Memorial Stadium

Fighter of the Nightman · Feb 1, 2024

Battle89 said:
Kinnick is a great stadium to watch a game. There, I said it.

Now go remove that Indiana aberration and paint some lines on the Va Tech grass - it looks weird.

Lol, just noticed the VT picture.

And yeah, I encourage any Illini fan to go to a game at Kinnick if they can. Four main reasons:

1. I have NEVER found visiting fans to be as rude as people claim they are online, personally ... if you're chill and can laugh at yourself, they're chill. For the most part.
2. The tailgating is second to none. Kinnick Stadium has a bit of a Wrigleyville vibe being sandwiched across the street from a lot of houses that seem to be exclusively used for tailgating. It's just a lot of fun.
3. There is not a bad seat in that place, and it's a very loud stadium. Fun atmosphere.
4. Most importantly, while Kinnick and the gameday setup are great there ... it honestly just makes me realize how high the ceiling can be at Illinois if we ever really got this thing rolling. My wife and I went to the PSU game and stayed about 1 mile west of the stadium. We walked down Kirby because it was a beautiful day, and I just kept imagining what gameday would look like if Illini football were as consistently good as Illini basketball. The transition from neighborhoods to a park to regular tailgate lots to Grange Grove on our left was awesome, and we are NOWHERE near our peak. The only reason places like Iowa and Wisconsin are better is because their TEAMS have been better. Sky is the limit for gameday in Champaign.

Mr. Tibbs · Feb 1, 2024

1970 John said:
Lower the playing field. Remember the stadium was build to me multipurpose and included a track between the field and the stands. That wasn't uncommon back in the day. Most of us probably went to high school with a quarter mile running track between the bleachers and the field. When I was a student, members of Block I (then the card section only) entered the stadium through the northeast gate. It's where the football team enters the stadium now, went from completely outside the stadium (at that time a grass field) to the track, and we entered the Block I section (East Main, about the 40 yardline) from gthe track. In four years of attending games, I never once stepped into the concourse under the stands.

Lowering the field would allow more seats closer to the field (and to the home and visitor benches). Lowering the field would allow horseshoe seats to come down closer to the field. Or the whole horseshoe could be moved closer to the field with a plaza at the back of the top horseshoe seating. I'd find a way to leave that open at other than gametime as an attraction, the ability to see inside the stadium other than gametime.

Super Troopers Yes GIF by Searchlight Pictures

I've been barking about lowering the field for years - probably 10-12 feet is about right, but architects can figure it out
they have done it in numerous other venues around the country, and it needs to be done by us if we are to fully utilize that real estate

altgeld88 · Feb 1, 2024

Battle89 said:
Kinnick is a great stadium to watch a game. There, I said it.

Now go remove that Indiana aberration and paint some lines on the Va Tech grass - it looks weird.

I'll do my part:

Fuze · Feb 1, 2024

1970 John said:
Lower the playing field. Remember the stadium was build to me multipurpose and included a track between the field and the stands. That wasn't uncommon back in the day. Most of us probably went to high school with a quarter mile running track between the bleachers and the field. When I was a student, members of Block I (then the card section only) entered the stadium through the northeast gate. It's where the football team enters the stadium now, went from completely outside the stadium (at that time a grass field) to the track, and we entered the Block I section (East Main, about the 40 yardline) from gthe track. In four years of attending games, I never once stepped into the concourse under the stands.

Lowering the field would allow more seats closer to the field (and to the home and visitor benches). Lowering the field would allow horseshoe seats to come down closer to the field. Or the whole horseshoe could be moved closer to the field with a plaza at the back of the top horseshoe seating. I'd find a way to leave that open at other than gametime as an attraction, the ability to see inside the stadium other than gametime.

This got brought up in the Fall when this conversation was more active, and I gave a similar reply. I agree with lowering the field, but not to move seats closer (besides the horseshoe which is comically far from the endzone). We should lower it so the front rows are more elevated, allowing fans in those seats to actually see over all the people around the sideline. As it stands currently, the first 5 rows between the 20s (so right behind the player areas), have the seats completely removed, and outside the 20s, the seats are typically tarped off unless we have enough seats sold. They're rarely sold because the view is terrible. You're just simply too low.

As for the amount of space between the sideline and front row on the east side, you can't make it all that much closer. I never saw the stadium before they removed the track, but from all the pictures I've seen, our setup was already incredibly condensed with there being maybe a few feet between the sideline of the field and the edge of the track. We never added seats or lowered the field like many other schools did after removing their track because we never really needed to. For the most part, those schools have all brought their seating to about the same distance as we have right now (some still have more space despite renovations to be closer). You need a certain amount of space behind the player's area purely for the logistical things of gameday. It's pretty tight back there on gameday as it is and making it tighter would make life far too difficult for stadium, team, and media employees to do their job, and when most other schools have as much space or more between the bench and sideline, it's not a sacrifice I imagine the DIA would ever seriously consider making.

None of that applies to the horseshoe tho. Get rid of that ugly thing, build something nicer and taller, and move it way closer to the endzone. You need a decent amount of space behind the benches on gamedays, but you only need like max 10ft behind the endzone. Also like I said at the top of my reply, lower the field still, but do it to elevate the fans over the field so we can see and so we can sell tickets in the first row right away instead of selling them last. Lower it like 3-4ft so the walls are about 6-7ft tall total, add a staircase to the field in the 4 corners, and the viewing experience becomes significantly better.

Regardless, I doubt this ever happens. I think the financial costs would far outweigh the advantages of doing it because we'd have to lower a lot more than just the field. We'd have to completely redo the northwest tunnel and garage and potentially even lower the entirety of Irwin Dr. to accommodate for lowering the field, and the costs of that would probably be outrageous when all it accomplishes is fix an issue that only a select few of us actually notice.

GatorMcKlusky · Feb 1, 2024

While we're at it, any plans to renovate the indoor facility? When my kid was going through the recruiting process a decade ago, we stopped in at Grand Valley St. Didn't even know the school existed until we drove up to Grand Rapids. Unbelievable campus. Incredible indoor facility. And this was for a DII school. Love to see the same thing in Champaign. And this thing was built in 2008. https://www.gvsu.edu/sportsfacilities/the-kelly-family-sports-center-6.htm

Fuze · Feb 1, 2024

GatorMcKlusky said:
While we're at it, any plans to renovate the indoor facility? When my kid was going through the recruiting process a decade ago, we stopped in at Grand Valley St. Didn't even know the school existed until we drove up to Grand Rapids. Unbelievable campus. Incredible indoor facility. And this was for a DII school. Love to see the same thing in Champaign. And this thing was built in 2008. https://www.gvsu.edu/sportsfacilities/the-kelly-family-sports-center-6.htm

Irwin seems pretty standard and on par with what you'd see from other power programs and even some NFL programs as far as indoor facilities go. They just redid the turf in there and I imagine as long as the lights work as they redo the branding stuff on the walls every couple years, they won't need to do all that much to it. I know when they built Smith, they attached it to Irwin and there are doors straight from the weight room and into the indoor now. It could theoretically be bigger (I think it's only an 80-yard field), but I imagine if they needed it to be bigger, they would have done that in 2018 when building the main facility. A lot of the stuff with that GVSU facility looks like it's accommodating to multiple sports and specifically like it's their main indoor track facility for events (a la Armory but probably with AC).

Dkayak · Feb 1, 2024

altgeld88 said:
Ah, I see. I now recall you getting into this last fall. Thanks. My reaction is to ask why we would want move capacity located along the sidelines under the EB (where, admittedly, I've never sat, though I sat for years in a similar position in the old "B" deck on the west side of Ohio Stadium, where the luxury boxes are now located) to inferior vantage points in the SEZ? Seems like spending a lot of money to maintain the same capacity and reduce the quality of seating.

Agreed. We’ve retreated from the East Balconey to East main in bad weather. Other than a few posts in the way, it was very nice, with a far better view of the field than from the Horseshoe.

GatorMcKlusky · Feb 4, 2024

Tate | The arena that got away

Hockey was all set to arrive at the University of Illinois. Until it wasn't

www.news-gazette.com

Illinir1 · Feb 5, 2024

Fighter of the Nightman said:
Lol, just noticed the VT picture. And yeah, I encourage any Illini fan to go to a game at Kinnick if they can. Four main reasons:
.
4. Most importantly, while Kinnick and the gameday setup are great there ... it honestly just makes me realize how high the ceiling can be at Illinois if we ever really got this thing rolling. My wife and I went to the PSU game and stayed about 1 mile west of the stadium. We walked down Kirby because it was a beautiful day, and I just kept imagining what gameday would look like if Illini football were as consistently good as Illini basketball. The transition from neighborhoods to a park to regular tailgate lots to Grange Grove on our left was awesome, and we are NOWHERE near our peak. The only reason places like Iowa and Wisconsin are better is because their TEAMS have been better. Sky is the limit for gameday in Champaign.

You would have loved the Mike White era 80's. The stadium, the tailgate lots, even the whole town was full of orange and blue on game days. The stadium absolutely rocked and sounded like a jet engine at field level. Here are the years of the Top-10 Largest Memorial Stadium crowds (with attendance for #1 and #10): #1. 1984 (Mizzou) 78,297 #2-#7 All 1985 #8 1983 #9 & #10 1984 (Minnesota) 76,056. For the 1983 thru 1986 seasons there were 23 Memorial Stadium sellouts with the smallest attendance of those being the last game of 1986 with 70,568. "The Eighties Belong to the Illini" was an accurate slogan. This upcoming season will be my 43rd consecutive as a seaon ticket holder. I'm still attending with the hope of one day re-experiencing the atmophere of the mid-80's.

pruman91 · Feb 6, 2024

Illinir1 said:
You would have loved the Mike White era 80's. The stadium, the tailgate lots, even the whole town was full of orange and blue on game days. The stadium absolutely rocked and sounded like a jet engine at field level. Here are the years of the Top-10 Largest Memorial Stadium crowds (with attendance for #1 and #10): #1. 1984 (Mizzou) 78,297 #2-#7 All 1985 #8 1983 #9 & #10 1984 (Minnesota) 76,056. For the 1983 thru 1986 seasons there were 23 Memorial Stadium sellouts with the smallest attendance of those being the last game of 1986 with 70,568. "The Eighties Belong to the Illini" was an accurate slogan. This upcoming season will be my 43rd consecutive as a seaon ticket holder. I'm still attending with the hope of one day re-experiencing the atmophere of the mid-80's.

DeonThomas · Feb 6, 2024

Illinir1 said:
You would have loved the Mike White era 80's. The stadium, the tailgate lots, even the whole town was full of orange and blue on game days. The stadium absolutely rocked and sounded like a jet engine at field level. Here are the years of the Top-10 Largest Memorial Stadium crowds (with attendance for #1 and #10): #1. 1984 (Mizzou) 78,297 #2-#7 All 1985 #8 1983 #9 & #10 1984 (Minnesota) 76,056. For the 1983 thru 1986 seasons there were 23 Memorial Stadium sellouts with the smallest attendance of those being the last game of 1986 with 70,568. "The Eighties Belong to the Illini" was an accurate slogan. This upcoming season will be my 43rd consecutive as a seaon ticket holder. I'm still attending with the hope of one day re-experiencing the atmophere of the mid-80's.

Could not have written this any better myself. Spot on!

Fortunately, I have been able to re-experience those peak years of tailgating, seas of orange in the streets and in the stands, crowded campus-town bars, weekly AP rankings, rabid and sold out student sections, and Game Day exuberance on Saturday afternoons. Unfortunately, I had to purchase Clemson season tickets (in support of my three sons) in order to do so.

Illinivek23 · Feb 6, 2024

Are the students going to be moved this fall to the East stands?

Fighter of the Nightman · Feb 6, 2024

Illinivek23 said:
Are the students going to be moved this fall to the East stands?

How have they not worked out a way to do this yet?! Bret seemed to let it slip in 2022 that we were looking at it for 2023, but nothing came of it. We have had multiple students post here that the NEZ is actually a great place to watch a game ... it's just an awful place for your student section. That area is tailor made for a family-friendly zone where people can spread out, not for a stable to pack in students (hell, even when our student section is 90% full, it still looks bad up there that the corners are empty).

I go on and on about the Horseshoe, but there really is a lot we could do with the NEZ. I went to my first ever Sox game last summer (Go Cubs!) with my wife and her work friends, and we bought group tickets in the "Goose Island Bleachers" in right field. This would be a great idea for the NEZ:

It would reduce capacity a bit, allow the DIA to charge more for those seats and give that awkward, sky-high area a much better purpose than housing the students. You could serve Blind Pig beer and Maize food or something. I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I have to believe the cost of putting in actual seats and some simple table space like that would be more than gained back from the increased revenues that section would generate in relatively short order.

Either way, get the students as close to field level as possible! Hell, if they ever got the Horseshoe closer to the end zone, you could stick them there!! The issue is not having the students in an end zone (a lot of programs do that), it's having them elevated up in the air, separate from the rest of the crowd, where it's much more difficult for them to affect the overall noise level.

GoDucks349 · Feb 7, 2024

Fighter of the Nightman said:
How have they not worked out a way to do this yet?! Bret seemed to let it slip in 2022 that we were looking at it for 2023, but nothing came of it. We have had multiple students post here that the NEZ is actually a great place to watch a game ... it's just an awful place for your student section. That area is tailor made for a family-friendly zone where people can spread out, not for a stable to pack in students (hell, even when our student section is 90% full, it still looks bad up there that the corners are empty).

I go on and on about the Horseshoe, but there really is a lot we could do with the NEZ. I went to my first ever Sox game last summer (Go Cubs!) with my wife and her work friends, and we bought group tickets in the "Goose Island Bleachers" in right field. This would be a great idea for the NEZ:

It would reduce capacity a bit, allow the DIA to charge more for those seats and give that awkward, sky-high area a much better purpose than housing the students. You could serve Blind Pig beer and Maize food or something. I'm not an expert on this stuff, but I have to believe the cost of putting in actual seats and some simple table space like that would be more than gained back from the increased revenues that section would generate in relatively short order.

Either way, get the students as close to field level as possible! Hell, if they ever got the Horseshoe closer to the end zone, you could stick them there!! The issue is not having the students in an end zone (a lot of programs do that), it's having them elevated up in the air, separate from the rest of the crowd, where it's much more difficult for them to affect the overall noise level.

At Autzen the student section is from the 15 yard line wrapping into the endzone. Sections 2 through 8. And yes, they get quite loud, of course the whole stadium is quite loud...

Calvin · Feb 8, 2024

Mr. Tibbs said:
everything done there at that level does not necessarily need to “ go out for bid “ - it’s not like a $200 million remodeling project

You might be surprised at how much CYA and compliance there is around government money at the public college level. I don't know UofI's policy, but I know of another BIG institution that requires bids for anything over $50k, and I believe that's common.