We're about to lose the attendance record
https://twitter.com/BFeldmanCBS/status/388054891848941568
#VaTech to play #Tennessee at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2016, per source. Expected to draw a record 150,000-160k fans.
— Bruce Feldman (@BFeldmanCBS) October 9, 2013
October 9th, 2013 at 11:54 PM ^
People will come for the gimmick, just to say they were there. They would never go back a second time.
October 9th, 2013 at 8:27 PM ^
Still, if they want to do, let them have at it. The record was bound to be broken eventually. I could see by 2020 that Texas, not wanting to be outdone, schedules a game with Bama to be played at Tiananmen Square, with a world record crowd of 500,000 spectators.
October 10th, 2013 at 2:45 AM ^
October 9th, 2013 at 8:34 PM ^
If you have to go off campus to set some type of record, you are admitting that you are losing the attendance battle for largest stadium capacity in college football. The truth simply remains, by objective standards that more people have watched Michigan football on television, in person and historcially since the onset of college football. These facts can all be verified by the College Football Warehouse, and while promotions are good for college football, trying to "Keep up with the Joneses'" is not necessarily a good thing. ^Take Neyland Stadium, for instance. TN is traditionally one of the top ten programs in the country; tenth to be exact. But the look of their stadium in their race to displace Michigan as the largest stadium in the U.S., makes it look like a collection of lean-tos. This is evidenced immediately upon viewing. The vision of Yost and his incredible mind to even verbalize in the 30s that "one day there will be a collection of highways running throughout this state and country that will allow people to come to what now is knowm for acre upon acre of cornfields to watch college football probably seems imaginable even to you," addressing the reporter questioning him about the size and pre-design for future expansion, is just one of the many things separating Michigan from the norm. It is not that we are better, moreso, I think, that we were blessed with people who imagined things far greater than what they were now seeing. ^ I will be completely honest with many of you on this site. As I sat in Vietnam, fortunate enough to have taken high school typing because I was a hound, I never imagined my job, then known as simply as clerk-typist, would someday be replaced with the job title systems automated clerk. And then later with that damn invention of Al Gore's - yeah right - we were the first, in the federal government, because it was designed by the DOD to daily use the www. About a year later, after introduced to every one in the world, I would go home and my son, then a junior high student would teach me things I would never have thought of simply because he was raised in the computer generation that 90% of you belong to. Relevancy is everything, and when you show me a man that will allow 115,000 to be able to watch, not just attend a football game, and did so in the 20s of the last century, while allowing for upwards of 15,000 more my curiosity and respect might be piqued. Inasmuch as there is no other being, further needn't be said.
October 9th, 2013 at 9:18 PM ^
October 9th, 2013 at 8:39 PM ^
When the WR's run routes, will they only make left turns?
October 9th, 2013 at 9:11 PM ^
shut it down
October 9th, 2013 at 10:09 PM ^
October 9th, 2013 at 10:17 PM ^
October 9th, 2013 at 9:08 PM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 12:09 AM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 9:12 AM ^
I think Butch Jones is a good coach, but way too early to predict how good Tennessee will be in 3 years. Butch Jones took over a bigger mess than Brady Hoke did, and we are still feeling the effects 3 years later even with top 5 recruiting classes the last 2 years. Butch Jones has Tennessee pointed in the right direction, but I have my doubts Tennessee will be a top 10 team 3 years from now.
And a bigger problem for Tennessee is that Florida, Georgia, and Alabama haven't dropped off at all. It may take time to get back at a level to compete with those programs.
As for the game at Bristol, I think it is a unique idea that may make for a cool one time experience. Most Michigan fans can relate to this after having a similar event with an outdoor hockey game played in Michigan Stadium. But I think the overall football experience is going to be worse than most fans realize. The sight lines are going to be terrible. Just one man's opinion. Are there even Jumbotrons at Bristol?
October 9th, 2013 at 9:11 PM ^
we never really had the record if crowd estimates from the early 20th centurty are accurate where several games, mostly involving the armed forces or Notre Dame or both, drew 120,000+ crowds.
Bristol is going to be awful as a football stadium.
October 9th, 2013 at 9:25 PM ^
Big deal . . . we'll still have the largest crowd in an actual football stadium. (But what is the deal with Tennessee and their obsession with surpassing us?)
October 9th, 2013 at 9:43 PM ^
October 9th, 2013 at 9:28 PM ^
October 9th, 2013 at 10:11 PM ^
October 9th, 2013 at 10:31 PM ^
October 9th, 2013 at 10:53 PM ^
October 9th, 2013 at 11:09 PM ^
http://www.pittalks.com/2013/03/12/the-forgotten-game-bristol-motor-speedway/
Billy Ray Barnes who played in that 1961 NFL preseason game said, “The crowd was good, but it felt like a practice. The stands were so far away from the field it was hard to get into it. We couldn’t even hear the fans cheering until we were leaving the game.”
October 9th, 2013 at 11:20 PM ^
Shows how ridiculous the idea is. It looks like you could fit about four more football fields in around the football field. The nearest seats would be basically an entire football field away from the action!
October 9th, 2013 at 11:42 PM ^
they're having a race. The normal morbid desire to see a crash will be heightened by the possibility of seeing a spinning, out of control Jeff Gordon take out half of Tennessee's team in the infield.
October 9th, 2013 at 11:59 PM ^
Might make them a better team.
October 10th, 2013 at 12:07 AM ^
Tennessee is determined to get us back for the Woodson Heisman, even if it kills them. Or blinds their fans.
October 10th, 2013 at 1:04 AM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 2:43 AM ^
October 10th, 2013 at 8:20 AM ^
Now it your time. Now is the time you say F**k it and blow the damn world away. It's time to truely conquer space. 350,000+ person stadium placed in orbit around the earth. Sure, things like "Gravity" might matter, but damnit man, you have engineers paying YOU!
October 10th, 2013 at 9:14 AM ^
So the new attendance record for a college football game, will be at a race track. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.
October 10th, 2013 at 12:39 PM ^
That still doesn't change the fact that we do and always will have the largest football stadium.
October 10th, 2013 at 1:21 PM ^
The sight lines are just going to be terrible. I don't think people realize how small a football field is compared to the infield of the track.
Neyland Stadium @Neyland_Stadium
Neyland Stadium compared to Bristol Motor Speedway. pic.twitter.com/i7HfZGKPZs
October 10th, 2013 at 2:43 PM ^
is reduce the seat size at the Big House in half, allow only really skinny people in (waist less than a 22) we could have easily 175,000. Plus the additional revenue generated in seat licenses and ticket sales would greatly help our financially strapped institution.
October 10th, 2013 at 2:48 PM ^
We are Michigan fergodsakes!!!!