Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl Review
As soon as the Meineke Bowl was over we drove straight to Nashville. The trip was 513 miles and took a little over 8 hours. There was a rock slide on Interstate 40 East of Knoxville a few months ago so we had to take some back roads as a detour, but a good trip overall. Our hotel room was actually in Murfreesboro, about 25 minutes SE of Nashville. It was good for a 2-star rated hotel and only cost us $31.50 a night. I've certainly stayed in worse places that cost a lot more. We slept till 11am, got up for a little (I wrote the Meineke entry) and then took a nap. Not a very exciting day, but we knew there was still a lot of driving left.
Driving to the game was real easy as we just had to head right up the interstate and follow the signs to the stadium. Once we got off the interstate there were cones everywhere to mark lanes to get you to the different stadium lots. I am not sure, but I assume the lots required pre-bought passes so we drove right past the stadium lots over the bridge of the Korean War Veterans Memorial Parkway. There is also a pedestrian only bridge (Shelby St Bridge) over the river so we tried to park as close to that as possible. As we headed toward the pedestrian bridge, we saw a parking garage with $10 parking. We went in and found a spot on the 3rd floor. Little did we know that where we parked was the Pinnacle building and that the pedestrian bridge is actually connected to the 3rd floor of the parking garage! I honestly don't think you could find a better place to park for $10. The area of Nashville where LP Field is located is really beautiful and well lit.
As soon as we stepped onto the Bridge there was a Kentucky fan selling 2 tickets. We were only looking for the $15 upper corner seats and he had the $50 lower level seats. When we told him this, he offered us the tickets for $20 each, a real good deal. I did get a little concerned when the "pro" scalpers were selling tickets from the same section for the same price. Then I got real worried when we got to the gate and the people in front of us who had bought tickets from the scalpers for the same section had counterfeit tickets. Thankfully our tickets were legit.
The stadium seemed to have good security that included limited pat downs. They had the same number of men a women "searchers" which created a wait in the men's line, although it moved very quickly.
Once inside, we took a walk around the stadium. Very nice with both name brand foods and regular stadium concessions. We stopped for a moment and stepped into a handicapped section of seats a section over from where our seats were. Just so happened that this was the section the Kentucky band was sitting in and they were right behind us so we had to stand there while they made their way to their seats. One member even gave us a "We Are..." and we gladly replied back "...Penn State."
We also walked up the ramp to the upper deck to take a picture from up there.
Concession prices were basically the same as Charlotte such as $7 for a personal Papa John's Pizza. Nachos were only $4 vs $5.50 for the same exact sized tray. Beer was more expensive at $7 for a 16 oz bottle. A 16 oz Hot Chocolate was also $7 in a plastic souvenir cup with a coffee mug type lid.
The view from our seat. This is the opening kickoff.
Our seats were in the 8th row of the endzone just to the side of the uprights. Only 4 rows of seats were in front of us because of the camera. The seats were in the Kentucky section. The fans were extremely nice and the little kid sitting beside me was very well behaved. My favorite part was that the fans stood the entire game.
The game itself was pretty good. Kentucky had the early momentum with the crowd being almost 80% Kentucky fans by my best guess. Their game plan did perplex me a little as they ran a lot on 3rd down, even in long distance situations. Based on the chants from the fans, the Kentucky fans certainly believed that SEC speed is greater than ACC speed. Then Spiller and Ford got the ball a few times in open space and I swear they shelved that chant in a hurry. I said a few weeks ago that I thought CJ Spiller was going to turn out to be like Teddy Ginn Jr and be nothing more than an over-paid punt returner. Then I saw him in person. Wow! Good vision, even better speed. Once Clemson started to use Harper some to run up the middle, then just out powered Kentucky and won the game 21-13.
The attendance was announced as 57,280, which seemed about right for the number of people in the stands. The only empty seats were in the upper deck under the sets of lights. Not sure how to explain it, but it seemed like those seats are purposefully sold last.
Halftime featured the bands of the 2 schools doing "best of" performances, which I like a lot better than the music acts or dance groups you get at the bigger bowls.
There was more corporate advertising then the Meineke Bowl, but it was done in a way that flowed well with the TV timeouts and the crowd. For instance, if a timeout came when the crowd was fired up, they would skip the commercials and catchy stadium music. If it was a more subdued crowd at the time, then the corporate plugs were played. What was odd was new 2010 title sponsor Franklin American Morgage Company had more ads than current sponsor Gaylord Hotels. Overall, well done production in my opinion. Best of the 7 Bowls I have been to. I would go back in a heartbeat even though the Big Ten doesn't play there.
Posted By: JGuiher
