Official Beginner's Guide to Griz Game Day Experience

[grizfan95]

Throughout my time on this board I have regularly seen a new topic posted each fall where a visiting fan (or a Griz fan having not attended a game prior or for some time) posts on the board asking for advice. Instead of rehashing this over and over, I have looked through all prior posts and condensed the best suggestions into this one post.

Hopefully, in the future, we can then just direct people to this thread. Feel free to add your own suggestions, but this way, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time for a new thread as we can just direct people to this one.

Here it goes.

Tickets

Tickets can be purchased through the following avenues:

1. eGriz has a forum for tickets. Post in here asking for tickets or look to see if someone has already posted available tickets: http://www.egriz.com/grizboard/viewforum.php?f=11

2. Missoula Craigslist: https://missoula.craigslist.org/search/ ... &sort=rel

3. GoGriz.com/AdamsCenter/UM Ticket Office: Individual tickets are available mid to late July. Visit https://www.umt.edu/griztix/events-tick ... office.php for more info or call (406) 243-4051

4. Scalp. There is always a surplus of people trying to sell their tickets at the game and unless it’s a really big one (NDSU/App State/Cat-Griz level) you should easily be able to get tickets.

***For visiting fans: most visiting fans are usually located in the north portion of the west stands or the south endzone. If you want a milder experience, the south endzone is it. There is not a bad seat in the house, but the loudest and most passionate part of the stadium is in the north endzone.


Hotels

There are a number of hotels throughout town, but they fill up quickly (months in advance usually).

Highly recommend something downtown or on Broadway Street (the portion east of Russell Street) so that you can hit up the downtown restaurants, breweries, and bars on foot and walk to the game.


Bars

1. Press Box: an absolute must on game day, either before or after the game. It is located a 5-minute walk from the stadium across the footbridge. http://www.pressboxsportsbar.org/Pages/ ... ?DeptID=0

2. Reds and the Mo Club: two sports bars in downtown Missoula separated by less than a block. They are packed with Griz memorabilia. Wear your gear too (if you're an opposing fan, you shouldn’t have to buy a drink at these places if Griz fans do you right). The Mo Club is famous for its greasy “Mo Club Burger." https://www.facebook.com/redsbar/ and https://www.facebook.com/missoulaclub/?ref=py_c

3. There are dozens of others that vary in degree of niceness and style for food, drink and atmosphere (https://www.google.com/search?q=missoul ... 1,lf_ui:9 ) but the three listed in items 1 and 2 are must-stops for a Griz game.

4. There are also a number of breweries in Missoula that should be checked out as well. Kettlehouse and Tamarack are great first stops and the Tamarack has a good selection of food to go along with craft beer.


Restaurants

A simple Google search will show you a number of restaurants in downtown Missoula that are pretty difficult to go wrong by. However, Lolo Steakhouse just outside of Missoula is excellent if you want to try to have a Montana experience not downtown: http://www.lolocreeksteakhouse.com/Welcome


Montana Experiences

1. If you have the time, go to Glacier National Park in the early part of the football season (2.5 hour drive each way) and do the Going to the Sun drive. You will never forget it for the rest of your life.

2. Connect with a guide (if needed) and do some fly fishing.

3. Hike the "M" on Mount Sentinel, whose trailhead is a couple hundred yards from the football stadium, where you can overlook all of the Missoula valley. It's a 3/4 mile walk/hike. Best done during the morning or late evening.

4. If you have kids, downtown Missoula has a nice carousel. http://www.carouselformissoula.com/


Game Day Musts

1. Walk across the footbridge towards the tailgate area to get to the game, it’s a unique sight for college football. If downtown, walk along the Clark Fork river path and it will lead you to the footbridge.

***A number of bars and restaurants, Mo Club and Reds come to mind, offer shuttles to and from the game.

2. Get to the tailgating area 1.5-2 hours before kickoff. Grizzly tailgating is something that shouldn’t be missed and if you walk around there are plenty of people who would be happy to bring you into their tailgate. While walking through the tailgates, be sure to do a full loop around the whole stadium as each tailgating section has their own styles. Also in doing so, check out the Champions Center on the south portion of the stadium, which is home to a $14 million, 51,000 square foot facility, providing Grizzly student-athletes one of the premiere training and locker facilities in the nation. It also includes a state-of-the-art Athletic Performance Center, nutrition/refueling station, and five team meeting rooms for the use of all student-athletes. Finally, it houses a 7,100 square foot football locker room with 118 lockers, and a professional athlete/coaches locker room. A video tour can be found here: https://youtu.be/5TklPbmQ5mw

3. A couple of hours before kickoff, the football team does a Griz walk as they head to the locker room. If you’ve never done it, it would be worth seeing once. Here’s some info from the 2015 Griz walk: http://www.gogriz.com/news/2015/8/26/FB ... =football

4. When you get to the Champions Center on the south portion of the stadium, a couple hundred yards south of that is the University Center (the student union building) where the UC Bookstore can be found. Inside is all the Griz gear (hats, shirts, jackets, jerseys, memorabilia, etc.) a fan needs. https://montanabookstore.bncollege.com/ ... store/home

*Additionally, there is another Griz store located downtown, called the M Store, which is a nice supplement to the UC Bookstore. https://www.facebook.com/themstoremt/

5. If you're at the UC, go just 100 yards southwest of that and you'll find yourself on the oval (one of the most picturesque parts of campus https://news.umt.edu/2016/10/Fall-Photo ... campus.jpg) that contains a bronze grizzly statue (http://www.umt.edu/vpic/images/bear-statue.jpg). There's a reason UM's campus has historically been rated as one of the most scenic in the nation. Also, around Halloween, an anonymous student will climb and place a pumpkin on the top spire of Main Hall.

6. While walking around the stadium or attending the Griz walk, check out our athletic hall of fame. There are two entrances but the easiest is just to the south of the Adams Center (basketball arena) entrance. If you simply ask someone they will point you in the right direction.

In it, you will see prior team and individual trophies/awards, pictures of inducted teams/players, newspaper clips, and jerseys of some of our athletes that went professional. There is also a pretty nice exhibit from when Monte won National Mascot of Year.

7. Head to your seats at least 30 minutes before kickoff. Starting in 2019, only clear bags will be allowed into the game, so account for that. For more information on this, click here: https://gogriz.com/news/2019/8/9/footba ... adium.aspx

Lines can be congested and there is some pre-game stuff that starts 20 minutes before kickoff (there have been skydivers, fly overs, fireworks, etc., in the past) that you won’t want to miss.

[HookedonGriz]

Great post. Maybe Chris can make it a "sticky" (permanent) thread

[first11]

Nice job on "Guide"

Indeed, our game day experience is a show and holds its own in all college football.

An opportunity for Missoula and UM to provide unique experience for fall weekends!!

[griz71]

Throughout my time on this board I have regularly seen a new topic posted each fall where a visiting fan (or a Griz fan having not attended a game prior or for some time) posts on the board asking for advice. Instead of rehashing this over and over, I have looked through all prior posts and condensed the best suggestions into this one post.

Hopefully, in the future, we can then just direct people to this thread. Feel free to add your own suggestions, but this way, we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time for a new thread as we can just direct people to this one.

Here it goes.

Tickets

Tickets can be purchased through the following avenues:

1. eGriz has a forum for tickets. Post in here asking for tickets or look to see if someone has already posted available tickets: http://www.egriz.com/grizboard/viewforum.php?f=11

2. Missoula Craigslist: https://missoula.craigslist.org/search/ ... &sort=rel

3. GoGriz.com/AdamsCenter/UM Ticket Office: Individual tickets are available mid to late July. Visit https://www.umt.edu/griztix/events-tick ... office.php for more info or call (406) 243-4051

4. Scalp. There is always a surplus of people trying to sell their tickets at the game and unless it’s a really big one (NDSU/App State/Cat-Griz level) you should easily be able to get tickets.

***For visiting fans: most visiting fans are usually located in the north portion of the west stands or the south endzone. If you want a milder experience, the south endzone is it. There is not a bad seat in the house, but the loudest and most passionate part of the stadium is in the north endzone.


Hotels

There are a number of hotels throughout town, but they fill up quickly (months in advance usually).

Highly recommend something downtown or on Broadway Street (the portion east of Russell Street) so that you can hit up the downtown restaurants, breweries, and bars on foot and walk to the game.


Bars

1. Press Box: an absolute must on game day, either before or after the game. It is located a 5-minute walk from the stadium across the footbridge. http://www.pressboxsportsbar.org/Pages/ ... ?DeptID=0

2. Reds and the Mo Club: two sports bars in downtown Missoula separated by less than a block. They are packed with Griz memorabilia. Wear your gear too (if you're an opposing fan, you shouldn’t have to buy a drink at these places if Griz fans do you right). The Mo Club is famous for its greasy “Mo Club Burger." http://redsbar.net/ and https://www.facebook.com/missoulaclub/?ref=py_c

3. There are dozens of others that vary in degree of niceness and style for food, drink and atmosphere (https://www.google.com/search?q=missoul ... 1,lf_ui:9 ) but the three listed in items 1 and 2 are must-stops for a Griz game.

4. There are also a number of breweries in Missoula that should be checked out as well. Kettlehouse and Tamarack are great first stops and the Tamarack has a good selection of food to go along with craft beer.


Restaurants

A simple Google search will show you a number of restaurants in downtown Missoula that are pretty difficult to go wrong by. However, Lolo Steakhouse just outside of Missoula is excellent if you want to try to have a Montana experience not downtown: http://www.lolocreeksteakhouse.com/Welcome


Montana Experiences

1. If you have the time, go to Glacier National Park in the early part of the football season (2.5 hour drive each way) and do the Going to the Sun drive. You will never forget it for the rest of your life.

2. Connect with a guide (if needed) and do some fly fishing.

3. Hike the "M" on Mount Sentinel, whose trailhead is a couple hundred yards from the football stadium, where you can overlook all of the Missoula valley. It's a 3/4 mile walk/hike. Best done during the morning or late evening.

4. If you have kids, downtown Missoula has a nice carousel. http://www.carouselformissoula.com/


Game Day Musts

1. Walk across the footbridge towards the tailgate area to get to the game, it’s a unique sight for college football. If downtown, walk along the Clark Fork river path and it will lead you to the footbridge.

***A number of bars and restaurants, Mo Club and Reds come to mind, offer shuttles to and from the game.

2. Get to the tailgating area 1.5-2 hours before kickoff. Grizzly tailgating is something that shouldn’t be missed and if you walk around there are plenty of people who would be happy to bring you into their tailgate. While walking through the tailgates, be sure to do a full loop around the whole stadium as each tailgating section has their own styles. Also in doing so, check out the Champions Center on the south portion of the stadium, which is set to be complete by October 2017.

3. A couple of hours before kickoff, the football team does a Griz walk as they head to the locker room. If you’ve never done it, it would be worth seeing once. Here’s some info from the 2015 Griz walk: http://www.gogriz.com/news/2015/8/26/FB ... =football

4. Head to your seats 30 minutes before kickoff. Lines can be congested and there is some pre-game stuff that starts 20 minutes before kickoff (there have been skydivers, fly overs, fireworks, etc., in the past) that you won’t want to miss.

Great job!

[The_Real_Chief]

This is all accurate, but don't forget to take a nap after the game and head downtown to drink your face off at Bodega/Moclub then around 1:00ish head to stocks to try and pull some tail before heading in for the night

[horribilisfan8184]

Add 30-45 minutes to the pregame time period for a stop into the UC Bookstore to load up on Griz gear.

[The_Real_Chief]

Add 30-45 minutes to the pregame time period for a stop into the UC Bookstore to load up on Griz gear.

Pick up a flask as well to smuggle booze into the game

[grizfan95]

Add 30-45 minutes to the pregame time period for a stop into the UC Bookstore to load up on Griz gear.

Good suggestion, I'll add that one!

[VUOR63]

I played football for Valpo in the early 2000s and will be flying out with my wife and three elementary school-aged kids to check out the Montana v. Valpo game. We got a room for a few nights at the Doubletree and are looking forward to spending a couple days in Missoula and partaking in the game day experience.

This trip is part of a personal initiative to take an annual college football experience trip (2 years ago was Ole Miss-Arkansas--The Grove was awesome). With my alma mater playing Montana, it gave me a great excuse to check out what you all have going in Montana and see if the rumors are true.

Hopefully my Crusaders can keep the score within 50. Regardless, great post and I appreciate the suggestions!

[Igotgoodsources]

This is all accurate, but don't forget to take a nap after the game and head downtown to drink your face off at Bodega/Moclub then around 1:00ish head to stocks to try and pull some tail before heading in for the night

Nap? Just pick up some coke from a Bobcat DB and go all day

[krammer]

nice job grizfan95,,,,should be permanent post during the season imo.

[AKGriz72]

Great Post!

We are flying in for our annual opening game experience. I can't wait for the season to start!

[get'em_griz]

Seriously... this needs to be pinned to the top of the forum!

[G-BEARS]

This is all accurate, but don't forget to take a nap after the game and head downtown to drink your face off at Bodega/Moclub then around 1:00ish head to stocks to try and pull some tail before heading in for the night

Nap? Just pick up some coke from a Bobcat DB and go all day

All day? Just pick up some meth from a Bobcat coach and go all weekend

[mtgriz]

I played football for Valpo in the early 2000s and will be flying out with my wife and three elementary school-aged kids to check out the Montana v. Valpo game. We got a room for a few nights at the Doubletree and are looking forward to spending a couple days in Missoula and partaking in the game day experience.

This trip is part of a personal initiative to take an annual college football experience trip (2 years ago was Ole Miss-Arkansas--The Grove was awesome). With my alma mater playing Montana, it gave me a great excuse to check out what you all have going in Montana and see if the rumors are true.

Hopefully my Crusaders can keep the score within 50. Regardless, great post and I appreciate the suggestions!

Sounds like a great trip for your family! It won't be the SEC but I bet you will have a blast.

[grizfan95]

Bumping for the game this weekend. Go Griz!

[AZDoc]

Bumping for the game this weekend. Go Griz!

Took forever to find this...I'm old...trying to figure out my day/night!

[grizfan95]

Bump for the big one this weekend. Go Griz!

[Bear Axed]

[get'em_griz]

It would be great if this was pinned to the board. Mods?