jtmc33

July 15th, 2010 at 5:59 PM ^

No.

Do they even have an airport there?  A nightlife or social scene outside of cheese-eating and farting?  Seriously, this would be the itinerary for the weekend:

1)  Drive to Green Bay

2)  Watch the game

3)  Try not to freeze to death

4)  Drive home or the hospital

Maximinus Thrax

July 15th, 2010 at 10:30 PM ^

-getting to sample the fine booyah up there http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booyah_(stew) -Plenty of taverns with PBR on tap at rock bottom prices -"Gentleman's clubs" aplenty http://www.beansnappers.com/ -and, fine cheese http://www.seguinscheese.com/ I can't stand Chicago. I'm too cheap. I am not willing to tip a guy so I can take a piss, or pay $20 to park somewhere for an hour. I could almost see doing it in Indianapolis. It would be a relatively neutral site, as IU will never get there, and Purdue might make it every 30 years or so.

Tater

July 15th, 2010 at 6:27 PM ^

We don't need "frozen tundra" and "Big Ten Championship Game" to become forever linked.  The BT gets stereotyped as a "cold-weather conference" enough as it is, especially by teams down here recruiting Florida kids. 

jmblue

July 15th, 2010 at 10:21 PM ^

I'd say it is a stereotype.  It only really applies to the final month of the season and even then it's only true some of the time.  I've gone to every U-M home game for a dozen years now (and attended a number before that) and I think I can count on one hand the number of games in which it snowed.  We have what, one home game a year with a high temp below 50 degrees?  The truth is that we have beautiful fall weather most of the season. 

Koyote

July 15th, 2010 at 6:39 PM ^

Why are all these pro stadiums getting involved? Why not just have it at the larger college stadiums and call it a day?

I would think a rotation between

Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State would likely work.

All hold 100k+ , just make the universities agree to split the gate with the other teams in the conference.  Everyone is happy then.

CleverMichigan…

July 15th, 2010 at 6:47 PM ^

IMHE, I think the reasoning behind this is the venue has to be chosen far in advance, and the teams playing the championship usually aren't determined until the end of the season. Say OSU and PSU are in the championship the year the game is set to be at Happy Valley. What then?

Wolverine In Exile

July 15th, 2010 at 6:40 PM ^

Plus: One of the great things about being in Big Ten Country is that so many historic and shrine like football palaces dot the landscape... Lambeau, Soldier Field, Big House, the Shoe (credit where credits due), Beaver Stadium, and some of the new classics like Ford Field, Cleveland Browns Stadium, etc. A Big Ten Championship held at any of these venues instantly beat any game hosted in Atlanta or New York or Charlotte. That's a selling point

Minus: Unfortunately, most of these are historic b/c of the extreme weather conditions that can occur. The WORST thing to have happen would be the BT Championship at Lambeau get postponed due to weather preventing the teams from getting there. How many Fla/Cal/Tex/Carolina recruits would want to come to a conference where the championship game is remembered for the star RB getting frostbite, or the QB fumbling 5 times due to an ice covered ball?

This being the case, I'm OK with a rotation between the indoor stadiums in the conference footprint-- Detroit, Indy, and Minneapolis. We need a good showcase for the conference championship and until they figure out a way to put a temporary retractable roof on Soldier Field, Chicago (while being the best social scene city in the conference) just can't do it.

Needs

July 15th, 2010 at 7:00 PM ^

At least suggest realistic worst case scenarios. There's never been a NFL game at Lambeau postponed because the teams couldn't get there. And if it's early December, it's unlikely to be that cold. The average high is something like 38 and low is 17. Now you likely wouldn't want it to be a night game but those temps are not awful. And the field itself is heated from underneath so it wouldn't be frozen. Even in the super cold NFC championship game against the Giants, the field didn't freeze, the ball wasn't covered in ice, and no one got frostbite. And it's not like the teams playing wouldn't have been playing outdoors the week before.

Now GB is fairly lacking in the entertainment/dining aspect that the Big 10 is likely interested in tapping into. There's not much other than a few restaurants, Lambeau's atrium and the casino. (How different is this than Detroit or Cleveland, though).  The biggest problem is likely hotel rooms. Most teams don't even stay in GB when they play the Packers, instead, they stay in Appleton, about 30 miles south. Lambeau does, however, have a huge number of suites, over 160 I think, and a bunch of club seats, plus about 10000 more seats than Soldier. That's going to be appealing to the Big 10.

TheIcon34

July 15th, 2010 at 6:46 PM ^

Does anyone ever think about playing in the NFL and having to play teams in December and January anywhere in the USA like Seattle, Denver, Green Bay, Chicago, NY or Foxsboro?

I never understood how football players want to stay in warm weather cities but true football players will gladly play in any condition because the weather only makes the game even more legendary.

Bosch

July 15th, 2010 at 8:25 PM ^

But I would prefer an indoor stadium.......

Order of preference:

1.  Detroit

2. Indianapolis

3. Chicago

If it can't be indoors, Chicago > Green Bay or Cleveland.

Sven_Da_M

July 15th, 2010 at 9:43 PM ^

Lambeau Field has history, if it can handle the NFL, it certainly can handle the Big Ten.

You could assume that the Frozen Tundra would be appropriately blessed: