Gillette Stadium

i actually like gillette stadium itself-  as an entertainment/sports complex.  BUT-  they are home to the pats, and the place is completely inaccessible-  basically one way in, one way out-  so to come here for a game is a very, very, very poor decision-  unless you want to commit to a 15 hour day.  This is a very special review tho-  one ive been waiting a long time to write!!  This week-  the nfl has FINALLY done away with the ABSURD tuck rule!!!!!-  yes the bullshit rule that provided the pats with a FALSE victory over the entire suite of playoff teams that year, including the ripped off rams!!!!  Look-  the pats didnt win the game against the raiders; tom brady fumbled the ball.  They also beat the steelers and rams through cheating, everyone knows that.  so their super bowl "victory" is invalid-  no question.  This rule change completely supports that!!!  What a great week!  Probably not enuff of a consolation to the poor raiders, steelers and rams, but at least its an acknowledgement of a total wrongdoing & invalid results.  The league-  as annoying as it is sumtimes-  changes rules when the rules arent fair, arent working, or are absurd, etc.-  so they clearly got this one right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hate going here, mainly because I'm a Ravens fans, which means I have to deal with the unfriendly Pats fans. Still, I can't knock the stadium. I've sat in the lower level and in the 200 mezzanine section and was happy with both experiences.

I can't understand for the life of me why they have so many 'non-alcoholic' sections, much less why the have non-alcoholic sections in the first place. For what it's worth, I found tickets to be a little cheaper in these sections, and several people around me were drinking anyway.

Another thing I noticed was how many seats they could be filling, but aren't filling because of the giant pillar/players' entrance at one end of the stadium. That empty section would make for lots of good seats in the corner end zone. Instead, Gillette Stadium can only pack in a little under 70,000 fans, and is losing out on a lot of money as a result.

I'd like this place a lot better if it were an enclosed dome and I didn't have to suffer through zero-degree-with-win-chill temps when we went for the last game of the season. My lord does it get cold. So cold that our beers were freezing. The plus side though is that your beer never gets warm and you feel  great pressure to drink it quickly.

Speaking of beer, I appreciated that they had Sam Adams Baltic Porter and a number of regional microbrewery offerings on tap around the stadium, although you have to hunt them down and will pay an arm and a leg for whatever you drink. Oh well, at least I didn't pay for my tickets.

The food options are pretty good compared to some of the stadiums I've been to; I'd recommend the chicken wings and the pulled pork sandwich. But good luck enjoying them when it's freezing out.

Overall, it's a cool stadium and it's cool to see people throwing up snow after a score when the seats are full of said precipitation, but the prices for admission and for food and drink, along with the ridiculous crowds/lines at the booths and in the bathrooms make this stadium the type of place you only want to (or can only afford to) visit once a decade.

Oh, and the parking situation is absurd. My advice, park far, far away at someone's house and walk that long walk, otherwise, you'll spend an eternity stuck in traffic.