2019 Stadium Rankings

[McNeese72]

https://stadiumjourney.com/news/stadium-journey-top-20-fcs-stadiums-2019?fbclid=IwAR3OKAW_OwDUh6N5U3iyjUP-jwiTfcA5ulb3ieSdKb9VCeGvk7-2hO7ONCw

The laughter you hear is all the Southland fans laughing at UIW's stadium ranking. Are you kidding me? If there was a list of the best Texas high school stadium atmospheres, they wouldn't even make that list.

I've been to all the Southland stadiums and the UIW stadium and atmosphere belongs at the bottom of the Southland list along with Houston Baptist.

Doc

[Professor Chaos]

SDSU's stadium should be ahead of USD, UNI, and even NDSU in terms of MVFC facilities.

I also can't take any stadium ranking seriously when their justification for #1 includes the phrase "high quality running track". xrotatehx

[Redbird 4th & short]

Let me know when the have a contest for top half stadiums .. our new home/east side would hopefully get a few votes. New half stadium (2013), new jumbo scoreboard (2014), new turf (2019) .. oh and a liqour license (2019) !!! Just a much better fan experience since they demolished the old east/away side .. bunch of corroding wood and rusted steel that was just an absolute embarassing eyesore driving down Main Street in Normal, IL ... not any more.

Someone please let me know when they do Best Half of Stadium contest !!

http://www.razfoto.com/uploads/7/2/9/7/72979729/s922906541710118342_p904_i115_w640.jpeg
(https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjPiqG73O_mAhXWi54KHTYNBPwQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.razfoto.com%2Fstore%2Fp904%2 F%25231232_Illinois_State_Redbirds_Hancock_Stadium .html&psig=AOvVaw2pr2rOLXh1_5hvfkHbcJJ0&ust=1578425746223635)


New face/front of Hancock:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/ILST_vs_SDSU_Homecoming_2014.jpg/350px-ILST_vs_SDSU_Homecoming_2014.jpg
(https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi_t97Q3e_mAhXEqZ4KHYdFAdYQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FHancoc k_Stadium&psig=AOvVaw3sa0VmSjUcG9PokMFZkbRX&ust=1578426103743533)

[wapiti]

The number one in this list has a track around the field!!!!!!
What was their criteria????

[JSUSoutherner]

Looks to me like they just threw darts and that was their list.

Having Kennesaw and Mercer in the top 10 is completely comical.

[Derby City Duke]

SDSU's stadium should be ahead of USD, UNI, and even NDSU in terms of MVFC facilities.

I also can't take any stadium ranking seriously when their justification for #1 includes the phrase "high quality running track". xrotatehx

You need to understand the sweater vest crowd needs something soothing to look at as they avert their eyes from the on-field product...

[Outsider1]

So this list is just as bad as it was before??

[Mattymc727]

Now THAT, is click bait

[Sader87]

Columbia the only IL or PL stadia ranked in the Top 20? Laughable.

[Son of Eli]

Columbia the only IL or PL stadia ranked in the Top 20? Laughable.


I’ve been to every Ivy League Stadium and no way Columbia is the best. Yale Bowl, Franklin Field (Penn), Harvard Stadium and Princeton Stadium are all better. They obviously don’t value the historical aspect of the stadium at all. Newer is better on this list.


https://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.2885-15/e35/s1080x1080/75587991_551082945722586_4509711738266674130_n.jpg ?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=106&_nc_ohc=EUzglzMWyT0AX8_OLer&oh=d20ed113a683bfae772dfe5d224ef8b0&oe=5E966A9A







3131031313

[cx500d]

SDSU's stadium should be ahead of USD, UNI, and even NDSU in terms of MVFC facilities.

I also can't take any stadium ranking seriously when their justification for #1 includes the phrase "high quality running track". xrotatehx
@#NotAStadium

Dakota Dome in Vermillion???https://media.giphy.com/media/oLHaxZoXbcU6Y/giphy.gif

[Chalupa Batman]

The fact that the Dakota Dome in Vermillion is ranked makes this list invalid.

I also agree that DJD in Brookings should be ranked, but the article mentioned that it is on of 3 FCS stadiums they haven't seen so that is why it isn't listed.

[FUBeAR]

Looks to me like they just threw darts and that was their list.

Having Kennesaw and Mercer in the top 10 is completely comical.Which games have you attended at Mercer?

[Redbird 4th & short]

The number one in this list has a track around the field!!!!!!
What was their criteria????
professor chaos covered this already ... allow me to elaborate as I tend to do .... but in fact, it is "a high-quality running track crafted in a mix of blue and red (the Spiders colors) surrounds the newly installed turf football field".

[Redbird 4th & short]

Here is their criteria fromm link:

We have ranked all the schools in FCS according to our exclusive FANFARE score, which takes into account all the factors that encompass the gameday atmosphere: food, atmosphere, neighborhood, fan support, accessibility, value and more. When two or more schools were tied, we used input from our readers to break the tie (listed in parentheses).

[DFW HOYA]

Columbia the only IL or PL stadia ranked in the Top 20? Laughable.

Cooper Field didn't make the cut of the top 20...or the top 130...

[Evolution Prime]

The fact that the Dakota Dome in Vermillion is ranked makes this list invalid.

I also agree that DJD in Brookings should be ranked, but the article mentioned that it is on of 3 FCS stadiums they haven't seen so that is why it isn't listed.

They seriously couldn't make it to one of the newest stadiums in the FCS but somehow made it to the wastewater treatment facility in Vermillion?

[ejjones]

No Alabama State?

https://bamastatesports.com/sports/2013/8/27/FB_0827131247.aspx?path=football

[FormerPokeCenter]

Maybe the author of this piece prematurely released his column for 04/01/2020??

[marenlee]

Only reason I wasted my time looking at this was to see how bad it was. Didn't disappoint.

[lionsrking2]

https://stadiumjourney.com/news/stadium-journey-top-20-fcs-stadiums-2019?fbclid=IwAR3OKAW_OwDUh6N5U3iyjUP-jwiTfcA5ulb3ieSdKb9VCeGvk7-2hO7ONCw

The laughter you hear is all the Southland fans laughing at UIW's stadium ranking. Are you kidding me? If there was a list of the best Texas high school stadium atmospheres, they wouldn't even make that list.

I've been to all the Southland stadiums and the UIW stadium and atmosphere belongs at the bottom of the Southland list along with Houston Baptist.

Doc

No offense intended towards UIW and Tom Benson Stadium, but for purposes of these rankings, they have absolutely the worst stadium in the Southland Conference. At least HBU doesn't have a track around it, and HBU has better press box facilities. Didn't realize The Onion ranked FCS football stadiums.

[JacksFan40]

Outside of Washington-Grizzly the top 10 is a complete joke. The DakotaDome ahead of SDSU???

[Ivytalk]

I’ve been to every Ivy League Stadium and no way Columbia is the best. Yale Bowl, Franklin Field (Penn), Harvard Stadium and Princeton Stadium are all better. They obviously don’t value the historical aspect of the stadium at all. Newer is better on this list.


3131031313
Agreed on all counts. Princeton Stadium is one of the best venues I’ve ever seen a game in.

[Cocky]

No Alabama State?

https://bamastatesports.com/sports/2013/8/27/FB_0827131247.aspx?path=football

Havent been to all of the stadium but theirs is nice. I guess being in Montgomery put it way down on the list.

[JSUSoutherner]

Havent been to all of the stadium but theirs is nice. I guess being in Montgomery put it way down on the list.

BuT mOnTgOmErY iS a NiCe ToWn!

[Sycamore62]

I gotta hand it to these guys. This is a long con and next years list is just going straight to Rick Astley

[McNeese72]

Here is their criteria fromm link:

We have ranked all the schools in FCS according to our exclusive FANFARE score, which takes into account all the factors that encompass the gameday atmosphere: food, atmosphere, neighborhood, fan support, accessibility, value and more. When two or more schools were tied, we used input from our readers to break the tie (listed in parentheses).

Still doesn't explain IUW's ranking. The only thing I can guess is their fans put in a lot of input ($$$) to the website.

Doc

[Redbird 4th & short]

No Alabama State?

https://bamastatesports.com/sports/2013/8/27/FB_0827131247.aspx?path=football

this is very impressive ... how are concessions and tailgating ?

[wapiti]

BuT mOnTgOmErY iS a NiCe ToWn!

English Capitalization Rules:


1 Capitalize the First Word of a Sentence.
2 Capitalize Names and Other Proper Nouns.
3 Don't Capitalize After a Colon (Usually)
4 Capitalize the First Word of a Quote (Sometimes)
5 Capitalize Days, Months, and Holidays, But Not Seasons.
6 Capitalize Most Words in Titles.

[100%GRIZ]

What I also found odd was they could not come up with a pic for the Weber State stadium just their mascot!

[ejjones]

Havent been to all of the stadium but theirs is nice. I guess being in Montgomery put it way down on the list. Agree; I'm not sure why anyone spent any time even commenting on this terrible representation of stadiums...

[Tribe4SF]

Richmond #1!?!?! That stadium was thrown together with awful seating configuration, incredibly narrow stairways and insufficient bathrooms. Ranking it at all is a joke and ahead of JMU is hilarious. Delaware, Elon, W&M, UNH and Towson all superior to UR.

[Henny]

While stadium ranking is the least of UDs concerns right now, Delaware Stadium is in the middle of a retro fit and construction that, when completed, would make many FBS programs envious.

The 90k sq ft facility includes an Academic center, Training and Nutrition centers as well as 10k sq ft weight room. There will also be a large club section and a real press box.

This $60Mil upgrade is Phase 1 of 3.

https://bluehens.com/feature/WACConstruction

https://www.delawarepublic.org/post/new-ud-athletic-center-will-be-second-none

[Redbird 4th & short]

While stadium ranking is the least of UDs concerns right now, Delaware Stadium is in the middle of a retro fit and construction that, when completed, would make many FBS programs envious.

The 90k sq ft facility includes an Academic center, Training and Nutrition centers as well as 10k sq ft weight room. There will also be a large club section and a real press box.

This $60Mil upgrade is Phase 1 of 3.

https://bluehens.com/feature/WACConstruction

https://www.delawarepublic.org/post/new-ud-athletic-center-will-be-second-none

are you saying Phase 1 alone is 60m .. or all 3 phases are 60m ?

[cx500d]

While stadium ranking is the least of UDs concerns right now, Delaware Stadium is in the middle of a retro fit and construction that, when completed, would make many FBS programs envious.

The 90k sq ft facility includes an Academic center, Training and Nutrition centers as well as 10k sq ft weight room. There will also be a large club section and a real press box.

This $60Mil upgrade is Phase 1 of 3.

https://bluehens.com/feature/WACConstruction

https://www.delawarepublic.org/post/new-ud-athletic-center-will-be-second-none

and they have marble pisswalls

[ngineer]

Agreed on all counts. Princeton Stadium is one of the best venues I’ve ever seen a game in.

I've said for years that Princeton's stadium is the best in FCS. Great sight lines, convenient placement of restrooms and concessions, the programs are FREE, lighting is excellent and it all sets within the outline of historic Palmer Stadium.

[ngineer]

and they have marble pisswalls

I was going to say, how can you forget the Pee Wall?!!

[WileECoyote06]

No Alabama State?

https://bamastatesports.com/sports/2013/8/27/FB_0827131247.aspx?path=football

Bama State made last year's list.

[WileECoyote06]

Here is their criteria fromm link:

We have ranked all the schools in FCS according to our exclusive FANFARE score, which takes into account all the factors that encompass the gameday atmosphere: food, atmosphere, neighborhood, fan support, accessibility, value and more. When two or more schools were tied, we used input from our readers to break the tie (listed in parentheses).


Repeat. Our stadium sucks, but we've got a great atmosphere, great food, and great fans.

Notably missing is Southern.

[Professor]

Interesting list

[Bisonoline]

Interesting list

I think it was one of those---rent is coming up. Need to make money. Ahhhhh what can I come up with????

[Henny]

are you saying Phase 1 alone is 60m .. or all 3 phases are 60m ?

The $60M is the cost of phase 1, $35M was raised by donors and UD matched with $25M, Phase 2 will include new football offices and an upgraded North End Zone. Phase 3 will be upgraded East Stands.

The team is going to need to do a lot better if the funds for phase 2 and 3 will get there!

Evidently they are going to have some sort of tribute to the marble piss wall, I kid you not! The marble wall in the men's bathroom of the East stands remains for now.

[Sycamore62]

we should rank the stadiums. I gotta think the people on here know better.

[ST_Lawson]

we should rank the stadiums. I gotta think the people on here know better.

Sounds like an idea. I set up a quick poll to see if we can make this work: https://forms.gle/iv1JJgBmG7cs94Xo9
There's a link to the wikipedia listing of FCS stadiums from the form, so you have that for reference. You can rank up to 25 stadiums (you can do fewer if you want), and I ask that you use the school names as your answers.
I figure I'll keep this open for a week, see how it goes, then tally up the results and we'll see how we did.

[WileECoyote06]

Sounds like an idea. I set up a quick poll to see if we can make this work: https://forms.gle/iv1JJgBmG7cs94Xo9
There's a link to the wikipedia listing of FCS stadiums from the form, so you have that for reference. You can rank up to 25 stadiums (you can do fewer if you want), and I ask that you use the school names as your answers.
I figure I'll keep this open for a week, see how it goes, then tally up the results and we'll see how we did.

Has anyone on here been to all 126 stadiums during game day? How do you account for conference bias due to their representation on AGS? This is just for fun, but is probably even less formal than the other rankings. xdrunkyx

[Outsider1]

Sounds like an idea. I set up a quick poll to see if we can make this work: https://forms.gle/iv1JJgBmG7cs94Xo9
There's a link to the wikipedia listing of FCS stadiums from the form, so you have that for reference. You can rank up to 25 stadiums (you can do fewer if you want), and I ask that you use the school names as your answers.
I figure I'll keep this open for a week, see how it goes, then tally up the results and we'll see how we did.

I think our poll could work. It would take a willingness to research other conferences a little as there is no way we would all be able to visit each other's. If we acknowledge the experience side of the voting would be limited, it would still be interesting to see what the FCS fans themselves like.

[BEAR]

I like ACU's new stadium. Wish UCA would build one like it.

Hope this image shows up.

http://www.theologydegrees.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/42-ACU-Football.jpg

[clenz]

we should rank the stadiums. I gotta think the people on here know better.
People bitch that voters in the AGS poll don't watch enough games to actually be able to judge teams.

You think asking people who get to maybe 4 different stadiums in their lives to make a list of top 25 stadiums is going to get actual quality results?

[McNeese72]

In my opinion a stadium ranking by AGS members would be hard to do because not all the members have been to all the different stadiums. I, myself, have been to all the Southland stadiums so I probably could do a halfway decent ranking of the Southland stadiums. As far as the other stadiums in the FCS, I have been to probably a dozen or less. And for some it has been awhile and they may have changed since then. An example of that would be our trip to South Dakota St. in 2008. From what I hear their stadium has been greatly improved since them. What might make a good off season post, would be one for AGS members to list all the FCS stadiums that they have ever at which they have attended a game. But that would need to include not just the stadium but the atmosphere, tailgating, game acivities, etc.

Doc

[ST_Lawson]

Has anyone on here been to all 126 stadiums during game day? How do you account for conference bias due to their representation on AGS? This is just for fun, but is probably even less formal than the other rankings. xdrunkyx

This isn't a scientific study...I was just looking for people's opinions. My thought is that whatever the people here are able to throw out there is still going to be light years ahead of what that original linked article is saying.

As for people visiting the stadiums. I've never been to Montana, but I still know that it's one of the best places for an FCS game. And I figure if we can get at least a few people from each conference, then there should be a relatively fair representation. I know that we'll most likely end up with Montana, NDSU, maybe JMU at the top, but what I'm more interested in is, what's 5-15 in the ranking? What are the best couple of HBCU stadiums to go to for a game...is Alabama State's really new and nice...does Jackson State have the best gameday environment...etc. How about the Ivy League...the Yale Bowl...Penn's Franklin Field? I don't think the Ivy League probably matches up with some of the previously mentioned schools for gameday environment in terms of crowd size (outside of The Game), but there's definitely a historic aspect to it. What about the ones out west...Montana of course...maybe Montana State, but what's the best non-Montana stadium out that way?

It's not any sort of official ranking or anything...you don't get a trophy for coming in first...just looking to get people's opinions on it.

[Sycamore62]

God Damn, dont do it then. Im saying we could come closer than some guy who learned to program HTML

[Outsider1]

I went ahead and voted, why not? It at least it gives us a fanbase perspective on what people like and their view of FCS options.

[bulldog10jw]

Agreed on all counts. Princeton Stadium is one of the best venues I’ve ever seen a game in.

Haven't been to Princeton since they renovated, but old Palmer Stadium was a great place to watch a game. Similar to Harvard because you sat right on concrete if you sat in the end zone area. Cornell used to be good too, at least on the crescent side. Brown and Dartmouth were pretty much glorified high school stadiums.

The first game I ever went to at Baker Field in 1975 (Columbia for the newbies) I saw a kid run up the wooden stairs and almost fall through the rotted wood. Two years later areas were condemned.

[Silenoz]

Stopped at Richmond

[Grizalltheway]

This isn't a scientific study...I was just looking for people's opinions. My thought is that whatever the people here are able to throw out there is still going to be light years ahead of what that original linked article is saying.

As for people visiting the stadiums. I've never been to Montana, but I still know that it's one of the best places for an FCS game. And I figure if we can get at least a few people from each conference, then there should be a relatively fair representation. I know that we'll most likely end up with Montana, NDSU, maybe JMU at the top, but what I'm more interested in is, what's 5-15 in the ranking? What are the best couple of HBCU stadiums to go to for a game...is Alabama State's really new and nice...does Jackson State have the best gameday environment...etc. How about the Ivy League...the Yale Bowl...Penn's Franklin Field? I don't think the Ivy League probably matches up with some of the previously mentioned schools for gameday environment in terms of crowd size (outside of The Game), but there's definitely a historic aspect to it. What about the ones out west...Montana of course...maybe Montana State, but what's the best non-Montana stadium out that way?

It's not any sort of official ranking or anything...you don't get a trophy for coming in first...just looking to get people's opinions on it.
Not a ton to choose from, but I'd probably go with Cal Poly.

https://tickets.calpoly.edu/ArticleMedia/Images/04-Feature-Drone-Stadium.jpg

[ASU33]

this is very impressive ... how are concessions and tailgating ?


Very solid!

[Outsider1]

Very solid!

It was one of my votes.