NCAA Division 1-A football stadiums (bandwidth warning)

[the guy]

Alabama Crimson Tide.

God thats a great name, i love it.

[Hiraldo]

Loving this thread. Keep it up.

[alabakiwi]

Crimson Tide: supposedly comes from the fans wearing crimson (which has always been the team's colours) and a sports write way back said, looking up in the stands, the fans looked like a sea of crimson, a crimson tide.

Hence "Roll Tide."

But, the mascot is an elephant, which supposedly comes from another writer remarking that the team running out onto the field were like a herd of elephants.

Auburn University, Alabama's rival, are called the Auburn Tigers and the Tiger mascot is called Aubie (pronounced Or-by), but they also have an eagle as a mascot too, and their "battle cry" is "War Eagle!"

Arkansas are the razorbacks and the fans shout "Soiue" which is a pig call.

Georgia is the bulldogs and their fans say "ugga ugga" and their mascot is called "Ugga" the bulldog.

And LSU are the Tigers, but are also known as the Bayou Bengals.

[Jeffles]

Crimson Tide has other meanings too. Must make for some interesting banter among the fans.

[Simmo79]

*groan*. The Portugese expression "Benfica are playing at home" means the same. Makes me wonder how g/fs would react to "Roll Tide!" when they're bitching at us.

[Simmo79]

#7 Tiger Stadium, Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)

Capacity 92,400




Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College at Baton Rouge, or simply Louisiana State University (LSU) is a public, coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the main campus of the Louisiana State University System. It has a current enrolment of more than 30,000 students.

The LSU main campus occupies a plateau on the banks of the Mississippi River and just south of downtown Baton Rouge. The Greater Baton Rouge area has grown to over 700,000 since Hurricane Katrina. It is the Lousiana capital and the second largest metro area in the state after Greater New Orleans (just downriver).







The LSU Tigers are the 4th team from the Southeastern Conference to feature in this thread. They play in the West Division with Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Mississipi (Ole Miss) and Mississippi State. Their man rivals in football are the University of Mississippi Rebels, Arkansas Razorbacks and Auburn University Tigers (I know Tiger is a popular nickname for sporting teams across the globe but a Tiger-Tiger derby is a bit much).

They have won 3 National Championships (1908, 1958, 2003) and 9 SEC Championships (1935, 1936, 1958, 1961, 1970, 1986, 1988, 2001, 2003)


Ole Miss victorious



Game day


Tiger Stadium opened in 1924 and holds 92,400 people. It is colloquially known as "Death Valley," a name resulting from the difficulty visiting teams often have with the usually raucous crowd. Legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant once remarked that Tiger Stadium is the worst place in the world to be a visiting team because playing there is "like playing inside of a drum." During a nationally televised game against Auburn in 2003, ESPN recorded a noise level of 117 decibels.



When the stadium opened the seating capacity was 12,000, with stands on both sides of the playing field. In 1931, 10,000 more seats were added onto the existing grandstands. The stadium more than doubled capacity in 1936. The north end saw an addition of 24,000 seats, making a horseshoe shape. This made the stadiums seating reach 46,000. The horseshoe was enclosed in 1953, with the south end grandstands constructed. The first of the two upper decks was added to the west side of the stadium in 1978. Capacity was raised to about 78,000.



The last addition to seating in the facility was in 2000. The east end of the stadium received an upper deck. A total 11,600 seats brought the capacity to 91,600. The west upper deck was torn down at the end of the 2004 season, and improved with additional suites and a new pressbox. Construction on this addition was scheduled to be completed by the beginning of September 2005, but delayed due to Hurricane Katrina.

Tiger Stadium was the site of the legendary Earthquake Game against Auburn in 1988. When quarterback Tommy Hodson completed a game-winning touchdown pass to Eddie Fuller in the waning seconds of the game, the crowd reaction registered on a seismograph in the LSU Geology Department.




Tiger Stadium is currently being renovated (West Side Upper Deck project). Construction on the project which began immediately after LSU's 2004 home finale is ongoing for a $60 million renovation to the west side of the stadium that will add 3,255 special amenity seats as a well as a state-of-the-art press box to Tiger Stadium. The west side renovation, which includes the removal and rebuilding of the upper deck to mirror the larger east side upper deck, will increase Tiger Stadium's seating capacity to well over 92,000 (http://www.lsutaf.org/westside/index_flash.htm)

In 2005, LSU attracted an average of 91,580 people to their 6 home games. On the field they had a 10-1 record to win the SEC West where they lost to Georgia (above at #6 on p2 of this thread) in the SEC Championship game at the Georgia Dome. The loss meant they didn’t get a crack at a prestigious BCS Bowl game but they were invited to the moderately important Peach Bowl (another Bowl game at the Georgia Dome – that place gets a good workout). They defeated Miami 40-3.

[sandyhill]

This thread is bloody brilliant! Love every bit of it!
I think many outside the U.S. don't realise how big and well supported the NCAA is compared to the pro-leagues in football and basketball (baseball is the exception) - and thus how traditional so many of the fans over there really are.

Georgia is the bulldogs ... and their mascot is called "Ugga" the bulldog.

In Footscray, its "Scragga" the bulldog.

[Simmo79]

I like it because it also has Away Fan Kulchaa - three of the pics of Tiger Stadium show the away fans section of about 4-5,000 people. I don't think the NFL is remotely that passionate. Maybe it is but its not apparent.

[tom]

Old School goal posts at LSU

[Jeffles]

*groan*. The Portugese expression "Benfica are playing at home" means the same.

I didn't know that expression had such wide awareness.

Oh, and this Louisiana Stadium is thus far my favourite.

[Simmo79]

*groan*. The Portugese expression "Benfica are playing at home" means the same.

I didn't know that expression had such wide awareness.

I have no idea where I read it but it stuck in my mind And they knocked Liverpool out of the Champs League 3-nil on aggregate this morning after winning 2-nil at Anfield. How good must Benfica be right now? Does Portugal just produce the odd freak team every now and then?

Oh, and this Louisiana Stadium is thus far my favourite.

I like all of them so far, but I don't like the bowls quite as much as I like the stadiums that have been built up with separate stands and tiers. I've been doing some prelim research on Florida's stadium (for tomorrow) and I really like it but just don't know why.

[Simmo79]

#8 Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum

Capacity: 92,000

Originally built in 1922, the Coliseum, which for a time was known as Olympic Stadium, has IMO, the richest and most varied history of any stadium in the US. It has served as the primary track and field venue and site of the opening and closing ceremonies of both the 1932 and 1984 Summer Olympic Games, hosted college football continuously through its life as well as several professional football and baseball teams. The stadium is located just 3km SW of the LA CBD and is right next door to the campus of its most important tenant, the University of Southern California (USC).



The Olympic cauldron torch which burned through both Games remains above the peristyle at one end of the stadium as a reminder of this, as do the Olympic rings symbols over one of the main entrances. The Olympic Cauldron is still lit during USC football games, and other special occasions.



When the Coliseum opened in 1922, it was already the largest stadium in Los Angeles with a capacity of 76,000. It’s primary purpose was to serve as the home stadium of USC, but with the arrival of the Olympics only 10 years later, the stadium was expanded to 101,574. After those renovations, the Coliseum changed very little until the 1990s. Beginning in February 1993, $15 million in renovations were completed to the coliseum. Actual seats were installed replacing the bleachers, and fourteen rows of seats were added, bring the capacity to around 92,000, after the field was lowered 14 feet. A massive earthquake in 1994, required over $93 million worth of repairs. Prior to the 1995 season a new press box was constructed at a cost of $6 million.




For nearly 60 years, it served as the home football stadium for both the USC Trojans (the main campus being across the street) and the UCLA Bruins (who moved to the Rose Bowl in 1981, making room for the Raiders). But the Raiders were not the first professional team to call the Coliseum home. The former Cleveland Rams of the National Football League relocated to the Coliseum in 1946, becoming the Los Angeles Rams; but the team later relocated again to Anaheim in 1979. In 1960 the AFL's Los Angeles Chargers played at the Coliseum before relocating to San Diego the next year. The Coliseum was also the site of the very first NFL-AFL Championship Game in January 1967, an event since re-named the Super Bowl. It also hosted the Super Bowl in 1973.

In 1959, a football game between USC and Ohio State was played at the coliseum, and an hour after completion, the first World Series game in California was played. The Dodgers had moved to LA from Brooklyn in 1958 and moved out of the coliseum after the 1961 season.




Many seats - and the running track - were removed after the 1984 Olympics to the Raiders who had moved to LA from Oakland in 1982. This was partially in order to make the venue more easily sold out so that his team's game could appear live on L.A. television, which is forbidden by NFL rules unless a game is already sold out at least 72 hours prior to its scheduled kick-off. Some of the removed seats, which were primarily in the end zone, were replaced with new bleachers far closer to the end lines of the playing field. (The combination of the stadium's large, relatively shallow design, along with the presence of the track between the playing field and the stands, meant that some of the former end zone seats were essentially away from the field by the equivalent in length to another football field.) But since the Raiders moved back to Oakland and the need for repairs after the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, some of the changes that were reversed, and the current configuration is somewhat similar to that used for the 1984 Olympics – which also gives a larger capacity.




There is great debate about the Coliseum's potential as a modern NFL stadium. Although the Coliseum is an important historical sports venue, it is regarded by some as no longer adequate to be the home of a major professional sports organization. Since it was designed before the age of club seats, luxury boxes, and many of the other money-generating amenities that modern football stadiums possess, the owner of any professional team moving to the Coliseum will likely have to do extensive renovations. Because of these difficulty financing a renovated Coliseum, Rose Bowl or brand new stadium in greater LA, the NFL has been absent from the 2nd largest city in America for over ten years.

A mock-up of the Coliseum renovated to NFL standards:-



University of Southern Califronia (USC)

The University of Southern California (also known as USC, 'SC, Southern California and Southern Cal), California's oldest private research university, is located in the urban center of Los Angeles, California.



USC participates in the NCAA Division I-A Pacific Ten Conference. USC's cross-town rival is UCLA, with whom there is fierce athletic and scholastic competition. However USC has a traditionally older rivalry with Notre Dame that predates the one with UCLA by three years. The Notre Dame rivalry stems mainly from the annual football game played between these two universities and is considered the greatest cross-country rivalry of college football.

USC v Notre Dame:-



USC have won the Pacific-10 championship 22 times (including the last 3) and has been voted National Champions 11 times (most recently in 2003 and 2004), placing the program among the top of all historical programs (behind only Alabama and Notre Dame). USC is also known for its Heisman Trophy winners (MVP). With the awarding of the 2005 Heisman to Reggie Bush, USC and Notre Dame are tied for the most Heisman winners at 7.




In 2005, they had an 11-0 record (including 8-0 in conference play) and were ranked as the #1 team in the US giving them a berth in the Bowl Championship Series game against #2 ranked Texas. USC, playing at what was practically a home ground, and with an unprecedented two Heisman trophy winners playing in the back-field, went into the game a 7 point favourite. Due largely to an MVP performance from Longhorn quarterback Vince Young, Texas won the game 41-38.

Unsurprisingly for a team that has been No1 or 2 for the last 3 years, USC are big crowd pullers. They averaged 90,812 to their 6 home games in 2005.

(random thought: while I was looking at the photos it occurred to me that the video for Fleetwood Mac's song Tusk might have been filmed at the Coliseum with the school's marching band. And I was right!!)

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Next: Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, home of the University of Florida Gators.

[Jeffles]

Great write up on the venue. The baseball configuration and the proposed mock up were great features.

I love those entry gates at the end. It's a good use of space so close to the venue. The feeling of walking through would give you a buzz. There was something similar on the Lang Park forum. Behind ojne of the goals they have a similar space bu6t it is "No Standing"

[Simmo79]

#9 Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field, University of Florida (Gainsville, Florida)

Capacity: 88,548



The University of Florida is a public university and land-grant institution located in Gainesville, Florida – in the middle of North Florida, south of Jacksonville and north of Orlando. It is the fourth-largest university in the United States, with over 48,000 students. It’s also where Gatorade was invented (for the football team – anyone else remember the ad from a few years back?)




Ben Hill Griffin Stadium was built in 1930 as Florida Field. In 1934, the stadium was dedicated to the memory of servicemen who died in the first World War. The stadium was renamed in 1989 in honour of legendary citrus grower and University of Florida benefactor Ben Hill Griffin, Jr. The name of the playing surface itself remains Florida Field. The stadium has expanded over the years from a seating of 21,769 to its current seating capacity of more than 90,000, making it the largest stadium in the state of Florida.





The original section of seating now encompasses the lower half of the current stadium. By 1950, the first of many additions to the stadium was in the works and by the start of the 1950 season 10,000 bleachers were built on the west side. The Gators also hosted the first night game at Florida Field on September 23, 1950. Fifteen years later an additional 10,000 seats were added to the east side and bleachers were constructed on the south end zone bring the capacity to 62, 800.




In 1971, the team replaced the grass field with Astroturf, but two decades later the surface returned to grass. The south end zone with a skyboxes and a press box was completed increasing the capacity of Florida Field to 72,000.



In 1991, Florida Field was renamed Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at Florida Field and construction was completed on the north end zone bring the capacity to 83,000.



The most recent addition to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium came prior to the 2003 Season construction was completed on a two-year, $50 million stadium expansion/renovation that includes the addition of 2,900 luxury club seats, expanded press level, renovated and enlarged Bull Gator Deck, enlarged President's Suite and 34 additional suites that was funded by private support from alumni and fans.



The stadium is best known as The Swamp, a nickname given to it by legendary former head coach Steve Spurrier in the early 1990s. He noted that a "...swamp is where Gators live. We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative. A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous." Befitting the nickname, the original stadium, which consists of the lower half of the current stadium, was built in a ravine placing the stands and playing surface entirely below ground level.




Subsequent additions over the years have enclosed the playing area on all sides by high-angled stands that create a closed-in, claustrophobic feel on the field. Game-day temperatures at field level have been known to exceed 37 degrees Celsius. Every home game has been sold out since 1979, and there is a large and loud student section, named the "Swamp things" after current head coach Urban Meyer held a contest to name the section, which spans the east side of the stadium. These factors create an intimidating environment that can hinder an opposing team's ability to hear playcalls and rattles nerves.




Traditional rivals in most sports include in-state Florida State University and the University of Miami, as well as conference rivals Georgia and Tennessee. Games played against the Georgia Bulldogs are played in Jacksonville, Florida at what is informally known as The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party

The permanent SEC West team the Gators face every season is Louisiana State. In addition, the team has a yearly out-of-conference meeting with local rivals Florida State.

In 2005, the Gators average 90,406 people to their 6 home games. On the park was a respectable 9-3, including an Outback Bowl win at Raymond James Stadium bowl against the Iowa Hawkeyes. But the team missed out on a chance to play in the SEC title game after a devastating loss to South Carolina, though the team managed to sweep its three biggest rivals (Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida State) for just the fourth time in school history.

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Next: Jordan Hare Stadium, Auburn University

[Jeffles]

You really can notice the claustrophobic element of the stadium's design. I like it!