OT: Worst sporting venues?
Since the OT season is winding down, what are some of the worst sporting venues you've been to or know of?
Obviously ones in Columbus and other B1G cities will be mentioned. This is more specifically for ones outside those awful places.
Joe Louis Arena is turrible. Every seat I sit in, something is wrong with it. Sat down by the glass at the 2013 CCHA Playoff Semifinals and the chair I was in was essentially a rocking chair.
I've seen some amazing Michigan Hockey moments there, but gosh damn that place is just a dump. I have a feeling the B1G selected a rotating tournament that includes Detroit because of the new arena coming.
August 24th, 2014 at 6:40 AM ^
August 24th, 2014 at 8:43 PM ^
I went to a football camp there back in the Saban era (Saban was a dick back then too). I went to a lot of camps in high school and most stadiums wowed me a little. Spartan Stadium was more of a "meh" feeling. First experience playing on what felt more like a carpet than a football field. I hated it and went home with an endless supply of rugburns. About the only positive thing about that camp for me had to be picking off TJ Duckett and running it back for six during the Air Force Football session at night.
August 23rd, 2014 at 10:24 PM ^
August 23rd, 2014 at 11:18 PM ^
I have loved going to several Rose Bowl games, and my time living close to there. Being at the game as the sun goes down, with the San Gabriel mountains overlooking, is an awesome experience.
I will say, my seats at the 1993 Rose Bowl were much better than in 2007. Of course, this was also affected by the fact that Michigan won in 93 and didn't win in 07. But still. All seats are not created equal. Even in Michigan Stadium, I'm not sure I would want to be in the first two or three rows in the corner. I suppose it is better than not going at all, but not much better
August 24th, 2014 at 12:27 AM ^
August 24th, 2014 at 10:45 PM ^
was the darkest place i ever remember playing hockey. the spitfire fans were no joy either. go (jr.) wings. we got in lots of fights there too, but with the players, not the fans.
August 23rd, 2014 at 10:38 PM ^
August 23rd, 2014 at 10:44 PM ^
The Metrodome sucked really bad for the Twins. Terrible place to watch baseball. Target Field, however, is probably a top 3 stadium in baseball now.
Not a fan of the Georgia Dome either.
August 23rd, 2014 at 10:47 PM ^
worst place I've ever been to a game or concert. Was built as an all purpose arena and it sucks equally at everything. Has the atmosphere of a funeral home, the baseline seats are 20 yeards away from the court and lower level corner seats are effectively blocked from seeing anything but the backboard. There's never any need to sit in the upper level because the lower is never full.
For concerts the acoustics blow! The echo of the lower tones creates a giant bowl of mush. You cannot make out a single word the singer is singing.
A distant second would the the old Vet in Philly.
August 23rd, 2014 at 11:02 PM ^
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August 23rd, 2014 at 11:55 PM ^
Good god, you could put any sport in that place and kill most of the fun of it. Sterile, cavernous, ugly. I don't live in Houston anymore, but thankfully it's just an empty relic now. I've been to a couple of games in Reliant and it's a huge improvement, although they bring the roof out totally unecessarily, no matter the weather. Houstonians are terrified of seeing the sky, apparently.
August 24th, 2014 at 12:01 AM ^
The Carrier Dome (Syracuse) is hell on earth. I went there for the U-M game 15 years ago or so, and it just sucked. Thank God we won. Concrete domed beer-stank shit-stain on our earth.
August 24th, 2014 at 12:16 AM ^
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August 24th, 2014 at 12:30 AM ^
It's a great experience for sure, but yep. Beaver Stadium is what happens when you just willy-nilly add a bunch of seats whenever you think about it without really thinking about aesthetics. They basically built a hodgepodge Erector Set stadium out there.
August 24th, 2014 at 1:24 PM ^
Yes, they added onto it in sections over the course of 50 years. And each addition was enough years apart from the previous one where the architectural styles changed. So everything looks like it was just thrown on top of the previous layer. Because it was.
You can see this best in the end-zone upper decks. Not only do they not look alike in each end-zone, they don't even have the same number of levels. The earlier side has one level, the Mount Nittany side has two levels. Because, why not?
August 24th, 2014 at 2:06 AM ^
August 24th, 2014 at 8:28 AM ^
Kelly Shorts Stadium? I haven't been there in over 3 decades, but that stadium screamed 'high school!' when I saw a game there in the early 80's.
OTOH, Waldo Stadium at WMU is actually pretty nice in the aftermath of the remodel they did there a couple decades or so ago. The team is seldom worth watching, but the venue is a pretty good place for some MACtion.
August 24th, 2014 at 12:45 PM ^
August 24th, 2014 at 7:51 AM ^
August 24th, 2014 at 9:40 AM ^
August 24th, 2014 at 10:51 AM ^
If you were behind a post, this was true, but if you were in front of one the view was fantastic. The upper deck was much closer to the field than Comerica's is. There were many good upper-deck seats at Tiger Stadium, whereas at Comerica there really aren't any because they're so far away.
August 24th, 2014 at 12:26 PM ^
the same Tiger Stadium I went to.
I would contend that there were actually more seats with a good view at Tiger Stadium than at Comerica. Very few bad seats anywhere in the upper deck, except for a relatively small # of obstructed view seats because of some roof support beams in certain areas---the vast majority of the beams that caused obstruction were in the lower deck, those beams be. ing there to support the upper deck.
On the other hand, at least a third of the lower deck seats at Tiger Stadium were poor-to-bad. Besides the beams, the upper deck itself blocked the view of portions of the field. So while I'm in agreement with you there, I also contend that 2/3rds of the upper deck seats at Comerica are just way too far from the field unless you have binoculars.
Then take into account the fact that Comerica's capacity is about 10,000 less than Tiger Stadium's, and you end up with a smaller net # of good seats.
Tiger Stadium was obsolete for many reasons, but seats with a view was not one of those reasons. In a perfect world, Tiger ownership should have told the architects to incorporate as many features of Tiger Stadium as their engineers could (as the basic blueprint) and go from there.
August 24th, 2014 at 12:46 PM ^
August 24th, 2014 at 5:03 PM ^
to each his own. Tiger Stadium was long regarded as having some of the best seats in baseball.
August 24th, 2014 at 10:24 PM ^
Tiger Stadium had all the same problems except the bugs and the excess size. Obstructed views, peeling paint, general dilapidation, etc.
August 24th, 2014 at 2:40 PM ^
The field there has(or had) a giant crown in the middle of the field that ran end zone to end zone.
To date myself Steve Mariucci beat my team that day.
Was the crown for the snow? I have no idea, but it was the only field I saw like that in 10 years of football.
Go Romulus Eagles
Go Saginaw Valley State
August 24th, 2014 at 7:21 PM ^
August 24th, 2014 at 4:43 PM ^
Nassau Coliseum is a travesty.
August 24th, 2014 at 5:02 PM ^
atmosphere out of the picture, the Rose Bowl isn't all that great of a venue. Low angles, long way from the field.
Before the redue of lowering the field and adding seats, Ohio Stadium wasn't all that fantastic either. B Deck is a travesty.
August 24th, 2014 at 8:37 PM ^
In the 80's the place was a pit and unless it was the Seminoles or Gators visiting there were about 25k in the stands. Biggest bunch of fair weather fans eva.
I attended the Miami blowout of Notre Dame in Gerry Faust's last game at ND. Miami romped 58-7. Prior to the game I stopped to buy a kabob from a street vendor with a hibachi. At the point where I finished the transaction I noticed that his bbq brush had paint stains on the handle. No single purpose tools in his kitchen! Miam is a wretched place all around.
August 24th, 2014 at 10:51 PM ^
places i got to play - yost #1 (of course), the old olympia, both of NMU's ice rinks, lake view and the new olympic sheet they put in, and lastly munn, which had great ice.
for football, my favorite place was qualcomm, giants stadium which had the nicest piece of artificial turf i ever played on, followed by the LA coliseum which itself was in a gangster infested crud hole for which i was with my armed body guard/investigators who had my back, but the stadium itself is pretty cool.
August 25th, 2014 at 2:26 AM ^
August 25th, 2014 at 2:27 AM ^