I rarely go to a professional sports game, so I would most definitely go to a 49ers game if offered free tickets, even if Jimmy Garoppolo was starting and I knew it would be a frustrating afternoon. I would even go to see the Sacramento Kings with free tickets. I might even pay a little if the price was right - mainly just for the experience as an unusual thing for me to do.
Yes, I very much enjoyed watching the Patriots and Bears in a blizzard at Soldier Field, probably 15 years ago now. I “got” to see Tom Brady totally eviscerate the home team, including a long touchdown pass at the end of the first half which took the score to 28-3, and on which the entire Bears defense clearly assumed he was going to take a knee and were totally unprepared to actually, like, defend. It didn’t get any better in the second half, but almost everyone stayed to the end just to watch the snow and laugh at the Bears. The crowd was even drunker than usual, since nobody wanted to drink beer in that weather, so even people who usually didn’t smuggle hard booze in had done so.
Torrential downpours are fun too. It’s not an Oregon-Oregon State game without at least an inch of rain falling during the game.
That’s also true, it’s a fun change of pace to see a game in a nearly deserted stadium. Once at an A’s game (where else?) I had three entire sections of the upper deck to myself, with my nearest neighbor two sections away. A foul ball was hit into the section between us, and everyone below watched us race for it; the other guy got a nice round of applause when he won.
Heh. I happened to be at the first regular season game between the Marlins and Cubs in 2004, the year after Bartman. The first time a foul ball was hit into that general area, second baseman Luis Castillo, who had hit the ball to Bartman, ran over and mimicked Moises Alou’s outraged body language after the Bartman catch. I thought it was hilarious, but it didn’t go over too well with the crowd.
Wow, I don’t think of myself as someone who goes to a lot of pro games, but maybe I’m in denial, given the number of anecdotes this thread is triggering. 
I think there’s a difference between watching a game that is “meaningless” because the team won’t make the playoffs, and a game that your team will almost certainly lose because your team is horrible and might not win a single game. The latter might be kind of miserable, unless the teams at least have some players worth getting to see. The former, I’d go see a game that my team had a chance of winning. It’s not all about playoffs.
Maybe more often than not. Part of that is how much more relaxing it is to be in a stadium where nobody gives much of a damn, and there’s room to spread out. It’s baseball not football, but we used to go pretty regularly to the old Texas Rangers ballpark (while perhaps getting the tiniest bit tipsy or high), sitting up at the top of the bleachers by ourselves…it was great fun.
I do also go down to FedEx every year to see the Football Team, and enjoy it whether they’re in it or not.
I’ll happily go to a football game even if the Packers aren’t playing. I’m a football fan first, Packers fan second. Shit, I’ll walk down to the local high school on a Friday night and watch a game in which I know literally nothing about the teams involved. Every game is a good game (unless it’s the Bears).
On a nice warm summer day, I’ll go see any baseball game – major league, minor league, college, little league, you name it. Hell, when I was a kid I would go watch the Washington Senators play the Kansas City A’s!
Not so fond of sitting in cold weather though. Probably wouldn’t even do it for a playoff game.
I’ve actually never been to an NFL game. I’m finally remedying that this month with a trip to Vegas to watch the Broncos on the 26th. It might have playoff implications. It might not. But I’ll be happy if it’s at least competitive, happier if Denver wins, and while it’s not exactly a bucket-list item at least it’ll have finally been something I’ve thought about doing (going to a game I mean, not this setting in particular) for years but never done.
Of course!
Ship me off to Baltimore.
Are you closer geographically to Denver or Vegas? Just curious.
Denver by about 150 miles. But it’s one of those cases where it’s easier and cheaper to get to Las Vegas (and to the stadium) than it is to go see a game in Mile High. Well, depending on flying or driving and other things. I’ve been in whatever the corporate name is for the new Mile High is, but not for a football game. Thought it’d be fun to see the new Raiders stadium too.
I could see myself going to a Packers game just for the sake of visiting Lambeau Field, but otherwise probably not. I haven’t even followed the NFL this season so a trip to any NFL game is very unlikely, going forward.
With free tickets, nothing else to do, and decent weather, I’ll go to just about anything.
But no, I wouldn’t spend money on football.
A trip to Lambeau Field is a pilgrimage to football mecca that every fan should undertake, whether they cheer for the Packers or not. There’s a lot of history in that stadium.
I have paid to attend sporting events where I don’t support either team playing and have no interest in their chances of making the playoffs. Most commonly with someone else who does support one or other team. Sometimes just to catch some legendary figure live while I can.
At the Sydney Olympics I attended games of sports that I didn’t even understand beforehand.
Decades ago in the pre-Mario years, the Penguins mostly lost games. Tickets were cheap and readily available. Whenever a good team came to town, I’d go to the game to watch the visiting team skate.
Then Mario happened, the Pens won games, and tickets became hard to get. They built a new arena and had to pay for it. Haven’t been to a Pens game lately.
I saw them in the early 2010s, maybe 2012 or so. It was a game against the Bills that the Cowboys won in a blowout. Despite the Cowboys doing well the whole time, I just couldn’t get into it. After having to deal with getting to the stadium, finding parking, the security lines just to get in, trying to find our seats, etc., I decided that I’m more of a watch the game on my couch type of person. High school and division II college is a different story, but FBS and NFL games just aren’t my thing.
Probably saw you there. Both at Lambeau and County Stadium (the worst place in the world to watch a football game). Ontop of all the lousy years remember all the years they went 8-8? They’d be 8-7 and just needed to win the last game of the season to clinch a wildcard and they never did it. Excruciating! We still went to the games.
Then there was the Brewers during the 70’s and most of the 80’s. No chance of them getting a pennant but we went at least once a week or so and sat in the bleacher seats.