The View from the Press Box

Went to the University of South Alabama football game on Saturday. The game against Nicholls State was unremarkable (USA won 9-3), but I got to watch the game as a guest up in the press box. Since most people don't get to do that – it was my first time – I'll describe what it was like.

First of all, the press box is a work area. There are all sorts of football writers with their binoculars and laptops reporting on the game. There are signs up requesting that you please be quiet and that you will be removed from the box if you are not. It was quiet up there, but not completely silent. People did carry on hushed conversations with their neighbors.

The view from the press box is identical to the view you are used to seeing on TV (and the luxury boxes, if you're lucky enough to get an invitation to one of them): high up side view of the action. From the standpoint of actually watching the game, they are certainly the best seats in the house. I am partial to the behind-the-quarterback view of video games, but this wasn't a video game, so the press box is the next best thing.

Physically, it was quite comfortable, but not luxurious. Certainly it was enclosed and air-conditioned, and the chairs were standard cubicle-style armchairs. Free food and drinks were provided, but it was standard catered fare – baked chicken, macaroni and cheese, iced tea and soft drinks. To our left was the official instant replay booth. It had mirror glass around it so we couldn't see in. To our left was the ESPN booth. It had standard glass, so we could watch the crew performing their broadcast for ESPN3. They worked hard.

This was a working press box, so one of the best things was all the information available to you.

There was an announcer who would assist in player identification by announcing players involved in each play: who took the hand-off, whom the pass was to, who made the tackle, etc. This takes a lot of pressure off the reporters, allowing them to concentrate on their writing. Occasionally the announcer would make a mistake, and a reporter would call out the correction, but the announcer was the only significant noise in the booth.

The printed material was my favorite part. Besides the 100-page full-color game program any fan can buy, they provided a press kit at every workstation with all sorts of background: team and player histories; human interest stories (which two players were roommates at such-and-such community college); lists of players, where they're from, etc.; sheets with depth charts at every position; and so on. My personal favorite was a couple of pages with what must have been every obscure fact you can imagine – several hundred in all. When was the last time a South Alabama player ran for 100 yards in two consecutive games? When was the last time South Alabama held an opposing team scoreless in the first half? When was the last time an opposing player recorded two interceptions in the same game? When was the last time South Alabama returned a fumble for a touchdown? Etc. and ad infinitum. Most of the facts won't be used, but just in case a player scores five touchdowns today, you'll be able to say, "And that hasn't happened since…."

In addition to the preprinted stats, new printouts came throughout the game. Periodically, someone would come by and distribute updated stat sheets and play-by-play listings for the game in progress. And for those of you wanting to update your readers on other games occurring at the same time, there was also a sheet distributed periodically that had scores of the other games in progress. There were probably about 40 games that overlapped at some point with our game, though the sheet also had the scores of games already completed that might have any relevance at all (top 25, Sun Belt Conference, SEC, and other teams in the region).

I really enjoyed the game from the press box. Although the environment was subdued (at one point I unthinkingly called out "Yes!" after something good happened on the field, and then felt embarrassed because I was the only one who had made a sound), it was an excellent vantage point from which to see the whole game. As a youth football coach, I sometimes regret the view I get from the sidelines of the field: I really can't see what's going on from so low down.