Reliant Rules over Gillette

[localguy]

Not the field of course.

Did anyone notice how beautiful the stadium is and how great the atmospher was for the US/Mexico game. Its a REAL stadium, with the structure surrounding the entire field as compared to Gillette's 2 giant concrete structures on the sides and big scoreboards with big, tacky advertisements on the endzones.

Also, there is no 3 story tall luxury suite section at Reliant, the seats are not that high up at the top. I sat in the upper level at the MLS cup and I was WAY up.

Let's face it, as far as new football/soccer stadiums go Reliant, Ford Field (indoor) and Seahawk Stadium (Japanese soccer style) got it better than we did. The Broncos new stadium is also better in my opinion, it has 10,000 more seats and is open only at one end so you can still make some noise (and they do).

The wide open design at Gillette doesn't allow for the noise to collect and you can barely hear the MR's chants. And at the top you're so far removed that you don't part of the game. You have a nice view of the foliage but thats it.

Don't get me wrong I'm appreciative of $325 Million that was spent on our new facility but after seeing the new interesting, exciting and noise producing staduims that have been built I see that we've been left behind.

You might say so what but noise can help the home team and I think we may lose some US games to the other new stadiums.

Does anyone else agree Gillette could have been designed better?

[Jim Dow]

Welcome and, yes, Gillette Field isn't a great place for atmosphere. The viewing lines in the bottom bowl are excellent but the top level, above the fat cat boxes is far, far too far from anything but flight patterns. But since soccer won't go much beyond the lower bowl for anything but Cup Finals and US Nats matches the real issue is the terrible acoustic patterns. The place is a huge noise suck and that is a real shame. In the old stadium a crowd of say 15,000 provided considerable atmosphere. In this configuration it looks like an ant army lost in a desert of advertising.

Reliant, despite the inexcusable turf condition has the feel of the San Siro or Old Trafford. Great site for proper football.

JIM DOW

[AndyMead]

Yeah, what an impressive place. I can't believe they haven't torn down the Astrodome (right next door).

[yanks02]

Originally posted by AndyMead
Yeah, what an impressive place. I can't believe they haven't torn down the Astrodome (right next door). The astrodome is a local favorite place. They said when they built the new stadium that they werent going to tear it down. Why does it have to be torn down anyway? Its not bothering anyone.

[RevsRule]

The atmosphere in Gillette sucks. There just isn't any. We'll have to see if a Nats game, with a large crowd, changes anything? Maybe you just can't make any noise in that stadium.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by yanks02
The astrodome is a local favorite place. They said when they built the new stadium that they werent going to tear it down. Why does it have to be torn down anyway? Its not bothering anyone.

They can always convert it into something else (hotels, housing, shops, indoor sports training facility) if it's not being used. Cases in point, Toronto Maple Leaf Gardens and Montreal Forum are used otherwise or there are plans to.

[Khansingh]

Yeah, let's try to remember that the atmosphere was generated by about 45-50,000 supporters of the other side. Possibly more than that. Have you ever heard 30,000 people singing and chanting in unison at Gillette Stadium? Obviously not. Until that day, we can't really be sure what kind of soccer atmosphere it has.

Looking at the seating plan, I'm not an architectural expert, but it looks like the south end of the stadium could be enclosed. In the meantime, there may be other measures, like filling in the gaps in the light stantions to reflect the noise back toward the field. Or possibly miking up the Fort. I don't know. It's just possible that 13,000 people, 500 of whom are chanting, can't create much atmosphere in a 68,000 seat stadium.

[Northside Rovers]

I was at MLS Cup 2002 and at Reliant last Thursday.

Reliant rocks. Not sure if the atmosphere was better in Hosuton because of the nationalism involved - but it was better than the MLS Cup. Even though the home team was playing.

Course I had more beer in Houston - maybe that's throwing me off.