FanPost

Family Fun Day- One last perspective

The topic has been ably covered but I thought I would go ahead and add my 2 cents and give a more general overview of the experience for people who haven't made it the past couple of years and might consider attending in the future.

Full disclosure, I was with my 15 year old nephew and step-dad so we might not have been the target audience for any of this but I still feel like I can give a competent overview of what was available to families and how well suited the event was for them.

Getting There

Its a quick drive up from KC with a sign on the highway that tells you where to exit and the campus is located just off the exit so there is nothing to fret about. We were a little concerned that we weren't headed the right way because I expected to be following a long line of cars in as we were arriving close to the start of practice.

The signs direct you to a road that circles around the campus and there were multiple empty parking lots and my assumption was that either this was not going to very well attended or there must be some huge lot close to the stadium. Turned out to be the former.

We were able to park very close to the stadium (which is adjacent to the normal pair of practice fields. We paid our $12 (which in hindsight might be a little steep for what you get) and headed in.

The Layout

The camp's layout is not the most convenient to get around but everything is in relatively close proximity. The restrooms, refreshment tents and Chief's store are all located on the opposite side of the stadium and depending on what time you arrived, you may find your access around the north side of the field blocked. This definitely came into play when it came time for autographs but I'll talk about that later.

There was also a kind of kid's "NFL experience" area set up on the hill north of the field where it looks like kids could run around some inflatable obstacle courses and such however the day was blistering hot and no one wanted to be climbing on the red vinyl inflatables or expending any more energy than was absolutely necessary in that heat. The Stadium is unforunately positioned to offer no shade whatsoever at any time of the day.

You do have the option to have it beating down on your back or sit on the visitor side (which is maybe 5-10 yards closer to the field) and face into the sun. They sell typical stadium food minus beer at slightly better than traditional stadium prices.

The gear in the Chief's store was as expensive as you would expect but they did have some unique "training camp" gear that you might not find elsewhere

Autographs

The players trickled out of the locker rooms and indoor facility and made their way down the steep hill towards the field in 1's and 2's. Many of them had their jerseys up around their chests so you couldn't see numbers and you would be surprised at how few Chief's players you actually recognize with their # or name not apparent. I was holding my breath waiting for the big cheer to errupt when they appeared (I pictured something like how they run onto the field for a game) and you could sense a kind of tension in the crowd as players started to make there way down the hill.

There were a few fleeting moments where I entertained the idea that maybe I should shout "GO CHIEFS" or something but I second guessed myself and the moment passed and since no one else did, the players slowly paraded by us without anyone yelling names, shouting encouragement or asking for autographs. It was definitely awkward. It wasn't until almost all the players had passed that someone shouted for Thomas Jones and he immediately walked over and signed some autographs for a minute or two.

The players then met on the field for a moment and then dispersed to the 4 corners of the field to sign autographs. You were basically stuck with whomever came to your area as the crowd was small but more than adequate to keep the players occupied, particularly the better known ones. This is where that roped off area really had an effect. I was on the wrong side of the pathway from the lockers to the field and Hali was on the other side and I had a picture for him to sign and the only way to get to him was to make the trip all the way around the outskirts of the stadium and there was no way to tell how much longer they would go for. I felt bad for some fans as I saw a corner of almost all unknown players.

I made it a point to zero in on Hali at the end of practice so I could head to whatever corner he went to however the fans were dissappointed to see that none of the Chiefs were stopping for autographs at the end of practice. I thought there would be a repeat of the beginning or perhaps everyone would shift around but the players filed by the fans, oblivious to people shouting their names as they headed back up the hill at the end of practice. All told, they signed autographs for maybe 15 to 20 minutes.

The day wasn't particularly well attended compared to what I saw in pictures last year. The stadium had maybe 1/10th of what it had last year and bulk of these people left after the autographs and a few minutes of practice. By the end of the day there were maybe a few hundred people left.

Practice

As has been said elsewhere and better, there was a period of individual then team drills and eventually a kind of light situational scrimmage. I definitely enjoyed the period of drills more than the scrimmage. Watching the linemen go 1 on 1 and the WR's and DB's do the same, was probably my favorite part. The sessions are brief though so if you blink, you might have missed the one time Bowe and Flowers were paired up.

The players went in wearing full pads but it made little difference as there was very little hitting. They switched to "shells" about midway through practice and never went back. Mitch Holthus was up in the press boxes narrating practices over the PA which was a great benefit. He would call out who just beat who on a pass, or the down and distance situaations in the pseudo-scrimmage. He also gave the most dissappointing half hearted "Touchdown Kan-sas-City" I've ever heard at one point.

During the scrimmage they just wrapped up players so it was hard to determine how well either team were doing and the defenders didn't so much as touch the QB's so a lot of times I felt like a play would have been a sack but Haley had them move the chains like it was a complete. It was also hard to gauge the coverage because Flowers got reprimanded the one time he made any sort of hit on a WR and Haley yelled "let them catch the ball first!" so any completion had to be taken with a grain of salt.

They give you a handbook with players organized by name and then again by number which is great because there are some slower parts of watching practice where its just fun to try and figure out who is who and try and spot certain players. All in all, even without a true scrimmage, it was entertaining but you probably would have seen a similar practice on most other days.

Conclusion

Depending on the weather, it's still a good event but I have to say it was a bit dissappointing. There didn't seem to be much effort to support the event from the Chiefs. Announcements regarding family fun day schedule were no where to be found leading up to it and the evening news on Friday didn't say a word about it (which really surprised me). Given the choice, I'd rather take my kids to an evening practice. You will probably see the same thing, not be miserably uncomfortable and probably have better luck with autographs.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Arrowhead Pride's writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Arrowhead Pride writers or editors.