I parked in the west lot and arrived really early with Howie_16 to visit a tailgate, so we missed all of the "fun". But I was meeting some others that got caught up in the parking shenanigans. Not only did the club simply give up on collecting parking money, anyone entering the match from the NE lots just walked right into the ground. There was a gate in the fence and everyone was just streaming right through instead of having to walk around to the pavilion to enter the proper way.
If you're coming all the way down to Spruce Meadows, you probably already have a ticket, so I doubt that it "cost" them anything to throw the gates open. But giving up thousands of parking revenue due to pure incompetence - unfortunately not surprising, but pretty disappointing at this point. They've had a few years to figure this out.
I suppose a smidge of credit is due for them recognizing their failures and throwing the gates open, so as not to make it any worse for people. But cancel the shuttles AND make parking more difficult? Who could've foreseen a gong show?
But if we ignore the negative stuff (but honestly, come on, this is ridiculous), it sure was great to be back. Full credit to Kildares who were great as usual. They had a bus that left 60 and 30 minutes prior to the match (and back again afterwards), everything was nicely organized with wrist bands, and lots of supporters. We didn't take the bus because we have a parking pass and we were dropping in at a tailgate, but I really hope that there is enough demand to keep the bus going. It is a great option to save yourself the headache of Spruce Meadows parking.
Spruce Meadows was beautiful as always. Black jerseys looked better in person, but I'm a traditionalist and think that red is the proper colour to be worn at home. Save the black for colour clashes and merch shop shelves. Foot Soldiers were loud and smoky.
The match itself wasn't great, but not terrible either. I think that we could've/should've done better against Valour, but I am actually pretty impressed by the parity in the league this year. Of course things will stretch out a bit as the season progresses, but there have been lots of close games and draws, which hopefully makes for good competition (as long as Cavalry are on the right side of it).
Crowd and atmosphere was pretty good too. Home opener buzz, obviously, and a beautiful day. Not a full sellout, but a very healthy crowd.
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