College football stadiums

It's also one of the worst stadiums in America to watch a game. The majority of the seats are outside the 20-yard line on both ends of the field.

 

Tiger Stadium, if you really look at it, is kind of weird. Like most college stadiums it was built in sections. The main stands between the end zones are the oldest parts (built in the 20s and 30s), and you literally cannot get from one part of it to the other. The main stands are sealed off from the horseshoe ends. That was also a big reason they finished tearing down a 25-year-old upper deck a couple years ago. They wanted to build a new one with the suites and all, but also so they could link it up with the upper deck across the way and enclose the other end zones.
Also, I'd imagine most stadiums these days are refurbished with private money. I know Tiger Stadium's last renovation was. Most big schools have some sort of athletic foundation that raises obscene amounts of money. Mississippi State renamed its stadium a few years back for a guy named Davis Wade, who paid for the bulk of a renovation for its football stadium.

 

"... morning and afternoon."
Always loved the theory on why LSU had a long history of playing poorly in day games -- that it's fans weren't drunk enough to raise as much hell as they normally do.

 

LSU is great, but I don't know that I can rank the best places in the SEC to watch a game. Even Kentucky and the Mississippi schools put on a great show for big games, especially at night. The top 6-8 venues in that league are all phenomenal settings.

 

Haven't been to Ole Miss but I've been to the other three, along with UK, Arkansas and Vandy. Other than Vandy they are all great atmospheres.

 

As to the Cal situation, they are simply planning to enhance Memorial after building a multi-sport training facility on the grounds containing those 44 trees. They would renovate Memorial after finishing the training center. That's my understanding, anyway. A Pac 10 beat guy could clarify this.

 

The new Minnesota stadium is TINY, especially by Big 10 standards. The capacity will be 50,000, which makes it the second smallest in the conference, ahead of only Northwestern.

It's a horseshoe-shape, so there is a possibility of finishing it off someday I guess, but I wouldn't count on it. The only reason they're building it so small is so it fills up every Saturday. No use in building an 80,000+ house if you can only bring in 50,000. This way, the tickets might be hard to come by and it will be a great atmosphere.

 

The only time the Gophers need more than 50,000 seats is when Iowa and Wisconsin are in town.

 

Michigan and Penn State don't travel?

 

Not like and Iowa and Wisconsin do to Minneapolis. It's less than a hour from Wisconsin and about 90 minutes/two hours from Iowa. Folks who can't get tickets at home drive to the Cities because they know they can get them at the Dome.

Not sure if this is still true but at one point the UM ticket office wouldn't sell single-game Iowa tickets to people who had an Iowa mailing address.

It's not uncommon for the Gophers to get shouted down by Wisky and Hawkeye fans in the Dome. That never happens when Michigan, Penn State or Ohio State are there.

 

They had to make the doors wider whan Mangino was hired.

 

Compared to most other places where taxpayers foot the bill and then pay PSL's it's hard to say Kraft shook them down considering he financed 100% of the stadium and there are no PSL's. The state paid to build the access road off North St. and improve Rt. 1 (which is still ongoing with the exit to I-95 currently under construction).
It beats the alternative of getting the mile of Rt. 1 in front of the stadium improved while the rest of the road goes remains unchanged like what would happen when WalMart rolls into town, adding a stoplight at the enterance and widening 200 feet of road on either side of the light for a turning lane and doing little else.