Qualcomm Stadium (San Diego, CA)
In the history of the world, I can’t say if many people were ever excited to visit the home of the San Diego Chargers, but when I went out to Anaheim to see the Yankees, ultimately lose, at Angel Stadium, one of the other aspects of the trip that I was very hopeful of adding was a trip to Qualcomm Stadium, the venue formerly named Jack Murphy Stadium. When Amin and I were hashing out the details of our trip, we were torn on whether to add another Yankee-Angel game at “The Big A” or heading nearly two hours down I-5 to San Diego and seeing the Chargers open up the 20111 NFL season against the Minnesota Vikings. If the game mattered more to the Yankees in their chase for the postseason, we would have had a tough decision. As it turned out, the Yankees had hit a bit of a losing streak, but the nearest competitor for the American League Eastern division title, the Boston Red Sox, had been in an even bigger slump, and with Amin interested in seeing new Viking quarterback Donovan McNabb, the choice became a little easier.
Personally, I was torn because of the date. For many of the commemorations of the horrific tragedies that befell New York City, Washington DC, and rural Pennsylvania on September 11th, 2001, I had found myself at the Yankee game, whether it be at Yankee Stadium, Toronto, Texas, or other various far flung locales. During the tenth anniversary, the Yankees were slated to play in Anaheim on 9/11, which was the genesis of the trip to the west coast. However, the New York Jets were to open their 2011 campaign at the newly minted Met Life Stadium against the Dallas Cowboys and the Mets were going to be home, much as was the situation ten years before, so I was tempted to stay in New York and take in a local sporting event to keep up my unintentional tradition of attending a New York team’s game on that date. Splitting the baby, I decided to head to Anaheim, and see the Yankee game on the 10th, and, possibly, the 11th. It didn’t hurt that Qualcomm Stadium was the last remaining former Major League Baseball venue that I had yet to see that was still standing.
Amin, Laneisha, and I almost didn’t even get a chance to see the game, as the ticket broker that we used caused a bit of a ruckus. Amin ordered the tickets the night before from 714 Tickets, based on me finding their cheap prices on my FanSnap iPhone app, and didn’t receive a confirmation email that night, which gave us pause for concern, but panic did not set in immediately. We were supposed to pick up the tickets in the morning near the Honda Center, home of the Anaheim Ducks, which was near our hotel, but Amin got a call from this sketchy company saying that the tickets would be available at the stadium’s will call window, which seemed to make things easier. Or, so it would seem. After a long drive down the freeway, and an interminable wait at the exit ramp to enter the parking lot, in a huge design flaw, we parked the car and got the run around from stadium employees in terms of which gate we had to go in order to pickup the tickets. When we eventually got to the correct gate, the woman initially couldn’t find Amin’s name, but, after closer inspection, she found them, and I thought that all of the headaches were behind us. How wrong I was, as my ticket wouldn’t scan, and I was told to return to Gate C, even though Amin had made it through the turnstile, and I hadn’t bought the tickets, so I would have had no proof of purchase. Before I got all the way back to the gate, Amin got my attention and said that the same thing happened to Laneisha, but the security personnel manually entered the code, and everything worked. I went back to another turnstile and had the same issue, being told to return, once again, to Gate C, although a security guard saw the whole thing and instructed the gate attendant to manually put in my bar code, and it did work. When I got up to my seat, I discovered what the issue was, and that was 714 Tickets double sold the tickets, as the guy in our row had a print-at-home ticket for seat 14, which matched the seat on my hard ticket. My guess is that the woman in the will call window grabbed the wrong tickets, as there was one empty seat next to me for the duration of the game.
It’s also possible that the person who was supposed to be in the seat next to me never made it up to the seats because they were on line for concessions. Clearly, the better concessions are located on field level, and, since there are no escalators going down, people seated in the upper deck, dubbed the “view level”, although there is no view of the game from the corridors and the view of the surrounding area is unremarkable, have to trek down the numerous ramps to the field level, and once there wait on lengthy and poorly organized lines for generic ballpark fare. The only place to obtain souvenir stadium cups is on the lower level, so I was happy to make the journey, but I was unwilling to wait for food, so I made a box of M&Ms my meal.
The game itself moved quickly, and the Chargers ended up winning, which helped me in my survivor pool. Afterward, the day continued to take a positive turn, a Leneisha suggested we walk around the area of downtown San Diego, and, since I’m always up for exploring a new city, I didn’t dissent to the group’s plan. In retrospect, I’m glad that I didn’t, as we came upon a bar in the heart of the Gaslamp District that catered to…Jets fans. A group called the SD Jets Fans made this watering hole their own, and the three of us were able to see the thrilling second half of Gang Green 27-24 comeback victory over the Cowboys in a surreal setting that felt more like a bar in Queens than a pub in San Diego, and when the entire place would erupt in chants of “J-E-T-S! Jets! Jets! Jets!” after positive plays and sing Jay-Z and Beyonce’s “Empire State of Mind” in unison, it felt like I indeed was watching a New York team at home on September 11th.
If the Chargers can get away with “Bolt Up”, I can get away with “Cam Up”.
johnpmclaughlin 