In addition to being a football lover and an armchair QB, I like to attend games regularly. I’m on a quest to attend all 31 stadiums (Remember, the Jets and Giants share a home). I’ve recently started going on my Away Game Tour a few years ago, and I have to say I’ve enjoyed all of my experiences so far. This is the first of the many reviews of stadiums that I’ll give. Hopefully this will be helpful to all football fans in their future travels to support their favorite team on the road.

Last week, I travel to the ATL to watch my Ravens lose in the last seconds to the Atlanta Falcons. But my experience was a good one. With a capacity of 71, 228, the location is in downtown Atlanta, convenient to just about any place you want to get to. Midtown is only a few miles away. Tons of hotels, restaurants and the CNN Center are all in arms reach.

Most away fans flocked to two establishments in particular. Stats on Marietta St NW and TacoMac, right near the Dome. If you’re looking to meet up with your team’s fans, these two places seemed to be packed with the visiting fans. I went to both places for a pregame tailgate and I have to say, I was surprised by how many Ravens fans were there.

Buying tickets for the Falcons game were relatively easy. Stub Hub and Ticketmaster had an abundance of tickets that were not overpriced, and it made the trip very friendly for planning an away game trip. Once I got there, I also learned that fans could buy tickets on Groupon, the popular website that offers big discounts for services and events. The stadium was not fully sold out and if you have a strong fan base, it’s not a surprise to see just as many of your team’s fans in the stadium, as I saw last Thursday night. If I had to guess on how many Ravens fans were there, I’d say it was was about 1 Ravens fan to every 4 Falcons fans. The home team has to do better.

The Falcons have a slogan that has really stuck to the fans and the city. It’s a “Rise Up” Campaign, which features Samuel L. Jackson.

I thought it was pretty cool to have a Jackson as a part of it. It excites the fans and gets the stadium going. They play it pretty regularly but it wasn’t annoying, which is how I feel about the Miami Dolphins TD song (I’ll get to that in another review that I’ll write, later on). I actually enjoyed it when it came on. Kudos to the Falcons for picking such a catchy phrase that fans can enjoy and relate.

The musical selection was just okay…. not awful, but not great either. It had its good moments but there some selections that didn’t quite go with the atmosphere. Also, the PA announcer sounded like an announcer from a cheesy, run down strip club. Call me petty or anal, but it was weird. At times instead the offense being called out, I was looking around for Sexy Lola to take a stage.

One thing that I noticed and thought was bizarre, was the arrival time of the Falcons fans. The game was set to start at 8:20, but at game time only half of the stadium was full, mainly with Ravens fans. When I asked about the tardiness of fans, I was told that Atlanta has a tendency to be a “East Coast Hollywood” type of city, and they come fashionably late. The stadium didn’t become fully packed until nearly the end of the 1st quarter, with tons of seats still remaining empty throughout the game. Coming from a city with deep history roots and having a full house 20 mins before kickoff, this was baffling to me, to say the least.

Lastly, I’m not going to say that Falcons fans are fairweather, but I do have to question some folks fandom. When the Ravens scored the go-ahead TD with 1:05 remaining in the 4th quarter, tons of Falcons fans made their way to the exit. One could say that they were trying to beat the crowd and get to their cars, but I say otherwise. Some fans looked defeated and seemed to get out of dodge due to the score. Maybe they didn’t know what I do, that Matt Ryan is playing high quality football and that 1:05 is way too much time to give a good team like Atlanta, who had moved the ball against Baltimore all night. I’m not sure if those same fans ran back to their seats after the Roddy White TD, but I’d be willing to bet they did. C’mon man….. stick around. It’s the NFL. You never know what can happen!

Overall, my experience in Atlanta was a good one. My hotel was in walking distance of the stadium, so I didn’t have to deal with traffic. And for the most part, the fans were nice with the exception of a few (I had a man tell me he wanted to throw me over the balcony), but what fan base doesn’t have bad apples? I’d definitely go back, because of the convenience of purchasing tickets and the friendly cost of the trip.

The Atlanta Falcons and the Georgia Dome get a B- from me. ‘Til next time, Atlanta! It’s been real.