Ticketless fans trek to Miami, happy to be close to their favorite team for Super Bowl

For some fans, close to Super Bowl is good enough

MIAMI — Alvin Boseman didn’t have a ticket to the big game.

Didn’t really care, either.

The longtime New Orleans Saints fan got together with nine of his family and friends, rented a $400-a-day RV and made the 14-hour haul to Miami — just so he could park his house on wheels in a friend’s driveway to watch the Super Bowl on a big-screen television.

Being close (about 8½ miles away from Sun Life Stadium) was good enough when you’ve waited 43 years for your team to make it this far.

“They can feel us,” said Ronald Higgins, who also came along for the ride. “We’re a spiritual team. They know we’re here.”

There were some 75,000 people in the stands for the game between the Saints and the Indianapolis Colts, but some of the most passionate fans for both teams gladly settled for watching on TV somewhere in the vicinity of Sun Life Stadium.

Boseman is a Saints’ season-ticket holder, which gave him a shot at landing one of the limited number of Super Bowl tickets doled out to each team. But his name wasn’t picked in the lottery, so he began making other plans. Everyone chipped in $500 and the party was on. They rented the RV, hired a friend known as “Goody Woody” to take care of the driving duties, and stocked every cabinet and cupboard with all the necessities: mainly, plenty of food and plenty of alcohol.

They expected some 50 people to join them for Super Sunday and a menu that included gumbo, ribs, red beans, pork chops, chicken, turkey salad and a drink — or six. There was a Saints flag flying in the front yard, turning this little patch of South Florida into Miami Gras.

“I may never see this day again,” Boseman said. “Tomorrow isn’t promised to you.”

This group knew a thing or two about real life. The 65-year-old Boseman underwent open-heart surgery just six months ago (and he’ll gladly pull up his shirt to show you a scar running from just below his neck to just above his belly button).

Higgins just lost his father, who was buried Thursday after a long battle with cancer. A few hours after the funeral, he hopped in the RV and headed for Miami.

He feels like his father came along for the ride.

“I was telling him, ‘Pop, if you hang on another week, we’ll bring home the trophy,’” said Higgins, sitting outside the RV wearing a black “Who Dat?” T-shirt. “He didn’t quite make it, but he’ll know.”

The Colts also were represented on the outside.

Arjun Ishwar, who recently moved from Indianapolis to California, watched the game with about six friends from a parking lot near the stadium. They hooked up a television in the trunk of their vehicle and brought along plenty of food and booze.

“This was kind of always the plan,” the 24-year-old Ishwar said. “We just wanted to be here.”

But why pay to sit in a parking lot when they could have stayed at home for free?

“It’s the Colts!” he shouted. “They’ve always been my team. Even when they were 1-15.”

Then there were the fans who did get in.

Michael Bell of New Orleans said he’s been a season-ticket holder since the Saints entered the NFL in 1967, After enduring so many losing seasons — after all, this team was once dubbed the “Aints” — he felt as though he had reached nirvana.

“We’re finally here,” he said, wearing black-and-gold beads. “If we don’t win, the consolation prize: We go home to 10 days of Mardi Gras.”

Added his wife, Aimee, “The party goes one whether we win or lose. We’re going to win … (but) it’s OK if we don’t. We love our boys.”

Back on the outside, Higgins’ personal loss was soothed by the Saints’ run to their first Super Bowl. He was right where he wanted to be — not in the stadium, but close enough.

“Win or lose, the party’s on,” he said. “We love to party.”

Associated Press writers Sarah Larimer and Lisa Orkin Emmanuel contributed to this report.