Vegas & The Aftermath - Diary

[Karabiner]

Morning Tony,

For a nation that most people think don't like/understand/ won't watch because there aren't enough goals in there were over 55,000 fans at the Seattle Sounders v Vancouver Whitecaps game last Friday night. That was for a game that theoretically the Sounders didn't have much to play for but is considered a rivalry.

The atmosphere at sporting events over here is just so different, they promote respect to each other and have frequent sign, .scoreboard messages promoting good behaviour  and to be honest it just seems to be the natural mindset of the spectators at all the games I have attended.

I sat next to 4 Whitecaps fans in the regular Seattle section that cheered and shouted for their team and not once got any abuse or threatening comments. Was more banter and jokes instead. They were celebrating their 40 year anniversary and had a roll call before the game of past players and they gave out a golden scarf to Alan Hudson, that's seemed to be their kind of induction to their hall of fame type thing.( yes, that Alan Hudson)

The crowd was really eclectic and had a lot of families including youngsters, sport just seems so much more a family event than dad goes to football today that it perhaps is back home.

The game was awful, serves me right for taking In a soccer  game :-) and the Whitecaps won 1-0.  One thing that was interesting was their were a set of corporate tables between the crowd and the pitch, decked out with company names and cutlery. These started to get full and I asked the guy next to me why the tables were there and he confirmed that companies hire them to take staff/clients to the games. I mentioned that in the UK the corporate boxes were usually high in the stands and he just matter of flatly said that sounded terrible 'what's the point of putting your fans that are paying the most to watch the game and paying for guests as far away from the action as that'. when the Sounders  players came out to warm up they were just yards away and it must be part of their role to talk to some of the corporate tables and pose for photos before the game. There were no getting out their mobiles to stop the fans chatting to them, they just came out ten minutes before the Whitecaps did and did their required PR stuff before warming up.

When the game started they ate and had drinks brought to them by table staff, just looked a brill idea.

The match featured a good few players known in the UK, Clint Dempsey and Obefami Martins were the strike force for Seattle tho the body language between them looked very poor. Dempsey worked his socks of and Martins was awful as there seemed a lot of tension between them. Pretty sure the Obrien in the Whitecaps team was the guy that played CB for Newcastle too.

They just have such a way of treating sports like main events with all the fireworks and cheerleaders, clean football chants etc. At each new kick off they had a flame thrower type thing that fired a stream of fire into the air at the top of each goalpost and fireworks went of when they kicked of both halves. All the loud music and chanting the players names as they were introduced etc, it's more of an event here than just a sports match. Was a strange to see tailgating at a soccer match too.

There is talk of London getting an NFL franchise in the next 5 to 10 years but it wouldn't amaze me if the US got a Premier league team or two in the future. Everything just seems in place from infrastructure and fan base and the logistics of getting soccer teams to travel to the US to play games is much easier than it is to get NFL teams to travel to London.

Cheers

That must be pretty much a local derby, and a long-running one too which might explain the crowd although 55k is still an amazing number.

Didn't Peter Beardsley play for Vancouver before making it in the UK?

[bobby1]

Yes was deffo a derby factor in the crowd Ralph, the guy said either side of 40k seemed the usual number tho to me it was something of a talking point as I was amazed at the number but I guess for him it was just another soccer match his team were playing. He didn't know what the attendance number was until I mentioned it to him which we prob wouldn't take much notice of if we went to our local match I guess.

I'm not sure re Beardsley, didn't Pele finish his career off there? I have it in my head that was the place to go for some high profile players back in the day. As you can see by the terrible grimmer and spelling I am on some rank bad internet and an iPad so haven't checked for names. It was a big deal for the Whitecaps, it seems there is a Cup called the. Custodia Cup ( that might be wrong name but was summat like that). It is a type of round robin thing between Seattle, Vancouver and I think it was Portland where the team that gets the most points from those games wins the CUstodia cup so it just played out like it meant more to the Whitecaps than the Sounders. They celebrated a lot at the end too so was certainly something important to them.

It's such a fantastic stadium and was rocking yesterday for the Seahawks v Cowboys game and I was again impressed at how the fans just mingle and sit together without a hint of trouble. Cowboys are so well supported and in an arena that is famed for its home advantage the Cowboys fans levelled that out a little with their support.

Did you travel around in the US when you had your spell in San Fran Ralph, did you have a favourite place?

[Karabiner]

Yes was deffo a derby factor in the crowd Ralph, the guy said either side of 40k seemed the usual number tho to me it was something of a talking point as I was amazed at the number but I guess for him it was just another soccer match his team were playing. He didn't know what the attendance number was until I mentioned it to him which we prob wouldn't take much notice of if we went to our local match I guess.

I'm not sure re Beardsley, didn't Pele finish his career off there? I have it in my head that was the place to go for some high profile players back in the day. As you can see by the terrible grimmer and spelling I am on some rank bad internet and an iPad so haven't checked for names. It was a big deal for the Whitecaps, it seems there is a Cup called the. Custodia Cup ( that might be wrong name but was summat like that). It is a type of round robin thing between Seattle, Vancouver and I think it was Portland where the team that gets the most points from those games wins the CUstodia cup so it just played out like it meant more to the Whitecaps than the Sounders. They celebrated a lot at the end too so was certainly something important to them.

It's such a fantastic stadium and was rocking yesterday for the Seahawks v Cowboys game and I was again impressed at how the fans just mingle and sit together without a hint of trouble. Cowboys are so well supported and in an arena that is famed for its home advantage the Cowboys fans levelled that out a little with their support.

Did you travel around in the US when you had your spell in San Fran Ralph, did you have a favourite place?

I loved Vancouver Phil and would probably not have left if I could help it.

Vancouver in 1967 had a sort of mini-Haight-Ashbury on 4th Avenue with more than it's fair share of free love, marijuana, and psychedelic music. I can vividly remember Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe" blaring out from one of the jukeboxes and "tourists" cruising by in their cars at weekends to look at the "freaks".

Kitsilano beach is another name that lingers in the memory from that era.

Unfortunately I got run out of town without my passport after a couple of months in Vancouver and had to climb over a barbed-wire fence to cross the border into the USA en route to San Francisco. Those were the days..

[tikay]

Yes was deffo a derby factor in the crowd Ralph, the guy said either side of 40k seemed the usual number tho to me it was something of a talking point as I was amazed at the number but I guess for him it was just another soccer match his team were playing. He didn't know what the attendance number was until I mentioned it to him which we prob wouldn't take much notice of if we went to our local match I guess.

I'm not sure re Beardsley, didn't Pele finish his career off there? I have it in my head that was the place to go for some high profile players back in the day. As you can see by the terrible grimmer and spelling I am on some rank bad internet and an iPad so haven't checked for names. It was a big deal for the Whitecaps, it seems there is a Cup called the. Custodia Cup ( that might be wrong name but was summat like that). It is a type of round robin thing between Seattle, Vancouver and I think it was Portland where the team that gets the most points from those games wins the CUstodia cup so it just played out like it meant more to the Whitecaps than the Sounders. They celebrated a lot at the end too so was certainly something important to them.

It's such a fantastic stadium and was rocking yesterday for the Seahawks v Cowboys game and I was again impressed at how the fans just mingle and sit together without a hint of trouble. Cowboys are so well supported and in an arena that is famed for its home advantage the Cowboys fans levelled that out a little with their support.

Did you travel around in the US when you had your spell in San Fran Ralph, did you have a favourite place?

I loved Vancouver Phil and would probably not have left if I could help it.

Vancouver in 1967 had a sort of mini-Haight-Ashbury on 4th Avenue with more than it's fair share of free love, marijuana, and psychedelic music. I can vividly remember Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe" blaring out from one of the jukeboxes and "tourists" cruising by in their cars at weekends to look at the "freaks".

Kitsilano beach is another name that lingers in the memory from that era.

Unfortunately I got run out of town without my passport after a couple of months in Vancouver and had to climb over a barbed-wire fence to cross the border into the USA en route to San Francisco. Those were the days..

Whoa now, hold up.

You HAVE to tell us that story, even if it has to be a tad watered down to protect the guilty.

[Nakor]

Yes was deffo a derby factor in the crowd Ralph, the guy said either side of 40k seemed the usual number tho to me it was something of a talking point as I was amazed at the number but I guess for him it was just another soccer match his team were playing. He didn't know what the attendance number was until I mentioned it to him which we prob wouldn't take much notice of if we went to our local match I guess.

I'm not sure re Beardsley, didn't Pele finish his career off there? I have it in my head that was the place to go for some high profile players back in the day. As you can see by the terrible grimmer and spelling I am on some rank bad internet and an iPad so haven't checked for names. It was a big deal for the Whitecaps, it seems there is a Cup called the. Custodia Cup ( that might be wrong name but was summat like that). It is a type of round robin thing between Seattle, Vancouver and I think it was Portland where the team that gets the most points from those games wins the CUstodia cup so it just played out like it meant more to the Whitecaps than the Sounders. They celebrated a lot at the end too so was certainly something important to them.

It's such a fantastic stadium and was rocking yesterday for the Seahawks v Cowboys game and I was again impressed at how the fans just mingle and sit together without a hint of trouble. Cowboys are so well supported and in an arena that is famed for its home advantage the Cowboys fans levelled that out a little with their support.

Did you travel around in the US when you had your spell in San Fran Ralph, did you have a favourite place?

I loved Vancouver Phil and would probably not have left if I could help it.

Vancouver in 1967 had a sort of mini-Haight-Ashbury on 4th Avenue with more than it's fair share of free love, marijuana, and psychedelic music. I can vividly remember Jimi Hendrix's "Hey Joe" blaring out from one of the jukeboxes and "tourists" cruising by in their cars at weekends to look at the "freaks".

Kitsilano beach is another name that lingers in the memory from that era.

Unfortunately I got run out of town without my passport after a couple of months in Vancouver and had to climb over a barbed-wire fence to cross the border into the USA en route to San Francisco. Those were the days..

Whoa now, hold up.

You HAVE to tell us that story, even if it has to be a tad watered down to protect the guilty.

Whenever Ralph tells stories of those times I always picture this guy . . . .

[Karabiner]

^^^^

I probably looked a bit like him in the 1970's when I often shopped for clothes around Carnaby Street, but 1967 was during my formative hippie years including a rather unlikely fleeting cameo as a pimp in Vancouver...

[bobby1]

^^^^

I probably looked a bit like him in the 1970's when I often shopped for clothes around Carnaby Street, but 1967 was during my formative hippie years including a rather unlikely fleeting cameo as a pimp in Vancouver...

I'm guessing the run out of town and your fleeting cameo were related Ralph but would love to hear that story mate.

[TightEnd]

Dear coffee shop afficianado

We live in a world that invented the 'Grande Hot Ribena' and charges £1.80 for it.

Click to see full-size image.

[booder]

^^^^

I probably looked a bit like him in the 1970's when I often shopped for clothes around Carnaby Street, but 1967 was during my formative hippie years including a rather unlikely fleeting cameo as a pimp in Vancouver...

I'm guessing the run out of town and your fleeting cameo were related Ralph but would love to hear that story mate.

This

[Karabiner]

^^^^

I probably looked a bit like him in the 1970's when I often shopped for clothes around Carnaby Street, but 1967 was during my formative hippie years including a rather unlikely fleeting cameo as a pimp in Vancouver...

I'm guessing the run out of town and your fleeting cameo were related Ralph but would love to hear that story mate.

This

I'll spill the beans later when  get back from golf.

[Royal Flush]

Never been more excited to read a post on this diary.

Actually i've never been excited to read a post on this diary.

[RED-DOG]

Never been more excited to read a post on this diary.

Actually i've never been excited to read a post on this diary.

Harsh, but fair.

[Karabiner]

I was somewhat of a rebel without a cause in my teens and having rebelled against anything and everything that I could find at home for a year or so after having had my fill of boarding-schools I was shipped out to stay with my uncle in St Louis Missouri who was the manager of the Shady Oak Theatre, a local cinema.

No sooner had I arrived than he took me down to what I assume was their equivalent of the labour exchange and registered me for a social security card saying that I had never worked before, and after a couple of days I started work at the cinema tearing tickets in half and listening to background Herb Alpert musak.

I stayed there a couple of months and used to spend most of my leasure time at the local bowling alley becoming average at bowling and learning hard lessons on the pool tables. Eventually Uncle Eric, who was having a hard time with his marriage at that time decided that I had to go, as he had enough on his plate already without the angst-ridden teenager that was I adding to his problems.

Almost immediately I was bought a one-way ticket to Montreal, put on a 'plane and given £100 to make my way in the world. I didn't know a soul there and only just managed to blag my way past immigration upon arrival, but having got through I was happy as I had money. I was rich. I was just nineteen and green as grass.

tbc

[Tal]

In before tikay asks what type of 'plane it was.

[RED-DOG]

Go on Ralph.