Ford Field, Home of the Lions

​In our travels, Joel and I have been to quite a few doubleheaders.  Depending on the time of year and size of the city you’re in, it can actually be pretty simple to find a way to double up on sporting events (if you’re trying to spend all your time watching sports like us).  A tripleheader, on the other hand, is downright hard.  You need the right time of year, perfect timing, and stadiums in fairly close proximity to each other.  Fortunately, we lucked upon just that in our second to last day of the Midwest Sports trip.  Little Caesars was hosting its first ever college basketball games with a doubleheader featuring both Michigan and Michigan State up against some smaller local teams, and the NFL was having a random set of Saturday games, with Detroit playing in the late afternoon.  The stadiums were within walking distance of each other and the college basketball slate started early, so we embarked on our full day of sports with gusto!

The Seats

I talked about Little Caesars Arena in the post about the Red Wings and will again with the Pistons game, so while I technically consider it a different arena than those two games (they brought in a special floor, so falls into the “different playing surface, different arena” rule), I’m not going to beat a dead horse. We knew there was a chance we’d have to break our “never leave a game early” rule to get to the football game in time, so we opted for cheaper tickets for this game. Unlike the Red Wings game, however, the crowd up in the upper bowl was much more rowdy. There were tons of alums of the two major colleges all around, and the college crowd is generally a lock for a good time. Michigan had the earlier game (not sure they were even ranked at the time) and soundly beat their opponent, Detroit Mercy. Michigan State was ranked #2 at the time but struggled with Oakland for much of the game. It was still fairly close when we decided to head over to the football stadium, but ultimately, Michigan State prevailed. Michigan, the certain little brother of the event, ended up playing in the National Championship that year. Who’d have thunk?

Now, let me tell you about Ford Field. Walking over, I was fairly unimpressed. Maybe it’s because it was unbearably cold, but there was really nothing notable outside the stadium. Inside, however, is pretty cool and unique. There’s lots of concrete and metal, but I wouldn’t describe it as cold. Instead, it felt more fitting for the soul of the city. The box seats look like windows of an old warehouse because that’s literally what they are. The stadium is a dome, so it was warm, but they still find places to let natural light in. There were just enough touches of blue mixed in to remind you that you’re at a Lions game without overwhelming you and taking away from the blue collar industrial feel of the building.

In terms of our actual seats, we again splurged for this game to get as close to the field as possible. This time, we were closer to right behind the upright about ten rows up. The view was amazing, the people around us were into the game, and we got to see the home team beat up on the Chicago Bears and keep their (slim) playoff hopes alive. Perhaps my favorite part, though, was the obnoxious Bears fan a few rows up that kept antagonizing the people around her and inexplicably celebrating by framing her face vogue style. As someone who was indifferent to either team, I was pretty entertained watching the anger build and her apparent joy in making it happen.

The Eats

Ford Field had so many options for good food, I felt like I needed to walk around the stadium twice just to take it all in.  BBQ, pizza, tacos, sandwiches galore, basically whatever you wanted was available.  Joel and I split a chicken sandwich philly cheese style, which was delicious, and I got peanuts later.  Too many good options.  I panicked.
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Afterwards, we went to the downtown area to a sports bar called Firebird Tavern to eat and watch some other games.  Unfortunately, every bar in the area had a cover charge (which we paid, because we were hungry), and once we were seated, I could barely hear myself think, much less hear anything Joel was saying to me.  I had a pretzel with some beer cheese and Joel had wings, both of which were above average, but I pretty much just sat there and people watched some girls who reminded me how decidedly untrendy I am and how happy I am that I don’t have to go to bars to meet guys (shoutout to Joely-oly!). 

Other Deets

We again opted to park in the Little Caesars parking garage, which was an even better deal with going to the Lions game.  Afterwards, we got the car to drive to the restaurant since it was so cold, but I would have rather walked after dealing with finding another parking spot in the downtown garages.  Between that and the bar cover charge, we ended up spending a pretty penny for bar food.

The walk from Little Caesars to Ford Field wasn’t bad, especially since we were apparently not the only ones making a day of it.  We walked past Comerica Park on the way, which piqued my interest for going back when it’s significantly warmer for some baseball.
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Overall it was an awesome day, but if we do a tripleheader again, I hope it’s closer to the beginning of the trip.  I was tired and missing my pups by this point, so I don’t think I appreciated just how cool the experience was until we were at the football game.  However, looking back, I fully appreciate how much of a bucket list item going to a tripleheader is!