Last week my sister was lucky enough to score corporate box seats for the Qld Roar v Adelaide United soccer (football/fitba/whatever) match at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. In fact, she signed away her cocktail making skills to get the seats, quite a sacrifice.
I tried searching on the Suncorp Stadium website but was a little disappointed when the only thing I could find about “Corporate Hospitality” was an offer to get seats for two events, held one and two months ago respectively. They could have at least a little bit of info advertising (or warning) of what was involved. Instead, googling about corporate seats led me to the ANZ stadium page for Corporate Boxes that at least made it look appealing (even if the waitress’s hair was a bit windswept – but that’s just being picky). In the end, I just assumed that we would be able to order food & drinks from the comfort of our chairs, and have a good view of the game, if not any other perks.
Eventually the day arrived, and Amy and I made our way to our seats. It took a fair bit of walking through corridors to get to our spot, but we found it. We discovered that it was an open air box (which I had guessed correctly and therefore packed a warm jacket, Amy wasn’t so careful) and there were others in the box with us. No problems though, we still had a good view, and surprisingly there was a TV set right in front of Amy so we could see the broadcast nice and clearly. It just played what was playing in the big screens though, so getting normal seats didn’t mean you were missing out on anything much.
We also found we received free copies of “The Full 90″ magazine, and some sponsor merchandise i.e. pens and stubby coolers. We both grabbed a pen, and I got a stubby cooler for Mat since he has a massive collection at home, and he likes Waeco stuff (the sponsor). We twittered about our positions, and then decided to have a look at the menu and order some food/drinks. First bombshell for the night. Food platters were all designed for approx. 10 people, and they didn’t do individual trays. So if you wanted a plate of food you were looking at $70 for something de
cent, $45 minimum, and only $35 if you wanted 15 pieces of chocolates. Subtext – unless you’re with a group of friends, then you want to be rich with dispensable funds to buy food you could normally get for around the $20 – $30 mark. Ultimately, we didn’t get anything to eat. The couple behind us enquired whether they could order food from downstairs and get it brought up, the answer was no. So that left us with drinks. I ordered a vodka and lemonade for me, and a rum and coke for Amy. Total cost – $26. It turns out you don’t just get a premix drink, you get a little bottle of a sprit, and a bottle of the related soft drink (image). It worked out to be two small drinks (using the plastic cups provided) but I still wasn’t overly impressed.
The view was quite good though. We could clearly see the entire field, and with a TV in front of us we definitely weren’t going to miss out on anything. Unless you’re me, and you’re either trying to pick up your ticket off the floor and miss a penalty, or miss the goal by the home team. Due to the fact we couldn’t order food from downstairs and have it brought up, and we weren’t in the mood to break our budgets by ordering cheese and crackers for $90 (I’m guessing – I don’t remember how much it actually was) Amy and I headed downstairs for some dinner during half time. We ate our food downstairs, then with only some hot chips left to share between us walked upstairs. We thought they might have let us back in with just chips, but unfortunately that was to be proven wrong. Second bombshell for the evening. The lady told me to put my bottle of coke zero in my bag, and we were to either finish the chips off, or leave them with her to be thrown in the bin. We ate a couple more and ruturned them. As we made our way to our seats through the (now seemingly endless) corridors, we heard a massive cheer erupt from the crowd. Just as we got to the seats. If we were ten seconds earlier we would have seen it. If the lady hadn’t stopped us from eating we would have seen it. If we stayed downstairs to finish our chips we would have seen it. It’s only typical that we would have timed it so badly that we didn’t get to see the goal. Thank god for our little telly and replays.
The view from our seats in the corporate box
The match ended up being a 1-1 draw (twice in a row for Roar). As we headed home Amy and I reflected on the experience. The seats were good – it was enjoyable to watch from there. If you’re in a group of friends it would be a LOT better – you could take advantage of the food service, and knowing in advance how much you’re paying for drinks you could plan to spend big. But for two people it wasn’t that crash hot. When you’re in the crowd below it’s easy to get swept up in the feeling of the match, and scream loudly for your team. Upstairs, when you don’t know anyone, it’s easy to keep a close rein on your emotions. For that, I didn’t enjoy it – I’m the one in the crowd who yells and whistles, and upstairs in the corporate box it felt like that would have been really out of place. At least if I was in a group of my friends up there I wouldn’t care about getting too excited, and cheering on my team.
So at the end of the day it was a bittersweet experience. We had a great view and perks, and with a bunch of mates it would be fantastic. I’m still stoked that we got to go and try something new, and extremely grateful that Amy got the tickets. I just hope there comes a time again when we DO have all our friends up there, and we can live it up for the evening, but if there’s only going to be a few of us, then I know I definitely want to be in the crowd below, being my usual loud and noisy self.
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