Ranking the Pac-12 stadiums

… and don’t feel bad for ranking Stanford that low. No one ever goes to those games. The new stadium is nice, but its not like they went all out for it. They belong in last place – even below the ice rink the Cougs play in.

1. Autzen stadium
2. The coliseum
3. Husky stadium
4. Rose bowl
5. Rice-Eccles stadium
6. Sun devil stadium
7. Folsom field
8. Reser stadium
9. Arizona stadium
10. Stanford stadium
11. Martin stadium

I’d like to point out that WSU has the one of the highest percentage of seats available to students in the whole country, and I believe we’re 2nd behind only Texas A&M. Roughly 1/3 of the available seats are student seating. So I’m not sure why the student section is rated so low. Plus our student section is actually larger than all the other Pac-10 schools, not just by proportion, tied for 1st with USC (see here). And by and large the students always come. We had two abysmal years in which (unfortunately) large sections of the students found better things to do with their time than witness three touchdown deficits before the end of the 1st quarter, but over the last 20 years or so the student section always got a good turnout.

That said, I don’t really disagree with any of the other ratings for WSU. A lot of Cougs do prefer the small town atmosphere with the stadium smack in the middle of campus, so we’d probably rate the “Surroundings” higher but I can understand if you don’t. I can point out that six years ago the “fan quality” rating would be very different, and not many of the old Pac-10 schools can point to massive attendance during significant down years (UW, Oregon and maybe ASU are the exceptions). Plus we are the only school where the main stadium population does not live within 50 miles of campus, making it extra difficult for ticket holders to trek to the games when we’re bad. Besides, have you been to Pullman in the winter? Of course, those are just excuses. Maybe they’re legitimate but the rankings are fair too.

I’ve only been to a few other Pac-10 stadiums and neither of the two new Pac-12 schools. UW’s stadium is a slab of concrete in a gorgeous setting but I have been impressed by the fans even when the team isn’t that good. The Rose Bowl is big, that’s about it. Reser is kind of nice but I was not a fan of Corvallis so I’d rate the surroundings very low. Autzen is loud and intimidating for the most part, and actually I’ve had good experiences with Duck fans. The ASU stadium seemed pretty nice but the fan experience was sort of blah, probably because I attended when they were in the middle of yet another disappointing season. I’d put Martin up against most of those but I obviously am biased, and I have vivid memories of sold out stadiums with insane student sections (oh, was it only 8 years ago when we won 10 games?).

The Apple Cup at the end of this season, and all of next season will be played at CenturyLink (formerly Qwest) while they tear down the old Husky Stadium and give it a very badly needed renovation. Hopefully we’ll miss you guys next year and you’ll be able to come to the new Husky Stadium in the 2013 season.

only stadium with over 10,000 foot beautiful mountain peaks on both sides and we are an olympic stadium. plus you can see the whole valley and downtown SLC.

if you assigned every team attributes on a 1-10 scale rather than a 1-12 ranking. There’s a big gap between #2 and #3 in tradition, and a lot of the stadiums deserve more points for being pretty… the Rose Bowl wouldn’t rank #4 in most conferences.

Have been to the Rose Bowl, L.A. memorial coliseum, RES, Husky Stadium, Sun Devil Stadium, and UCB’s memorial coliseum. Hoping to see the others in the future.

I guess being surrounded by trees and having views of the hills or the blue sky (or Hoover Tower) qualify as pretty bad. Or hosting a Super Bowl, NFL games, World Cup matches, USA-USSR athletic competitions or Presidential speeches means we have a terrible stadium tradition. Or that the students were the only ones that showed up during the 2000s qualifies as worst in the West. Or that less than 5% of the Bay Area holds a Stanford degree.

But hey, we made a list! We’ll take it.

Arizona – fan quality #3? Get ready for them to make it rain. Sure, it rains in Oregon…but just water. In Tucson, it can rain all kinds of strange things though… like jack daniels bottles (watch video), batteries, coins. You may think, “that would never happen to me”, but nobody is safe, not even the cheeleaders.

Student section #1? They can be loud, sure, but they are not so great with numbers, or, specifically, that you don’t rush the field when your opponent is down by 7 points with 30 seconds to go because they might just tie it up.

I think Rabbit is right, a 1-10 scale might be better for the scoring. Ranking CU’s average attendance of 46K or Utah’s 45 above SC’s 80 in “fan quality” is questionable. The “packed” and “loud” criteria favor small stadiums and great acoustics over the actual fans. So maybe I’d rate attendance, % of capacity filled and noise as sub-categories. I’d also add weather, architecture/beauty of the stadium(excepting Cal/UCLA/SC’s classic bowls and Folsom most of these stadiums are pretty ugly buildings), tailgating/gameday atmosphere/surrounding environment and traditions/unique features.

this article got linked to from Ted Miller’s blog! Don’t know if someone already mentioned that, I have only read half of these comments.

Yah, this is already beaten to death, but I gotta give my review of the place.

Rickety, archaic, spartan, old-school, and all that. Definitely. It had all the creature comforts and cutting edge design that 1920 could offer. And more.

But beyond the splintery wooden benches, unadorned concrete, tiny scoreboard, and barely functional video board, Memorial is hands-down the most impressive stadium at which I’ve had the pleasure of watching a game.

The setting is unmatched in the conference – only Husky stadium comes close. But the view of the bay, San Francisco, the Bay & Golden Gate bridges, and the city slowly sweeping to the coast is just amazing. Add to that the hillsides and rustic panorama of the eastern side, and you’ve got one pretty little place.

The atmosphere can be remarkable. Games against SC, Ucla, or furd always bring out a level of pagentry that gives college games that extra special feel. The fans (from both sides) are often pumped and there is an electricity in the air. Add a rowdy and raucus Tightwad Hill, and you’ve got yourself a football crowd. And the clear autumn days, with the crispiness and sting of sharp cold in the air combined with a bright sun and clear blue skies, is really something.

The area surrounding the stadium also lends itself to the atmosphere. A stop at Top Dog and a drink at Henry’s before marching up the hill is a must.

The downside is the place was a dump. Concession stands, toilets, and seating were horrible. The area below the stands was a sty, and the ameneties were non-existent. Sure, those will be fixed with the upgrade, but until then, it was really awful. And, sadly, there is really no tailgate area. Open spaces (like Faculty Glade) are sparse and scattered, making no cohesive area for getting together and pre-gaming. That, sadly, will not change as there just isn’t room.

However, when compared to the massive scab wounds like the Rose Bowl (great history, shitty fans and awful sightlines), war zones like the Colloseum (another dump), or uber-hostile and dangerous places like Arizona Stadium (it feels like they let all the local inmates attend games), and deserts lilke furd stadium, Memorial is nirvana.

is Stadium Tradition the traditions that the fans have or the history of the stadium?