Schnauzer
Pretty Sure You are Wrong
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2009
- Messages
- 6,362
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The stadium still feels new. The new turf looks great. It is a great place to watch a football game. But, some observations or potential changes I see include:
1. The design problem of incorrectly sizing the band pit is problematic. The band has never fit in there and it looks weird. Plus the sunk-in nature of it makes it hard for many to properly hear the band (especially the students) and although they turn some band members around 180 degrees to point back toward the student section during some songs, this remains an ongoing issue. I would like to see them move the band out of the pit, to be located in regular seats perhaps in the corner or behind where it is now.
2. This second issue goes all the way back to the drawing board: Overall the two decked nature of TCF Bank Stadium is great but it is a problem for the student section. Students clearly don't want to be separated and don't want to be in the second deck. Old fashioned tunnels would have been better behind the end zone instead of the modern dual deck and open concourse that was used there. Too late to fix that one but perhaps they could reclaim a couple of the student sections on the first deck and cheap season ticket and single game options could take their place in some of the current second deck student seats.
3. The old TV's were replaced and that has been a very good thing. TV coverage in the concourses is much better now. Nice improvement.
4. There were 11 teams in the B1G when the stadium was built so they put 10 flagpoles and 1 oversized flagpole to fly UofM and all other team flags on the north rim of the stadium. When the conference expanded, our stadium went the cheap/lazy route of taking out the conference flags and just replaced them all with Gopher flags. This has always bugged me.
5. This one isn't related to brick and mortar stadium stuff but find a way to consistently fill it. It used to fill for games against Syracuse and TCU. Now it doesn't fill for an undefeated home team playing conference games even in perfect weather. What is different? The pricing is out of whack for this market. If an undefeated team can't fill the stadium at these prices, and the prices can't change, it is time to admit the stadium should have been built with 35,000 seats and there could have been cost savings in construction and just as much revenue at these ticket prices.
The overall vision of the stadium is aging well. It is flat-out beautiful with its brick exterior. Other first rate items include the classy touch of the county names appearing in a ring around it, the open end looking over campus and downtown beyond, The layout of premium areas and press box are outstanding, etc.
What else would you like to see changed or wish would have been designed differently about the stadium? What are some of the other things you appreciate about the stadium?
1. The design problem of incorrectly sizing the band pit is problematic. The band has never fit in there and it looks weird. Plus the sunk-in nature of it makes it hard for many to properly hear the band (especially the students) and although they turn some band members around 180 degrees to point back toward the student section during some songs, this remains an ongoing issue. I would like to see them move the band out of the pit, to be located in regular seats perhaps in the corner or behind where it is now.
2. This second issue goes all the way back to the drawing board: Overall the two decked nature of TCF Bank Stadium is great but it is a problem for the student section. Students clearly don't want to be separated and don't want to be in the second deck. Old fashioned tunnels would have been better behind the end zone instead of the modern dual deck and open concourse that was used there. Too late to fix that one but perhaps they could reclaim a couple of the student sections on the first deck and cheap season ticket and single game options could take their place in some of the current second deck student seats.
3. The old TV's were replaced and that has been a very good thing. TV coverage in the concourses is much better now. Nice improvement.
4. There were 11 teams in the B1G when the stadium was built so they put 10 flagpoles and 1 oversized flagpole to fly UofM and all other team flags on the north rim of the stadium. When the conference expanded, our stadium went the cheap/lazy route of taking out the conference flags and just replaced them all with Gopher flags. This has always bugged me.
5. This one isn't related to brick and mortar stadium stuff but find a way to consistently fill it. It used to fill for games against Syracuse and TCU. Now it doesn't fill for an undefeated home team playing conference games even in perfect weather. What is different? The pricing is out of whack for this market. If an undefeated team can't fill the stadium at these prices, and the prices can't change, it is time to admit the stadium should have been built with 35,000 seats and there could have been cost savings in construction and just as much revenue at these ticket prices.
The overall vision of the stadium is aging well. It is flat-out beautiful with its brick exterior. Other first rate items include the classy touch of the county names appearing in a ring around it, the open end looking over campus and downtown beyond, The layout of premium areas and press box are outstanding, etc.
What else would you like to see changed or wish would have been designed differently about the stadium? What are some of the other things you appreciate about the stadium?