Sean Peter Kane

So last night, we went to see U2 at Foxboro Stadium (Gillette) in Foxboro, MA – the first of their show dates in MA for the 360 tour. I had seen U2 a few years ago in Boston at the Garden and was ready to see another great show. I was not expecting the transportation nightmare.

The Boston Garden
• Easily accessible by public transit (a major train terminal is below the Garden)

Foxboro Stadium
• MBTA only runs trains to/from the stadium for Patriots games

The Boston Garden
• Centrally-located in downtown Boston

Foxboro Stadium
• Over 20 miles from Boston

The Boston Garden Show in 2005
• Excellent performance
• Excellent music
• Excellent experience

The Foxboro Stadium Show in 2009
• Excellent performance (the portion we got to see)
• Excellent music (the portion we got to see)
• Horrible experience

As Gillette Stadium is out in no-man’s land (Foxboro), we had to drive out to the concert. We had given ourselves plenty of time to get there and deal with about an hour of haggling for parking. Sadly, the tie-up to get to the stadium started about 7 miles before the Rt 1 exit off of I-95. That was then followed by more than 3 miles to get from the exit to the stadium. The cause of this horrible bottom neck – the system set up for the stadium allows for only two points of entry to the parking. Parking is located off of one long street (Rt 1). The entire crowd is herded along the road and passed into the next available lot. Considering the size of Gillette, this means A LOT of people are being forced into this restrictive path.

In the end, it took us 3.5 hours (yes) to finally get a parking space – a parking space managed by Gillette and costing $40. That required a 20-minute walk to finally get to the gates. By the time we got to the field (we had general admission tickets), Snow Patrol was LONG gone and U2 had been on stage for 45 minutes.

The experience for the remainder of the show was excellent. The lighting, the open stage format, the song selections – all right on. The performance was certainly no letdown. The overall time though was completely mired by the location selection.

I hope for U2′s sake (and another other major performer) that they think twice about having a show at Gillette. While it can hold nearly 70,000 in the seats, quantity is a horrible tradeoff for quality. The fans would much prefer a smaller experience if it can be accessed more easily. PLEASE USE THE GARDEN NEXT TIME.

It seems there’s a battle-of-the-board games heating up. While this type of entertainment has certainly seen better days (pre-video games), there’s new life brewing and being stirred up in the board game world.

Wired Magazine recently covered the growing popularity of Settlers of Catan. For those of you who may not have played this game yet, it’s a German board game that deals with land speculation and resources. The game has been around for two decades now, but it is catching on very recently in the U.S. (we actually have the game at home). Wired’s focus on the game however is whether it will surpass the popularity of Monopoly.

Oddly enough, this month Google and Hasbro released Monopoly City Streets. This brand new take on the game provides world-wide interaction and the use of the OpenStreetMap project. The rules have been modified as have the objectives (the oddest change is that creating a “monopoly” is nearly impossible) and the game will effectively close in January 2010. These changes however have created a stir – the system completed crashed the day Google launched. Google and Hasbro had to completely reset the game (after hardware and software updates were made) about a week later. Just look at the constant chatter about it on Twitter.

So what does this all mean? Settlers of Catan is certainly bringing new life back to the board game “platform.” While I have played it, it’s not my cup of tea. The game moves somewhat slow and is pretty confusing at first. The concept and execution are excellent though (I wish the game board didn’t fall apart so easily). Hasbro may have taken its game from the board to the internet, but this is nothing new. Monopoly exists on nearly all gaming platforms. The concept behind using other platforms is to peek interest and thereby increase the likelihood players will also use the board game platform.

I don’t really think it’s fair to say that Settlers will “beat” Monopoly. Board games will live on for quite a while. These games (and their reincarnations) are proof. I’m sure anyone out there would take a board game night over video games.