When two US college football teams met in Sydney, American-style food was one of the drawcards. But the demand for it proved a problem, with fans complaining of queueing for an hour for giant hot dogs and ANZ Stadium running out of beer.
@edwyatt @ANZStadium @SENAmerica worse run event ever food queues over an hour run out of alcohol during 3rd qtr #CollegeFootballSyd— Martin Waples (@martywaples) August 27, 2016
If @ANZStadium is wondering why the seats aren't full at #CollegeFootballSyd it's because everyone is in line for drinks.— Dean Nye (@Dean_Nye) August 27, 2016
Just waited in a beer queue FOREVER and the taps are busted and they are pouring beers out of cans what even is this #CollegeFootballSyd— MrTiedt (@mrtiedt) August 27, 2016
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Still, 10,000 hot dogs were eaten and 70,000 cups of beer served. The spokesman denied that the stadium ran out of beer, saying more food and drinks were consumed per hour than at last year's NRL grand final, the first State of Origin match or last week's Bledisloe Cup Test.
It seems Sydney has a healthy appetite for all things American football, and it's hard to overstate the hype surrounding a game of gridiron.
Saturday's match, the season opener for the 2016 NCAA College Football Championships, was the first college football game to be played in Australia. And for spectators who didn't know their long snapper from their tight end, there was no shortage of other entertainment.
Cal's Golden Bears streamed onto the field through the jaws of a giant inflatable bear's head. Hawaii's Rainbow Warriors were accompanied by a cheerleader borne aloft on a longboard. Columns of fire regularly lit up behind the goalposts and there was enough cannon fire to make the Napoleonic Wars look tame.
Gridiron is massive in the States, where fans' loyalties are not split between four different football codes. Even if all 24 million Australians watched, they'd still be outnumbered by the Americans tuning in for the biggest college games, which can also draw live crowds of 100,000 plus.
Colin Scotts was the first Australian to receive a US football scholarship, playing for the University of Hawaii before being drafted into the NFL in 1987. He said "with 30 million households in America watching", college football is "out of control".
It's one reason Destination NSW's CEO, Sandra Chipchase, described it as a "major coup" to have secured the game. As well as the $10 million spent by 15,000 domestic and international visitors here for the match, millions of potential tourists saw images of a spectacularly sunny Sydney when the game was broadcast live in US prime time.
The teams' entourages alone would have given the state's economy a significant boost. Not only did both teams fly out their roster of 105 players, there were coaches, staff and scouts, cheerleaders, mascots and marching bands. It explains why at any one time, there were more people on the field than populate the average outback town.
Scotts said the game is "America at its best. Nobody knows how to put on a show better than the Americans. It's the razzle-dazzle, it's a continual entertainment."
Sydney-based Massachusetts native Eric Anderson arrived on a party bus with 100 friends, mainly fellow Americans. "It's more than a game," he said. "It's a way of life."