Big Ten Stadiums/Arenas (or Towns/Campuses) You Have Visited

#26      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
WeWillWhen said:
Ranking the BIG (and future BIG) campuses I’ve visited:

1. Indiana (legit gorgeous)
2. UCLA (loses points for no on campus stadium)
3. Northwestern (gorgeous campus, on a lake, with expansive “campustown” and easy access to big city)
4. Illinois
5. Wisky (student union right on the lake is great, but no defined quad)
6. UM (excellent town + classic buildings)
7. USC (lovely buildings; scary surrounding neighborhood)
8. MSU (way prettier than I expected; limited campus town)
9. Minny (perfectly nice, except the five months when it’s deathly cold)
10. tOSU (nothing stands out except it’s enormity)
11. Purdue (bland)

I haven’t been to Iowa, PSU, Nebraska, Maryland or Rutgers, and likely never will.
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lol. Postus interruptus.

I'm on board with you in general, though Northwestern ranks below Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan for me. The setting of Wisc's campus between the two lakes, and the hills make it far prettier than NW's partially-built-on-fill-in-Lake-Michigan nature. And UIUC has far more interesting architecture and open spaces than NW does IMO. I like Minnesota's campus. Its college town (called Dinkytown, on the NW edge of campus) was really funky when I visited in the late '80s. A local friend's kid goes there and says it still is.

You're brave to have ventured to USC. I had no interest in trying.

Regarding tOSU (since I know that campus like the back of my hand) there is one spot in particular that's worth seeking when anyone visits. It's Mirror Lake Hollow (and the amphitheater there) on the south side of the library. It's much prettier now than it was when I was growing up there in the '70s and '80s. I visited last year (this week in October in fact) and basked in the sun there for an hour watching life go by.

The Orton Hall geology building and its library on the Oval is really beautiful, too. Classic turn of the century (19th to 20th) building with a turret. You can see that turret in the center of the photo of Mirror Lake.

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Finally, going to a Penn State football weekend is worth the effort if you're ever inclined. A memorable experience and the college town is fun. It's just in the middle of nowhere. My brother (lives in Syracuse) and I met up at a hotel in Harrisburg where we stayed and then drove over umpteen Appalachian ridges to the game. Theoretically it takes around 90 minutes, which was fine en route. But this was a night game v. Illinois and we didn't make the drive back to Harrisburg until almost midnight. That was hairy.
 
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#27      

Mike55

Mike55
Mike55
Michigan: Too big. Witnessed the 67-65 loss, really sucked.
Michigan State: Great parking options. Witnessed “The Comeback.”
Iowa: LOUD. Saw way too many students puking.
Wisconsin: Great food & Great WiFi.
Northwestern: Felt like a large high school.
Minnesota: COLD
Indiana: Saw this year’s loss, really Sucked. Loosier fans were nice.
Penn State: Middle of nowhere, gets loud tho.
 
#30      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
Ransom Stoddard said:
Oh, crap, I forgot Butler. Toured it with my son, it's a neat little campus, and Hinkle is the real deal. I got chills walking into it, would love to see a game there sometime.
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My sister played soccer at Butler, so I got to see some awesome afternoon games at Hinkle with the sun shining in the windows.

However, no game I saw there ever topped when we went for her visit and saw THIS. Yeah, that was the craziest thing I’ve ever witnessed.
 
#31      

dgcrow

dgcrow
Kelso, WA
dgcrow
Besides Illinois, I have seen football games at Penn State, Michigan State, Indiana, and Iowa. That's it for the Big 10.
 
#32      

skyIdub

skyIdub
Winged Warrior
skyIdub
I've only been to Vanderbilt's stadium (now First Bank Stadium) in Nashville where I grew up as a kid.
I was a 9-10 y/o Boy Scout, and we helped usher games.

They put me in the section right in front of the opposing teams cheerleaders. Think SEC cheerleaders. Yeah.

Boy-ogles-cheerleader.gif
 
#35      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
BTW, regarding OSU's old St. John Arena (home to men's basketball until 1998), here's a photo of it not long after it opened in the '50s, and then around the '00s when the volleyball team still played there:

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And here's a panoramic shot of it from last fall when I visited. No OSU sports teams use it anymore for games. During COVID it was converted into a weight training facility for the nonrevenue sports athletes. The OSU marching band holds a concert here immediately before every home football game, called the "Skull Session." Then they march from the arena across the street and into the stadium for their pregame formation. It's a huge tradition and well-attended (a photo of that is below.) The arena holds nearly 14,000 and those Skull Sessions fill 2/3 of the place.

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#37      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
Regarding Williams Arena in Minneapolis, I visited it a couple times in the late 1980s. It's a long building containing two arenas. The basketball arena is on the east end and, separated by a wall, a (smaller) hockey arena was on the west end. The Gophers played hockey there until Mariucci Arena was built across the street in the early '90s, and then the women's hockey team played there until they got their own arena several years ago. The ice arena portion is now home to the gymnastics, volleyball and wrestling teams.

The Barn is a pretty cool place. Would love to see a game there. That raised floor is around two feet off the ground. Photos of the ice arena are from Bob Busser's stadium/arenas photo Web site (https://ballparks.smugmug.com/) and The Barn photo is form Wikipedia site.

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#38      

dbeaverfg

dbeaverfg
dbeaverfg
altgeld88 said:
Regarding Williams Arena in Minneapolis, I visited it a couple times in the late 1980s. It's a long building containing two arenas. The basketball arena is on the east end and, separated by a wall, a (smaller) hockey arena was on the west end. The Gophers played hockey there until Mariucci Arena was built across the street in the early '90s, and then the women's hockey team played there until they got their own arena several years ago. The ice arena portion is now home to the gymnastics, volleyball and wrestling teams.

The Barn is a pretty cool place. Would love to see a game there. That raised floor is around two feet off the ground. Photos of the ice arena are from Bob Busser's stadium/arenas photo Web site (https://ballparks.smugmug.com/) and The Barn photo is form Wikipedia site.

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Going to a game there this December. Timing didn't work out for the Illini/MN game but my buddy bought tickets for MN/Mississippi State. My son is in a wheelchair so I'm interested in how well they do accessible seating in this old building.
 
#39      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
Attached to the old St. John Arena at OSU is a small ice arena that I believe was built in the '60s. The Buckeye men's hockey team played in this tiny place until the new basketball arena opened in '98. The women's team apparently still practices here (at least they were on the day when I dropped by last October.) I learned to skate here in the '70s and saw many OSU hockey games in the '80s when I was in HS and home on breaks from UIUC. They had some good teams back then.

It doesn't hold a lot of people but that low metal ceiling and tight games would get the place rocking. I can still see my dad (RIP) sitting up in the bleachers on cold winter Saturday mornings the year I was in fifth grade when I took a hockey instructional course here. I used to beg him to take me early so I could have the ice to myself for a while before the class began. I was in heaven. Couldn't afford all the equipment and fees to play in a league but had a lot of fun that year before I took up basketball (and never looked back ;) )

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#40      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
dbeaverfg said:
Going to a game there this December. Timing didn't work out for the Illini/MN game but my buddy bought tickets for MN/Mississippi State. My son is in a wheelchair so I'm interested in how well they do accessible seating in this old building.
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That's a good question. I wonder if it's on the floor behind the press area. This link notes wheelchair accessibility:

Williams Arena - University of Minnesota Athletics

University of Minnesota Athletics
gophersports.com gophersports.com

Here's a photo from the early 20th century that shows the old "Brick House", Memorial Stadium at Univ Minnesota, and Williams Arena. From a cool slide show at the bottom of this Web page conerning the arena:

Williams/Mariucci Arena

history.vintagemnhockey.com history.vintagemnhockey.com

The new football stadium is basically across the street from the east end of the arena, where those old buildings and rail yard are (see below):
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#42      

bluemountain

B
bluemountain
DaChief4ever said:
Purdue...you can walk to the XXX hamburger place, the one featured on Food Network/Big Ten.
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I wonder if Harry's Chocolate Shop is still there? Had a few clients in the Lafayette area when I worked for Arthur Andersen out of college in the 80's, so we would go there periodically for lunch.
 
#43      

IlliniShelt

I
IlliniShelt
bluemountain said:
I wonder if Harry's Chocolate Shop is still there? Had a few clients in the Lafayette area when I worked for Arthur Andersen out of college in the 80's, so we would go there periodically for lunch.
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Harry's was still around the last time I visited in 2018. I don't many days at Rawls hall wine many evenings at Harry's during my MBA days at Purdue
 
#44      

Fighter of the Nightman

Fighter of the Nightman
Chicago, IL
Fighter of the Nightman
Also, it is kind of interesting to look at what just some of our Big Ten peers have done in the past couple decades as far as getting rid of an old stadium/arena or renovating it significantly. In this age of "atmosphere" and a "throwback" style kind of being cool, I wonder if any ADs wish they would have taken a slightly different route:

Indiana: Memorial Stadium renovation
memorialstadium.jpeg
Memorial-Stadium.png

Neither is a showstopper, but I would say this was an undeniable improvement by any objective measure.

Iowa: Kinnick Stadium renovation
9c6fd490-fa15-51c1-a5ea-408dd503df52.image.jpg
july-21-2019-iowa-city-260nw-1458959615.jpg

Absolute homerun here, updated it while keeping the same feel and actually making it look better.

Michigan: Big House renovation
23282908-standard.jpg
umvspennstateatdusk.jpg

Assuming they wanted to keep the soulless bowl look, this was another homerun!

Michigan State: Switch to the Breslin Center
6408671.jpeg
ncb_u_breslin1x_576x324.jpg

I'm sure the old one was loud, but that just couldn't host a modern Big Ten team - good witch, the Breslin Center seems to have WAY more character than most arenas with that basic of a layout.

Minnesota: Switch to TCF Bank Stadium
Minnesota_Gophers.jpg
tcf-bank-stadium.jpeg

Lol, no explanation needed...

Ohio State: Switch to Value City Arena
DsuUHpNWsAU_ayV
Schottenstein-Center--Basketball-Section-310-Row-A_on_1-18-2019_FL.jpg

I'll again defer, but ... this has always struck me as one of the most unnecessarily lame arenas in the Big Ten.

Penn State: Beaver Stadium renovation
Beaver-Stadium-1991.jpg
1471421_32282.jpg

Personally, I think this stadium has always been so "thrown together" (it was smaller than Memorial Stadium until 1978 and only became significantly bigger in the 1980s...), so I think the new look keeps the quirky charm. Honestly, I can barely tell a difference, lol...

Wisconsin: Switch to Kohl Center
il_fullxfull.2123523108_c8hr.jpg
maxresdefault.jpg

Not a fan ... I know the picture on the left is for volleyball, but you can really imagine how Wisconsin could have spruced that up into one of the rowdiest environments in the country - pretty much what The Barn in Minneapolis should be. Also, could not find a good pic comparison for Camp Randall, but I think they did a good job there.

And finally ... Illinois. It's interesting to compare my thoughts on these now to when the ideas first came out.

Memorial Stadium: Old


SP_CFB_038_LG.jpg

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Memorial Stadium: New
SP_CFB_084_LG.jpg

illinois-stadium-819x1024.jpg


Pros
- While the students shouldn't be there, the NEZ seats look a lot better than ... literally nothing or those tiny bleachers we set up later.
- The pressbox was necessary, and it looks pretty nice.
- The new scoreboard is very nice.

Cons
- The loss of symmetry (especially apparent in those two endzone shots) kind of sucks ... I wish they could have found a way to better preserve that, but maybe the real answer is to renovate the east stands to better match the west?
- Absolutely no improvement of the Horseshoe problem whatsoever in DECADES of improvements, haha. In fact, it's only in the absolute oldest photos that we put up temporary bleachers to bring those down to the field, and it looks SO! MUCH! BETTER! Like, this could VERY easily be done tomorrow:
memorialstadium_1920x.jpg


Alright, sorry, time-wasting IllinoisLoyalty exercise over. :ROFLMAO:
 
#45      

DaChief4ever

D
Urbana
DaChief4ever
IlliniShelt said:
Harry's was still around the last time I visited in 2018. I don't many days at Rawls hall wine many evenings at Harry's during my MBA days at Purdue
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Harry's still cookin....100 years in same location. Used to order the Beef Bruiser Sub....Still open as far as I know...was there last summer. Unique spot..Boiler Up.
 
#46      

Illiniguy74

I
Illiniguy74
GForce said:
Whenever I go back to Champaign, I'm always astounded by how utterly flat it is. If it just had a couple of hills, a river or lake, it would be tops.

Madison is probably the nicest. Ann Arbor and Iowa City are up there. Rutgers' stadium is the worst. I went to grad school at UMaryland in the '90s... the campus is pleasant but they had next to no campus town, which was kind of depressing, though DC is a metro ride away.

That said, after visiting some Pac-12 schools (Ariz, UCLA, USC, Stanford, Cal), they win that challenge every time. UGA is probably the nicest campus and Athens the best college town I've ever visited. Oh, and I spent a couple months in Princeton for work... it's like a movie set, like the college campus of your dreams, my IQ jumped 10 points just being there.
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I would describe the UGA campus town as the Illinois campus town circa 1975. Really cool old town vibe sprinkled throughout with lovely coeds. I hope this will be the college choice of my four grandchildren.
 
#47      

Illiniguy74

I
Illiniguy74
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Exactly, you gotta have a few "pubs" to give the place atmosphere ... I just CANNOT believe there is not excessive bar demand for a school the size of Illinois and given how highly it constantly rates on party school rankings ... the place is bordering on barren!
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I think the social attitudes of college students has changed. A Friday night in my day meant forcing your way up to the bar at PACKED AND NOISY places like Dooleys, Brown Jug, Red Lion, Murphys, etc. enjoying the crowds and the music on the "box" as we used to call. it. Nowadays, I think kids prefer to hang out with their small group of friends in quieter settings.
 
#48      

altgeld88

altgeld88
Arlington, Virginia
altgeld88
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Also, it is kind of interesting to look at what just some of our Big Ten peers have done in the past couple decades as far as getting rid of an old stadium/arena or renovating it significantly. In this age of "atmosphere" and a "throwback" style kind of being cool, I wonder if any ADs wish they would have taken a slightly different route:

Indiana: Memorial Stadium renovation
memorialstadium.jpeg
Memorial-Stadium.png

Neither is a showstopper, but I would say this was an undeniable improvement by any objective measure.

Iowa: Kinnick Stadium renovation
9c6fd490-fa15-51c1-a5ea-408dd503df52.image.jpg
july-21-2019-iowa-city-260nw-1458959615.jpg

Absolute homerun here, updated it while keeping the same feel and actually making it look better.

Michigan: Big House renovation
23282908-standard.jpg
umvspennstateatdusk.jpg

Assuming they wanted to keep the soulless bowl look, this was another homerun!

Michigan State: Switch to the Breslin Center
6408671.jpeg
ncb_u_breslin1x_576x324.jpg

I'm sure the old one was loud, but that just couldn't host a modern Big Ten team - good witch, the Breslin Center seems to have WAY more character than most arenas with that basic of a layout.

Minnesota: Switch to TCF Bank Stadium
Minnesota_Gophers.jpg
tcf-bank-stadium.jpeg

Lol, no explanation needed...

Ohio State: Switch to Value City Arena
DsuUHpNWsAU_ayV
Schottenstein-Center--Basketball-Section-310-Row-A_on_1-18-2019_FL.jpg

I'll again defer, but ... this has always struck me as one of the most unnecessarily lame arenas in the Big Ten.

Penn State: Beaver Stadium renovation
Beaver-Stadium-1991.jpg
1471421_32282.jpg

Personally, I think this stadium has always been so "thrown together" (it was smaller than Memorial Stadium until 1978 and only became significantly bigger in the 1980s...), so I think the new look keeps the quirky charm. Honestly, I can barely tell a difference, lol...

Wisconsin: Switch to Kohl Center
il_fullxfull.2123523108_c8hr.jpg
maxresdefault.jpg

Not a fan ... I know the picture on the left is for volleyball, but you can really imagine how Wisconsin could have spruced that up into one of the rowdiest environments in the country - pretty much what The Barn in Minneapolis should be. Also, could not find a good pic comparison for Camp Randall, but I think they did a good job there.

And finally ... Illinois. It's interesting to compare my thoughts on these now to when the ideas first came out.

Memorial Stadium: Old


SP_CFB_038_LG.jpg

View attachment 20737

Memorial Stadium: New
SP_CFB_084_LG.jpg

illinois-stadium-819x1024.jpg


Pros
- While the students shouldn't be there, the NEZ seats look a lot better than ... literally nothing or those tiny bleachers we set up later.
- The pressbox was necessary, and it looks pretty nice.
- The new scoreboard is very nice.

Cons
- The loss of symmetry (especially apparent in those two endzone shots) kind of sucks ... I wish they could have found a way to better preserve that, but maybe the real answer is to renovate the east stands to better match the west?
- Absolutely no improvement of the Horseshoe problem whatsoever in DECADES of improvements, haha. In fact, it's only in the absolute oldest photos that we put up temporary bleachers to bring those down to the field, and it looks SO! MUCH! BETTER! Like, this could VERY easily be done tomorrow:
memorialstadium_1920x.jpg


Alright, sorry, time-wasting IllinoisLoyalty exercise over. :ROFLMAO:
Click to expand...
Well, done, my friend. Love those compare/contrast photos. You and I share a similar, OCD ;) approach to such analyses.

Several observations:

I visited Memorial Stadium in Bloomington in '90. It still had that grass slope at the north end of the stadium. It was an overcast fall afternoon and the place was open, as was the (fake) Assembly Hall next door. I thought the football stadium had a certain charm. Assembly Hall reminded me of a concert hall the way the seats swept up the sides of the arena. I'd love to see a game there someday.

Value City Arena at OSU is IMO the definition of lame. I finally got in there last fall on a weekday afternoon. Went to its gift shop to buy a T-shirt (no one tell @Skyldub that!) and talked my way into the arena, where the men's team was practicing. It's just a large, generic bowl arena. Granted, I've never seen it on game day, but it seems to me that St. John Arena was so much better. (I noted my prejudice to a childhood friend of mine later in the week over lunch and she shot me a glare. Apparently she likes the new arena.)

I visited Madison in '88. Camp Randall was many years away from renovation but was interesting. The Field House next door was a wonderful old barn. Later that week I was in Minneapolis and saw The Barn. You're right, the Field House had that vibe, only it was smaller. And, frankly, kinda dilapidated at that point. I read years later that the athletic budget in the late '80s was so depleted from years of mediocre-to-atrocious revenue sports teams that the roof of the Field House had holes that weren't patched. If you sat in the rafters for a game, it was not uncommon for snow to trickle through the holes and onto spectators.

I'm glad I saw most of the BT stadiums in the '80s before they were renovated.

And let me reiterate: Michigan Stadium, even filled to the brim on game day (v. Illinois, Sept. 2001), has all the character, charm and subtlety of a jack-booted thug.
 
#49      

1970 John

1970 John
1970 John
This has been an interesting read and I’ll start with my though it may take a little while to finish. My baseline goes back to the ‘60s, another caveat. .

Starting with Iowa State: Very short meeting, but walking from the parking lot to the venue and back, all the girls were very pretty. Farm girls. Probably great hands from milking cows. Oops, that would be Wisconsin. Lots of pig farms in Iowa, however. Sorry, that’s all I remember.

Speaking of Wisconsin, we lived a year (1976-77) in Madison. Harvey Street, if anyone is taking notes. Did go to hockey but not football or basketball. My only prior experience with hockey was ice rink (small an unheated) at Illinois, Their hockey arena was yuge by comparison.

City was nice but we spent more time driving my Fiat 850 Spider in the Kettle Moraine area. I remember two restaurants, Dos Amigos, and a pizza place that was awesome, with intimate booths that went to the ceiling, no doubt both long gone.

My wife took a class at UW. Rode her bike. Hills were very steep.

My wife got her PhD at Maryland (1986-88). We didn’t participate in campus activities. I was never on campus until her graduation, and she spent most of her time in one building. Nothing to report.

Much more recently, we’ve been to football at Rutgers and Maryland. The stadium at Rutgers is very generic. I can’t remember anything special about it, but they have (pregame) knight on horseback, clad in red armor. And the guys in Revolutionary War era dress who have an old cannon they fire after their occasional touchdown.

The RAC at Rutgers is a hole, literally. It looks like a bunker, and the seats start at ground level and go down to the court. The ceiling is a mirror image, a dark, hard surface. It’s very loud, especially when Rutgers is beating Illinois. The upper level, btw, is bleachers, with no seatbacks. Also, inadequate concourses and toilet facilities are even worse. Built by the mafia?

Students chanted what sounded like “We are. Are you?”

We went football at Maryland circa 2019, when the Illini were beat so badly by the Turtles. The stadium is old and decrepit, and poorly attended. We got tickets on the 50 in the main stands for $11. A few students came for kickoff, and when the alumni tried to give away a $2,000 scholarship to any student still there after halftime. They tried three times with no luck.

Basketball was expensive as football was cheap. We took my daughter and her fiancé (a Maryland alum) to basketball (2019, when Maryland was #3, and beat Illinois with a 3-pointer at the buzzer). We had seats high above and behind the basket for $$$$. Seating is very steep and a huge student section is literally over the court. Parking is a long way from the arena and you get to and from the parking garage via bus.
 
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#50      

MoCoMdIllini

MoCoMdIllini
Montgomery County, Maryland
MoCoMdIllini
1970 John said:
...
Speaking of Wisconsin, we lived a year (1976-77) in Madison. Harvey Street, if anyone is taking notes...

City was nice but we spent more time driving my Fiat 850 Spider in the Kettle Moraine area. I remember two restaurants, Dos Amigos, and a pizza place that was awesome, with intimate booths that went to the ceiling, no doubt both long gone.
Click to expand...
Paisan's?

That's the pizza joint I can recall. It was there back in the early 90s, at least, but I've sleep since then, and I cannot for the life of me remember what it looked like.