It's a love train Today was the first home Griz game of the season in Missoula.
The Montana Grizzlies faced the Central Washington Wildcats, and it was quite a day. It’s a big deal for alumni, long-time fans and students new and old. It’s also good for business.
Football in Missoula isn’t anything to take lightly. It routinely boosts the local economy, fills up the hotels and bars, and ensures businesses that might not be open, are.
I couldn’t find any concrete numbers after a few quick searches on Google, but Washington-Grizzly stadium can hold 25,217 people. Since prices range from $33.75 to $40.75 then you know university is making between $851,000 and just over $1 million per game.
Oh, but students get tickets for free. Well, how many of those freeloaders go to the games? (I paid $5 to make up for that incompetent-management-caused-deficit nearly 10 years ago, money I could have used to buy four tall cans).
Since enrollment at the university hovers around 13,000, and since we know that not all students go to the games…let’s just be generous and say 10,000. So that leaves us with 15,217 people paying for a ticket, which brings in between $513,000 and $620,000.
But you know some people are paying more and then there’s the food and the drinks and all the rest of it. That stadium is money-making machine!
But I hadn’t seen that machine in action in 7 years, at least not since the last game of the season back in 2007 when the Griz lost in a bitter home game under the shipped-in Friday night lights that did wonders to highlight the thousands of visible exhalations of breath in the frigid nighttime air.
I decided to remedy that today by hopping on my bike and hitting the Kim Williams Trail all the way up from my place near Reserve to the university. I brought my big camera along – I’m a cheap bastard and have one of those $15 Verizon Walmart phones – so I could get some ‘interesting’ photos.
The Montana Grizzlies faced the Central Washington Wildcats, and it was quite a day. It’s a big deal for alumni, long-time fans and students new and old. It’s also good for business.
Football in Missoula isn’t anything to take lightly. It routinely boosts the local economy, fills up the hotels and bars, and ensures businesses that might not be open, are.
I couldn’t find any concrete numbers after a few quick searches on Google, but Washington-Grizzly stadium can hold 25,217 people. Since prices range from $33.75 to $40.75 then you know university is making between $851,000 and just over $1 million per game.
Oh, but students get tickets for free. Well, how many of those freeloaders go to the games? (I paid $5 to make up for that incompetent-management-caused-deficit nearly 10 years ago, money I could have used to buy four tall cans).
Since enrollment at the university hovers around 13,000, and since we know that not all students go to the games…let’s just be generous and say 10,000. So that leaves us with 15,217 people paying for a ticket, which brings in between $513,000 and $620,000.
But you know some people are paying more and then there’s the food and the drinks and all the rest of it. That stadium is money-making machine!
But I hadn’t seen that machine in action in 7 years, at least not since the last game of the season back in 2007 when the Griz lost in a bitter home game under the shipped-in Friday night lights that did wonders to highlight the thousands of visible exhalations of breath in the frigid nighttime air.
I decided to remedy that today by hopping on my bike and hitting the Kim Williams Trail all the way up from my place near Reserve to the university. I brought my big camera along – I’m a cheap bastard and have one of those $15 Verizon Walmart phones – so I could get some ‘interesting’ photos.
The Montana Grizzly Home Game in Missoula, September 6, 2014
I headed up the trail around 2:45, hoping to get up there in time to get some views of the major beer and circus atmosphere that dominates these events.
When I was going to school the games would start at 1 PM, but today it started at 3:37…meaning people had a lot more time to get liquored-up.
I parked my bike along the rickety chain link fence I’d always parked next to during home games before, back when I had my silver cowboy hat and maroon feather.
You’ll see lots of interesting costume like that, but I didn’t see much today. Of course the main tailgate area is right there in front of the Campus Fitness and Recreation Center, where I used to clean windows and mirrors for many years. Outside that place is packed, as you can see:
When I was going to school the games would start at 1 PM, but today it started at 3:37…meaning people had a lot more time to get liquored-up.
I parked my bike along the rickety chain link fence I’d always parked next to during home games before, back when I had my silver cowboy hat and maroon feather.
You’ll see lots of interesting costume like that, but I didn’t see much today. Of course the main tailgate area is right there in front of the Campus Fitness and Recreation Center, where I used to clean windows and mirrors for many years. Outside that place is packed, as you can see:
I made my way around all that nonsense to the back of the stadium and toward the M trail, where I figured I could get some good shots of the opening kickoff and some of the fireworks, maybe even some of the jets flying by overhead after the parachuters dropped down to Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’.
Unfortunately I guess they don’t do that anymore, or I missed it or something. It worked out pretty good, regardless, especially since I was able to get a drink before heading up the M Trail:
The stadium was pretty empty at first, but then filled up pretty good. Here are some shots I got on the mountain and some others from people inside the stadium:
Photo by Chris Cobb
Griz Photo by RENegade_24
Griz Photo by Joe McCaffery
Photo by Dustin Lind from Twitter
On the Griz Sidelines, from UM Grizzly Athletics
Photo by Kristen Inbody of Great Falls Tribune
Lieutenant Governor Angela McLean, Senator John Walsh, and...someone (Photo by Jordan Lyons)
After the game got going I made my way back down the mountain. I’d seen it all before and there are many more home games to go, then the playoffs. Since I can’t watch games on TV anymore I’ll have to do that until it gets to cold and then go somewhere or just forget about it.
There was lots of rubbish and still quite a few people when I made my way back down to University Drive, and then I headed back to my bike, which had been joined by many more.
Beer garbage at Missoula Griz games
Well, that’s my take on the Griz home-opener. They won it with a blow-out, 48-14 over the Wildcats, a nice change from their 17-2 loss to the Cowboys in Wyoming.
What will next week hold? Probably more drinking, loud shouting, and thousands of people having a good time – I’m pretty sure of that. I’m also pretty sure I’ll head up the mountain for the last game this year, which will hopefully be in December.
If I can get the same shots I got today it’ll be something. It’ll also be something if I don’t freeze to death!
Until then, enjoy the next home game!
What will next week hold? Probably more drinking, loud shouting, and thousands of people having a good time – I’m pretty sure of that. I’m also pretty sure I’ll head up the mountain for the last game this year, which will hopefully be in December.
If I can get the same shots I got today it’ll be something. It’ll also be something if I don’t freeze to death!
Until then, enjoy the next home game!
