New England Revolution / Gillette Stadium parking lot

Entirely unrelated subject - but how entertaining is Big Brother 8 this season? Could these people hate each other any more? Whether it's truly Evil Dick stirring the pot, or the producers inciting the players and shaping the story the way they want, it's great TV and, as usual, absolutely my guilty pleasure of the summer.

Onward. I went to the New England Revolution game tonight. Ryan invited me to join him in his company's luxury box, which was the first time I had the opportunity to check out those seats. What an amazing vantage point and viewing environment for games at Gillette!

I still don't get the worldwide obsession with soccer. It must have something to do with national pride. Ryan's logic works as well - it's a sport that is simple to play, and can be (and is) played anywhere in the world.

It's confusing to me that the time continues even with the ball going out of bounds, players getting injured, and miscellaneous events that would logically cause a momentary cessation of the timer.

Add to that the eerie silence among the 35,000 fans in the stadium, less a few occasions of excitement.

Tie games, low scores - it just doesn't seem like a sport that Americans are clamoring to get behind.

Beckham didn't even play. In the end, who cares - his presence creates buzz and sells tickets, exactly what MLS wants. Let him ride the pine for most of his time here in the U.S.

What I did see were tons of kids at the stadium - which makes sense. Relatively low ticket prices to watch professional athletes play a game that children play all the time at school is a recipe for a family event.

Which brings me to my gripe of the night - the parking situation at Gillette. Bravo for them to make the parking lots free during soccer events. But if that free parking creates the disorganized chaos that is the pilgrimage back to your vehicle and attempt to get out of the parking lot, then I'd rather pay 20 bucks.

I always wondered what those idiots who I see driving down Landsdowne Street after a Sox game just let out are thinking. Pedestrians enveloping their vehicles, them inching forward as they come perilously close to people weaving in and out between the line of cars.

Now I know the feeling.

We had VIP parking to go with our luxury box seats - pretty much right next to the stadium.

Unfortunately, there was zero order to how people were walking from the stadium to their cars. No orderly line, no fences to keep people and cars separate, no parking lot attendants who seemed to care (or not be talking on their cell phones if they were present).

While I did feel bad for the families who just enjoyed a 1-0 Revs victory attempt to keep their small children from being smooshed between two cars, they could have been using more common sense when it came to walking safely.

Gillette Stadium, on the other hand, should have provided a safer area for which pedestrians could have navigated (not to mention give drivers from my parking area more of a choice of exit route than "drive this way - we're going to make you take Route 1 South home (Bostonians included), and hope that you know that it will intersect with 495 at some point."

People wanting to get home quickly + small children + disorder + dark + lots of cars = recipe for disaster.