Full Disclosure – I am a Cyclone Fan.
Went to my first football game at LHC Bill Snyder Stadium – actually got tickets from friends that are K-State Alumni and huge fans – great people.
Got to Stadium early (what terrible weather) with my brother, his two friends, my pregnant wife, and our 6 and 4 year old (big car). As their appeared to be a very small crowd – my brother went up to the parking attendant and asked if we could park in one of the hundreds of empty spots West of the Stadium for $50. Being a college kid – he/she accepted. We parked as far away from the stadium (we wanted to be close to a porta-potty for our kids) as possible and sat in the car until the 1pm game time. There were literally dozens of open spots around when we walked in. I/we recognized the spots were numbered, but people seemed to be driving around and coordinating their tailgates – so nothing seemed reserved – just numbered. Also, as those of you that went will agree – it was not a big crowd because of the weather.
Game was great – fans there are fantastic – tons of similarities between the look and feel of ISU and K-State from a football experience. Good people – loud fans – but all really nice. The people we sat with were all Wildcats and all really great people.
After the game (as my family and I sat separate from my brother and his crew) – my wife and our two girls went out to the car. We had to wait outside as my brother had the keys and he and his crew were much slower getting to the car. To our surprise - we were met by a very angry woman that said “You shouldn’t park here - this isn't for Cyclone fans (we had an Iowa State Alumni license tag holder) - we pay $1000 dollars to park here - this is our spot, etc.” I apologized as I didn’t know we were in anyone’s spot, and she got in her silver Jeep Rubicon (that was parked in the very next space) and left.
After we stood there for a bit – we recognized our tire was flat. Then we recognized all our tire caps had been taken off. Then we realized there was not a nail or screw in our tire – our tire had been intentionally deflated. Classy.
So – my kids waited out in the cold with my pregnant wife as I tried to find some help with our tire. To be fair – a really nice K-State guy came up and apologized about what had happened to us, had a battery powered air pump, and he filled the tire up. While I wish this guy’s help could offset the impression left from the flat tire – it just can’t.
In the end – when I look back – I can’t help but let this issue impact my otherwise fantastic impression of Kansas State from this game. The utterly classless, thoughtless, and juvenile move of deflating someone’s tire is hard to forget – especially because if it’s impact on my kids and wife. Be mad at me, my brother, etc – that is fine. Be mad at the parking lot attendee that let us in – that is fine. Be mad at yourself for not showing up to a game that was supposed to start at 11:30 until sometime after 1 (we walked in right at kick-off). Deflating someone’s tire is, in a word, “pathetic”. So, to those K-State fans in the Silver Rubicon… congratulations on single handedly taking a positive impact provided by 30,000+ Wildcats and ruining it for some Kansas City Iowa State fans. Despite your stupid move – one of your alumni came up and filled our tire up with air. We drove back to KC – the tire is still fine – but our impression of Manhattan is far more mixed than it would have been otherwise. The only thing you were successful in was making a (pregnant) woman and two little girls really cold after the game – and a lot of other people disgusted. Congratulations.
