OT: What's the worst big ten stadium?
Has to be either High Point Solutions Stadium, Ross Ade Stadium, or Spartan Stadium. I couldn't find a bathroom to save my life in EL or Piscataway and Ross Ade is always 40 percent full when we play there. Memorial Stadium (Champaign) and Byrd Stadium are probably up there too.
April 20th, 2017 at 12:50 PM ^
But Purdue's was blehhhhhhhhhh. I almost fell asleep looking at that stadium. There's nothing good about it.
April 20th, 2017 at 12:55 PM ^
Agreed. Horrible stadium and boring campus.
Purdue's stadium is meh, but the school itself is nicely put together. It is largely contiguous, very large and has its own jet airport on one end of campus.
....And absolutely nothing to do at night or for fun anywhere in West Lafayette
eh, you can leave the stadium, go to the corner store to get a beer, and re-enter. plus you get to see all the cool windmills on the drive down. I'll say its not bottom 3.
April 20th, 2017 at 12:50 PM ^
Spartan Stadium honestly felt like a high school stadium when I was there. Granted, the only 2 I've been to are Michigan and Spartan Stadium so I can't speak as to the others.
April 20th, 2017 at 12:51 PM ^
I've been to several truckstops that are more aesthetically pleasing
Seeing as there was a gas station connected to Spartan Stadium until 2013, that comparison isn't too far off.
April 20th, 2017 at 12:51 PM ^
The concourse at Spartan Stadium smells like nacho cheese, which is not at all nauseating after a morning of drinking.
April 20th, 2017 at 12:57 PM ^
if it smelled like that AND nacho's weren't sold there.
April 20th, 2017 at 12:52 PM ^
crap stadium is crap, housing crap, with crap fanbase.
April 20th, 2017 at 12:55 PM ^
3-9 stadium
April 20th, 2017 at 12:57 PM ^
Worst Big Ten...
1) Northwestern is a joke. Very small and a pain to get into and out. Sure, the EL isn't too far away, but taking a bus back to the City is traffic armageddon.
2) High Point doesn't feel like a college stadium at all. No "campus" feel around.
3) Memorial Stadium (tie) both at Indiana and Illinois
4) Last time I was at Ohio Stadium was before the closed in the horseshoe. They had temporarly bleachers; those would move and sway all day, thought for sure they would come down.
I don't get the hate for Northwestern. It's a small stadium, but it's the right size for the number of fans they usually get. I'd take a full 50,000 seat stadium over a two-thirds full 90,000 seat stadium any day as far as stadium atmosphere. And it's located in a beautiful neighborhood, next to a golf course that's awesome for tailgating, and close to Lake Michigan. It's walkable to both the El and the Metra (I have no idea why you'd ever take a bus to/from Evanston).
If you understand that it's a different type of experience than going to a game with 100,000 fans like in the Big House, it's a really great place to watch a game.
I liked NW too, I thought it was a more intimate feel of football and was more appropriate for their size crowd. I also liked that half the stadium was Michigan fans
+1 I went there on impulse (tickets were easy to get) and thought it was a fun place. Fans were engaged but not crazy.
My best friend since fifth grade attended OSU. He was in the Naval ROTC program for a while and the unit earned money by cleaning the stadium after games. He recalls finding myriad nuts, bolts, and washers under those temporary bleachers and not trusting them as a result.
April 20th, 2017 at 12:59 PM ^
Of the big ten stadiums I've been to, I would rank it 1. Michigan 2. Iowa 3. Minnesota 4. OSU 5. Nebraska 6. Northwestern 7. Ruggggers. I was really disappointed in Nebraska, I couldn't believe how ugly the stadium was. The people were fine and the atmosphere was decent, but the stadium was a pit.
Buggeaters were a lot more gracious when they were winning the Big2 every other year, alternating with the Sooners. Their fans have had a dose of reality for almost 20yrs now and they're not the loveable cornshuckers they're made to be.
"Sal's Dead, Go Big Red!"
April 20th, 2017 at 12:59 PM ^
Purdue's Ross-Ade Stadium. West Lafayette sucks too.
April 20th, 2017 at 12:59 PM ^
For that is an absolute shithole.
My heart says Kinnick, because it isnt Northern Iowa.
I sat in the top row of the lower bowl of Ohio Stadium. I couldn't see punts or passes because the upper deck got in the way.
I really don't like that giant wall at Indiana's stadium. Seems like it separates the crowd from the game.
And Spartan Stadium is an abomination. The upper deck in particular is awful.
Purdue is uninspiring.
Illinois is right in the middle of a pasture and smells like shit.
Sparty's place is a dump. I actually like Ryan; have seen a lot of games there. Illinois kind of crappy, too.
Well, if you'd asked this question 5 years ago before Minnesota built TCF Bank Stadium, I'd have said the Metrodome was the the worst in the Big 10. It was nowhere near campus and it was a pit. I have to assume TCF is only an improvement.
So the answer now is easily Spartan Stadium. What an ugly, bland place to watch a football game.
I'd heard it was bad, but wow. Concourse is super narrow, concessions look like a bunch of individual lemonade stands, troughs in the bathrooms, the winding ramp to the upper deck that takes forever, the 20,000 coats of peeled paint everywhere. That place just needs to be blown up and rebuilt.
Purdue should be upgrading their facilities soon: http://www.purduefootballmasterplan.com/ross-ade-renovation/index.html
That looks much better and it looks like it will make it louder.
Based on the amount of money Big 10 schools have been pulling in recent years, every school should be updating their facilites.
Yes, especially since so many have upgraded their coaches in the last few years.
So "24", I did a trip to Purdue road trip I'm sure no sane person has done. As freshman we got on telegraph road (highway 24) in Detroit and went south to Toledo/Maumee where 24 takes and turn west and goes through buttfuc# Ohio and Buttfuc# Indiana. We took the same road all the way to Logansport, IN (home of Mark Lozier UM hoops in the 70's) which was minutes away from W. LaFayette. The trip would have been reasonable except the Globe Trotters were playing in Fort Wayne and the whole town had a parade and shut traffic down to a stand still.
Ross Ade Stadium was old then and the only thing cool was the big drum. The girls looked like boys and the fun thing to do was cow tipping.
Memorial Stadium at IU has more seats between the goal lines than UM.
But High Point is terrible. It ticks all of the boxes that others have said about other stadiums:
1) It's not that small, but is usually mostly empty and it is completely generic, so it "plays" really small and boring
2) It's really far from campus and in the middle of nowhere so it's a pain to get to, especially if tailgating, and there is zero atmosphere around the stadium.
3) Speaking of campus, it makes West Lafayette feel like downtown Chicago. So. Boring.
Otherwise the answer to this question would be the Metrodome, complete hole.
to the Big House, but I always kind of liked watching games on TV at the Metrodome. Had a weird feel to it.
Wherever OSU or MSU are playing, save Michigan.
Penn State's ugly erector set stadium. Eye sore from the outside....
And inside you have 100,000 tone deaf fans who still cheer a 40 year child rapist enabler.
I'll take Northwestern's little high school stadium over Beaver Stadium any time.
This was Beaver Stadium in 1960:
They never tore it down and built a new one, they just kept adding on sections and sections on top of it.
Its between Illinois and MSU for me. I even like Dyche Stadium better than those two.
Tough question since I think a lot of your answer is going to depend on your fan experience at any of those places and the game atmosphere. I hated my trip to Illinois in the early 90's and have never wanted to go back, nothing special about the stadium, horrible fan experience and game atmosphere. MSU is a utility stadium reflecting its use rather than its flash, there's nothing really wrong with it other than some cosmetic things and a couple extra bathrooms wouldn't fix( which they are working on), campus setting is nice. But there are better stadiums and atmospheres in the Big Ten.
FWIW, old Ohio Stadium in the mid 80's was a shithole, with huge cracks and chunks of concrete missing from the exterior, broken windows in the dorm portion etc. The south end was a small section of open bleachers, nothing like today. There are still several thousand seats in the 'B' Deck that are the worst in the Big Ten. But I love The Game when its played there and the atmosphere, just part of the experience.
I have been to M, NW, OSU, ILL and IU. By far the worst leg room/seat space was Michigan Stadium end zone seating sad to say. The only place close to as bad was in the corner at ND.
The north endzone (visitor section) seats of Kinnick are the smallest I've ever attempted to park my ass in. I'm a skinny guy with narrow shoulders and even I was over my "allotment." Made the Big House feel like a La-Z-Boy.
Of the stadiums that I have been to from best to worst:
1. Rose Bowl
2. Michigan Stadium
3. Camp Randall
4. ND [only because it is an exact replica of Michigan]
5. Ryan Field (I don't get the hate)
6. Illinois
7. Penn State -- I hate that god awful fake lion noise.
8. Sun Devil Stadium
9. Ross-Ade
10. Holloway Field
...
...
...
Spartan Stadium.
Yes I know some of these aren't in the Big Ten, but I've been to them I figured I should include them on the list.