Michigan Stadium Is Great. Enjoy What It Is, not What It Isn't
There's a post on the board suggesting that Michigan rebuild the endzone stands of Michigan Stadium. It specifically identifies stadiums at schools like LSU, Texas A&M, Penn State, and Alabama as examples to emulate.
Now, I've been to LSU for a night game. The stadium was great and the fans are great. But we are not LSU.
I've been to Texas A&M for a game. The stadium was great and the fans are great. But we are not Texas A&M.
I've been to Tennessee for a game (two, actually). The stadium was great and the fans are great. But we are not Tennessee.
I've been to Michigan Stadium for countless games. The stadium is great and the fans are great. We are not Alabama or Florida or Penn State or LSU or Texas A&M; we are Michigan. Yeah, they have these daunting superstructures now that their ADs make more money than they know what to do with. They're nice places. But our place is nice too.
Michigan Stadium is built how it is because in 1927 Michigan football was a big deal. From 1928 onward it held 85,000 fans at a time when most people in the South were farmers and they were watching football in stadiums that held 30,000 people because that's all that they needed (Michigan could draw 40,000 to Ferry Field before World War I). In the 40s Michigan had Crisler and winged helmets and the mad magicians and enough demand to bump up the capacity to almost 100,000 by 1949. In the 1960s people could remember the "olden days" at Michigan Stadium while a big game in Alabama had to be played in Birmingham because the on-campus stadium simply wasn't big. This was true of them well into the 80s.
Michigan Stadium isn't very vertical, and it only has one deck. But it exists that way because of history. There are season ticket holders who remember the dark days before Bo that have walked down those stairs in that single bowl for decades. There have been some expansions and some modifications, but it is still recognizably the same place that Harmon played in, that Chappuis played in, that Dierdorf played in, and that Woodson played in.
And we have our own traditions. Our own incredible fanbase. Our own greatness. Remember after UTL I when the fans didn't leave for over an hour? The Gameday guys doing postgame were openly in awe. Remember how loud it got in '97 against OSU, or in '04 against MSU? It was incredible.
Yeah, physically it doesn't reflect the sound as much as something that just had an endzone upper deck added on in the last decade, but that's not what Michigan Stadium is. Michigan Stadium is a wonderful, unique stadium that is special in its own right. Occasionally too quiet? Make it loud with our own voices.
But rejoice in what it is. Treasure what it is.
Don't get distracted by what it is not.
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People said the same thing about the boxes. I like it as it is but if we fill it, more seats are ok with me.
I remember that asshat.... John Pollack of "Save the Big House".
Agree.
Michigan Stadium is special because of the teams that play there. If Michigan was bad it would not have the cahe' it does now. If they ever decided to reconfigure the endzone/sideline seating by making the grade steeper (which would help with sound) and or add a deck, it would still be a special place and it would still be Michigan Stadium.
It seems like some are opposed to change just because it's change. Nothing wrong with trying to improve upon what you have. This isn't the 1930's anymore and college football is different today than it was then. Personally I get tired of hearing how Michigan Stadium is the quiestest 110,000 people on earth. Part of that is because the grade of the stadium and structure is just not condusive to sound. If you can fix that problem then why wouldn't you?
"It seems like some are opposed to change just because it's change."
Some may be that way, but the people disagreeing with you aren't disagreeing because they don't like change. They are disagreeing because you are, basically, arguing: "Michigan Stadium would be better if it were Kyle Field."
And we disagree.
for well over 100 years, the stadium would not have been built nor expanded.
The stadium is a monument to the on going excellence of Michigan football. I've never liked the label "the big house" it's always been Michigan Stadium to me.
It ain't broke, so let us not look to "fix" it.
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Whoops, you're right. Oratory gone awry. Fixed.
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is OK for a few more minutes.
Problem is, JH can hold a satellite camp there.....
just create 5000 accounts, and up vote him/her once from each one. or gain the respect of the mods, become one, and have all-powerful point control.
the point is: WHERE IS YOUR PASSION MAN?
you mean like WD?
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Exactly. Stop with the comparisons.
NOTHING compares to The Big House.
It isn't just some place. If you've been lucky enough to in there alone when it's completely empty, you feel it. There is an aura that you can't put into words.
Even during games, you take a step back and you picture games that happened before your time and you picture them happening right from the viewpoint you're at.
if another school comes up with more seating. Especailly since they lost so many seats this past season.
Please don't flame me too hard butI think the biggest thing that needs to change is some of the fan base. There are fans from the old school who get upset at fans standing, cheering, really going nuts after a big play, ect. They want the game to be more civil, fans to sit down and give a polite clap after every play. I've been yelled at numerous times by our own fanbase for standing on a key third down while everyone 15 rows in front were standing as well.
I love going to Michigan games, and despite hours of travel every weekend its worth it to keep season tickets in my mind. I just think people need to be open to change, let things evolve for the better. Things don't have to be like 1967 when you show up to a game. We usually have one rowdy game a year, sometimes not, but I am jealous when I watch other schools looking like the whole place is jumping 8 out of 12 weeks. Need to keep the home field advantage.
Asshat - if you think the only people in the stadium acting like idiots are those of us who were there in the sixties, you aren't looking very hard, and your tolerance is slipping. Do you berate Uber drivers too?
Never dawning on you that the "old schoolers" are the very ones that initiated the hash bash.
And I agree, he's being a bigoted asshole. It might be instructive to school him about the student section of the 60s and 70s being far rowdier than anything Michigan Stadium has seen in the 21st C.
And Get Off My Lawn while you're at it.
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There may be, and I'm not against updates. I was in favor of the luxury suite expansion and still like it more than the average fan probably does. I just don't think it's wise or necessary to change the overall character of the stadium. And, with this all a hypothetical concept anyway, it's better to enjoy that character for what it is.
I think this is the exact mindset to have, in my opinion. It allows for change but under the tenants of what keeps the stadium the stadium. But I didn't get that vibe in reading your original post. I felt that it was a more us vs. them, frowning upon change. My bad for interpreting it that way.
No arguement there, but don't you think the grade of the stadium could be steeper? It would help keep the sound in and make the place look more intimidating while still keeping the overall essence of the bowl in tct. A small deck like what LSU did over each endzone would just be the cherry on top IMO.
The grade of the stadium is too shallow. That's why noise escapes so easily and why the seats closer to field level are so bad. I wish there was something that could be done to steepen the grade of the bowl.
In terms of LSU, I'm talking about their newest endzone addition. Picture that on both sides of Michigan stadium. Would do wonder for keeping more noise in.
You can't steepen the grade of the bowl without building an entirely new stadium. Yes, it is a substantially different grade than what is built today; it was build in a time when stadium architecture was completely different. Rebuilding it is a prohibitive and pointless idea.
The whole point of my post is that people (like you) should accept this and stop whining about how Michigan Stadium isn't some other Stadium that was barely bigger than a high school field when Michigan Stadium was designed and built. Your continued longing for LSU's endzone leads me to believe that you have no idea what LSU's stadium is really like or how it got to be the way that it is. Do you realize that those first two decks were built simultaneously, years before the latest addition of club seats? Do you realize that the club seats (like the two current upper decks, one of which replaced a previous upper deck ten years ago) are built as a completely independent structure behind the existing grandstand? Do you know how ear-bleedingly loud the student section is with no upper deck behind it, simply because the students are crazy?
Michigan Stadium is not going to be Death Valley. It does not need to be. It may one day add some boxes or some seats in the end zones; it will still be shallow and it will still be a bowl and that is perfectly alright. Acoustics make a difference in stadium noise and Michigan's acoustics will never be as good as Tennessee's.
But Michigan Stadium can still be loud if the fans get loud. You want it loud? Talk with your friends. Get together and yell on every defensive down. Jump up and down on every third down. Get old and buy season tickets and teach your kids to yell on every third down.
The reason a lot of these Southern Stadiums are loud is because people go to the Stadium expecting to make noise.
Spare me the lecture.
Your need for people to see it your way and only way way is quite off putting.
Lets just agree to disagree on this subject.
I wouldn't be able to yell at the young whippersnappers in front of me.
for the first time in 1968 the view was nothing less than awe-inspiring.
Today, the view is awe-inspiring and it encompasses a lifetime of memories. I like the additions, but change for the sake of change isn't always a good thing, and after some of our recent nightmares, we should know, understand, and embrace that fact.