"A" Club football BBQ cook-off

[CrimsonTider-n-SC]

For rob4bama, Proctor was signing at the table you sent your helmet down. And Matt Caddell was sitting near him as well. Proctor was very nice. He offered to take my 3 year old daughter behind the table since she was being crushed. But she would not leave her mother....

Your helmet is a good example of how this event was unorganized. If they would have had a line then things would have flowed well. I started two footballs down the table for the 70's and 80's players outside. I think I got most of the autographs and my footballs actually made it.

I was fortunate enough to be standing at the front of the table when Siran Stacey sat down. Siran was one of the nicest individauls you could meet. He and Rashad Johnson are the only players that I got to sign a helmet.

Much like you, I had to leave the B-ball game at half time. My wife has problems with passing out. Since we waited so long to eat she could not stay any longer... To end the day, I got a ride back to my car from a very friendly police officer.

Just wanted to say that Rashad Johnson was very willing to sign autographs. He really went out of his way to sign autographs near the locker room. I only came across one/two players that seemed anoyed to be signing autographs. One of them is currently in the NFL.

As for someone saying they saw Cody, a lady told me the same thing... it turned out she couldn't tell the difference in him and John Copeland.

Overall we did have a great time. It would have been much better with some organization.

 

[BamaJeff]

I brought a full-sized helmet to get signed for my son so I wanted to get autographs first. This is where it got ugly. There were lines for BBQ running into the walkways which was congested from the autograph lines; and this was just in front of the 1650's players.

Wow! Those guys must be pretty old by now....lol.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Organization was awful

One of the sponsors, a physician, was promised 10 tickets, but they never arrived...

 

[CrimsonTider-n-SC]

Tickets arriving was a problem for a lot of people. My basketball tickets arrived within a couple of days from when I ordered... well, I had to call early this week to ask about the bbq tickets. They did have them at Will call. And if you talked to others this was a common occurence.

 

[Alabama Slammer]

Too many people, not organized AT ALL, not enough event staff, not enough food workers, way too many tickets sold,too few tunnels open, etc.

There were only supposed to be 3000 tickets sold, but I heard that there ended up being around 4500 due to "unexpected demand".

As for someone saying they saw Cody, a lady told me the same thing... it turned out she couldn't tell the difference in him and John Copeland.

That was the assumption I came to as well.

 

[Pluck-n-grit]

As others have said:
-no tickets mailed
-unorganized people flow at BBQ & Autographs
-great time on field with kids
-great concept as Saban wants to get the former players involved in the Process
-lots of missed flights with the weather (Bennett, Brodie & others per Wesley Britt)
-call in the Bruno Event Team (may cost $75 per ticket but will work smoothly with food, autographs, photos, etc as promoted)

As for the comments about the NFL star which I'm assuming was Le-Ron McLain can you blame him. He's used to crowd control and not a mob scene as when he came onto the field. Can't say I'd be too happy myself but he did stay and sign for quite a long time.

Next time should be much better and I'm sure there will be much more oversight within the athletic dept than just the A-Club officers.

Still a great memory on the field and inside the locker room even though some dorks got on the seal with dirty shoes. I mean come-on people grow a brain....

 

[bamabelle1991]

This being the first event, I am sure they learned a LOT of lessons. I think it is a brilliant idea, but limiting it to a few hours was clearly NOT a good idea! This should be an all day affair in order to get all the events in.

I definitely agree that a stroller was not a good idea. A baby backpack would have worked MUCH better. I can understand rob4bama's wife wanting her son to participate, though!! I wouldn't have left mine at home, either!! He will treasure that helmet one day! Good job!

Hopefully, the event will be back next year and be improved on. We wanted to go, but play Upward basketball and couldn't make it. Here's to the "2nd Annual" being much better!!:BigA:

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I thought we'd threshed out in the looonnng thread on Cody that players have bad days just like all of us. There's absolutely nothing to be gained from bashing them here - which is why we have a rule against it...

 

[UAME]

I'm not going to bash any players, but I'm going to give a big FAIL to whoever organized this event and to any of my fellow Bama fans who can't function under rules of common decency unless they're being babysat by armed officers and roped queue lines.

I was astonished at the fact that the same venue that easily accommodates 100,000 people for 6 or 7 days each fall can't even begin to manage a crowd a fraction that size.

My 7 year old son arrived with a new autograph football and high expectations. We were ushered out at 2 o'clock with 2 signatures: Matt Miller and a nice gentleman who apparently wore the number 96. I didn't know of either of them before yesterday, but I appreciate what they did.

The "all you can eat" BBQ was a joke. Around 12:40 we decided to stop fighting the hopeless quest for an autograph, and joined a line (about 15-20 people deep) at a concession window. Around 1:30, we got our plates.

The brochure that was handed out before the gates opened said that the BCS Championship Trophy and the Heisman would be on display for photographs. The Heisman didn't show (must have missed a flight due to bad weather) and the photo op with the crystal football was through a professional photographer ONLY. Our photos should be available on the web in a week or two. I'm sure they'll be free of charge.

Like most fans, I considered it just an honor to walk on the field and into the locker room at Bryant Denny. Most people have to earn that, so I felt fortunate to get to experience that for myself.

I wish I had never hyped this event to my son (based on the content of the brochure.) Lower expectations would have led to less disappointment.

 

[bamabryan]

Sounds like the event yesterday is a lot like Fan Day. Only difference is there are generally between 15,000 to 20,000 people at Fan Day according to the news reports I've read after having attended Fan Day. It is not for the faint of heart.

 

[im4datide]

There were only supposed to be 3000 tickets sold, but I heard that there ended up being around 4500 due to "unexpected demand".

Started out as 3000 on the site when they first started selling tickets...later they changed to 3600. I sure think there were more the 4500 people there! They should have stuck with the original 3000 IMHO and it might not have been so bad yesterday.

I'm not going to bash any players, but I'm going to give a big FAIL to whoever organized this event and to any of my fellow Bama fans who can't function under rules of common decency unless they're being babysat by armed officers and roped queue lines.

The brochure that was handed out before the gates opened said that the BCS Championship Trophy and the Heisman would be on display for photographs. The Heisman didn't show (must have missed a flight due to bad weather) and the photo op with the crystal football was through a professional photographer ONLY. Our photos should be available on the web in a week or two. I'm sure they'll be free of charge.

I ended up with about 17 autographs...there were some very rude people who cut in line or went behind the tables the players were at and getting stuff signed. I didn't understand why the Heisman wasn't there yesterday when they advertised that it wouuld. The picture you took with the national championship trophy will cost you $12 for an 8 x 10! I sure hope if they do this next year it is set-up better and that they set a limit on tickets and stick to it! I love UA...my daughter is an out-of state student, but I paid $150 for tickets and I sure didn't feel like I got my moneys worth yesterday for the overall experience.

 

[BocaLance]

The picture you took with the national championship trophy will cost you $12 for an 8 x 10! I sure hope if they do this next year it is set-up better and that they set a limit on tickets and stick to it! I love UA...my daughter is an out-of state student, but I paid $150 for tickets and I sure didn't feel like I got my moneys worth yesterday for the overall experience.

They CHARGED for a photo with the championship trophy?
That is truly disgusting. :frown:

 

[Tide Pride La.]

It was a fantastic idea, the organization was poorly executed like everyone has said. I do have to thank the fans though, my son has always been a little timid and after standing in line for about an hour to get autographs and getting bumped, passed over and pushed out the way he finally started to get aggressive. My dad and I just watched in astonishment and how some were acting. I loved the idea of this event and am sure that the next one will be well planned out and executed.

I must give a big THANK YOU to all the players for giving their time on cold day, they truly represented everything that is so Great about Alabama football.

RTR !!!

 

[37bamagrl]

We went, and for the reasons everyone says it could of been SOOOO much better organized and should have been MUCH longer! 3 hours was not nearly enough time since most of the time was spent in line.

But it was still worth it to us. We had a great time, did eat some good bbq. Being able to play on the field and throw TD passes to my nephew was priceless, to us and especially to him I loved walking through the tunnel and looking all around the locker room. I didn't really expect them to have it just open in there to walk all around - and those of us who could reach it got to hit the 'WIN' pole on our way out

We didn't get near the autographs we hoped or expected because it was such a mess. All the ones we got were guys we ran into on the field. I got Selman and Chris Rogers to sign my Rose Bowl Program ..I got Matt Caddel (and i'll just add i think he was standing in about the exact spot he caught his winning TD against Ark), I got Derek Oden, Lemanski Hall, Rashad Johnson (my fav autograph of the day), and Todd Bates. It seemed like there were a LOT of no shows, but then again i didn't see a lot of the people some of you had mentioned. All the players i came in contact with were great - Caddell signed FOREVER! as did Selman.

My brother said he saw Cody, but not signing he was just walking across the field. But i didn't see him. My brother got Eryk Anders and Le'ron Mcclain's.

I saw the BCS Trophy, but didn't have time to stand in line and get the picture - kinda made me mad that they wouldn't let us take pictures of it...but i did manage to snap a couple before they told us to stop. Oh and we also wondered where the heisman was!

All in all, it was still a VERY fun day - just the opportunity to be on the field, toss the ball around, and get to go in the tunnel and locker room - i will try it again next year i'm sure, and see if they improve the chaos of having the players right by the food - just not very smart. food was good. we got a few samples before we gave up and got a plate. loved the red funnel cakes .....I'm sure the athletic dept. will hear plenty of ways they could make it better

Most any day spent at the stadium is a good day - especially in the off season Afterwards we went to the Bryant Museum - hadn't been in a while - no time on gamedays - just love that place!

 

[ontopp]

They CHARGED for a photo with the championship trophy?
That is truly disgusting. :frown:

You could become a Aubie fan,then you wouldn't have to worry about a picture.

 

[BocaLance]

You could become a Aubie fan,then you wouldn't have to worry about a picture.

$12 for an 8x10 photo of the trophy sounds reasonable to you?
Save the Aubie crap.

 

[FAN4EVR]

They CHARGED for a photo with the championship trophy?
That is truly disgusting. :frown:

Not only did they charge, but it's the poorest excuse for photography I have ever seen. I know I'm a photographer and I look at photos with a little more of a critical eye than some, but these were absolutely horrific to say they least!

 

[TIDE-HSV]

OTOH, the barners charge $5 for their version of A-Day...

 

[Bad Pony]

OTOH, the barners charge $5 for their version of A-Day...

I thought the $5 they charged was to ride the cows :biggrin: