Dolphin Fan - Gitmo Torture?

My dad started taking me to the Miami Dolphin games in the Orange Bowl in 1966. Although the stadium was a dump, the parking was horrible, and the toilets were memorable bonding experiences, I will always cherish all the great "football" memories.

When Joe Robbie had the courage to finance and build a new stadium without financial help from the Government, I really admired his tenacity and courage. When I first walked into this shrine to football, I was awe struck. No more beams blocking the view, no more end zone fights, and a scoreboard and sound system that helped a football fan keep track of the game stats.

Over the years since Joe Robbie has passed away, the stadium has been renamed to Pro-Player Park and now Dolphin Stadium.....but a lot more has changed than the name. The Huizinga Management team has transformed the game of football into the football "experience". Games are no longer football games for football fans, they are now "events" or "experiences".

It starts with the more fan friendly pre-game activities.....Very Nice!

Next is the upgraded food and beverage services (although it is stupid that you can't buy a beer after half time).

The stadium even has full time bathroom attendants and even installed new waterless urinals for the environmental tree huggers.

This year, they have finally made a commitment to improving the traffic flow pre and post game....it is mind numbing how poorly the traffic plans have been executed over the years. For a while it seemed like Dave Wannstedt must had developed the traffic plan! Maybe this year they will finally find someone to develop and execute a working traffic plan. What's Jimmy doing?

The biggest stadium improvement (so far) is the new HD TV replay television....WOW ....it is amazing....However, they have also upgraded the sound system (sonic boom loud) and added a new video display system around the entire stadium that flashes ultra bright computer graphics during the entire game. It is very, very, very distracting and annoying!!

At last nights pre-season win against the Rams, the sound system got so loud at times, you had to yell to the person next to you to talk....and the distraction from blinking/flashing lights made it almost impossible to watch the game....I guess guys like me that actually go to watch a football game, are a thing of the past. The ADD / MTV / Video game generation doesn't have the attention span to watch football, so they need loud noises and flashing lights to keep them involved in the "football event".

If the US army treated the Gitmo prisoners to the ultra-loud garbled PA system and the flashing / blinking lights, the UN would be protesting and sanctioning us for human rights violations.....only in America would we pay for over-priced athletes that no longer have loyalty to a team (except for Zack and Jason), pay $7 for a beer, subject ourselves to ear piercing sound, psychedelic flashing mind altering lights.....just to watch the second and third stringers play a pre-season game!

The final straw however is the security screening procedure when you enter the stadium. Terror threats? Liability avoidance? Nonsense? Everyone that enters the stadium is searched and frisked by a "highly trained" ticket-taker. In the old days, they were really looking for people smuggling booze, now I guess they are screening for terrorists? These dedicated "professionals" are the front line keeping us safe from potential danger. They have been trained to search every bag for weapons and explosives (I'm not sure what they would do if someone actually did have a bomb). They make everyone take off their hats to make sure no one smuggles a bomb on their head. Finally, they have separate male/female agents to frisk everyone. I guess from a liability sense, they are showing an effort to prevent a madman attack. From a security viewpoint, unless they search all employees, all deliveries, all players, coaches, etc.... they are not doing much to prevent a real attack and just wasting everyone's time.

The terrorists have won! Last year I stood in line, for 25 minutes in the rain, waiting for these "fan-friendly team members" to frisk me.....a football fan, a taxpayer, a 40-year season ticket holder! But I guess it just isn't practical to X-ray every keg of beer or delivery of stone crabs to make sure a bomb isn't hidden inside.... so they annoy everyone and put on a insurance liability reducing show!!!

After having season tickets for 40 years...I might buy an HD TV and a satellite dish and start watching from home!