Stadium problems fixed?

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skoalvikings

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1. Getting in was very quick and easy--the extra gates helped a ton.
2. Concessions seemed much, much better. Not using cash registers is still ridiculous, but good improvement this week.
3. The St. Paul shuttle system was WAY better--very easy, well organized.

So all in all, nice job on by the U fixing the problems. Of course, some of these problems should have been figured out prior to the first game, but whatever. . .
 

I still feel like the band is very quiet. Not sure what could be done to fix this, but I think it would make the atmosphere even better.
 

Could the Band play on the East side of the Stadium before the game rather than the South? It would seem there is more room and would be noticed more.
 

Everything I had a problem with logistically last week was much better today. I was in the stadium in about 45 seconds instead of 45 minutes, and I had my cokes from the concession stand before the band started playing ABBA.
 

Maturi and staff deserve some props for really solving all opening day issues. Make sure to send some praise emails.
 


We stayed and listened to the band after the game - thinking that would make the shuttle lines smaller but We still had to wait over 30 minutes for our bus to St. Paul - sure it was more organized but still way too long to stand in long lines. They need more buses to load at one time - 5 or 6 at a time - not one or two! This problem still needs attention!
 

My experience today was perfect. Sure, I waited in line at the gate for 5 minutes and at concessions for a few minutes but things ran very smoothly today for me. TCF really is a great place to watch a college football game.
 





Band has no sound, used to think it was the Dome

Don't know if it is the pit or the field they play on but THERE IS NO SOUND. No power, nothing and this whole lack of sound thing cannot just be acoustics. There is no balls and the whole things is not really adding a lot to crowd emotion beyond the Minnesota Rouser. They do not even sound like a Big 10 band. I'm going to put this on the band director, his choice in music is so weenie and not good football music like, it is not even funny. The choices of what to play during the game do not generate crowd reaction because the music selection sucks. Who play's that disco crap that was picked today by the director at halftime, not only did it not sound good, the sound was so faint you could barely hear it. The disco music clearly get's stamped with a deuche decision. The old director at least had some stones and some clue as to how to generate excitement from the crowd, this current director has no clue how to play music at a football game that helps excite the crowd. At least the piped in music generates excitement and helps fire up the crowd. The fans would give back if they could actually hear the music and hear something that they actually liked. The cal band didn;t sound great but at least you could flipping hear them.
 

With all the planning that went into the stadium, the band acoustics might be as bad as the dome for the fans. If you are in line with the band or behind them, there is little to no volume at all. I think the concrete box they are in directs all the sound straight down the field and out the open end, I was disappointed at the opener to not be able to hear the band from my seats.
 

1. Would it make a difference if the Band marched from the Open End toward the Closed End?

2. Is the sound better in the lower sections of the Stadium?
 

Absoulutly NOT!!

They made the St. Paul shuttle terrible. This week it took us 65 minutes to get to lot S108. This was after all the people left with about 2:50 left on the clock. Last week it took 25 minutes and we were in our car. Theres nothing I like better than being caged in with a fence for 55 minutes (with Minneapolis horse back patrol watching everyone) so that we can file on 1 BUS 1 AT A TIME. Really one bus at a time. When we were getting on our bus, 1 of the attendents asked another if they should start loading the second bus and he was told no. Really were not smart enough to figure out that you can have a million extra buses, but if your loading one at a time it don't make a damn bit of difference.
 



Yew512 said:
They made the St. Paul shuttle terrible. This week it took us 65 minutes to get to lot S108. This was after all the people left with about 2:50 left on the clock. Last week it took 25 minutes and we were in our car. Theres nothing I like better than being caged in with a fence for 55 minutes (with Minneapolis horse back patrol watching everyone) so that we can file on 1 BUS 1 AT A TIME. Really one bus at a time. When we were getting on our bus, 1 of the attendents asked another if they should start loading the second bus and he was told no. Really were not smart enough to figure out that you can have a million extra buses, but if your loading one at a time it don't make a damn bit of difference.
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We left with under 2:00 minutes left and only waited 15 minutes for a bus. Thank goodness they had those fences that made you feel caged, because they improved the situation tremendously. It does sound like they should get more buses--the one bus at a time thing seemed ok when we were there--maybe a few loaded slowly or something.
 


skoalvikings said:
1. Getting in was very quick and easy--the extra gates helped a ton.
2. Concessions seemed much, much better. Not using cash registers is still ridiculous, but good improvement this week.
3. The St. Paul shuttle system was WAY better--very easy, well organized.

So all in all, nice job on by the U fixing the problems. Of course, some of these problems should have been figured out prior to the first game, but whatever. . .
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On #2, all i can say is WHAT??? There were registers in my section today (140). I asked the lady if they put them throughout the stadium and she said, "yeah, I think so." The registers still had the plastic over the keys and the cashiers were just typing right on the plastic. Maybe they are rentals or something.
 

Handsome Pete said:
On #2, all i can say is WHAT??? There were registers in my section today (140). I asked the lady if they put them throughout the stadium and she said, "yeah, I think so." The registers still had the plastic over the keys and the cashiers were just typing right on the plastic. Maybe they are rentals or something.
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There weren't any in the stands I walked by (stands between 135-146) but I saw no issues. Adding food runners helped.
 

I didn't go to the AF game but was there today. Everything went fairly smooth with the exception of concessions where our guy was noticeably struggling without a register. I was also told chicken strips would take 10 minutes, I substituted the walleye instead... just a couple of minor things but I loved my first "real" college football experience.
 

I stayed until the bitter end of the game. Even though it was more organized, it still took 45 minutes of waiting in line to catch the St.Paul shuttle. I bet there will be a TON of fallout next season from this, especially since there are so many east bank parking spaces vacant. You'll have some people pony up for the big lots(especially if they ease the donation requirements next year) and sadly, you'll have some people stop going all together. You can also bet that it's only going to make the 'beat the traffic' crowd worse throughout the season.
 

My wait in line for the St. Paul shuttle was only about 15 minutes even though the line was very long. We didn't get in line until maybe a half hour after the game, so maybe that helped, as it sounds like others had a long wait.
 

Ski U Master said:
With all the planning that went into the stadium, the band acoustics might be as bad as the dome for the fans. If you are in line with the band or behind them, there is little to no volume at all. I think the concrete box they are in directs all the sound straight down the field and out the open end, I was disappointed at the opener to not be able to hear the band from my seats.
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From section 143 (10 yard line - row 19 - open end) I could barely hear the Gopher band from their end zone location. The Cal band (directly across the field from section 143) was very easy to hear .. and about 1/5 the size of the Gopher band.... Maybe the field is acting like an acoustical sponge because something is sure sucking the volume out of the band. I do like the 'point source' aspect of the scoreboard providing the audio for the entire stadium, as there was little distortion and excellent power throughout the game. So much better than listening to distorted mini monitors (Williams Arena) or large hanging directional horns (Dome) ... so I'd give an enthusiatic thumbs up for the audio of the stadium and a thumbs down for the lack of volume from the band during the game....
 

freshtrout said:
From section 143 (10 yard line - row 19 - open end) I could barely hear the Gopher band from their end zone location. The Cal band (directly across the field from section 143) was very easy to hear .. and about 1/5 the size of the Gopher band.... Maybe the field is acting like an acoustical sponge because something is sure sucking the volume out of the band. I do like the 'point source' aspect of the scoreboard providing the audio for the entire stadium, as there was little distortion and excellent power throughout the game. So much better than listening to distorted mini monitors (Williams Arena) or large hanging directional horns (Dome) ... so I'd give an enthusiatic thumbs up for the audio of the stadium and a thumbs down for the lack of volume from the band during the game....
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When assessing the Cal Band's sound you should keep in mind that they were directly in front of you and playing in your direction. That would make them pretty darn easy to hear.

I'm in 246 and I agree, our band is hard to hear sometimes on the open end.
 

I think they need to experiment miking the band area and playing the signal through the scoreboard....
 

freshtrout said:
I think they need to experiment miking the band area and playing the signal through the scoreboard....
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The problem is that there is a delay on the PA of approx 1-2 seconds. It would end up making the band sound worse.
 

I see they have a microphone right in front of the band pit. I'm assuming this is for TV. But, the crowd noise still manages to drown out the band on the TV broadcast. If you watched the ESPN broadcast, you would swear the Cal band had 350 members and the Gopher band had 25. I'm pretty sure that despite the much smaller size, the Cal band had the benefit of playing when the crowd was quiet.

I know there have been problems with the stadium but the band volume issue is the only one that doesn't seem to be easily corrected. The long lines getting into the stadium were gone, and the concessions were MUCH easier to deal with. Night and day differences compared to the Air Force game. They may still have some tweaking with the St. Paul shuttles (from what I have heard) but overall the positive changes to deal with problems have been swift.

But, I am a bit bummed about the band situation and I wonder if it has something to do with that sunken pit they sit in. I sit as close to them as any non-student in the stadium (section 133) and I can barely hear them. I know it isn't their fault. It is a big band and they each play their horn as loud as any other band. I just wonder how loud they'd be if they were up out of that pit (which was already designed to be too small to hold the entire band).

I have also noticed that the third down crowd-get-ups have gone from being a BAND event at the dome to piped in pop/rock music at TCF. For the most part I find that change to be strange and unfortunate but in reality I guess it is okay because the band can't be heard well anyway.
 

We sit on the Visitors side, 25 yard line. We had no trouble hearing the band, and they sounded great. On the other hand we didn't even know the Cal pep band was there until I read about it on this site! We then talked to some friends who said that the Pep Band was right down in front of them.
 

Not being able to hear the band is nothing new to almost all stadiums. There are places in Michigan Stadium where you can't hear the band and the only way you know they are playing Hail To the Victors is by watching everyone throw their fists into the air in unison. You can't hear the band at Notre Dame Stadium from almost anywhere. You can hardly hear the band at Kinnick Stadium if you're on the east side of the stadium and the band plays toward the press box side (west). You gotta remember most of us are sitting a long ways away from the band to hear just the natural sound. It ain't a high school field where there are 18 rows of bleacher seats and you can hear because you're close to the field. In some seats at TCF, you're probably a couple hundred feet away. A non-microphoned band facing away from you will simply not carry sound that far.

Wind direction, stadium accoustics, band location, instrument distribution, and so many other factors are there. Not sure, but it is something we'll likely have to live with just like they do at almost every other outdoor stadium.
 

GoAUpher said:
The problem is that there is a delay on the PA of approx 1-2 seconds. It would end up making the band sound worse.
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Interesting .. why is there a delay? What benefit does that provide? So when the announcer is speaking .. that needs to be delayed?
 

Over all I thought there were improvements, but maybe a few tweaks are in order?

Coming through gate "D" they had one person wanding tickets for two lines? It takes long enough to check women's purses, but after they are checked, they should have a dedicated person on their line. What happened for a while was that a bottleneck of guys was created... waiting at the bottom of the stairs for their ladies. I don't know if they can do something with those aluminum people herding gates, you know the ones with the legs that stick out to trick trip the elderly? The lines moved faster than at the AF game...

I agree with what is being said about the band. I could hear the Cal band in real time, if you will. In section 240, our band sounds like an echo. It is difficult at times to figure out where we are in a song. It seemed like the only time we ever caught up with anything was when the band quit playing and we were spelling or yelling M-i-n-n-e-s-o-t-a. We wanted to hear our band when they were seated, not Cal's! At least, we could hear our band once in a while this time....

Waiting for food at half time was still bad and the lines were very long. Having roving vendors worked better for us this time. At least we could get water...

Going out the stadium was much faster...
 

The delay is just the result of the speed of sound. The PA speakers are over 400 feet away from the band. If you do the math it works out to between 1/3 and 1/2 second. If they mic the band, those of us that currently do hear the band would have to put up with also hearing the delayed sound coming through the PA. For us it would be terrible.

If you want to know what it would sound like, listen to the national anthem. The singer is in time with the band on the field, but their voice comes through the PA. From my seats in section 238 I hear the band very clearly ... but I hear the voice about 1/3 of a second later. It's very distracting, but there is no way to avoid it other than to eliminate the vocalist.
 

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