Advocare Classic 2017 (UM v Florida) Questions

I know no one cares, but it's the AdvoCare Classic now.

FWIW, SMU has a beautiful campus. The parts of it that I have seen looked identical to the Law Quad.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=football+parking+at+AT%26T+stadium

What the hell does this have to do with Najee Harris?

Fort Worth is solid for stuff to do and either TCU or SMU would be close enough to get to the game... Baylor however (Waco is not close).

• There's a ton of parking near the stadium which will be a minimum of $25.   However, the lots are big and will take forever to get out of after the game.  If you look online restaurants and other places will sell parking cheaper.  I've always liked parking near the highway which allows for a quick out but it's a 1/2 mile walk.
• Don't stay in Arlington.   Pick either Fort Worth (nightlife in Sundance Square/Stockyards) or Dallas (Uptown/Deep Ellum/Addison/Lower Greenville for nightlife).  The drive will be ~30 minutes.  
• Baylor is like 2 hours away.   I'd veto it just for the drive.  SMU has a huge tailgating scene (it's called boulevarding) while TCU is probably more interested in the football.   I still haven't been to either for a game.
• Cheapest tickets will probably be 120 for nosebleeds.

Arlington around the stadiums is basically a parking lot. There is plenty. Stay in Dallas. Don't bother with TCU. If you really want to go to a game stay in Dallas and go to SMU game.

I went for the Alabama game there with about a dozen friends a few years ago. Thoughts:

 

• Pretty good nightlife downtown Dallas. If that's important to you then I would get a room in the Pearl Street area.
• We parked at the stadium. It was so hot that we actually bought one of those small square tent things at a local store. Best money we spent.
• We also got a room at the Days Inn across the street from the stadium. None of us actually stayed the night there. It was nice to have a little home base very close by to get out of the heat, watch other games, store beer/food/ice/etc. Also money well spent.
• I think tickets were $175. We sat way up in ther corner. We were so far away that I ended up watching most of the game on the big ass video screen above the field. 

I've been to over 25 Michigan away/neutral site games in my life. I would say that was one of the least enjoyable trips to be honest. Probably a lot had to do with getting our asses kicked. NFL stadiums no matter how nice still really suck from an atmosphere standpoint in my opinion. Unless you want to spend money on decent to good seats, I would rather have watched it at home.

I was planning on going to the Cotton Bowl last weekend and the cheapest parking ticket around the lots were supposed to be about $55. For the Heart of Dallas Bowl that happened before that it was around $20, so it depends on the event.

Note: I went to the last one, live in DFW, and am going to this one.

1. The parking situation is what you'd expect.  90,000 fans leave an event around the same time less than a mile from a major amusement park (Six Flags Over Texas) and also from a MLB stadium with a home game that day... all on a holiday weekend.  It's a bear and expect 1-2 hours to get off the premesis if you drive yourself.  Set reasonable expectations and you'll be fine.  I have not tried Uber/Taxi so I don't know about that.  I have walked from games to nearby hotels (just north of the stadiums) and that's much quicker than any other method.
2. I'm not the nightlife type, but I think Dallas has more of that than Ft Worth.  The drive in shouldn't be a problem... not much different than driving into Ann Arbor from the metro-Detroit area on gameday.  There are about 48 highways here though so things move pretty swiftly until you get to the stadiums in Arlington.
3. Only attended a game at SMU (vs TCU this year) and it was a cool environment.  They have a huge shaded blvd for all the pregame which seemed neat.  Baylor's stadium looks cool from the outside, but sits by itself on the other side of a river from campus so don't expect a nestled-in-campus vibe.  Waco is also a little bit of a hike from DFW, much further than SMU and TCU.  Overall, I'd go with TCU or SMU depending on the matchup and timing.
4. Not sure.  Total guess: $95?

I used to live in Fort Worth and got my Masters from SMU.

Both TCU and SMU have nice campuses and nice stadiums. I think SMU's campus is a little nicer but TCU will have a more exciting game-day experience simply because they have been better over the last several years. SMU often struggles to get their stadium half full. I wouldn't be surprised if those games are at night though since it will still be scorching hot down in North Texas on Labor Day weekend. Something to check out. Baylor will be too far away (about 1.5 hours+) to catch a game on the same day.

I can't speak to downtown Dallas, but Fort Worth's downtown is very nice. It is set up so you can walk to several nice restaurants and some bars as well (I like the Flying Saucer myself). There are some decent downtown hotels as well (I like the Renaissance Worthington).

It should be a good game. My wife is a Florida grad and I would love to go but other vacation options may take priority this year. 

Definitely stay in Fort Worth. Dallas isn't really set up for you to walk around and, frankly, I've never quite gotten the appeal (been here in DFW for over a decade now).

They tend to be night games since it's so hot so you'll probably have to pass on that. Parking wise it all depends on if you want to tail gate - frankly I'd just park in one of the non-Jerry World lots and go hit up Boomer Jacks after the game (to cheers a win or drown your sorrows) while traffic unwinds.

What's the over/under on these threads between now and August? 

How does 13 sound?

Not to be that guy, but how is Michigan football off-topic?  What is the topic then?

 

Parking lots are gigantic.  The baseball stadium is in the same complex.  You can buy passes in advance, but they'll probably be $50 plus.  Traffic was backed up on I-30 around there afterwards, which I assumed was game related.  I may be wrong, but my impression was that there are better stadiums to escape from as well as worse (Fed-Ex in DC for example).

There is a group of hotels (Hilton, Hampton Inn, etc) on the other side of I-30 that you can see in Google maps.  It's about a 45 minute walk from there to the stadium, though supposedly my brother's hotel had a shuttle.  We just walked as it was nice out.  That said, a chunk of the walk was on the breakdown leg of a busy'ish brdige over the freeway and I have no idea what it would be like at night.  FWIW, we didn't see anyone else take the same route we did.  Amenities around there weren't great Bob. We walked back and then over to a small bar to watch the Rose Bowl.

Six Flags is there as well.

Downtown/uptown Dallas is a short drive without traffic, like 25 minutes or so.  Pro tip: Have a sober person in the passenger seat with Google-map skills and a sense of humor.  The freeway system is extensive but spaghetti like and between exit signs changing numbers, weird things like taking I-35E North and exit signs poitning to zebra-striped lanes that end, driving around there at Detroit-like speeds can be challenging.

If you care, Austin is a 3, 3-1/2 hour drive.

I hate this game just because of the name. F that advocare cult.

At the Alabama game, the security lines took FOREVER. Many people missed kick-off. We had to go through a metal detector and they were slower than TSA. It was also 100 degrees so that made it even worse.