Washington Grizzly ranked 10th in FCS stadiums

[pbr1893]

as an app fan, i must admit the kidd brewer write up was done by an app grad. good guy but from what i read there were others writing about schools like montana. when i think of stadiums, the first thing that comes to mind is atmosphere and noise(12th man) so this ranking is hardly accurate. i was at this years app/montana game and the 09 snow game. same front row seats both games(same outcome too...sadly). they should have asked me to contribute to this and i would have set everyone straight. without a doubt, gameday experience cannot and will not be topped by any other school after attending a griz game. period...end of discussion. the factors they went by get a little in depth but when defending home field and then also being great sportsmen before, during and after the game its a no brainer. we had a blast both times in missoula and i think app's stadium is the best of the east but sometimes our college students get a little too much liquid courage and show their asses to the visiting fans. since app and god awful ga. southern are gone...it seems to me its just the top 5... #1 north dakota st #2 james madison(students are jerks though) #3 montana state #4 mcneese st. #5 delaware...honorable mention northern iowa. after reading this you might say well ok but why arent we ranked #1??? simple...it wouldn't be fair ranking the other amateurs with griz professionals. hate to end our playing with you guys...hopefully that can be changed in years to come.
sincerely,
beerhatguy

 

[George Ferguson]

pbr, nominated for early Egriz post of the year 2014 :thumb: Will have respect for Appy forever. And one thing I will always regret is not making the trip to Boone for the 2012 Appy/Griz game. I dropped the ball on that one.

 

[AZGrizFan]

pbr, nominated for early Egriz post of the year 2014 :thumb: Will have respect for Appy forever. And one thing I will always regret is not making the trip to Boone for the 2012 Appy/Griz game. I dropped the ball on that one.

Agreed. I wanted that to be my birthday present, but my wife/family decided to bring me to Montana for the Liberty game two weeks later instead. :roll: :roll:

Should have put the kibosh on that and just pulled the trigger on the App trip. Will regret it forever...made up for it SLIGHTLY by getting back to Missoula for the App game THIS year though.

 

[Darryl Dunphy]

..I have no idea what the criteria for this poll was. But to me. Jeld Wen in Portland is the best stadium in the FCS. Perhaps not the atmosphere, And nobody cares about PSU. But that stadium is a freekin professional arena. The author failed to mention the Yale Bowl, and Franklin field. Both IMO should be in the top 10...

Yes. It's a professional arena. For baseball. The football sight lines are marginal at best.

Footie now..Since they re-modeled the stadium for the Timbers. That place is sweet. I think the last time the Griz played there was 4-5 years ago. The last PSU game was on temp location while the remodel was happening. The stadium is awesome now. The food crushes WGS, and you can buy beer, liquor at the event. It would help is PSU had support. That place is noisy for footie. It would be a cool college football experience if people in P-Town cared...

 

[grizchamp]

..I have no idea what the criteria for this poll was. But to me. Jeld Wen in Portland is the best stadium in the FCS. Perhaps not the atmosphere, And nobody cares about PSU. But that stadium is a freekin professional arena. The author failed to mention the Yale Bowl, and Franklin field. Both IMO should be in the top 10...

Yes. It's a professional arena. For baseball. The football sight lines are marginal at best.

Before the renovation I would agree with you. After the renovation, not so much. Much much better. It is by far the best facility used by a Big Sky Team and it isn't close. I can't speak to it being better than anything outside the conference as I haven't seen them all, but Jeld Wen is a great venue now.

 

[mcg]

..I have no idea what the criteria for this poll was. But to me. Jeld Wen in Portland is the best stadium in the FCS. Perhaps not the atmosphere, And nobody cares about PSU. But that stadium is a freekin professional arena. The author failed to mention the Yale Bowl, and Franklin field. Both IMO should be in the top 10...

Yes. It's a professional arena. For baseball. The football sight lines are marginal at best.

Before the renovation I would agree with you. After the renovation, not so much. Much much better. It is by far the best facility used by a Big Sky Team and it isn't close. I can't speak to it being better than anything outside the conference as I haven't seen them all, but Jeld Wen is a great venue now.

The folks who own the Timbers bought the triple-A baseball just so they could move them out of Jeld Wen and eliminate the baseball configuration (i.e. diamond shape and dirt infield) so that it is an excellent soccer stadium.

And with regard to pbr's post above, damn right!

 

[George Ferguson]

Jeld-Wen is an amazing VENUE. It doesn't make it an amazing college football stadium. The games and the fans have ALOT to do with that. PSU plays in a palace with absolutely NO home field advantage whatsoever

 

[griz71]

as an app fan, i must admit the kidd brewer write up was done by an app grad. good guy but from what i read there were others writing about schools like montana. when i think of stadiums, the first thing that comes to mind is atmosphere and noise(12th man) so this ranking is hardly accurate. i was at this years app/montana game and the 09 snow game. same front row seats both games(same outcome too...sadly). they should have asked me to contribute to this and i would have set everyone straight. without a doubt, gameday experience cannot and will not be topped by any other school after attending a griz game. period...end of discussion. the factors they went by get a little in depth but when defending home field and then also being great sportsmen before, during and after the game its a no brainer. we had a blast both times in missoula and i think app's stadium is the best of the east but sometimes our college students get a little too much liquid courage and show their asses to the visiting fans. since app and god awful ga. southern are gone...it seems to me its just the top 5... #1 north dakota st #2 james madison(students are jerks though) #3 montana state #4 mcneese st. #5 delaware...honorable mention northern iowa. after reading this you might say well ok but why arent we ranked #1??? simple...it wouldn't be fair ranking the other amateurs with griz professionals. hate to end our playing with you guys...hopefully that can be changed in years to come.
sincerely,
beerhatguy

TOTALLY spot on pbr. :clap: :thumb: I was fortunate enough to be @ the App/UM game in Boone and the return one in WAGRIZ last fall. Both schools the epitome of class programs and class folks. Gonna miss the matchups.

 

[WILDCATFAN]

I stopped reading after I saw SUU at #20 and third best in the Big Sky :?

 

[CatsAttack]

Apparently they're moving up to FBS for 2015...I've never heard of them either

Just in case...I'll play. The Charlotte 49ers are also know as the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (so as not to get confused with the dirty feet up in Chapel Hill).

A little 26,000+ student commuter school. 2013 was their first year of football since 1948. Playing a glorified high school schedule, they went 5-6. That's the bad. They're playing as an FCS indepedent until 2015, when they'll join Conference USA (already in Conference USA for all other sports). Brand new stadium funded in large part by Jerry Richardson (owner of the Panthers) and Hugh McColl (former CEO of Bank of America). Stadium currently seats 15,000 and will be expanded to 40,000 by the time they complete the FBS jump. Basically, they're another version of ODU...a school that started in FCS because they had to, with the intention always being a quick move to FBS.

Now that I got that out of the way...the rankings in the original post are God-awful. I've been to most of the southern stadiums that are listed above WGS, and it's not even close. I would put Kidd-Brewer above WGS (yes, even with the track), but not Paulson. And DEFINITELY not some of the others...

:shock:
Will they be able to fill that?
The whole situation seems like quite the plunge for a program in its infancy to take.

Good question. They definitely have the student base, from a size perspective (and enrollment is growing), but interest remains to be somewhat of a question mark. Charlotte has the population to support it (well over a million in the metro area), but you have SO much FBS competition within a few hours drive...North Carolina, Duke, NC State, Wake Forest, South Carolina, Clemson and now App. Couple that with a ton of established FCS programs in the immediate area...Elon, Furman, Wofford, WCU...then you throw in the HBCUs in the area like SC State and NC A&T...and it's a tough market to wade into.

Being in Conference USA will help (a good opportunity for strong out of conference rivalries with "local" teams) and there's no shortage of money when Richardson and McColl are on your side, but it's going to be an interesting couple of years on Charlotte's north side...

 

[Hammer]

I think we would have been ranked a lot higher if Hammer's tailgate weren't so far away.

Hey! You have to admit it's worth the extra 100 yd walk (or drunken stumble, whichever is applicable) right?

 

[cclarkblues]

I think we would have been ranked a lot higher if Hammer's tailgate weren't so far away.

Hey! You have to admit it's worth the extra 100 yd walk (or drunken stumble, whichever is applicable) right?

Darn tooting.

 

[GE1963]

OMG, WA Griz is not loud anymore, and maybe not as cold, and the griz are beat in the playoffs by southern teams. Times be changing. I have a feeling the old timers of egriz will not be able to adapt to this new reality.

 

[NLGrizFan]

I can't believe this thread is still rolling after the mention of 2 FBS schools in the same poll. Let alone Wa-Griz ranked 10th...

 

[cclarkblues]

OMG, WA Griz is not loud anymore, and maybe not as cold, and the griz are beat in the playoffs by southern teams. Times be changing. I have a feeling the old timers of egriz will not be able to adapt to this new reality.

That global warming is screwing everyone over!