It is official, folks: the new Mile High Stadium in Denver--Invesco Field at Mile High--has just hosted its very first event, the Eagles concert. As the concert came to an end with four encores, and a hundred thousand dollars worth of fireworks lit up Denver night skies to celebrate the new stadium, there was an unspoken acceptance by the Coloradans of this new venue that is destined to continue upon the old Mile High Stadium's glorious history.

Invesco Field is located a few minutes from downtown Denver, practically touching the old stadium (which hasn't been demolished yet). The stadium is easily accessible by bus. As a matter of fact, it is strongly recommended that you leave your car at home when attending any event at the Invesco Field (same held true for the old stadium): parking is $30, and Denver police is on the lookout for illegally parked cars in nearby residential and business areas--they usually tow dozens of cars during every major event at the stadium. Usually the broncoRide shuttle ($4 round trip) runs during footbal games, with convenient pick up and drop off spots throughout the Denver/Boulder area; or you can just take a city bus (I know for sure that at least three routes serve that particular intersection). Traffic in the area gets extremely bad, both before and after the event, with 40 minute wait to exit the nearby I-25 and all streets around the stadium essentially turning into parking lots. Save yourself a headache--take a bus.

There is a big wide walkway coming up to the stadium's main entrance (from the Federal Boulevard). On both sides of the walkway are flags of different counties in Colorado (tribute to the taxpayers). Another interesting decoration: strategically placed, here and there are big white sculptures of different football gear--like shoulder pads, a helmet, the kick-off stand for the ball (don't know exactly what it's called), etc. Overall, it is quite aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

The new Mile High stadium seats 76,000 (that's certainly more than the old stadium)--considering that there is a 15-year wait list for Denver Broncos season tickets, the more seats are available, the better. About 54,000 attended the Eagles concert, so the new stadium has not yet experienced its "full load." Still, it is apparent that the new stadium has definite benefits, as well as its own share of problems:

· Seats: as we were sitting down, everyone around us pretty much agreed that the seats were bigger and more comfortable than expected, even for a bigger person. Our seats were in the very top section (5th level deck), so we couldn't see much of what was going on down on the stage. But for a football game, all the seats seem to be arranged to provide a good view of the field.

By the way, the 5th level deck is quite steep--they constructed it that way to get people at the nosebleed section as good of a view as possible; however, it turned out to be a bit of a problem when very drunk people were trying to climb the stairs or find their seats. Also, I noticed that the steps going up to the top of the nosebleed section are bare metal--I don't even want to know how they are going to deal with those steps getting covered with snow and ice in the winter. My advice would be this: if you go to see any event at Mile High and have seats up on the 5th level deck, don't drink too much, unless you want to take a nosedive down thirty rows.

· Restrooms: I think for the first time in the history of mankind the line at the men's restrooms was about three times as long as the line at the women's restrooms (a phenomenon easily attributable to countless beers consumed even before the concert started, more on that later). I went to the restroom about half an hour before the concert, and there were no lines there. My boyfriend tried to go the restroom during a concert intermission and came back saying that the line was 30 feet out the door. Nevertheless, that line all but disappeared about 5 minutes later. Overall, long restrooms lines during a major concert can be easily expected, but it wasn't too bad. It is possible that the waits will get worse at football games because of the extra 20,000 people at the stadium, but that's something only time will tell. By the way, the new stadium was specifically built with many more restrooms than the old stadium had. The restrooms were clean, but of course they were also brand new.

· Food: relatively OK, overpriced but edible. Standard fare: nachos, pretzels, hot dogs, pizza, peanuts, popcorn (I don't remember the exact prices, but for instance an order of nachos was $5.75). Not all vendors were open, though, so for instance I noticed one of the signs was for "specialty hot & spicy" foods, but they were closed. So maybe as time goes on, they will have a little more food variety. Beer: $5.50, mostly Budweiser and Coors, but a few places were selling microbrews and Mike's Hard Lemonade (those were also the stands who ran out of beer very fast, some of them even before the concert started. Made some people really angry). Lines were outrageous the entire time. I was glad I ate before I got there.

The worst aspect of the concert for everyone was the sound (or lack thereof). Unless you were seated on the field or maybe in the lowest level deck, you could barely hear. The stadium officials later said that the Eagles were at fault for insisting that they use their own sound system instead of the stadium's one. That may be true, but before the concert started, there was some introduction for the new stadium, with a couple of retired football players talking about something (don't know what, couldn't hear!), and the upper decks could not understand a single word that was said. So the organizers themselves did not use the stadium's sound system?

Basically, even though there are speakers all throughout the seating area, the only speakers that were working were the ones down by the stage. We are talking a huge stadium, no roof, terrible acoustics and a few meager speakers pointing up from half a mile away from the upper decks. It got a bit better towards the end of the concert (I think they might have turned the volume up after intermission). But in the first part of the show, we could barely hear the words. Quite a few people were very upset. Personally, I will think twice before ever seeing a concert at the Invesco Field again. Hopefully they will fix the sound for the football season, though.

In conclusion, I must say that Invesco Field @ Mile High is a very nice-looking new stadium, and hopefully it will be around for just as long, if not longer, as the old Mile High. Sure, the first event there proved that not all logistical problems have been solved yet, but hopefully these problems will get resolved soon. Meanwhile, if you somehow manage to score Denver Broncos tickets, come to the Invesco Field and enjoy this great new addition to the Denver downtown area!

Recommended: Yes

Parking Availability: What A Nightmare
Seat Location: Upper Deck