American Stadiums

[ditchy]

Great stadiums for Usa , but can you imagine a stadium like that in UK now with no roof ... A giant Withdean !!

 

[bhaexpress]

Great stadiums for Usa , but can you imagine a stadium like that in UK now with no roof ... A giant Withdean !!

Not untypical but remember it doesn't rain that much in many states and it never snows much in the same. However you'll know why they call the seats 'The Bleachers' if you'd ever watched a full gridiron game in Texas.

 

[Barry Izbak]

Edna - the old Seahawks stadium was the Kingdome, built in 1976 and demolished in 2000. Towards the end of its life though it was HATED by the fans, not least because the roof leaked badly! BTW the new ground was built largely or completely (can't remember which) with public money. Before it was built there was a referendum as to whether City money should be spent on a new sports ground. The people voted overwhelmingly 'No' - but they went ahead and built it anyway!

One of the reasons was that the Seahawks, in the manner of American sports franchises, had been making noises about moving unless the Kingdome was replaced. The Seattle authorities decided that keeping their professional football team was more important than the views of local residents!

Another reason they hated it was because they shared it with the Seattle Mariners baseball team.

So they put an extra 2% on the local sales tax, knocked down the Kingdome and built SEPARATE baseball and football stadiums on the same down town site inside 18 months. Walkable from the city centre. Bloody lovely.

No f***ing around, no ten years of hand wringing and pandering to half a dozen nimbys, just get on and do it

Gotta be the way forward

 

[Da Man Clay]

I wish I hadn't ruined my knee, there were a couple of people from my american football team who were going to get scholorships over there. I was one of them before I tore my knee ligaments.

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Florida does appear to be rather well off for spactacular stadiums...
Municipal Stadium, Jacksonville (NFL)
I mention this one because a few years back, some rich guy decides Jacksonville needs an NFL team, so builds this thing in the middle of the city (and it is, I've been there), in the HOPE of enticing an NFL franchise. Dammit, we can't even build a stadium WITH a team, and they get to build 75,000 seats in the middle of a city before they've even invented one...

Raymond James Stadium, Tampa (NFL)

Been to both of those stadiums to watch the Broncos play. One thing about the Tampa stadium is that there is a 100' long pirate ship in one corner of the stadium that fires out goodies (t-shirts etc) when the Buccs score. Great atmosphere in there.

Alltel stadium sells a fine frozen Marguarita.

 

[League1Champions]

Just to really rub it in, these are Portsmouth's latest stadium plans (I know they come up with a new one every year, but as they're suddenly fashionable again, their council are obviously taking notice). The architect is the same bloke who designed the Allianz Arena (see above) and the new Olympic stadium in Beijing.

They'll probably have European money lobbed freely at them too, by virtue of the fact that it'll be regenerating a totally crappy area.
Honestly, if this ever replaces Fratton Park- and let's face it, they'll probably have it built before Falmer ever is, I will cry.

Fantastic until its underwater in about 5 years maybe thats their idea so they wont have to listen to that Westwood moron and his stupid bell.

 

[surrey jim]

Capacity is only 60.000 for that one.

I think the coolest of all those is the doak campbell, it's proper old school and has a history, and it's made out of bricks and not mecano like the rest of them

does look nice

 

[Lady Whistledown]

True, it is supposed to be partially built on reclaimed land, so could turn out to be more expensive or complicated than they think (estimated cost is £600 million!! Where do Pompey get that sort of money??)

As for the Seattle one, I just can't get over the city demolishing a massive stadium that was only built in 1976, just because the owners want a shiny new one. I mean, three cheers for progress, but if we'd built a ground in the seventies, we'd still be calling it new now.

I remember there being a programme on once about the demolition of the Kingdome- the concrete dome on top was the largest single concrete dome on earth and they had to blow it up in a particular way or the impact of it landing on the ground would have floored half the city.

Demolition programmes:

 

[League1Champions]

Coliseum home of the USC (University of Southern California) Trojans

Whoops forgot to say capacity 92,000 and its sold out for every game

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Coliseum home of the USC (University of Southern California) Trojans

And away fans have the nerve to moan they're miles from the pitch at Withdean, the cheek of it

 

[Buffalo Seagull]

Coliseum home of the USC (University of Southern California) Trojans

Whoops forgot to say capacity 92,000 and its sold out for every game

The college games in Los Angeles (USC and UCLA) are huge. It's a bit of an embarrassment to the NFL that greater Los Angeles has a population of almost 20 million, but no NFL team.

 

[Crawley Cobbler]

My mate played college football for Ithaca and he said the same thing, if not bigger. He said the standard isn't far off the NFL, but the big difference is that the players are all hungry for success because they haven't made it yet. Even high school football gets crowds of a few thousand.

The first bit is mystifyingly true but the second bit is bollocks.

Only the very best college players are good enough to even play, let alone start in their first NFL seasons, the majority don't have a clue what they're doing at that level when they first move up.

 

[Brovion]

The college games in Los Angeles (USC and UCLA) are huge. It's a bit of an embarrassment to the NFL that greater Los Angeles has a population of almost 20 million, but no NFL team.

True, but do they really need it? When I went to San Fransisco last year I got tickets for the Raiders no problem at all - the ground wasn't even full (perhaps not surprising given the recent form). However all everybody wanted to talk about was college football. My brother-in-law's family and friends (he's married to a Californian) are all mad-keen football fans but none of them give a toss about the NFL; all they're interested in is their college teams. If pushed they say they follow players, for example the USC old boys were all looking forward to seeing Reggie Bush in the pro game.

We discussed this and one of the reasons IS the franchise system. USC is never going to relocate to, say, Florida, whereas with teams like the Raiders, who have a history of moving, you never know if you'll wake up one morning and find them gone. Consequently you feel you can't 'commit' to them 100%.

 

[Icy Gull]

I don't care how big or great the stadiums are...if it's American Football on offer I'll not be wanting a ticket thanks

 

[Ozymandias]

True, but do they really need it? When I went to San Fransisco last year I got tickets for the Raiders no problem at all - the ground wasn't even full (perhaps not surprising given the recent form). However all everybody wanted to talk about was college football. My brother-in-law's family and friends (he's married to a Californian) are all mad-keen football fans but none of them give a toss about the NFL; all they're interested in is their college teams.

College football is like a religion, families live, breath and die for there hometown College team, regardless of how big the college or school is. A colleague in the US came from a some small town in Texas (shitssville or something similar) with a pop of about 5,000 - when the high school team played the town came to a stand still with the vast majority of the population attending the game. They shipped police officers in from one of the larger towns as matchday was a burglars paradise. Apparantly something similar happens when Green Bay play at home.

The Saturday morning coverage of the selected College game is akin to the coverage that we used to give to the FA cup final in the seventies. When on business in the US I was more interested in the college games that the NFL. The standard of football is pretty good and high scoring.

When Stanford Univ play (30 mins from San Fran) the freeway jams up with the traffic, utter chaos. Getting a ticket for a '49ers game was easier than getting a ticket for the Stanford game.

 

[hornet]

ASU

Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Phoenix. I was at ASU for 5 months in 1996 and saw the Sun Devils go unbeaten in their season until the final when they lost in the Rose Bowl.

Being part of a crowd of 76,000 in the scorching heat to watch a university team playing was an amazing experience. And all on the university campus, our halls were about 5 mins walk from the stadium entrance.

 

[Buffalo Seagull]

True, but do they really need it? When I went to San Fransisco last year I got tickets for the Raiders no problem at all - the ground wasn't even full (perhaps not surprising given the recent form). However all everybody wanted to talk about was college football. My brother-in-law's family and friends (he's married to a Californian) are all mad-keen football fans but none of them give a toss about the NFL; all they're interested in is their college teams. If pushed they say they follow players, for example the USC old boys were all looking forward to seeing Reggie Bush in the pro game.

We discussed this and one of the reasons IS the franchise system. USC is never going to relocate to, say, Florida, whereas with teams like the Raiders, who have a history of moving, you never know if you'll wake up one morning and find them gone. Consequently you feel you can't 'commit' to them 100%.

I think it depends on the market. For a city like LA, which has seen teams come and go, and has big college teams, I think you're spot on. But for the smaller market teams like Buffalo or Green Bay, it's all about the NFL.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Has everyone forgotten that America is f***ing MASSIVE?

 

[Jam The Man]

And this stadium is air conditioned !!

I've been to see baseball at the Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix (45,000 seater) and they shut the roof for day games and switch the aircon on the night before.

100 degrees outside. Just lovely in the stadium.

Baseball teams play 81 home games, (and 81 away) have home stands of 8 to 14 consecutive days, sell out usually, cheap ticket prices, stadium cleaned top to bottom overnight.

But our players play too much and the new Wembley is indeed the best in the world

I had tickets to go to the Diamondbacks about 6 years ago but had to cancel as the person i was with had a heart attack (survived)..

 

[perth seagull]

I'll never understand the American mentality and why they're so big into college and high school sports. I hear some high schools have stadiums that hold 20,000. I just can't comprehend how some high school team can attract so much interest!?