So we rolled in there at about 6:30 Security was a breeze. Better than RFK Access onto Buzzard Point was a piece of cake for the expensive parking Choice of concessions looked very good. Especially Arepa Zone which is one of my favorites anywhere in DC At our seats in 129, the view is excellent The not so good I sit down low and found the LEDs bright/glaring at the top of my line of vision and any time I tracked a long clearance or punt, I was looking right into them. Concession lines were absurd. It took over 25 minutes (pre-game) to get 2 pizzas for the kids and they gave us the wrong order Similar length of wait (~10 min before halftime) for Arepa Zone where they also were out of forks by half time Bathroom lines were about as long as I've ever waited at RFK Getting off of Buzzard Pt by car, took well over 30 minutes. When I complain about concession and bathroom wait times, understand that I sat at midfield in RFK, so its not like I sat at the corner and was the beneficiary of having bathrooms and concessions near my seats that were also intended for use by thousands of end line seats that weren't there at RFK after the Nats left. So I think they've come up short on this account. It was only a 20k crowd. From our vantage point, there were open seats in the SG sections, a good number of open blocks (4-8) of seats on the south end as well nearly empty club sections at either end. There were also 2 front row obstructed view seats on our row at the aisle. Not sure how they bonked that. Its got to be an issue for every set of aisle seats and perhaps more seats than that. The couple next to us said they got a call from the club but opted to keep them.
Crews still working on AF I'm happy to see. Permanent signage has been put on the club shop. You can see it on camera1. I have to assume its on the front of the club shop building as well. The other day I saw a picture posted that had Ticketmaster signage being installed at the ticket booths. I see a crew in the fan plaza working on that lawn and watering trees. Thats good to see as well.
Is there going to be a large crest anywhere on the facade? I mean a large backlit DC United crest...seems really weird not to have that somewhere prominent. Feels weird not checking the cams as often as I dod for the past year+.
If renderings are to be believed, there is still lots of signage to go up. No way it stays this bare bones from a branding perspective.
If the documents they released in March are to be believed, there is a lot that needs to happen, like finishing the roof on the long sidelines. They didn't deliver the food trucks and entertainment that were supposed to be on the fan walk up to the stadium either.
So true. If I was running Audi marketing, I would withhold funds until all the branding I paid for was up.
My ticket rep told me the numerous complaints regarding the ad boards along the sidelines have been passed along to whoever runs that part of the facility, so hopefully they will turn down the level for the next game.
I missed them, they weren't on the cams, outside the gate is where they were supposed to be. All I see there are 3 small tents and the Barra/DU protest @ 7PM on 7/14
This is a construction zone. The fan field on the east side was ugly land fill dirt covered by a bit of straw and seeding with some soft spots near the sprinklers. With 4 or 5 picnic tables with sun umbrellas. The overly loud DJ was at the south end of that. And if you bothered to look, there was the stand for STH to pick up their free clear plastic bag, one per season ticket. I don’t think anything worthwhile will grow there, but that’s the least of my concerns. I’ m there for the games. My one big off- field concern is the difficulty my friends MIGHT have getting to the elevator to get up to The 100s on the east side.
I know it's audi Field and the club area is sponsored by EagleBank, but I want to keep repeating that it looks like Eagle Bank is the stadium sponsor. That's just incredible to me. Ticketmaster signage was installed for the box office area. However no additional permanent signage has been installed on the exterior. The temporary signage for the club shop, gate C, and the player entrance has been removed. There are currently no signs at those locations. Likewise, maps on way-finding have not been updated and many of the wayfinding posts still have no maps or have cut-outs that removed areas within letters. I was genuinely surprised that area was used for pre-game. That made absolutely no sense to me. It made no sense for the stage to be set up there and for the recently seeded mud to be an open field. It was and still is fenced off for a reason. They wanted grass seed to have time to take. Some areas are taking now, but it needs more seed and it didn't help that there are still tire tracks throughout that area. That made absolutely no sense. That area wasn't meant to be a park. It's grass ahead of eventual development. It wasn't sod because there was no reason to have it ready for the opener. Looking back at pre-game photos, if there was an exterior shell on the west side, it would have blocked the Sun ahead of 7:30.
It's been suggested here (somewhere) before, but what is needed is a temporary sun-blocker to make the posh life on the East Side more bearable (a slight touch of sarcasm), a la the Roman Coliseum and its retractable canvas roof/awning. In the case of Audi, I was thinking of a series of telescoping retractable poles (like submarine periscopes) installed on the West Side that would vertically extend and serve as a framework for a temporary fabric wall (think: sail) to block the sun-- perhaps 40-50 feet high (or high enough). Being retractable, the whole thing would not be a permanent feature and therefore (in theory) not a violation of the much-dreaded height restriction. Hell, the retracting sail/wall could carry sponsors' logos---it'd be huge. "This shade brought to you by Eagle Bank. Nobody throws shade on Audi Field like us."
Based on the signage plans, the backside of the scoreboard should have both a large DCU logo as well as an Audi Field. There's supposed to be some kind of team branding on each of the four light standards, too. I'd imagine it will be something more than just a banner; you can see it in the renderings here and here. As for the prominence of the Eagle Bank club sponsorship; it is a bit odd - I'd imagine it will eventually be obscured a bit by the future development. Or that they would add some language, like this is the "Eagle Bank Club" or something.
An oldie and a goodie, I'll miss her. (with decreased traffic on here in general, it'll be a slow fall, plus with us assholes keeping it alive now and then .....)