Which stadium is best?

[SDFS]

North Dakota's Alerus Center is definitely one of the most unique facilities in FCS. It's basically a large entertainment/conference center. Here's a couple of pics I took when I was in Grand Forks last month. My hotel would have been awesome for a football weekend!

Actually, I like the setup a lot and it works great for my family. I get up early go tailgate. The kids and wife go to the water park and join me later in the day. Inside at the game they have good food with mixed drinks and craft beers on tap. I think they do a great job. After the game, the bars on the other end of the facility are fun and you can play a little 21 to close out the evening.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Speaking of money and resourses, the renovations or new stadiums at the schools you mentioned all cost the same or more (double) as W&M's renovation. The only exception really is Montana, although they have a better stadium anyways, and they just completed the new Champions Center. You would think with all of that extra jingle in their pockets, W&M would have installed chair back seating in more than 10% of the stadium... but the brick does look nice.

W&M and UNH's renovation were about the same, $27/$25 million respectively. That's relatively steep on both accounts imo but that's the result of doing business in or near Northeast/Mid-Atlanta metro areas. W&M added a relatively modest upper-deck and a really nice press press/suite area. They also ensured the renovations were in line with the current stadium/campus which did account for some extra $$. $10 million dollars of the project was financed through a Walter Zable estate gift.

UNH built an entirely new home side so it was a full circle demo to ground up project. Overall, the UNH structure is a little smaller/simpler than W&M's. SDSU got a brand new horse-shoe 20k seat stadium and with a beautiful press box and suites for $60 million. They basically got 3x as much stadium for 2x the money. Money goes a little further in Brookings....

I also found who spoke with! It was Michael Behrendt who is/was the Durham Town Planner. Here's some really cool info regarding UNH's project. As someone who is working their way into sports facility mgt I'm loving this stuff!

University of New Hampshire Stadium. Proposed renovations and addition of seats to Cowell stadium and possible changes to the stadium’s sound system. Review per RSA 674:54 Governmental Land Uses. Doug Bencks, University Architect, for UNH, property owner.

UNH Stadium Expansion | The Town of Durham New Hampshire

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

I really don't have anything against the Alerus Center, it can get really loud in there, noise bounces around that place something fierce. I have stayed at the Canadinn numerous times and it is pretty handy. I used to work Ag shows in the winter time and it was always freaking 20 below zero in February when the Ag show was there. Ran up some pretty big bar tabs at the bars in that place. The combination of maple leaf flags, ****ty weather and working Ag shows makes me grind my teeth over the place.

My position on annexing everything north of county road 4 to Manitoba still stands.

NDSU and UND both have really good facilties! The Fargo and Alerus Dome, while not being perfect, are still really nice indoor stadiums relative to others in FCS. Plus, UND has the Ralph and mini-Ralph while NDSU has the new Scheel's Center (where I should be working!). Those all really nice facilities relative to their peers.

I'm a huge fan of both Fargo and Grand Forks. Fargo is definitely a city with a school while Grand Forks is right on the fringe of college town or small city with a college; kind of like Bozeman. Both cities have great downtowns and park systems. The two cities are also expanding at a rapid rate; new subdivision after new subdivision. It's a shame because Fargo's and FG's older neighborhoods are beautiful! Grand Forks has the slight golf edge with GFCC as a really nice private option and King's Walk is a beautiful public track. Fargo CC is really nice but the public options in the Fargo-Moorehead are pretty "meh".

[POD Knows]

NDSU and UND both have really good facilties! The Fargo and Alerus Dome, while not being perfect, are still really nice indoor stadiums relative to others in FCS. Plus, UND has the Ralph and mini-Ralph while NDSU has the new Scheel's Center (where I should be working!). Those all really nice facilities relative to their peers.

I'm a huge fan of both Fargo and Grand Forks. Fargo is definitely a city with a school while Grand Forks is right on the fringe of college town or small city with a college; kind of like Bozeman. Both cities have great downtowns and park systems. The two cities are also expanding at a rapid rate; new subdivision after new subdivision. It's a shame because Fargo's and FG's older neighborhoods are beautiful! Grand Forks has the slight golf edge with GFCC as a really nice private option and King's Walk is a beautiful public track. Fargo CC is really nice but the public options in the Fargo-Moorehead are pretty "meh".

The Ralph is the nicest facility of the ones you mentioned and it isn't even really close. I forgot they served beer at football games at the Alerus, that bumps the place a little bit. I am not a fan of the SHAC in Fargo, been to a few games there, kind of blah.

Which golf courses have you played in Fargo/Moorhead? GF really only has the two public courses, Valley on the east side and Kings Walk. Lincoln is a little 9 hole job. Fargo has had a lot of problems with the muni's there, Rose Creek and Edgewood, flooding and some other stuff. Edgewood used to be really nice back in the day, I haven't played there for quite a while.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

The Ralph is the nicest facility of the ones you mentioned and it isn't even really close. I forgot they served beer at football games at the Alerus, that bumps the place a little bit. I am not a fan of the SHAC in Fargo, been to a few games there, kind of blah.

Which golf courses have you played in Fargo/Moorhead? GF really only has the two public courses, Valley on the east side and Kings Walk. Lincoln is a little 9 hole job. Fargo has had a lot of problems with the muni's there, Rose Creek and Edgewood, flooding and some other stuff. Edgewood used to be really nice back in the day, I haven't played there for quite a while.

I played the Meadows which was ok, basically a poor man's King's Walk, and Prairiewood because that's where the "You Betcha" youtube/facebook guy filmed an episode! I wanted to play Fargo CC but there was an event/tournament when I was out there in July. Grand Forks CC is a really nice course; clubhouse is rather ho-hum though. The combination of good layout and fairly drastic elevation changes make it one of best private courses in ND. If I do ultimately move out there I'll join either Fargo or GFCC. Moorehead CC looks decent but overall a step down?

The UND college 9 hole course is also headed in the right direction since it re-opened last year. That's a great little piece of land in the middle of town!

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Speaking of golf and football stadiums. I would love for GVSU and or Saginaw Valley move to FCS (not likely to happen). Lubbers Stadium has always caught my eye as cool and quirky. Plus, the Meadows GC at GVSU is one of the most underrated college tracks in the country! Lubbers, The Big House and the Rose Bowl are both right next to golf courses. Not sure of any other stadiums?

[POD Knows]

I played the Meadows which was ok, basically a poor man's King's Walk, and Prairiewood because that's where the "You Betcha" youtube/facebook guy filmed an episode! I wanted to play Fargo CC but there was an event/tournament when I was out there in July. Grand Forks CC is a really nice course; clubhouse is rather ho-hum though. The combination of good layout and fairly drastic elevation changes make it one of best private courses in ND. If I do ultimately move out there I'll join either Fargo or GFCC. Moorehead CC looks decent but overall a step down?

The UND college 9 hole course is also headed in the right direction since it re-opened last year. That's a great little piece of land in the middle of town!

I don't think the Fargo CC just lets anybody play there, it is the only 18 hole course in ND I haven't played. It is pretty spendy to belong if I remember correctly. I don't like the Meadows, I love links golf but it is a pretty average course. I played Kings Walk a couple times, one of the times I was there they must have decide to grow the rough out because you could barely find you ball in the first cut of rough, frustrating. The Moorhead CC is the best course on that side of the river. Have you played Edgewood in north Fargo.

I have played the CC in Grand Forks a half a dozen times, that course had some financial trouble back in the day and course sort of went downhill, I haven't played that course in probably 15 years.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

I don't think the Fargo CC just lets anybody play there, it is the only 18 hole course in ND I haven't played. It is pretty spendy to belong if I remember correctly. I don't like the Meadows, I love links golf but it is a pretty average course. I played Kings Walk a couple times, one of the times I was there they must have decide to grow the rough out because you could barely find you ball in the first cut of rough, frustrating. The Moorhead CC is the best course on that side of the river. Have you played Edgewood in north Fargo.

I have played the CC in Grand Forks a half a dozen times, that course had some financial trouble back in the day and course sort of went downhill, I haven't played that course in probably 15 years.

I've worked in the high-end private golf club industry for over a decade in PA (9 years) and Montana (3 years) so I'm basically a phone call away from playing 97% of the private clubs in the USA and Canada. Merion and The Yellowstone Club (billionaire members, Brady/Gisele etc) are easily the two most exclusive courses I've gotten on. With that said, some of the best courses/clubs are the ones that lay low and don't advertise. Northland (Donald Ross masterpiece) in Duluth is really high on my list. If I had more time in July I was going to figure out how to get over there.

There's a stretch from basically Kohler through Sand Valley/Wisconsin Dells up through Minnesota and Western ND that is home to some awesome golf courses. Northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota have become world class destinations. Jay Bilas gave a shoutout to Bully Pulpit and the Links of ND a couple of weeks ago when he was doing a game. The only time he's ever been to ND was to golf and he was blown away.

[POD Knows]

I've worked in the high-end private golf club industry for over a decade in PA (9 years) and Montana (3 years) so I'm basically a phone call away from playing 97% of the private clubs in the USA and Canada. Merion and The Yellowstone Club (billionaire members, Brady/Gisele etc) are easily the two most exclusive courses I've gotten on. With that said, some of the best courses/clubs are the ones that lay low and don't advertise. Northland (Donald Ross masterpiece) in Duluth is really high on my list. If I had more time in July I was going to figure out how to get over there.

There's a stretch from basically Kohler through Sand Valley/Wisconsin Dells up through Minnesota and Western ND that is home to some awesome golf courses. Northern Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota have become world class destinations. Jay Bilas gave a shoutout to Bully Pulpit and the Links of ND a couple of weeks ago when he was doing a game. The only time he's ever been to ND was to golf and he was blown away.

****, I forgot about Bully Pulpit, I haven't played that yet, played the Links (Red Mike) a few times, cool course, Hawktree in Bismarck is nice, lots and lots of nice courses in Minnesota, The Classic at Maddens in Brainerd is really nice.

[DFW HOYA]

I've worked in the high-end private golf club industry for over a decade in PA (9 years) and Montana (3 years) so I'm basically a phone call away from playing 97% of the private clubs in the USA and Canada. Merion and The Yellowstone Club (billionaire members, Brady/Gisele etc) are easily the two most exclusive courses I've gotten on. With that said, some of the best courses/clubs are the ones that lay low and don't advertise. Northland (Donald Ross masterpiece) in Duluth is really high on my list. If I had more time in July I was going to figure out how to get over there.

I have a colleague who has played Merion and said Pine Valley may be even more exclusive. Where does that one rank?