could belabor that place. The BeachBall tavern was a lot of fun out on the beach. Only closes 2am to 6 am.
LA, the gameplan was to hunker down to watch early games, slim pickings immediately around campus, we found a good spot (901 Bar and Grill) for drinks and TV, the food was garbage, so we split out for A+ sushi at a strip mall across the street. LA is like that, the most unassuming places have great intl food experiences if you just know who to ask. I ran off and ditched our rental car at a safe garage in downtown (pick it up after game, after taking train from campus), and returned to my group to watch all of the great afternoon games.
USC fans and some AZ fans seemed most excited to see tOSU get run out of Kinnick than anything else. Some guy was fuming about all the B1G games on, he can get mad at us, I gave the bartender $10 when we walked in to turn on NW v N, Iowa, Breeders Cup, and to find the forgotten MSU/PSU game. The Wazzu game was on too (and Bedlam, Clemson/NCST). Some dude got Army v AFA on. Place was jammed by 4pm pacific. We split after Bedlam in search for tickets. Campus is very pretty, surrounded by a mix of fairly busy urban enclaves, just south of downtown LA about a mile, and the 110 to the east. I had been to campus before on non-game days.
It was a very impressive tailgating scene, and rather loud, whether it was blaring music, or organized parties, there’s something for everybody. Just about every ‘group’ had a designated tent or section for their respective organization, so in that sense, it was pretty clearly permitted to death, which makes sense given the finite amount of places one could stake out. Despite that, I’d definitely say it is an elite tailgating venue. It was easy (for us at least) to mingle with strangers. We worked hard actually to find actual people scalping, even though this game wasn’t exactly a tough ticket. As usual, as you near the Coliseum, they were easier to spot. We worked some guys hard against each other until we paid $50 (face of $65) per, for a seat around the 15 yard line on the USC sideline, row 48 (of 93 rows?). Nice group of alums around us, they all seemed to know one another.
I didn’t find the Coliseum to be this miserable stadium that some talk about. Yeah, it’s old, and huge, but the seats had backs, had decent (not good) leg room for tall guys like us. Beautiful mid 60s/clear skies, great sight lines. It was easy in and out of every place. It is a decent walk from the lower 60 rows or so, through tunnels to restrooms, which were always easy to use, and concession options were quite varied, abundant and interesting. Beer only sold in USC booster club only areas, and could not be taken into the seats. PA/sound was quite good, video boards were good (three of them), only showed top 25 scores plus Pac12. Only one sign of the Rams and you really had to go find it in the concourse (I appreciated this), near the Olympic related memorials, which are really cool. I did walk up to row 93 in the end zone seats to take it in. Different crowd in those sections. Younger/families, still fans though. I noticed a steeper pitch than the Rose Bowl, which candidly makes it a better end zone seat by a mile over the Rose Bowl.
70,000 or so announced attendance, that seemed about right. We entered about 30 min before kick, People were late arriving, and a decent chunk bolted at half when it was 21-6. We walked around at half, so didn't watch the band (blasphemy I know) Arizona made a great comeback to 35-35, mostly due to Tate’s legs, before USC put it away. They ran all over AZ, and the DL was in Tate’s face all night. Fans were really worried about Tate. The Refs, were indeed Pac12 refs. J Great to see Traveler and the band (not nearly as obnoxious as hearing Rocky Top or Boomer Sooner endlessly), some but not too much piped in music, they reignite the torch after the 3rd quarter as Traveler trots around the perimeter of the field. Pretty cool stuff. Great experience at the Coliseum. I’ll spare you the miserable postscript on the train ride back to downtown. Let’s just say it wasn’t public transportation’s finest hour, despite a very orderly set up at the campus station. That deserves its own story in some other forum. I’d put a USC game on a list of very worthy road trips.
