For me, it's not so much whether or not they put fans there. It's the way the stage, or more specifically the roof, looks in the context of the entire stadium. If the stage roof extended the entire length of that end of the stadium and provided some visual closure, it wouldn't look nearly as out of place as it does.
I was worried that Bridgeview would surpass the greatness that is HDC but after further review of the pictures…nope. I’m glad Chicago will have a stadium but… No upperdeck like the HDC is somewhat weak. The roof is not as pleasing to the eyes as HDC is. Our hill kills the stage with its funky lonely roof. Hands down, HDC continues to rule the SSS realm.
I'd say the outer brick facade of Bridgeview puts ours to shame. A lot of character there. Ours is just covered with shrubbery in an attempt to hide the blandness. Our roof is wonderful, though.
Do you mean their upperdeck is not as nice as ours or that they have no upperdeck? They do have an upperdeck.. It's on the opposite side as ours..
Oops…OK, I didn’t look closely enough at that picture on page one. I don’t think its as good as the HDC still.
I'll give them big props for the facade. They'll need garnish the area with shrubbery and bacon wrapped hotdog carts to make it truly mesmerizing. Wasn't the shrubbery at the HDC choosen by Anschutz? Atleast the shrubbery was choosen carefully.
The stadium's pretty good overall, I'm impressed because when I saw the draw-up designs, I didn't think it would look this good. I look forward to us whooping their asses in Bridgeview. And although we're all biased anyway, it definately isn't as good as the HDC, both in appearnace and capacity.
Stage? What stage? You mean that beer garden on the south end? The six suites on the side of the "beer garden", the giant video board hanging from the "beer garden" roof and the six rows of seats in front of it will give the south end a much more intimate feel than PHP's stage end. And the elimination of stage caused damage to the field is a significant benefit to the players and those that care about quality of play. Other key differences from HDC include steeper rake of the seating bowl, much lower first row (6 inches above the field on three sides and flat on the "beer garden" end), the center entrance player tunnel, the recessed team benches and the reduced room (15 feet?) on sidelines between the front row and the touchline. The video board will also be much closer to the seating area at BV. The brick facade and the metal roof were intended to reflect the urban, blue collar characteristics of Chicago and Bridgeview. BV's design included improvements to the working press area and additional suite hospitality areas (behind and next to the second level suites and on top of the suite roof). Though these upgrades probably won't be noticed by most fans. I think the best thing HDC has over BV is the field view of its stadium club. Each new SSS learns from the previous. The next ones after BV will likely learn from BV and implement many of BV's unique elements as well as adding new ones of their own (subject to budget considerations). It's exciting that we're even having this discussion. peter Ps: I might be a little biased
After taking a tour of the Bridgeview Stadium last week, I came away thinking that it is an SCSS, not an SSS. I define SCSS as Summer Concert / Soccer Stadium. As an SCSS, Bridgeview is very impressive with all the brickwork on the outside and the cozy confines on the inside. It also seems like the architects are getting better at designing the stages into SCSSs...the Bridgeview stage will have a big screen that descends from the roof of the stage. Also, there will be a patio there for games (not sure exactly how that will work but suffice to say there will be fans at that end of the stadium instead of at PHP where I believe there are never people in the stage area during a game). And the suites to either side of the stage will be great places to get a box, if you have the bucks. So all in all, I think it's the best SCSS around. Home Depot seems to win the SSS crown hands down. It's also safe to say Columbus and LA will be the only SSS venues we'll see in this country for a long time due to the need for concert revenues. The Fire tourguide made a point to tell how having the stage built in allows them to have concerts on Friday nights and games on Saturday nights. I have some photos from inside the stadium and one of the stage suites at http://thedailysoccer.blogspot.com
Thanks, Peter for explaining the nuances of the stage, er beer garden, better than I could. When you're inside of the stadium, it feels like the 'beer garden' might actually have been a part of the original design. Okay, that's stretching it a bit but as Peter said, the designs are getting better and better. Now if Red Bull's money holds out, it will be very interesting to see what they come up with for NY.
Speaking of that, did anyone else have any trouble finding those at the end of last weeks game at the HDC vs. the Fire? I for one was depressed that I was not able to locate any Bacon Wrapped Goodness on a bun.