Depends on the stadium RFK Stadium in DC was the first of those multipurpose stadiums and it was a dump with terribly sight lines, bad seats and it was far from the field.
Yeah, I think casoccer is talking about stadiums that pre-date those. Atlanta Fulton County was the same as RFK, the Vet, the first Meadowlands---no personality, too far away, etc. Having gone to school in Boston, I've been to Fenway a half dozen times or more. Cool old park and the best part is not having to drive (b/c of public transportation) and the great area around it, with all the bars and stuff on Lansdowne Street. I loved Highbury and consider myself lucky to have been able to see several matches there before they shut it down. The Grove is great with the best thing about it being it's in the same neighborhood (not moved out to some suburban hell) but yeah, it's not as intimate as Highbury. In contrast, I've been to The Hawthorns. It's an old stadium (renovated I think in the late 90s) but it sits over a motorway and there's nothing around it, so while I thought it was great how close to the pitch you sat, it wasn't that great of a "day out" if you know what I mean. Brighton's stadium is new(ish) but small with good sight lines. But it's very "American" in that it's away from Brighton proper and in the middle of a huge car park. We had a fun day out nevertheless because the train from Brighton station out to the stadium only takes about 10 or 15 minutes but it was still odd exiting the platform and having to do a long walk through a parking lot like I was approaching an American gridiron stadium. QPR, Loftus Road, very cool old stadium, you're right on top of the pitch. But there's a huge pillar blocking part of your view almost everywhere you sit. . The neighborhood around it was kind of funky cool though, so it was a good day out too. St. Mary's, yeah not old, but it seems they built it to try to make it feel like it was older or maybe more accurately went for a hybrid old/new. It was fine. Nothing amazing but a decent little park. Etihad. Soul-less and no good bars or restaurants---at least not on the side the away fans have to enter----once you get away from that Manchester City Center----which is very touristy cheesy. I know City is rectifying this by building up a bunch of stuff, but I wasn't impressed. The stadium itself was fine for viewing and the one thing I'll give it over the Emirates (and most American stadiums too for that matter) is the wifi in the stadium worked great. Lastly, I'm sure Pook might give me shit for this, I really liked the Gtech. It's small but with good sight lines. A little bit of a pain to get to from North London, but not too bad. And there are a couple of really cool pubs that sit right on the river only a 5 minute walk away. We had a blast that day.
The only good US stadiums built between RFK in the early 60's and Camden Yards in the 90's were Dodger Stadium and Arrowhead/Kauffman here in KC. All the other cookie-cutter multi-purposes stadiums were crap. Fenway, Wrigley and Lambeau are the only classics left unless you go down to the college game and get stuff like Cameron Indoor or the Rose Bowl. I can't offer anything much on English stadiums, but the KC stadiums did turn us into a hub for sports architecture. Populous/HOK/360 have merged and splintered off, but some iteration has designed many of the stadiums around the world including the Emirates and sp*rs new stadium. I am an engineer and work with them and other architects around the country (Gensler, HNTB, HKS) on sports facilities around the US, and I prefer to work on the smaller scale stuff rather than the $1B-ish projects that consume you for 3-4 years.
Dodgers Stadium–ignoring the forced displacement of a community to build the stadium–is an awesome stadium. I saw a game there and sat through an earthquake.
Very much both, though in the case of Ibrox, I've never been. It is, at this point, priority one in my footy ground 'to do' list. All of the others mentioned (save Dens Park) I've been to at least once, some many times. A vast majority of Leitch's stands were quite basic; 'form following function', if you will. But he - as most footy architects of the time (and this applies to old baseball parks, as well) - worked within confined parameters, meaning that frequently the results of his remit - essentially the task of maximizing capacity within limited (and sometimes wonky) available spaces - would produce strikingly different results, even if employing similar methods. That said, on occasion his consignors (is that the right word?) paid for something 'extra' ... and Leitch delivered. The best surviving examples (as mentioned) are Ibrox's South Stand and Fulham's Stevenage Road Stand, each of which features architectural characteristics and details that nobody wants me to bang on about. His greatest achievement was Aston Villa's old Trinity Road Stand - that gable mosaic ... the balcony facade ... aahh! - but the Phillistines running that club pulled it down some 25 years back. 'We need more seats, you know'. They'll burn in perpetuity, I suspect. But I digress. But yes, the dynamics of old footy grounds is very similar to those of old ballparks over here. In addition to Wrigley and Fenway, I'm old enough to have experienced the likes of old Yankee Stadium, Cleveland Municipal (awful, but wonderful), Crosley Field (just once - and before anyone starts, I was very young), and spent much of my youth at old Tiger Stadium and (perhaps my favorite place on earth) old Commiskey Park. Oh, and a quick shout to Bush Stadium in Indianapolis. Loads and loads of very, very good times. ---- ha! I was typing this up last night when a friend rolled up to the pub. Never hit 'post reply'. Was i done? Not sure, but I am now. **hits 'post reply'**
I've not been yet. They had a friday night game that would been perfect for me a year or two back, but I couldn't get a ticket. Damn Premier League ... i mean ... Brentford!! But I do want to go. Its a very good (and rare, for modern grounds) example of how older grounds used to have to get creative to utilize as much of the available space as possible. Zoning for construction in London seems a nightmare. Amyway, it looks interesting to me. It's a sure bet that I'll hate it compared to Griffin Park, though. That was one of my favorite grounds in England. Sat right in the neighborhood ... pub on each corner ... terraced end ... oozing character. Proper ground, that.
Was the earthquake big enough to have a name, or was it just one of our Magnitude 4.0 to 5.0 minor annoyances? With the exception of one minor league game in Phoenix, my stadium experiences are limited to California. Unfortunately, our car culture, with very few exceptions, means our stadiums are typically surrounded by parking lots, which forces them out of downtown areas, away from bars/pubs and restaurants. I have watched games at stadiums that represent three generations of sport in California, starting as a child with Edmonds Ball Park in Sacramento and Seals Stadium in San Francisco. They were small intimate venues that hosted the Sacramento Solons and San Francisco seals of the old Pacific Coast League and to th best of my memory, while not architectural monuments, had a certain charm. The second generation of stadiums were sterile cookie cutter stadiums, relatively far from their city centers, Candlestick Park, the Oakland As/Raides Coliseum, Chavez Ravine, and the San Diego Padres/Chargers Stadium in Mission Valley. I have been to both baseball and football games in three of the four and several baseball games at Chavez Ravine. The vibe was all about the games, not the stadiums or surrounding areas. Sight lines were generally good but there was nothing unique about them or the surrounding areas. They were just functional. I have only been to one of the third generation of stadiums. Oracle Park in San Francisco. While not downtown it is within the San Francisco City limits. It is a walk up stadium within an approximately 15 to 20 minute walk from both CalTrain and Bart, while several ferry services dock behind center field. There is parking but it is two to three blocks away and not acres of asphalt surrounding the stadium. Since construction had to conform to the shape of the lot, the design is somewhat unique, doesn’t look like most other baseball parks around the country. The only qualm I have is that because of the lot constraints, the upper deck is quite steep and can induce vertigo, but I have never liked watching baseball from an upper deck.
The Epicenter for that earthquake was near Ridgecrest California which is approximately equidistant from Los Angeles and Las Vegas. I remember looking at news photos of the ground rupture near Ridgecrest at the time. (As a retired geologist, I’m always earthquake curious).
I only remember it being Vegas because it postponed Zion Williamson’s rookie camp debut. I was at the game and Kershaw looked around and stepped off the mound, then we all started to feel it and the luxury suite glasses started to wobble. Was cool, tbf lol
My mom was visiting her sisters in Santa Rosa when the 1989 earthquake that shut down the WS struck. She and my aunt were driving down a county road adjacent to the Russian River when the car started shaking----and not from the road. My aunt immediately knew what it was and pulled the car over to stop. Mom said it was quite scary.
I was also on the road during the Loma Prieta EQ, but I was traveling parallel to the earthquake waves, so I didn’t feel a thing, but my radio went dead and I found out later that it was because the radio transmission tower in San Francisco went down.
That quake was nuts! I was 9 years old, standing in an open field for a 5:00pm soccer practice nobody wanted to be at, because Game 3 of the Giants vs. A's World Series was on. I swung my leg at a soccer ball but never connected, the ground was shaking so wildly. Crazy now to think back how our coach was the only parent at a 5:00pm soccer practice for 9 year olds. I rode my bike 2 miles by myself both ways. Practice was finally canceled when all the police sirens didn't stop wailing and I remember this kid named Lance told the coach, "I need to leave, my brother is home alone." Only then did it set in that maybe this wasn't "just another earthquake." The water main under the bridge I cross to get home had burst, and water was spraying all over the pedestrian part of the bridge. My mom freaked out when I came home completely soaking wet.
My company’s office was south of Market St. in San Francisco and I left early to coach an U10s soccer practice at 6:00 pm. Had I not left early, with the damage to the Bay Bridge and the damage and fire in the Marina District, which was on my route to the Golden Gate Bridge, I don’t know when I would have gotten home.
My dad worked in Livermore and we lived in Foster City. He took the Dumbarton bridge home that day, got home around 9:00pm.
NYC's (likely) new mayor is a gooner Just had a constituent sign my petition because I’m an Arsenal fan pic.twitter.com/vp2v25URGS— Zohran Kwame Mamdani (@ZohranKMamdani) March 4, 2024
Don't know much about Mamdani, other than he's kinda pals with AOC. But I'm all for pols as Gooners. Maybe on his next trip to London he'll hookup with Starmer and catch a match at the Grove?
I don’t know much about him either, other than that Maga is apparently calling him a socialist. I suspect like Bernie and AOC he is a social democrat, i.e. in favor of a strong social safety net. Which given the current erosion of the safety net, is probably why he won. Since he is an Arsenal fan, we know he is capable of makeing good decisions.
Sounds about right. He still has to win the real election. I wonder if it’ll turn out closer or not, because if the socialist tag, fair or not. But there’s a whole set of forms for that kind of debate I suppose. I’m here. We just welcome his Goonerdom!
MAGA dislikes him because they wanted Cuomo in because he is buddy buddy with big business, New Yorkers didn't like him because he is a dirty old dodgy man. MAGA also dislikes Mamdani because he isn't white and he is running on a platform of fixing rent and housing, fixing the affordability issues in NYC, upping protections for LGBTQI people and wants the minimum wage up to $30 by 2030. Oh and he wants ICE kept the hell away.
Not likely he a gooner, Unlike the current NYC MAYOR who supports either Fener or Gala depending on the bribe.
I wonder what a game in Istanbul is like. Besiktas is in a really nice neighborhood, but I've never been to the Asian side where Fener is.