Fox Business - the building of Michigan stadium
Watched on Fox Business the show "American Built." One of tonight's episodes focused on Yost's obsession to build the biggest stadium in the country. It was a good show, and Seth was great! They used more of Seth's answers than any other expert on the show.
I believe if you have access to Fox Business via cable/satellite/streaming, you can watch the full episode online:
https://www.foxbusiness.com/shows/american-built
#GoBlue
November 9th, 2021 at 2:19 AM ^
Link. Cloudflare blocked embed.
November 9th, 2021 at 8:10 AM ^
Appears as though the online version of the program just has two small segments, so we'll have to watch it on FoxBiz for the full program.
November 9th, 2021 at 4:08 AM ^
Thanks for sharing; excited to watch.
November 9th, 2021 at 6:28 AM ^
Dang look at Seth hitting the big time. Gonna have to finish watching after work today. Thanks for sharing
November 9th, 2021 at 6:37 AM ^
Cool viewing on a morning that I'm playing hooky! Once the kid is off to (virtual) school, I'll tune in - thanks for the heads up and link!
SETH!!!! WTH, man?? Why not tell us stuff like this exists?
November 9th, 2021 at 8:18 AM ^
He did…except on the Twitters and not here. So he kind of did.
November 9th, 2021 at 11:40 AM ^
I didn't know the episode air date except generally "in November" until the recent Michigan grad who set this all up texted me yesterday, and I put out a tweet, figuring it would be presumptuous to throw up a message board post like "Hey guys watch me on TV."
I might have, but I didn't get to see the final result before it aired and I couldn't watch it last night because I don't have access to Fox Business Network, so I didn't know if they used 10 seconds of me or took me out of context or anything, which would be kind of important as far as recommending something to the audience. That's not complaining--that's just how it is when you do an interview for things like that. I figure once I've had a chance to see the episode and it's available somewhere that the majority of readers can view it, we'll make mention of it on the front page. I still haven't seen even a still frame from it. What if I look really fat or something?
November 9th, 2021 at 1:07 PM ^
you don't look fat Seth, maybe just a little big-boned (kidding). I thought you came across well and pretty knowledgeable - you were included pretty heavily in the 9:00+ minute version I watched. I'm a long time UM fan and I learned some new things and am looking forward to seeing the whole thing.
November 9th, 2021 at 1:17 PM ^
You were all over that episode man
November 9th, 2021 at 3:28 PM ^
You were the star of the episode, Seth. I was wondering if you really wore that "WD is a God" t-shirt or if they somehow photoshopped it in.
November 9th, 2021 at 6:59 AM ^
Cool. Thanks for posting.
November 9th, 2021 at 8:00 AM ^
Seth, I hope you put a plug in for the biggest and best blog in the country.
November 9th, 2021 at 9:44 AM ^
They listed his job as, “HOST, MGOBLOG PODCAST.”
November 9th, 2021 at 11:42 AM ^
Really? Lol. I gave my title as Associate Editor of MGoBlog when they asked at the beginning of the interview.
November 9th, 2021 at 11:58 AM ^
Getting your title down is very important, just ask this guy....
....actually on second thought it was probably pretty spot on!
November 9th, 2021 at 8:26 PM ^
This picture never gets old.
November 9th, 2021 at 12:10 PM ^
No, you're the "Host" now!
November 9th, 2021 at 8:03 AM ^
Nice to see Seth get some airtime.
Any civil engineers in the crowd? I'd like to think that concrete mixing was way more science than art by the late '20s, but maybe that's not true. There was also a vague suggestion that electric lights were a new technology.
November 9th, 2021 at 9:22 AM ^
Yes, electric lights were very new technology. Cities started installing them as replacements for arc lights in the late teen's/early 20's, but most people couldn't afford to have them installed until the 30's. In fact, a lot of people had no electric lights into the 40's.
November 9th, 2021 at 11:28 AM ^
If anybody is interested in the development of electric lights in the U.S., this is a fascinating read.
November 9th, 2021 at 1:11 PM ^
Thanks for the recommendation. I really enjoyed Larson's book Devil in the White City, the historical thriller based around the mass murderer H.H. Holmes during the Chicago Worlds Fair of 1893 debuted some the world’s most revolutionary inventions known to mankind including the widespread usage of electric power. Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing won the bid against newly formed General Electric (Former Edison Lighting Co.) to supply power to the Chicago’s World Fair, the first fair ever powered by electricity.
November 9th, 2021 at 9:59 AM ^
Disclaimer: I am not a civil engineer. So take it with a grain of sand.
Engineering is still a decent bit of art. Different facets still require more "sense" and "practice" than hard-coded equations.
November 9th, 2021 at 9:17 AM ^
YouTubeTV says I need to subscribe to FOX Nation... there is a 7 day free trial, though, so I suppose I could sign-up, watch, and cancel.
November 9th, 2021 at 9:23 AM ^
I was able to stream it through Xfinity. It's only 30 minutes, but is pretty interesting...
November 9th, 2021 at 9:53 AM ^
It appears that this particular episode of American Built about Michigan Stadium will be aired again on FoxBN Thursday 11/11 @10pm, and on Saturday 11/13 @1am and 4am. No other showings are currently listed on my channel guide.
As I switched from DirecTV to Spectrum TV in August and am still learning/ feeling my way around on it, I'm guessing it's probably available on demand, besides being available anytime for those with DVR capability.
November 9th, 2021 at 12:48 PM ^
Yes I was able to find it on my cable TV guide and set the DVR for Thursday night at 10 pm. Right afterwards is an episode about the building of Grand Central Station in NYC.
November 9th, 2021 at 4:04 PM ^
It's available right now for free through Xfinity On Demand. Don't know how long it will be up, but you can always just put a record on the next airing on Fox Business.
November 9th, 2021 at 9:31 AM ^
Thanks for this! Trying to figure out how to watch the full show…..I have Dish with Fox business.
November 9th, 2021 at 9:53 AM ^
The entire series "American Built" is very well done. They did one recently on the development of the polio vaccine and another on Henry Ford's River Rouge plant. Fascinating.
November 9th, 2021 at 10:21 AM ^
Seth was awesome in this show. Great representative for UofM!
November 9th, 2021 at 10:29 AM ^
I watched it last night as well after Seth tweeted that it was coming up. It really was a great documentary that will be interesting to everyone following this blog. Also, Seth was fantastic and I am glad he will be receiving some well-deserved attention for his work.
November 9th, 2021 at 10:49 AM ^
I remember taking a public finance class years ago that talked about how Yost/Michigan sold bonds to fund the project, which wasn't typical then for sports at least. Apparently if you bought a bond you were guaranteed season tickets (an early version of a set license?)>
November 9th, 2021 at 11:46 AM ^
It *WAS* a seat license! It literally was a "Preferred Seat Purchase Privilege" and said so right on the top of the document. Here's what they looked like (courtesy of the Bentley Library).
November 9th, 2021 at 10:58 AM ^
Fox isn’t a legitimate news source and should be banned here.
November 9th, 2021 at 11:33 AM ^
Jeez. What a comment. Speaking of banning...
November 9th, 2021 at 12:01 PM ^
Number 1, keep that talk off the message board. You're going to start a flame war. That's a warning to you and to the rest of you in this thread: I'm willing to take a few hits to readership because people don't like my ideologies (they're the same that I use to write with so it's unavoidable), but I'm not taking the hit for yours.
I knew it would come up though, so let me explain something: Fox Business is a sub-entity, like Fox Sports, and the Big Ten Network. I would not accept an invitation to appear on Fox News, as if there would ever be a reason to, but I do know people who work there, and even they see what they do in an amoral context of "This is for entertainment--nobody really *believes* this stuff." Those who do are not going to be influenced by fucking Seth from MGoBlog turning down an interview request for another subsidiary for a documentary show about civil engineering.
These all operate more or less independently. Everyone I interacted with for this were freelance types who bounce around doing interviews for all the networks and companies. Their last project was for HBO. This was a show they shopped to a bunch of channels and Fox Business picked up the option. I can't speak to its content yet because I haven't seen the episode, but I assume from the people I worked with before and after the interview (and the fact that they interviewed Soderstrom who's great) that the people who made this show took the truth seriously and endeavored to inform. That's a good thing we celebrate, and if the parent company prevents you from doing that, I think you're letting perfect be the enemy of the good.
November 9th, 2021 at 12:55 PM ^
"...but I assume from the people I worked with before and after the interview (and the fact that they interviewed Soderstrom who's great) that the people who made this show took the truth seriously and endeavored to inform."
That is exactly what it did. It was informative, explanatory, and entertaining. You can be proud of it, Seth!
November 9th, 2021 at 10:34 PM ^
Troll just baited you ?♀️
November 10th, 2021 at 9:00 AM ^
No one is 100% good or 100% bad. I'm no fan of Stuart Varney's economic beliefs, but this series (and especially this episode) is a good thing, so kudos to him and Fox for this. And of course, many kudos to you, Seth.
November 9th, 2021 at 4:42 PM ^
Great job Seth!
The springs under the Big House site caused major issues for amostly under ground stadium. Those same springs were the source of water for Weinberg's man made swimming pool. Weinberg owned the Coliseum at Hill Street and 5th which was the first site for skating/ UM hockey .
Hard to imagine a very different A2 100 years ago. Check out this pool!
November 9th, 2021 at 5:27 PM ^
The UM Bentley Library has a wonderful photo and text collection on this topic.
https://bentley.umich.edu/athdept/stadium/index.html
November 9th, 2021 at 6:32 PM ^
Totally worth the $0.99 one-month subscription to Fox Nation so that I could watch the episode. Well done, Seth!
Now I need to cancel my subscription. The rest of the shows on Fox Nation are, uh, not my taste.
November 10th, 2021 at 1:04 PM ^
Finally got to watch it. They did a great job. And I don't look fat!
Only thing I remember talking about that I wish they had gotten in there was the meaning that Bernard Green put into the architecture. He wanted this to be a statement about American democracy. Every fan got the same 17.25 inches of the same redwood. Every seat could see the field and every other seat. The slope was gentle so nobody felt like they sat above another and when you looked up you saw a sea of peers with trees behind them (yes you used to be able to see the trees), versus some oppressive structure.
The grand idea of this whole design was to evoke the sense that Americans can build something extraordinary and share it openly, honestly, and equally. They also wanted there to be no visible walls or verticality to hang ads on (which Yost thought cheapened the stadia of the day). The people are part of the spectacle. You're supposed to see them all and say "Isn't this beautiful."
You could point at a lot of things about Yost that make this a hypocritical statement coming from him personally, but the statement itself is profound, true, and evocative. They didn't just want to build an American Coliseum; they wanted to build an *AMERICAN* Coliseum that evoked American values the way the Coliseum evoked Roman ones. And I think they succeeded. Soderstrom says it's the greatest place in the world to watch a football game, and I agree, and a big part of that is the architecture of the stadium itself is all about sitting on a hillside with with equals and enjoying the show.