The Miami Dolphins hosted all the fan clubs from out of town for the game against the Houston Texans. It was a great opportunity to meet with and network with all the fan clubs from around the world. It was a weekend of celebrating the fan clubs as well as exchanging ideas and for me it was a chance to see members of all the other fan clubs that I had previously had the chance to hang out with during my travels. I spend a lot of time the past few years traveling to New York and Boston so it was great seeing the crews from Dolfans NYC and Miami Dolphans of Boston.
The organization did an amazing job (specifically Sergio Xiques) coordinating the weekend events for us.
First up was the tour of the training facility in Davies. Sergio and John led us through the training facility. It was great hearing about all the changes that were made since Coach Campbell took over the club. As you walk toward the locker room and the field from the lobby, you will pass by a plaque which was requested by Coach Campbell. (Picturess Below: The main lobby ares which houses the original Super Bowl trophies and pennants, the "Brotherhood" plaque and the Locker Room)
On Saturday there was the party at Bokampers in Plantation for all the fan clubs to meet up and get to know each other. Solo D from Dolphins With Attitude showed up to pump up the crowd. Good food, beers, good people and a raffle to give away a lot of different prizes. One of our Dolfans Toronto member won the biggest prize of the night. Congratulations to Melanie Fish for winning a signed Brent Grimes helmet! I think every Dolphins fan came up to her at one point to try and buy the Helmet. (Pictures below: Early in the evening at Bokampers, Melanie with her new prize possession, Solo D pumping up the crowd!)
Sunday was game day at Sunlife Stadium! We could not have asked for a better game. As everyone knows, the Dolphins went flying out of the gate and did not look back. It was a great game and perfect for fan club weekend. We did get a bit of a rain storm that lasted for about 15 minutes but that did not put a damper on the festivities. Here are a couple pics from tailgate and in the stadium.
And just to go that extra mile, there was a VIP tour of Sunlife Stadium on Monday before we had to fly back to reality. The tour was lead by Hayle and Sergio. This was pretty through tour where we got to check out the VIP clubs, the locker room. the cheerleaders training room and even Stephen Ross's box where he watches all the games. One of the big highlights of the tour was the "Gallery of Legends" which had a great collection of items that are not available anywhere else, like Marino's locker, Don Shula's desk, the pictures of the 72' team with original turf and many others.
Special thanks to Sergio Xiques for putting this whole weekend together as well as for providing us with the tour of the training facility and Sunlife Stadium, John Wiedmeier for the tour of the training facility and Hayle Krigel for the VIP tour of Sunlife Stadium. It was definitely a memorable weekend! I can't wait to do this again next year.
To see more pictures of the out of town fan club weekend, please see our gallery!