A night at Nippert (Stadium)
Last Tuesday evening/ night, Alyssa and I saw the US Women's National Soccer team play a match at Nippert Stadium. "Nippert" for those who didn't attend the University of Cincinnati, is the name of the stadium where UC's soccer matches are held. It's also where FC Cincinnati plays its home games.
We weren't originally planning on going to the game. The game was on a school night, Nippert is about an hour away from us, well, I thought there was a third reason but it was pretty much those two reasons. About two weeks ago, one of Alyssa's soccer teammate's moms sent out an email saying that she had two tickets to the match available for sale. It was hard to justify a late evening on a school night but then I realized that Alyssa's first class of the day is her specials class ("specials" being art, gym, music, etc.) and if I let her miss specials then she'd be able to sleep in a decent bit and not miss any of her academic classes. I bought the tickets from the mom, downloaded the Ticketmaster app on my phone (Ticketmaster! For someone who goes to concerts once every 20 years or so and very few professional sporting events. I'll be deleting that app soon, lol), and got the tickets on my phone easily enough.
Our seats were next to a couple of other families from Alyssa's team who were going to the game. We decided to drive down to Cincinnati with one of Alyssa's teammates, Ainsley, and her mom. Ainsley's dad was going to the game but he works closer to downtown Cincy whereas Ainsley's family lives more north. Alyssa and I drove to Ainsley's house, picked up Ainsley and her mom Sarah and drove in my car to UC. Ainsley and her mom then met up with Ainsley's dad at the game. They all drove home together after the game (since Ainsley's dad had driven to the game from work) and Alyssa and I drove home by ourselves. It worked out well. Bonus that Sarah's dad is a retired professor at UC. He has a parking pass that he gave to Sarah so we were like VIP's. The parking garage closest to Nippert that had a sign that said "Only prepaid parking" had nothing on us. We waved the parking pass at the attendants and waltzed, well, technically drove into the garage after the attendants moved cones out of the way for us. Happy to have friends in high places :).
Our seats were club level. That meant that we had access to an indoor area that had many TV's in it, "enhanced" adult beverage purchase options (like a full bar from the looks of it; I didn't tarry at the bar area as that held no appeal to me so I can't say for sure) and enhanced dining options. The latter was up Alyssa's and my alley :). We ordered "walking tacos" but these were not the walking tacos of booster club concession stands. The bag of chips (we had a large variety of chips from which to choose) was HUGE. Then we could select either chicken or beef (or both!!) as our meat. An attendant added queso if that was desired, on top of our meat. Then we were free to add all the fixin's we wanted: more cheese (yes!), lettuce, jalapeno's, sour cream, etc. I may have oohed and awed a little bit (I get way more excited about food than I should sometimes) over the selection. The workers were also very enthusiastic about their product :). They told me that if your ordered nachos at the "regular" eating concession areas, all you received were tortilla chip and cheese FOR THE SAME PRICE AS WE WERE PAYING!!! In conclusion, club level seats are the way to go :).
I suppose I should talk about the soccer match. Watching it was fun! Part of the fun for me was seeing Alyssa's enthusiasm. Going to the match was about Alyssa's getting the opportunity to see the US Women's national soccer team play. I like soccer but what I like the most about it is seeing my kids play. I appreciate the talent of high level soccer players but seeing a match in person has never been a priority for me. I wanted Alyssa to have the experience of seeing the game in person. To see her enjoy the game gave me a lot of enjoyment.
With that said, I did enjoy watching the women play. The time went by quickly. US played New Zealand and won quite handily. We dominated possession and played well. We won 5-0. The moms whom I sat next to have played/ coached soccer at pretty high levels so I listened to their commentary on what was happening. I know enough about soccer to pick up many things but not all the nuances.
Here are some pictures from the evening:
Ainsley and Alyssa outside of Nippert
While we waited for Sarah's husband to arrive, the girls amused themselves by running up and down stairs
Ainsley made some great signs that the girls enjoyed holding
Couldn't resist a picture of my dinner! I took one that shows more of the contents but realized it really didn't look that appetizing :).
The women practicing on the field before the game began- the lady in the blue pinny is Samantha Mewis. Alyssa (along with all the CUP girls) had a training session with Samantha last fall. The woman closes to her is Rose Lavelle- CUP alum and Cincinnati native. She was a crowd favorite, naturally.
Jumbo tron pics
The players' entrance onto the field
The bad lighting towards the bottom of the picture is from the metal bars of the stands
Love!!
Getting ready for some soccer...
Rose with the ball to start things off for the US...
Samantha
It's a long story why, but Alyssa, Sammy and Ainsely ended up a few seats below us.
After a goal...
Neat to be a part of this...
We weren't originally planning on going to the game. The game was on a school night, Nippert is about an hour away from us, well, I thought there was a third reason but it was pretty much those two reasons. About two weeks ago, one of Alyssa's soccer teammate's moms sent out an email saying that she had two tickets to the match available for sale. It was hard to justify a late evening on a school night but then I realized that Alyssa's first class of the day is her specials class ("specials" being art, gym, music, etc.) and if I let her miss specials then she'd be able to sleep in a decent bit and not miss any of her academic classes. I bought the tickets from the mom, downloaded the Ticketmaster app on my phone (Ticketmaster! For someone who goes to concerts once every 20 years or so and very few professional sporting events. I'll be deleting that app soon, lol), and got the tickets on my phone easily enough.
Our seats were next to a couple of other families from Alyssa's team who were going to the game. We decided to drive down to Cincinnati with one of Alyssa's teammates, Ainsley, and her mom. Ainsley's dad was going to the game but he works closer to downtown Cincy whereas Ainsley's family lives more north. Alyssa and I drove to Ainsley's house, picked up Ainsley and her mom Sarah and drove in my car to UC. Ainsley and her mom then met up with Ainsley's dad at the game. They all drove home together after the game (since Ainsley's dad had driven to the game from work) and Alyssa and I drove home by ourselves. It worked out well. Bonus that Sarah's dad is a retired professor at UC. He has a parking pass that he gave to Sarah so we were like VIP's. The parking garage closest to Nippert that had a sign that said "Only prepaid parking" had nothing on us. We waved the parking pass at the attendants and waltzed, well, technically drove into the garage after the attendants moved cones out of the way for us. Happy to have friends in high places :).
Our seats were club level. That meant that we had access to an indoor area that had many TV's in it, "enhanced" adult beverage purchase options (like a full bar from the looks of it; I didn't tarry at the bar area as that held no appeal to me so I can't say for sure) and enhanced dining options. The latter was up Alyssa's and my alley :). We ordered "walking tacos" but these were not the walking tacos of booster club concession stands. The bag of chips (we had a large variety of chips from which to choose) was HUGE. Then we could select either chicken or beef (or both!!) as our meat. An attendant added queso if that was desired, on top of our meat. Then we were free to add all the fixin's we wanted: more cheese (yes!), lettuce, jalapeno's, sour cream, etc. I may have oohed and awed a little bit (I get way more excited about food than I should sometimes) over the selection. The workers were also very enthusiastic about their product :). They told me that if your ordered nachos at the "regular" eating concession areas, all you received were tortilla chip and cheese FOR THE SAME PRICE AS WE WERE PAYING!!! In conclusion, club level seats are the way to go :).
I suppose I should talk about the soccer match. Watching it was fun! Part of the fun for me was seeing Alyssa's enthusiasm. Going to the match was about Alyssa's getting the opportunity to see the US Women's national soccer team play. I like soccer but what I like the most about it is seeing my kids play. I appreciate the talent of high level soccer players but seeing a match in person has never been a priority for me. I wanted Alyssa to have the experience of seeing the game in person. To see her enjoy the game gave me a lot of enjoyment.
With that said, I did enjoy watching the women play. The time went by quickly. US played New Zealand and won quite handily. We dominated possession and played well. We won 5-0. The moms whom I sat next to have played/ coached soccer at pretty high levels so I listened to their commentary on what was happening. I know enough about soccer to pick up many things but not all the nuances.
Here are some pictures from the evening:
Ainsley and Alyssa outside of Nippert
Couldn't resist a picture of my dinner! I took one that shows more of the contents but realized it really didn't look that appetizing :).
Jumbo tron pics
The bad lighting towards the bottom of the picture is from the metal bars of the stands
Love!!
Rose with the ball to start things off for the US...
Samantha
It's a long story why, but Alyssa, Sammy and Ainsely ended up a few seats below us.
After a goal...
Rose exiting the field... Apparently she had been injured and hadn't been playing much recently. But she played the first half of the game we attended and then left.
Alex Morgan started in the second half- and scored about 20 seconds after the second half began
Neat to be a part of this...
The girls get ready to pose with their signs...
Ainsley, Alyssa and Sammy
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