Mestalla Part 1

Today I woke up to cold an rainy climate, a recipe for a uphill both ways in the snow sort of walk to school. Luckily it wasn't raining that hard but the internal battle of waking up on a rainy day is always the toughest. Cold and rainy is the absolute hardest battle. The distance walking from the dorm here to school is actually about the same length from my house in Athens to the Student Learning Center (I refuse to call it the MLC youngins'). On days like today I wake up and am presented with the question, walk freezing cold while getting soaked or stay warm, dry and completely comfortable until I have gotten suitable sleep. You can't tell me you haven't been through the same. Luckily for me, I happen to be in Spain and it is always the breaking point for my argument against myself. (You're correct mom, I do go to class.)

Today's excursion was the Mestalla (it's ok, I didn't know what it was either before I came here). Valencia has a futbol (Soccer for you westerners) team and their stadium is called the Mestalla. For 5 euro we were able to take a tour of the entire place. The most notable parts were the locker room and the club level seats. There is a place where you and nine other fans are able to be served by a Marriott chef while in an air conditioned (rare in Spain) room, with a built in radio, TV and minibar. The room costs 5000 Euro a game. Since the dollar is so strong these days it's around 7000 American Dollars for a soccer game (futbol, excuse me). The second part I thought was most interesting was the Valencian locker room. Unlike what you might think for most home locker rooms at a stadium that seats 50,000+ fans it's barren. Wooden benches, plastic name tags, metal shelves and white concrete walls adorn the locker room. The idea behind it is the coaches want the players mind absolutely focused on the game before them rather than staying comfortable before and after the game. (Mark Richt, I hope you're taking notes after your sloppy recruitment this year). Valencia is a good team, so I can only assume its a worthwhile thought.

I've called it part one because luckily for us, there is a game this weekend! For the low price of 20 Euro (America, it's the money that looks like they stole from a Monopoly box but ironically the dollar is about as useful here as monopoly money!) We are able to see the game Saturday (Altitude 'schmaltitude). Our tour ticket got us 10% off in the store so I was able to score some swag (If you aint legit before a game, don't bother coming.) (some of you might need a translation for swag, it means apparel or clothing). Pictures from the day (Field, Press room, Prayer room (We go ahead and call some of our football plays hail mary's to kill two birds with one stone) :