Skipper

Will the VIP/open bar be separated at all from the regular entry? May be splits in our group between drinkers that are going to take advantage of the open bar and those that may only have 1 or 2 pregame.

Definitely underperforming but have played a lot of games. Obviously going to be stretches like this every year and hopefully they will come out of it. Our defense is still garbage and not sure that can be fixed but Otter has looked like a below average goalie his last several starts. I sit close to the goal visitors shoot 2X and body language after he was letting in goals on Saturday sucked. Didn't seem like he gave a shit but could say the same for the entire team. Almost like they all went on a long road trip, went out Friday night and came to work hungover.

What time is the party getting started? And what would be the open bar window?

It's gotten mixed reviews on here but I've had 2 (out of 2) great lunches at Luke. That is one of my 12/31 dinner reservations. I'm still hoping by a miracle Commander's or something else I had on notify (Herbsaint I think) pops up but if it doesn't I won't hesitate going there. Have not been to the other 2. FYI - we have a couple of reservations 1/1 for St. John we may be cancelling. Going to talk to them this week and see if they are able to accommodate but I think we may have more people coming than seats. I had brunch there previously (based on a rec in this thread) and it was great. We separately have Arnaud 1/1 and I know they have room for us - I just have not eaten there and have heard mixed reviews.

Took my kid to the game yesterday. I'm glad he still had fun just being there because that was an absolute dogshit performance. Just pathetic across the board to show up and play like that in a big game.

Never walked in a second line have you?

I love a Bourbon St. bar crawl pregame (did this for 03 final four and last sugar bowl) but may try to squeeze this in as well. Looks great. I know some friends I'll be meeting up with are making the sad choice of bringing their kids to NOLA. Will minors be allowed entry (presumably via the $100 ticket?). Appreciate the effort getting this set up and everything else you do for NIL.

This. I like my seats and like having them. But living in Dallas with young kids I can't make half the games and have generally lost my ass selling tix over the last decade when I can't make it. That may change next year with a better home schedule, but even this year with a top 10 team, I had no takers on here for BYU well below face (35YL seats) and ended up selling on seatgeak night before game netting like $60 each or something. To be clear, I didn't get Sugar Bowl tix (i donate my extra $$ to Texas One, not to the fucking LHF seating consequences be damned) but there is going to be a lot of bitching when foundation members list these seats in a week or so. The flip side of that is every person listing seats has also generally lost their ass on resale because we have pretty big fair weather fan base. So I personally don't begrudge any foundation member trying to make a profit. If I would have gotten seats, i absolutely would have tried to flip them for some profit and roll that into offsetting price of better seats on the secondary market.

That's what's screwed up in this entire thing. The cutoff was so high that you will end up having a lot of high net worth donors get shitty seats from the UT allotment. They will have the means and desire to pay substantially more for better seats. So those tix will just end up on the secondary market to be purchased at a markup by smaller donors that just want to get in the stadium. Obviously the biggest issue here is the allotment. It's an absolute joke that the schools are only getting a combined 26,000 seats with 50K+ going to sponsors or otherwise to the "public" (i.e., purchased by large brokers) over the summer. Beyond ridiculous. Schools absolutely should get a larger allotment with significantly more premium seats included.

I don't think the whole Sexton thing Liucci is talking about is that uncommon but also don't think it's the way Liucci is framing it (i.e., Jimbo was that lazy). No coach is just letting Sexton make hires. But I think if a coach is potentially looking to make a move up or out, that word gets to Sexton who then feeds it to HC's needing to make hires. I think this is moreso at the coordinator level where Sexton can act as a conduit. Particularly when he is almost inevitably repping both sides.

I mean you can't help them trying to fund raise off of this. These years are few and far between. It's just damn shame we couldn't get Texas One Fund donations treated the same as LHF donations as we all thought would be the case. Even though that could end up screwing me on tickets this year, I'll still give bare minimum to LHF and the rest to Texas One Fund. Winning is more important. Hopefully that change gets pushed through in the future.

Might be same guy I'm thinking of that runs a brokerage. Can't remember if I knew him from Shaggy or through someone IRL. It all blurs.

Absolutely. Schools are getting a cut. Also, I have zero doubt that the large volume brokers aren't paying anywhere remotely close to the percentage fee you and I pay when we sell tickets. It's all absolutely rigged against the consumer. Including full blown collusion among the large ticket brokers that hold a big chunk of inventory when setting prices (i.e., there was absolutely zero reason for the Big 12 market to stay as high as it did for as long as it did with the massive amount of inventory available but for ticket brokers colluding to maintain prices high until later in day Friday to take advantage of anxious fans not wanting to leave for Dallas without tickets). I wish Patrick Ryan still posted on this site to provide insight but given he's in the business I'm sure he's involved with the same shitty practices trying to maximize profit. It's all bullshit. Was such a better system just haggling outside the stadium back in the day. That was a real "market" instead of the rigged system we have now.

You can't beat Acme or Felix for casual. Across the street from each other and no reservations. Just gauge the line and get in when it doesn't look bad. Both are great. I had a quick pregame meal at the bar at Felix right before making the walk to Superdome last time we were in Sugar Bowl and will probably do the same. Bourbon Street itself will be phenomenal on gameday. It will be packed with fans in town for the game so not the typical scene. Two of my favorite pre-game afternoon drinking days were '03 Final Four and '19 Sugar Bowl. Just a great, unique scene. As for classier bars, we always stay at the Monteleone (and doing so again) and will spend a lot of time in the Carousel bar there. It's great regardless whether you luck into an actual "seat" on the carousel. Also, take your wife over to Roosevelt Hotel to check out the Christmas decorations (they go way over the top and pretty impressive) and grab a drink at the Sazerac Bar. I bet we try to grab a pre-dinner drink there on NYE.

Here is the coaching history of these guys. OL guy may be a decent coach but has been a midwest guy his entire career. DB guy has been a position coach a grand total of 3 seasons (2 at DB). Cushing: 2022-pres. – Duke (Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line) 2019-21 – Eastern Illinois (Head Coach) 2012-18 – Northwestern (Offensive Line) 2009-11 – Northwestern (Offensive Line/Recruiting Coordinator) 2008 – Northwestern (Superbacks/Recruiting Coordinator) 2005-07 – Northwestern (Tight Ends/H-Backs) 2004 – Northwestern (Graduate Assistant/Offensive Line) 2003 – La Verne (Offensive Line) 2002 – La Verne (Tight Ends) Ishmael Aristide 2022-pres. – Duke (Cornerbacks) 2021 – Miami (Strikers/Outside Linebackers) 2019-20 – Texas A&M (Senior Defensive Analyst/Secondary Assistant) 2017-18 – Ole Miss (Senior Defensive Analyst/Secondary Assistant) 2016 – Auburn (Graduate Assistant/Defense)

Not naming any names here, but seems like it could be bad timing for any school out there that still has $75MM+ committed to a former coach.

This. I know multiple people that have the means but did not attend a single game this season (including 2 games local in Dallas) indicating they will go to championship game.

Dude had to know the boo's would be coming. Seemed like he basically thought he could take the high road (without offering an apology) and it would play out ok with the fans. Haha that stadium was having none of it. As others mentioned, you could barely make out anything he said the boo's and SEC chants were so loud. I've never seen anything like it. It was phenomenal

Yeah, 12/31 was pretty booked. I have a Luke and a Peche. I know Luke hasn't gotten high marks on this thread but I've 2 fantastic meals there and can't go wrong with Peche. Not sure which we will end up at. But trying to plan a larger 1/1 Brunch. Last time we had a big table at Mr B's which worked well but they are booked up for anything other than small tops. Has anyone done Arnaud's brunch? I have not. But we currently have like 3 tables of 8 booked. Not sure I love the "fancy" dining room aspect of it as not sure anyone is going to want to dress up, even a little, on gameday. May need to talk to them about that.

I had hotel, flights, restaurants booked for NOLA already. Willed that shit into existence.

Here we go. Good luck all.

Put us both in. Iowa is embarrassed by this offensive performance.

The Big 10 game has more fireworks than this.

Where is Greenspoint? That's ballgame

I have a side TV in the bar for a reason. I guess worth putting it on? Big 10 football. The worst.