Originally Posted by Marcellus: :-) I don't see a downside to that.
WTF would they play at this stadium if its that jacked up?
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With the Patriots playing against the Oakland Raiders in Mexico on Sunday, and the Houston Texans having played the Raiders in Mexico last season, I reached out to Texans coach Bill O'Brien to ask what were the most unusual challenges of the experience. He noted how the Texans rotated their offensive and defensive linemen in last year's game, which was a consideration made with both altitude (7,382 feet above sea level) and air quality in mind. O'Brien referred to it as a "smoky type of air."
As for the Estadio Azteca itself, O'Brien described it as a "great atmosphere" and said the Raiders' following clearly made it a home game for them, which he would expect to be the case this season, as well. One unique aspect of the stadium is the long walk through part of the stands that the visiting team (which the Patriots will be Sunday) must take to the locker room at halftime.
"It's almost like straight up the side of the mountain to get through the stands -- it's up and around -- and almost takes you three to four minutes," he said. "By the time you get up, you need to sit down because you're out of breath, unless you're in phenomenal shape.
"So it was a definite thought at halftime to maybe just stay on the field. I don't think the NFL would allow that, but it would have been sort of like high school, just go over and suck on some oranges and make those halftime adjustments."
O'Brien said the long walk to the locker room "is kind of a factor" to consider this season because the NFL has been especially strict on teams being back on the field in time, before the 12-minute halftime is over, part of the emphasis of quicker games.
As for what it's like walking through the stands, he said, "There are guardrails, but you're going through the stands to get up there initially. There's no doubt about that."
Originally Posted by Marcellus:
Thanks for the info, that's just plain stupid.
The NFL reminds me of the old saying, pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.
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“It’s kind of like the locker rooms are structures built in the parking lot, and the parking lot is above the stadium,” Rothman said. “The Chiefs, their locker room literally is up in a parking lot. They open a door, they walk down two tunnels, they walk through the stands, through the crowd, across a moat and onto the field.”
Wait ... a moat?
“A moat,” Rothman said, “minus the water and alligators. But there is a moat.”
The distance from the locker rooms to the field will mean a longer halftime at Azteca Stadium, which has a capacity of 87,523.
“Halftime which is normally 12 minutes in the NFL is 19 minutes to account for the time it takes to get up there and the time it takes to get back,” Rothman said. “There’s oxygen tanks in the locker room from the climb up from the field, up to the top, so all of those things are different. There’s wire fence around the field from the soccer games so things are just different. And it’s just unique. But it’s really cool, it’s very different.”
