Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Running around the field in the Metrodome
I vended at the Metrodome from 1984 to 1991. The events I worked there were mostly Twins and Vikings games, but there were some Gopher football games, and some tractor pulls. One time I sold beer at the Bob Dylan/Tom Petty/Grateful Dead show. Vendors are a funny group of people, mostly men, aged 16-60, mostly sports fans, mostly guys that hustle. Vendors are paid by commission only, you don't selll, you don't get paid. You sell a lot, you get a lot of money. I made it through college on the money I got from vending at the Metrodome and being a parking attendant.
One of the perks of vending is you get to get into the stadium before any fans are there. It is an endless sea of blue seats. There might be players on the field and there might be workers around doing things, but vendors don't really have anything to do before the fans show up, so they mill around. It is kind of the same after the game. Vendors hang around picking up "dome cups" colorful plastic cups with player's faces on them. Collect them all. Once a couple of us vendors had a football, and thought after the game it would be fun to run around on the field. We checked out, got our street clothes on, then went back up and down the stairs and ran out onto the field. Two of us lined up for a 20 yard field goal while the third one waited in the stands to catch the ball. I kicked it and it was good. Then there was some roughhousing and running around pretending to be a Viking. The turf is spongier than I would have thought, at least it was in 1989. Eventually a security guard saw us. He started down the steps toward the field saying, "Hey Hey Hey, you guys can't be on the field. Come on now, everybody off the field." The security guards are almost like school teachers at the Metrodome. They have very little clout and aren't respected very much. I remember being totally unafraid of anything those guards could do or say to me. If it had been cops, that's a totally different story. So we ran around a little more and then got off the field. It is a pretty fun memory.
One of the perks of vending is you get to get into the stadium before any fans are there. It is an endless sea of blue seats. There might be players on the field and there might be workers around doing things, but vendors don't really have anything to do before the fans show up, so they mill around. It is kind of the same after the game. Vendors hang around picking up "dome cups" colorful plastic cups with player's faces on them. Collect them all. Once a couple of us vendors had a football, and thought after the game it would be fun to run around on the field. We checked out, got our street clothes on, then went back up and down the stairs and ran out onto the field. Two of us lined up for a 20 yard field goal while the third one waited in the stands to catch the ball. I kicked it and it was good. Then there was some roughhousing and running around pretending to be a Viking. The turf is spongier than I would have thought, at least it was in 1989. Eventually a security guard saw us. He started down the steps toward the field saying, "Hey Hey Hey, you guys can't be on the field. Come on now, everybody off the field." The security guards are almost like school teachers at the Metrodome. They have very little clout and aren't respected very much. I remember being totally unafraid of anything those guards could do or say to me. If it had been cops, that's a totally different story. So we ran around a little more and then got off the field. It is a pretty fun memory.
# posted by Mike @ 9:22 AM 
