Back from Eastern Ohio, where it was nothing but a white, winter wonderland. Not good luck given how this winter has progressed thus far, but with the dicey weather being confined to when I was mainly in town (and not long-distance traveling), the trip was doable. But something I won’t repeat given similar circumstances. The drive out Friday was nice and quiet with just a little non-accumulating light snow as I arrived in Canton. I had some extra time, so I spent a few hours at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It is undergoing some significant renovations and its a good thing as out of the four major Hall of Fame’s I’ve been to, this one probably ranks last. Still, the most impressive part was walking into the room with all of the member busts…something that makes you say “wow” when walking in

At night, I traveled through the pleasant downtown of Canton to the Civic Center for an NBDL game between Canton and Fort Wayne.  This old place was a very classic small city, multi-purpose civic center with a noticeably great staff helping to make everyone a little happier in the arena. The Charge won this game 106-85 after pulling away in the fourth quarter and it was nice watching guys that I saw play college ball (Antoine Aguido, TJ Campbell, Manny Harris and Frank Hasell).  It will take me a little while, but I’ll have a review posted on the right in the coming week or two. Also, watch for a review over at Stadium Journey.

The snow was manageable the next morning leaving Canton, but the ride to Kent was classic lake effect: a few bare periods interspersed with times when the snow was ripping heavily. The 11 AM start and poor weather may have had an impact on the crowd, because I always thought this place was usually full and moderately loud. This game vs Ball State was about half-full and though the enthusiasm wasn’t necessarily there, all fans know a lot about this team. The Flashes are once again looking good this year as they won their 6th in a row, blowing out Ball State 76-55. As for the Memorial Athletic & Convocation Center…loved how everything was blue and gold, really giving the gym character. The arena design is just ok, but you do not want to sit at the top of the sides as the view is poor and restricted. Review on the MAC Center will be up soon.

Leaving Kent, bursts of snow were now accumulating an inch per hour and after lunch downtown in Ray’s Place (wish I got to see more of what seemed like a great college town), the drive to the hotel was dicey as my car had a few inches on it during the time I was eating. After relaxing in the hotel and doing a little weather nowcasting (along with cursing out how poor NWS Cleveland is)…I somehow made it to Akron’s arena (known as the JAR) after re-routing around a closed I-76. Looks like I wasn’t the only one who fought the weather as I was really, really impressed with the turnout for the Zips game given the crappy conditions. Fans filled the place and were louder than Kent State’s arena too. As for the facility itself, it’s strange with an odd indoor track circling in front of the second tier of seating. I’d probably give the slight nod to Kent for arena design (though the rafters in the way at the top is annoying), but on this night, Akron won the fan support/atmosphere battle. Akron dominated their game too and man, I can’t wait for March 2 or 3, when these two perennial conference contenders play on the season finale as both look really good right now. I wouldn’t mind a second straight Akron-Kent State MAC Final.

I left early Sunday and got through some Western PA nuisance snow to make it home safely. Definitely not a trip I’ll be repeating weather-wise, but it was a successful trip and I really enjoyed checking out Canton-Kent-Akron. Special thanks to Sean Wyatt and Greg Keys on the journey. Again, it will be a little while till I have the in-depth reviews up, but I’ll be working on them….Take care!

Last year, I took a successful quick stadium trip to Rhode Island in mid-February and I was hoping to do the same this  year. The weather is looking OK for me to get out of work for a few days, so I’m off to a three stadium in two day adventure with basketball the focus. My initial plan was to head back down to Norfolk for an AHL Admirals game followed by an Old Dominion/Norfolk State doubleheader. But given how I can’t make my plans until a few days out due to work, I waited too long for ODU tickets as they are playing rivals VCU and tickets became impossible to get as I exhausted all resources. So another option was to head back to Eastern Ohio with a trip highlighted by a couple of MAC games and teams that I’m really looking forward to seeing. I’ll be heading out Friday with the first game coming in a league I’ll be seeing for the first time: the NBDL. I’m looking forward to checking out the Canton Charge at the old Civic Center in town. Then I’ll head a half-hour north on Saturday for a doubleheader with a couple MAC teams. Kent State has a late morning game against Ball State and then later that evening and only 10 miles to the Southwest, the rival Akron Zips will be in action against Northern Illinois. The weather may get a little dicey Friday Evening/parts of Saturday with snow squalls, so hopefully those don’t cause too much of a problem on my travels. Otherwise, should be a great time in each of the three places and by the end of the trip, I’ll have seen all the facilities on The List in Akron.

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Feb 10….7:30 PM…….Canton Memorial Civic Center………………………….Canton vs Fort Wayne……..……NBDL Basketball
Feb 11….11:00 AM……Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center…..Kent State vs Ball State………….NCAA Basketball
Feb 11….7:30 PM…….James A. Rhodes Arena………………………………………Akron vs Northern Illinois…….NCAA Basketball

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Welcome to Northeast Delta Dental Stadium! The New Hampshire Fisher Cats seem to have penchant for awful names as the stadium was called "Merchantsauto.com Stadium" during my visit

As I have maintained The List for the last 15 years or so, there are tendencies I have picked up with stadium names. My favorites tend to be the simple two worded ones like Tiger Stadium or Haas Pavilion. Naming a facility after a person can be a good thing (especially when just the last name is used), but when facilities use the middle initial, the name gets a little excessive (Joseph P. Riley, Jr Park is a bit much). I also appreciate when the sponsor has a name that doesn’t sound too corporate, like Philips Arena. Then there are some corporate-sponsered stadium names that are just so downright atrocious, its laughable. And here are some of the worst:

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• KFC Yum! Center – Louisville, KY – Louisville Cardinals
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• Whataburger Field – Corpus Christi, TX – Corpus Christi Hooks
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• Big Sandy Superstore Arena – Huntington, WV – Huntington Hammers
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• University of Phoenix Stadium – Glendale, AZ – Arizona Cardinals
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• Cooley Law School Stadium – Lansing, MI – Lansing Lugnuts
  (Just like the University of Phoenix, a school that doesn’t even play in the stadium…but at least it has a real physical campus)
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• Time Warner Cable Arena – Charlotte, NC – Charlotte Bobcats
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• Northeast Delta Dental Stadium – Manchester, NH – New Hampshire Fisher Cats
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• O.co Coliseum – Oakland, CA – Oakland Raiders
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• Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre – Victoria, BC – Victoria Royals

Goodbye to Champion Stadium as an official Stadium Visit

On a recent roadtrip I got to thinking about several things I wanted to clean up on the website. There have been a few tweaks I’ve wanted to make on the reviews and rankings and with more ideas coming to my mind, I figured now was as good of a time as any. Here are some of the changes that will occupy me for the next several months:

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- Rankings: I know these are quite subjective and don’t have all that much meaning to me, but there were a couple sections I wanted to change. I did one major change back in 2007 and had to re-rank everything, so I’ll be doing the same here. Also, now that I’ve seen many venues in multiple sports it helps to give a perspective when being able to compare a lot of facilities.

1) Made the Exterior worth 10 points instead of 14. When I first started doing these trips, I valued building architecture a little too much. I didn’t de-value the inside (14pts) because that I feel is the most important part of a stadium. Though first impressions are big, I think a bigger part of the stadium experience instead of the exterior is…….

2) Made the Atmosphere worth 14 points instead of 10. The atmosphere many times makes or breaks a stadium. Tullio Arena may be a dump, but I want to go back because of that atmosphere. I considered giving some points to fan support as the two can go hand in hand, but I felt that atmosphere is a much better gauge.

3) Renamed “Banners” to “Displays”. I used to reserve this to just the banners visible from where the playing surface is. Now, I see more and more stadiums with various plaques, statues, hall of fames and display cases. There was nowhere for me to put boost rankings for these, so I’ve started to count them in “Banners”, which changed to the better representative title of “Displays”

4) Changed the “Game” ranking to “Prestige”. I used a quality of the game ranking because I did this on a personal level for so many years. I always knew it was silly and irrelevant when judging the quality of the stadium experience, so I finally came up with a replacement. There was nowhere in the rankings that really gave credit to a historical venue. So I combined that, along with asking straight out “Do I want to come back?” for a “Prestige” category worth 5 points.

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- More Detailed Reviews: Starting with Citi Field, I went with a more detailed review, breaking down additional parts of the stadium trip. This became more time-consuming on my end, but I enjoyed giving a thorough overview of the whole stadium experience. So, I’ll be going back to do that with the previous 80+ reviews. This will be easier in the later years when I wrote more, but likely will become a struggle when I get to those first 30 venues or so, when I never really focused on things like cost, concourses and food. Obviously this will take a while, but I’m looking forward to going back as it will become well worth it. It also helps for consistency sake, which means I’ll also be fixing that top header to get rid of the game attendance, which I explained that sham here back in August.

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- Saying Goodbye to 3 Venues: I want to do this right and I think its time to say goodbye to three venues that I didn’t truly visit. The 21st visited stadium was Doubleday Field in Cooperstown. I was there to visit the Hall of Fame and while there, I went in to take a look at the stadium while an adult amateur league was going on. It of course was no game and I shouldn’t have counted it (shame on me). They will be removed from the Visits list. Luckily the Hawkeyes from the PGCBL now play there, so there’s still a chance to go have a real visit. The other two venues I removed were a couple places right next to each other in Lake Buena Vista, FL. While the MLB draft was going in the DisneyWorld complex, I saw Champion Stadium and HP Field House (formerly the Milk House). This was on my honeymoon and I have quite a loving wife who gave me an hour to see these two facilities. Now, obviously I didn’t see a game here and technically it is not a visit. Not sure why I included these three in the first place, maybe because I wanted to grow the number of stadiums seen? Regardless, I removed the visits and reviews from the website. This of course, screws up the number for each venue (ie. #91 Rentschler Field will now be #88 Rentschler Field), so that will take some cleaning up. It also means that the special #100 visit (Rhode Island’s Ryan Center) was actually #97. But I don’t care one bit, because in my eyes that is always #100.

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- More Pictures: OK, this post is starting to look like the back of a video game, which was not my initial intention. Anyway, each visit I usually take a couple dozen pictures, but I’ve only posted a few on the website, not knowing how much download space I have. Seeing as though I have a decent amount, I’ll be adding some to each review with the goal being 1 exterior shot, 1 concourse (absent in the earlier years),  and 4 or 5 interior shots. The last picture is something I just completed and that is an image of the program and ticket stub, of which I collect from each game.

]]> http://stadiumandarenavisits.com/2012/01/22/website-updates/feed/ 0 shamus170 Champion Stadium 1 http://stadiumandarenavisits.com/2012/01/17/more-from-the-patriot-league/ http://stadiumandarenavisits.com/2012/01/17/more-from-the-patriot-league/#comments Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:24:00 +0000 Sean Rowland http://stadiumandarenavisits.com/?p=3511 ]]>

I’m ashamed to say the basketball arena at Lafayette College in Easton, PA alluded me the last few years. Not sure why last Saturday was my first appearance there as the drive is relatively short. This was the second straight Patriot League facility and fifth overall visited. The 3,500 seat Allen P. Kirby Sports Center first made its appearance on The List last year, when I lowered the minimum capacity from 4,000 to 3,500. Sitting up on College Hill, the small private school rises well above the city and provides a nice birds-eye view of Easton and the Delaware River as a winding road brings you to the top of the hill. The football stadium parking here was awful and for basketball it wasn’t much better with one small deck available, but luckily that was enough and it was no problem getting to. Speaking of football, it was a very strange walk to the Sports Center as you walk through Fisher Field. Despite the cold and wind, it was great because that gave me the opportunity to walk the stadium and take some pictures that I didn’t get during my first visit there in 2006.

The Kirby Sports Center has a nice, modern exterior and concourse that was aided by renovations. The opening foyer looks more like a student union as opposed to an arena, but once you push in a little further, the hallway before entering the gym is nicely decorated with Lafayette maroon on the walls and complete with several trophy display cases. The gym itself is meh. All wooden bleachers with three sides of seating, while at the other end is a food stand before it opens up to the rest of the “sports center” (indoor track and other training), giving it a less than appealing look and feel. Lafayette-Bucknell was the game I saw and had an interest for, as I am a big fan of the lower-level in college basketball. Both teams were 2-0 coming in, but Bucknell is the prohibitive league favorite and they showed it. Hardly ever trailing they outclassed the Leopards and Mike Muscala was impressive scoring 27 with ease. The Bison won 79-65 with a 9-2 run to start the second half pushing them to the insurmountable lead. It was nice seeing a good crowd on hand (a legit announced attendance of 2,515) and the fans all were reading the free program as they were into the game. They seemed to know a lot about the team and league, too bad Bucknell never really gave them a chance to be more vocal.

For more on the whole arena experience, be sure to check out #112 Kirby Sports Center on the right side of the page

Hartford, CT: The city I would most like to see get a professional franchise...in the form of the NHL and a return of the Whalers (image from Bing Maps)

This idea was hockey based as there are cities I consistently wish were in the league, but I thought it would be fun to do it in each pro league as well. I’m certainly not advocating expansion nor do I want teams to leave their current homes, because I know how demoralizing and awful that can be. Simply put, below is a list of cities I think are most deserving of a pro franchise in each of the five professional sports leagues:

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MLB

• Norfolk: Growing and large market when you count the whole Tidewater vicinity (Virginia Beach, Hampton, etc.). Rather poor crowd when I went to a Tides game, but if this market were to get their first pro franchise, I would think baseball is the best fit.

• Oklahoma City: Poor attendance for the Redhawks lately, but OKC seems like a great sports town, especially with their support of the Thunder. A team here would be a cheaper ticket and an option for the opposite season. Given the summer heat in Oklahoma, this would have to be a ballpark with a roof, which sucks. Then again, maybe not…Texas had no problems this year

• Louisville: They always support the Sluggers really well and would make a good natural rivalry with Cincinnati.

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MLS

• Raleigh: North Carolina is a decent soccer market and they could play really anywhere within the Raleigh-Durham market. They’ve already got a nice, small facility in Cary that maybe could be renovated for MLS. Also, would be a good pair if the league goes to Atlanta.

• San Antonio: This would be a great place as it would fill the summer sports void with the Spurs being the only pro team. Only other competition is Double-A baseball and high school football in the Fall (they would just have to avoid Friday Night home games for a few months

• Miami: I know the Latin influence didn’t help the Marlins and there’s doubt that the huge foreign influence in the city would support an American “soccer” franchise. But I have hope and it would be awesome to see another place feature an atmosphere to rival that of Portland and Seattle

(Other considerations: St. Louis, Tampa, San Diego, Rochester (one can dream right?), Anybody but a second New York team)

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NBA

• Las Vegas: Of the five sports, the NBA would fit perfectly in Vegas. I don’t think they would have any problem combining or overcoming UNLV’s strong presence. Fastest growing market in the country and I’m sure fans and players would love this addition.

• Seattle: As well as Oklahoma City has done, it was a travesty Seattle lost the SuperSonics. Nobody has to explain the economics of the sport to me, but I can’t believe that an arena upgraded in 1994-1995 is so outdated that the team is forced to leave. This business can make you sick sometimes. Unfortunately, the same song seems to be playing in Sacramento

• Kansas City: Though it might be the most logical choice with the pro-style Sprint Center just waiting for a tenant, I wonder how the team would do in an area that is very loyal to college basketball.

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NFL

• Los Angeles: Kind of weird that the most popular sport in the country does not have a team in its second largest city. Can you believe it has been 16 years since the Raiders moved to Oakland and the Rams to St. Louis? USC has been the hip thing here lately, but I’m sure they would have no problem coming back to the pros

I can’t really think of any more cities that would be great additions. The only one that comes to mind is San Antonio, but the AlamoDome is too small and that area is so embedded in Cowboys country, I think it would be difficult to turn fans

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NHL

• Hartford: Whenever I am in Connecticut, there is always at least one person with Whalers apparel on. The loss of this team still hurts and the region has not gotten over it. The Jets very thankfully came back, why can’t we see the green and blue again with Brass Bonanza cranking in the background.

• Quebec City: They are working on an arena plan to try and lure a team back to the area. Yes, its really far out of the way for teams, but this is where hockey’s passion lies: Canada and the Northern US. Besides, watch a Habs-Nordiques game and you can’t tell me that its not exciting

• Seattle: If they can’t get the SuperSonics back (preferred choice #1), then hockey would fit right in and fill that winter void. The junior Thunderbirds are quite popular and the city could have a nice natural rivalry with Vancouver.

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The Palestra in Philadelphia, PA: My favorite venue of 2011

It was a great year here at Stadium and Arena Visits with several new facilities and some really great experiences at that. Its cliche to make a year-end list and it’s now become cliche to say that doing a year-end list is cliche. So enough of that word already! No introduction is needed, here is my 2011 wrap-up:

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Favorite Stadium: The Palestra……Lots of choices here, but this old building just resonates with me. College Basketball is my favorite sport and visiting an arena that brings the sport back in time (in a good way) was a remarkable experience.
………Honorable Mention: Wrigley Field, Notre Dame Stadium, Red Bull Arena

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Highest-Rated New Stadium: Thomas M. Ryan Center (81)……There is a lot right with this place. Though its a little bit of a jog east away from I-95, it’s easy to get to and parking isn’t issue. Beautiful exterior with nice concourses and a unique interior that gives the seating bowl a tall feel to it. The arena may be bigger than URI really needs, but I liked the place a lot. A little better atmosphere would be great, but I don’t see that happening as the Rams are 2-12 this year. Ouch

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Favorite New City: Chicago……Awesome! Like so many others, I fell in love with Chicago. Breathtaking skyline, great spot right next to the lake, clean with an excellent transit system, terrific food and there’s a ton to do, especially in the Loop area.
………Honorable Mention: Joliet, Norfolk, South Bend

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Weather: 6 out of 10…….Well, the most important thing was no game cancellations, which is my biggest worry when planning a ballpark visit. However, I experienced not one, but two lightning delayed games. The first in Notre Dame wasn’t bad because the extra two hours gave me more time to wonder around all the concourses. The other at InfoCision Stadium in Akron was annoying as thunder never was heard and it was a boring hour standing around. Otherwise, the weather wasn’t too bad. Driving through a steady, heavy rain to and from Hamden, CT was not fun. Nor was sitting in a cold, drizzle late in the game at Joliet. However, that was balanced out by some real nice evenings for games in Harrison, NJ and Fishkill, NY

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Best Restaurant: Market Street Inn – Salisbury, MD……It’s sporadic whether I eat at the facility, eat at home, or dine out in the town I visit. We spent the night in Salisbury and ate here before a Shorebirds game in Arthur W. Perdue Stadium. Highly recommend this place in downtown Salisbury, along the river. Both the wife and I had a great meal and dining outside by the water was a bonus. The Pork Medallions were perfect.
………Honorable Mention: Goose Island in Chicago, Capital Grille in Providence

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Best Game: Rhode Island vs Charlotte…….Without a doubt, the game of the year for me. After a lackluster first half, the second half featured a big comeback and an interesting final minute that led to an overtime. In the extra session, URI had one chance to win under 10 seconds and then had a second chance, but the long jumper went off the back rim. However, Jamal Wilson got the putback and just beat the buzzer to win the game. I loved it
………Honorable Mention: Quinnipiac vs Robert Morris, Chicago Cubs vs Cincinnati

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Best Atmosphere: Notre Dame Stadium……There were some good ones, but it was hard to match Notre Dame. It’s not a crazy place, but it is loud and there was such a mystique here that it seems hard to match. Hearing the “Notre Dame Victory March” was awesome, but I actually liked the snippets of Celtic Chant played during the game better.
………Honorable Mention: Red Bull Arena, TD Bank Sports Center

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New Leagues: MLS Soccer and Women’s Volleyball…..Ten years into visiting new stadiums and I saw a few new leagues this year. I’ve only seen one other soccer-specific stadium (Sahlen’s Stadium in Rochester) before attending my first MLS game in Harrison, NJ. Each year, I’ve grown more and more interest in soccer, from the international game, to the EPL and now MLS, which I followed closely this year. Attending live MLS made me crave more games and the Supporter Groups are something we don’t normally see here on a professional level. The other new sport I saw was women’s college volleyball. There are probably a couple dozen teams that play in facilities big enough for The List, and are stand-alone (not shared by basketball). This year I saw four-time defending champion Penn State at Rec Hall and just like when I’ve watched it in the Olympics, the game draws you in. It’s fast-paced, doesn’t last too long and has a lot of action.

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Can I get a Home win?: 5-12…..That is the record for the home team in games I attended at new stadiums this year. Ouch! And it’s not like I attended a ton of games where the home team was a huge underdog (maybe one or two). There were some ugly ones like Temple’s 41-3 blowout of Akron and Aberdeen’s late inning beatdown of Hudson Valley 10-3. There were blown games like Notre Dame giving the game to South Florida in every conceivable way and there were close ones the Chicago Cubs and Norfolk Tides both losing in extra innings. I always love watching the home team get a win, lets hope for a better 2012.

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Championships: Joliet Slammers…..There was one team that I saw this year, who ended up winning a championship. The re-branded Slammers took home the Frontier League title a few weeks after our visit with a 6-5 victory over River City at home. I’m really happy for the team, city and organization as I enjoyed a lot of aspects of my visit there. Nice downtown area and a terrific ballpark that is beautifully designed to fit right in architecturally with the city. Would’ve liked to seen more fans enjoy the playoffs, but that’s life in minor league baseball. Also, kudos to their organization for making a pair of inspiring intro videos (here and here).

It’s been three years since my first and only visit to West Point as I saw football at Michie Stadium. This time on my return visit last Sunday to see the basketball arena, I wanted to spend a little time in the area as the wife and I checked out the Visitors Center and also did a one-hour tour despite the cold. All of it is well worth it and I highly recommend stopping in the tiny village of Highland Falls located just before West Point to get a full appreciation of the United States Military Academy. There are no visitors on the grounds, so the tour is the only way to check out the campus. After lunch at Schade’s Restaurant in town, we passed through the checkpoint and parked near Christl Arena for some Army hoops. The arena is much like many of the other unassuming buildings on campus with its concrete, gray appearance. The arena is actually a part of the Holleder Center, which also houses Tate Rink for hockey. Probably the best part of the building is walking the concourse and checking out the myriad of pictures, plaques and various honors that grace the walls. Inside reminded me of a smaller version of the RAC at Rutgers. Simply two sections of seating on the sidelines that steeply go straight back. Half are chairbacks and the other half are bleachers.

A very quiet atmosphere greeted us inside as the Cadets were heading home as exams just finished. Despite, the absence of those on campus, a season high of 537 was the announced attendance. Needless to say, it seems to be an empty and mainly calm gym with one exception…the Navy game, which sells out and is a great atmosphere. I would say the arena is quiet, but the acoustics are great in that it retains a lot of noise with the low ceiling and tight end walls. The sounds of players, sneakers and the PA actually kept volume at a normal level, despite the lack of fans. Those that were there got to see a rare Army win! They played Texas Pan-American and were in control much of the game thanks to Ella Ellis and his 25 points. But with 4:50 left, he fouled out and the Knights would not score again. A 12 point lead dwindled to two and Army missed a shot with :10 left. UTPA then drove down and Brandon Provost shot a three. Given how 2011 has gone for the home team in games I’ve attended, I disappointingly thought for sure it was in. Luckily it missed and the Black Knights hung on. They are now 4-7 as they get ready for the Patriot League to begin soon. After 26 years and not a single winning season, I’m hoping and rooting for them to put something together one of these years.

Overall, a great little stop on this continuing journey…a good arena, decent game and a tour to keep things all in prospective as we admire, respect and appreciate the individuals that go through the Academy. Check out the full review of Christl Arena here. Also, I’ll be doing a full review over at Stadium Journey to be posted in a few weeks. Everyone have a very Happy Holiday season!

and I’m reminded why I love sports so much!

Independence Stadium in Shreveport, LA plays host to one of the longer running bowl games in the country, the Independence Bowl. This simple stadium only sees high school action during the year and it’s one big moment is when the bowl game comes calling. Another stadium that is now down a bowl game as it’s main attraction is the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando. They actually get to host two games: the Champs Sports Bowl and the Capital One Bowl. For nearly three decades, UCF called this stadium home, until they built their own stadium in 2007. A remarkable amount of teams have used this as their home facility, from the USFL to XFL to UFL. It even hosted the World Cup in 1994. Now the only other permament tenant is Orlando City SC, a USL Pro team.

The other two stadiums that host a bowl, but do not have a professional sports team or a FBS team as a main tenant are down in Texas. They are a couple storied venues worth seeing: the AlamoDome in San Antonio and the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The Alamo Bowl is likely the biggest attraction at San Antonio’s stadium, however if you are to take in a game at the Cotton Bowl, the annual Texas-Oklahoma game that takes place during the State Fair is probably the best time to see the remarkably historic stadium.