Bucket List: Stadiums
I think Michigan and Michigan Stadium are awesome.
That being said, I also enjoy traveling to other stadiums to check out what architecture, environment, and traditions they offer. What other stadiums would you most like to visit?
My list (in approximate order of care):
- Alabama
- Nebraska
- Texas A&M
- LSU
- Penn State
- Rose Bowl
- Indiana
So far I've been to MICH, OSU, ND, MSU, EMU, Texas, SMU, North Texas, Cotton Bowl, and AT&T Stadium (vs Bama).
February 17th, 2016 at 11:52 AM ^
I so badly want to go to Baton Rouge for a night game against Alabama or some other good team.
February 17th, 2016 at 11:59 AM ^
I'm with you. LSU for a night game during any big game is high up on my list. Bama for an Iron bowl too.
February 17th, 2016 at 1:35 PM ^
Easily number one for me.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:04 PM ^
Haven't been in Bryant-Denny since '90 or so, pre-expansion, but rare night games there in the 80s were a blast. Problem was, Bama played half their home games in Birmingham, at Legion Field, at the time, and it was usually the good games. (iirc: bridges, water, lotta)
February 17th, 2016 at 12:07 PM ^
I'll be there this year for Bama! Can't wait!
February 17th, 2016 at 1:12 PM ^
I'll be at that game too!!
February 17th, 2016 at 12:10 PM ^
I was lucky enough to attend this game. Saturday night, 8:15 local time kick. Game wasn't particularly well-played, but it was tight, and LSU pulled out a squeaker 14-13. Was a great experience.
February 17th, 2016 at 11:53 AM ^
Being played this year? Whatever stadium that may be. (Solid List)
February 17th, 2016 at 11:59 AM ^
The fucking Outback Bowl.
Seriously. Ugh...
Maybe Harbaugh can climb atop the crow's nest on the big pirate ship.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:01 PM ^
February 17th, 2016 at 12:02 PM ^
It's played in Raymond James stadium this year. Not terrible, considering pro stadiums don't compare to college stadiums as far as game environment.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:48 PM ^
Your opinion, man. I've been to plenty of P5 college stadiums/environments that are lame as hell (UNC, Duke, MSU, Northwestern....could go on). Meanwhile, I've had a blast at a comparitively unremarkable place like PBS in Cinci no matter who's playing.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:08 PM ^
It's good enough for a college championship.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:11 PM ^
Its a shit stadium in a shit city. I was there for the bowl game against south carolina.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:19 PM ^
Ford Field was good enough for a Super Bowl but I sure as hell wouldn't want to watch a college championship game there.
The MBA's are trying their damndest to suck all the life out of college football.
February 17th, 2016 at 11:54 AM ^
I am actually working through my bucket list. It includes the Rose Bowl and every B1G stadium. I have checked off Ryan Field, Michigan Stadium, Beaver Stadium, and Notre Dame. This year I am eyeing Kinnick and Spartan Stadium.
February 17th, 2016 at 11:56 AM ^
So far I have been to 6 College stadiums, 11 NFL stadiums and 15 MLB stadiums, along with a few other things tossed in.
While football will always be my favorite sport, I enjyo MLB stadiums above all else. There is just something so different about every single stadium that makes it interesting.
Top 3 Favorite
AT&T, PNC, and Comerica.
Bottom 3
Wrigley, Yankee Stadium, Angel Stadium
Top 3 Need to see
Fenway, Camden, Arlignton
February 17th, 2016 at 12:07 PM ^
Top 3: AT&T, PNC, Camden
Bottom 3: Yankee Stadium (only went to the old one), US Cellular, and US Cellular again.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:08 PM ^
I get to a Tigers away game every year at a park I haven't been to before and AT&T is next up on my ballpark bucket list (unfortunately not this year). I love the design and the bay, I need to get there.
PNC Park might be my favorite stadium in all of sports, it's perfect. If the Pens weren't repulsive Pitt would be the best sports city, between their history, the food, the fans, and the city/geography. I love going to Pitt for games.
Camden is also very nice (go to the blue moon cafe for breakfast when you go, it'll make you consider driving to Baltimore for breakfast every morning forever). Fenway is legendary, obviously. I actually really dislike Comerica. Detroit followed up one of the legendary sporting venues with an incredibly mediocre and poorly designed park.
If Wrigley is in your bottom 3, then you must never have been to The Trop. That place just sucks.
February 17th, 2016 at 1:20 PM ^
I have not been to the Trop. I have heard awful things.
Visited: Twins (Old and New), Brewers(Old and New), Cubs, Reds, Tigers, Indians, Pirates, Phillies, Yankees (New), Diamondbacks, Padres, Dodgers, Angels, Giants.
The west coast teams we hit on a trip this last summer. We were supposed to go to Oakland but after reading about the Stadium and the area around it, we went to Las Vegas instead.
I have also heard terrible things about US Cellular, from White Sox fans.
February 17th, 2016 at 1:45 PM ^
February 17th, 2016 at 12:09 PM ^
February 17th, 2016 at 11:56 AM ^
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February 17th, 2016 at 2:07 PM ^
Agree with this. Camp Randall is my favorite B1G venue after Michigan Stadium. Great sound system and some neat traditions like the fifth quarter, the students singing Varsity at the end, and the playing of Jump Around before the 4th quarter. It's pretty fun being in the upper deck for Jump Around and thinking you're going to die because you're on a cantilevered concrete structure with 15,000 idiots all jumping at the same time and making it sway up and down.
February 17th, 2016 at 11:57 AM ^
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February 17th, 2016 at 12:28 PM ^
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February 17th, 2016 at 1:11 PM ^
I've been to plenty of games @ Memorial Stadium (mostly UofM games) and have had plenty of fun in that "piece of shit" as you so eloquently put it. You can get a really good seat for far less than at the Big House and the Tailgating Fields across 17th st are awesome! The stadium itself isn't all that great, but it is a basketball school afterall.
Indiana fans LOVE TO PARTY! Hell, most of them don't even go into the stadium to watch the game, but they'll show up 4-6 hours before kickoff to grill out, drink and have fun.
I was at the double OT thriller last year and nearly 60%-70% of the stadium was filled with Maize & Blue.
February 17th, 2016 at 5:49 PM ^
Been to several IU-M games at Memorial. Not a bad experience for a BB school... cheap tickets, solid tailgating scene. The Fuuuuurst Down Hooooooosiers bit gets old after every 1st down.
This years past game was a good game, sloppy defensively, but entertaining. Maize and Blue was represented very well!
IU's few true FB fans are classy and good sports. Students, not so much. IMO they're gone by halftime regardless of the score. And back in '10, when Denard went down with a knee injury, those booger eating morons cheered.
After that game some IU coed heckled my group, all decked out in M gear. She slurred "Ann Arbor has gonorrhea!"
OT:
Camp Randall
Happy Valley
MSU - for comparision sake
Ohio Stadium
Maybe Boise State (if M were to play them)
Non NCAAF
Lambeau
Camp Nou
Another hockey game at Big House
February 18th, 2016 at 8:15 AM ^
to MSU for "comparison sake"? I'll save you the time and $$ and being spit on- there is no comparison.
February 17th, 2016 at 2:01 PM ^
The bad thing about Indiana is the announcer.
It is a glorfied high school atmosphere but the double OT game was still fun and the city is pretty cool as well.
February 17th, 2016 at 11:57 AM ^
February 17th, 2016 at 11:58 AM ^
Really want to go to our game in Seattle in a few years, I've always wanted to watch a game in Husky stadium. Cool Design, overlooking the water. Cool team until they messed with their jerseys and their recruiting sites went all Penn State of the Pacific Northwest.
Clemson after that. I bet Bryant-Denny is nice but I don't have any desire to be there.
Outside of those two, not many more on my list. I've been lucky enough to go to a bunch of stadiums and no one has come close to ours.
February 17th, 2016 at 1:02 PM ^
When I read "Bryant-Denny" I think:
February 17th, 2016 at 12:00 PM ^
Alabama vs. LSU in Baton Rouge is on my 2016 Bucket List. It's 1-2 weekends after (hopefully) my last SOA exam ever. It may be the last time Les even coaches that game in Baton Rouge. And LSU has a great shot at the national championship this year. I think that is going to be an all-timer from a game environment perspective. I'm 100% going to that game.
Other stadiums: Beaver Stadium for a night game, Autzen stadium, Cal-Berkeley, Darrell K Royal stadium, Ole Miss (mostly to see if the Grove is all it's cracked up to be), Neyland stadium, Rose Bowl, Husky Stadium.
I've already been to Michigan Stadium for UM/OSU (it was the Desmond Heisman-pose game), the Orange Bowl, The Swamp, Sanford Stadium, wherever Miami played after the Orange Bowl, and I was in Columbus for the 04 OSU/Michigan game, but I didn't go into the Horseshoe.
Great off-season topic!
February 17th, 2016 at 12:05 PM ^
I have been to a bunch of stadiums, but there are some that I have not seen a game at. In no particular order, I'd like to tailgate and see a game at:
LSU (night)
Wisconsin
Nebraska
Florida
Tenn
Rose Bowl
Clemson
Oregon
Notre Dame
Auburn
Ole Miss
Texas
Colorado
Cal
Washington
Harvard
Yale
February 17th, 2016 at 1:48 PM ^
February 17th, 2016 at 1:53 PM ^
Having been to Harvard Stadium a few times while a grad student and the Yale Bowl a number of times as well, I would offer three pieces of info:
1. The game day experience of the Harvard-Yale game is unlike any other game that either team plays. If you are going to visit, do it for H-Y or you will probably have a subpar experience.
2. More people go for the tailgating than the game, and it's highly likely that no one will no anything about the actual football about to be played. It's like if you distilled our hate for OSU down but then subtracted all knowledge of football. But it's still fun.
3. For my money, despite having a degree from Harvard, I think that Yale has a better game day experience. Part of that is that as far as I can tell, Harvard undergrads are incapable of having fun while the Yalies seem to have no issue with it.
Having grown up on Michigan football and then attended UM undergrad, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of tailgating and the ability to show such disdain for a rival -- although I have to say it is usually classy disdain. I've been to four H-Y games, usually dressed in Harvard gear (always with a M hat though), and never been meaningfully harassed in any way other than playful teasing, and always in good fun. Big contrast from wearing my UM geat to the Shoe and getting full beer bottles thrown at me and racial slurs thrown at my friends.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:04 PM ^
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February 17th, 2016 at 12:05 PM ^
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February 17th, 2016 at 5:45 PM ^
I'd want to see games at all those places. The Coliseum would be cool just from the historical perspective and I'm sure it'd be a great atmoshpere when SC is actually a top team.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:06 PM ^
There is so much history up at West Point, and it would be great to see a game there when the leaves are turning in the autumn.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:14 PM ^
Not a lot people bring up Michie! It's incredible. I considered West Point for some time and went to a game in the fall. The all-stone stadium with the Hudson cutting through the mountains as the leaves change - it's beautiful. Now if only Army could field a semi-respectable football team
February 17th, 2016 at 12:35 PM ^
February 17th, 2016 at 1:17 PM ^
February 17th, 2016 at 12:07 PM ^
I've been to Michigan, MSU, Indiana, Purdue, ND, Florida, UCF, Citrus Bowl, Raymond James (Outback Bowl).
Have always wanted to go to the Rose Bowl. Think Autzen and Kinnick would be cool stadiums to visit.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:08 PM ^
Husky Stadium and Cal Memorial Stadium.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:21 PM ^
February 17th, 2016 at 12:25 PM ^
Husky Stadium in the daytime is awesome. No picture does Mt Rainier justice.
My favorite away site ever.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:51 PM ^
Not sure about U Dub, but anytime the TV checks in on Cal, there are plenty of available seats.
February 17th, 2016 at 12:08 PM ^
My list would be:
LSU (preferably for a night game against Bama)
Bama
Rose Bowl
For some reason, I also think that Wisconsin would be pretty cool, but only if it is on one of those random 2-year periods that occurs every 10 years or so when they are really good.