Stadiums with a full track around them will never generate impressive crowd noise. Olympic Stadiums are just not very loud. The Colisseum is a beautiful stadium, but it's not ideal for football.
vball, feel free to disagree with me, but I've always found USC Football games to be more of a social event. (This is not a bad thing). I've been to about five games and I'm always far more interested in meeting girls, drinking and BBQing than the actual game itself. This could be due to my passing interest in SC Football. Regardless, those SC home games are really fun and there is a ridiculous amount of school spirit on that campus. You put the Bruins to shame and Trojan spirit dominates LA and Orange County.
It's the same with Michigan, all they do is clap, most of the fans don't cheer there. It probably has something to do with the fact that almost all of the big 10's games are during the day. But still, I was unimpressed. I used to live across Tiger Stadium in the Nicholson Apartments and that is where you get the full affect. When LSU would score you could hear the cheer and the windows would all start rattling. When watching the game on TV, instead of hearing the crowd on the TV, you hear the actual crowd cheering..:lsup:
That brings back memories. I loved doing that in T-town with the exception of the small delay between hearing the crowd live, and seeing what happened on TV. However, it was a clue to stop and watch. With the Strip right next to the stadium it was a great venue to watch the games on TV with cold drink and listen to the crowds. There was a place close to Legion Field in B-ham that afforded you the same opportunity.
The fact that our lower bowl is so steep plays a huge factor. You look at placed like Bama and Pac 10 stadiums with the old flat lower bowl design and it is hard to trap noise in there. Considering we have loud fans anyways, it certainly makes tiger stadium near the top.
The track was removed years ago and about another 10-14 rows of seats were added as was the Sun Deck (where the TMB currently sits) at the peristyle end. The entire East end of the stadium doesn't accommodate any seating for games. Most of those seats are covered with huge (and I mean huge) jersies of the retired numbers/players (i.e. Heismans). Still doesn't change the acoustics though. As the NFL has toyed with putting a team back in L.A. I'd say most Trojan fans are leary of what would be done with such a historic venue. Personally I wouldn't mind some upgrades to help make it a potentially louder place but not at the expense of it's current architecture.
I'd say the nature of USC games has changed since I've been going. When I first started attending with my dad it was like you described, lots of campus activity, etc. Then came the dreaded 90's. Nobody felt good about the team and so tailgating wasn't much fun either. Now that we're experiencing another resurgence, it's back to the social atmosphere big time. It's true I spend more of the day doing what you mentioned (substitute boy watching :hihi: ) usually about 5-6 hours worth and the game is only about 3.5-4 hours BUT for me, the game is the highlight. Cracks me up to see all the people in RV's partying hard but without tickets who sit outside the Coliseum and watch the game inside on their TV's. The weather also makes for a very pleasant day to be outside. With the change in ticket alotments, I'm interested to see how it affects fans and behavior. We have more donors and fewer students attending these days but at the prices being paid, it seems to be a bit more vocal. utla is a basketball school and a football wannabe. Their entire season is based on ONE game. You can still find 13-9 posted on their chat boards and their SID actually talked about beating SC in this year's media guide.....pathetic. That's why we say you're a ruin for 4 years but a Trojan for life. If you're going to any home games this year, you'll have to stop by the WeAreSC tailgate.......I promise we'll be nice.
Indeed. Los Angeles should preserve the historic Olympic stadium complete with track and soccer-sized field. I hope they don't change it further just for USC/NFL football. Has USC no desire for a new, on-campus football stadium, like we do in the big leagues? :wink: Is Los Angeles unwilling to build a modern football stadium for an NFL team?
You funny. :hihi: First of all, there is absolutely NO room on campus for anything much less a football stadium. The Coliseum is literally across the street from school separated by a Rose Garden and a museum. Not only that but we just opened the Galen Center, a TRUE campus gym for our indoor sports which wasn't cheap.....thank you Lou Galen! To me, the Coliseum is home. I don't know if L.A. wants to build a new stadium or not. The Coliseum Commission is comprised of folks who seem to want one but there are a few detractors and I don't see the population supporting anything that requires them to pay for one. In other words the NFL would have to pay. Orange County on the other hand, has lots of room to build a stadium and it would make sense particularly if they could locate it near the Big A and The Pond (they're called something else now but I refuse to go along ). The Pond, 2nd only to Madison Square Garden in net revenue for events/concerts has shown an ability to draw fans with money.
