by Emily Phung
What’s it like being at a Soul game? Here’s a follow-up from the article, “Is your “Soul” missing football?” I was fortunate to attend the Philadelphia Soul home opener versus the Cleveland Gladiators at the Wells Fargo Center. I had a great seat, which was located in the field zone next to the pads right by the end zones. The action is literally in your face. Footballs are thrown towards you since this is where the touchdowns happen so thankfully there was some netting right above to risk from being hurt. If you were below the netted area or in the surrounding stands on the side, you had the opportunity to pick up an in-play football.
The Soul certainly makes it entertaining to attend. To go with the ‘Soul theme”, they have a Soul Man mascot (similar to the Blues Brothers) running around, dancing, and high-fiving you. He’s fittingly dressed in the Soul’s color of blue and has some sweet Ray Ban type sunglasses to rock out in. Quite sharp dresser I have to say for a mascot. The Soul invited marching bands to play at the home opener, which really got the crowd dancing and swaying to the wonderful beats during time-outs and media breaks. The nineteen Soul cheerleaders known as the Soulmates also brought up the spirit of the team and crowds by doing acrobatic cheer moves to entertaining us with some great dance numbers.
The Soulmates could be strategically found in various sections along the spectators if they were not in the field and were quite approachable when it came to picture-taking. During breaks, time-outs, and halftime, the Soul staff put on various side shows of entertainment. Little kids from the audience were invited to participate in fun events such as catching parachuting bags in a bucket & throwing on different parts of a construction outfit as they raced down the football field, which was quite amusing.
Tags: Emily Phung, Philadelphia Soul, Philadelphia Soul News, Philly Sports News, Soul, Soul Home Opener, Soul News, Soul Organization, Sports Exclusive, TalkSportsPhilly.com, TSP
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