49ers Vs Buccaneers At Levi’s Stadium

Game Day vs Buccaneers

I leave the hotel around 10.30 am to catch the VTA Light Rail to Levi’s Stadium from the stop right outside the hotel. The train is not that full but it’s mostly 49er fans. The weather is glorious again with a forecast to remain so for the day. On arrival at the stadium I wander around the tailgate parties in the parking lot. I didn’t have time for this last year. There’s loads of BBQs, beer, games of catch and an excellent atmosphere. This is despite the 49er’s awful performances so far this season. It appears everyone’s hopeful for an upturn in fortunes against today’s opponents, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Kick-off approaches. I get through security and into the United Club. I go into the stadium to find my seat and it’s brilliant, as I’d hoped. I’m right behind the 49ers sideline, almost on the halfway line. I’m about 11 rows up from the pitch. It’s expensive to get into the Club, but definitely worth it. I go back inside for a hot dog and beer. It’s a bit early I think, but it’s a 1 pm kick-off so need to be fed and watered by then.

Just before kick-off, we all stand for the national anthem. Apart from Colin Kapernick of course, who’s kneeling this season in protest of police brutality and racial inequality in the United States. The anthem is followed by a flyover by some military planes, a few fireworks, then we’re in play. Sadly the 49ers are as bad as they’ve been all year. There’s very little to cheer and not a lot of noise in a half-empty stadium.

I stay until the bitter end, a 43-17 loss to the Buccaneers. I hang around in the Club for a bit to let the crowds disperse. On finally leaving the Club, I go to the Team Store to browse around. But just like last year, there’s nothing to tempt me. The shop though is doing an extremely brisk trade – it’s heaving with people. I depart for the VTA station. There are no queues again this year and a train arrives very quickly to get me back downtown 40 minutes later.

The Last Supper

Back in my room I search the web for somewhere to eat tonight. I settle on Original Gravity Public House just up First Street. It serves a range of craft beers plus many different types of sausages for food, so worth a try I think. Sunday Night Football in on the TV when I arrive and I grab the last seat at the bar. Yet again though there’s no bar talks per se, as everyone is watching the game. There just a few comments between us every now and again, but nothing sustained.

The game, Arizona Cardinals vs Seattle Seahawks, is absolutely dire. Until the last 5 minutes of overtime that is, when it has the most bizarre finish I think I’ve ever seen to a game with both sides missing easy field goals. The game ends in a 6-6 draw and there’s a few more comments between everyone at the bar. It was a disappointing game and company, as was the food and beer. Despite 20-plus beers on offer, and tasting quite a few samples, I didn’t like any of them that much. No real depth of flavour to the pints I had.

The trend for craft beer in the US to add all sorts of weird flavours has really got out of hand. There’s beer here flavoured with chocolate, plums, chilli, coffee… you name it, they had it. Years ago I had flavoured beers in Belgium and found them disgusting. Please, brewers, stop this. Plus the other bad trend is for ever higher alcohol content. There were plenty of the beers over 8% ABV and some higher than 10%. STOP IT!

And the sausage I had was terrible. It had a very tough casing that was inedible, and the filling inside was bland and tasteless. It was really, really poor. The fries were OK. None of the servers asked me if my food was OK, even when they cleared away my half-full plate. So I won’t be coming back here again, and can’t recommend the place I’m afraid. That said, the Pub is now permanently closed, but I can’t find out when this happened.

Annoyed In The Bar

After enough bad beer for one night I decide to go back to the hotel for a nightcap in the bar on my last night. There are not many people in the bar – Sunday night at 9.30 pm – and I sit on a sofa away from the bar. There are however a small group of people being excessively noisy at the bar, to the extent that after 20 minutes of raucous noise I complain to a waiter. One of the issues was that they were watching some reality show on TV. The TV’s sound was turned up very loud and they were all commenting and shouting at the show, making matters worse. There wasn’t an immediate cessation of loud noise but the TV show ended, they changed channels, and eventually thankfully quietened down.

Another thing that annoyed me was that soon after I sat down a young guy sat at the other end of the sofa (it was very large). As I said, the bar lounge was practically empty and I wondered why he didn’t sit somewhere where no-one else was. He then started to watch music videos on his phone at an extremely loud volume, through the phone’s speaker. This bugged the hell out of me. He’d stop watching, search for something else, then watch that. This went on for about 10 minutes. Just as I was about to politely ask him to either put on some headphones, or move somewhere else, he gets up to leave. Completely objectionable and inconsiderate behaviour.

Time moves on and the barman calls last orders but I’d decided it was bedtime anyway. Literally a minute or so later a waiter comes across to ask me to leave. And guess who it is? It’s the thoughtless prick with the mobile phone from earlier. I don’t like the tone of his voice in asking me to leave, especially as he should see I still have a bit of my drink left, and the barman only called last orders about 2 minutes ago.

Enough, I decide. I recount the sofa experience from earlier and take him to task – nicely – for how he annoyed a guest in a nearly-empty lounge. But he doesn’t apologise and in fact starts to argue back at me! I keep telling him I’m pointing out his selfish behaviour as an employee in front of a guest. But no, he won’t have it. Next thing he walks away and returns 30 seconds later with a supervisor…

I calmly explain the lad’s behaviour to the supervisor, pointedly looking at the lad when saying “I’m trying to help you here with your behaviour in front of guests.” The supervisor clearly understands this point, so I say to him: “You need to address the issue of him using his smartphone when on duty. Now, I’m going to bed.” And I promptly walk out before anything else can be said, probably just before they decide to evict me… 🙂

Sorry, but if you don’t speak out regarding such unacceptable behaviour, it will only continue. Rant over.