Renee and the Stadium Seat: Our Everlasting Comfort Story

Renee does not complain at a ballgame. She sits, she watches, she keeps her own book on the game, and somewhere in the second half she shifts her weight and says nothing about it. So when she came down the ramp after a long afternoon on a metal bench and said, 'Order two of those seats with a back,' I ordered two that night. That was thirteen months ago. They were Everlasting Comfort stadium seats, the folding kind with the adjustable backrest, and we have used them at about seven games since, plus two of our grandson's high school games on bleachers.

Here is the part I want to be straight about. Many pro stadiums do not allow a seat with a back. The list is not the same from season to season either. Before every trip Renee pulls up that stadium's own website and reads the seating and bag page out loud from the kitchen table. When a back is allowed, the two Everlasting Comfort seats go in the second row of the Tahoe. When it is not, they stay in the truck and we carry the flat foam cushions we have had for years. We still own those cushions. We never take both on the same day. That is not a rule anybody handed us. It is just how we avoid standing at a gate arguing with a stranger about a chair.

For two seasons before this we used those flat cushions. They did what a cushion does, which is keep the concrete off you. What they do not do is give you anything to lean against, and by the drive home I was ready to be out of the driver's seat. That was the whole reason Renee asked for something with a back. Each Everlasting Comfort seat folds flat, weighs 2.2 pounds, and has a built in strap, so we each carry our own in from the parking lot with a hand still free for the cooler.

What it is, plainly. Memory foam in the seat and in the back, a polyester cover that wipes clean with a damp cloth, an adjustable backrest that folds down flat for carrying, and a storage pocket on the side. About 17 inches wide. That last number is the one to think about before you buy. On a tight bench, 17 inches is real estate, and if the row is full you are taking some of it from the person beside you. Renee and I have not had a problem, because we buy two and we sit together, but I would not tell you it fits anywhere.

The pocket stays empty at the gate. Every guard who has looked at these has wanted to open it, and I got tired of fishing a phone and a wallet out of it, so now it holds nothing until we are sitting down. Then it holds a phone and a program and that is it.

It folds flat, it weighs 2.2 pounds, and it takes up 17 inches of bench. That is the whole trade in two numbers.

Cold weather has not been a problem. A folding seat with a back sounds like the kind of thing that would get awkward in a November parking lot, and ours have not. They open and fold the same in the cold as they do in September. The cover wipes clean, which matters more than you would think after a day on concrete that forty thousand people have walked across.

Storage is the hall closet, one shelf, everything on it between trips. The seats, the clear bag, the pillow, the power bank, and the cooler bag folded down. Sunday morning I put the seats back on the shelf and that is the end of them until the next one.

Thirteen months, seven pro games, two high school games on bleachers. They look used. They do not look worn out. Nothing has needed fixing, and the strap on mine has held with a seat in one hand and a cooler handle in the other more times than I can count. When we fly, which is about twice a season, the seats stay home on the shelf. They are not worth checking and they are not worth carrying through an airport.

The bleacher use surprised me more than the stadium use. High school bleachers are narrower than anything at a pro gate and there is no rail to lean on. The seats worked there fine. We carried them in, set them down, and had a back for four quarters. Nobody said a word to us about them.

A guy two spots down from us asked about them at one game last season. He had a flat cushion under him and a rolled up jacket behind his back. I told him what I tell everybody, which is that you should read your stadium's website first, and if a back is allowed, this is the one we bought twice.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

If you asked me straight across the table, I would say three things. Read that stadium's own website before you buy anything, because a seat with a back is allowed at some gates and not at others and no product page is going to know that for you. If a back is allowed, this one is worth the carry. If it is not, buy a flat cushion and save yourself the argument at the gate. And if you go with somebody, buy two, because one person leaning back and one person on concrete is a long afternoon for both of you.

I am sixty one and I am not going to tell you a seat fixes anything. It is a cushion with a back on it. If your back hurts after a game, that is a conversation for your doctor, not a shopping trip.