Just some random musings. It was just me and my 3 year old son so we left at halftime. Pretty long drive home too-hour and 15 minutes, and was able to unfortunately catch the entire UCF game. Anyway…
-They’re a bottom of the barrel big 10 team, but I was impressed with their stadium (Shi stadium). Seats 52k. It’s not huge, but probably the right size for their fanbase. Bleachers on concrete, with bleacher backs for the better seats. You could also rent seat cushions for the game. It was pretty basic, but clean, easy to navigate, and had a lot of different food options-Jersey mikes, BBQ, ice cream, typical stadium food, and other stuff I’m sure (didn’t walk around the entire place). Overall it felt much “cleaner” than the swamp and was a pleasant surprise.
-Game script wasn’t kind to the fans getting into the game at all. They were terrible today. Their QB is awful. Wisconsin just ran them over. So wasn’t a loud atmosphere, plus noon kickoff so was more of a family crowd.
-Stadium is about 3/4 of a mile from one of their campuses (Rutgers has multiple campuses spread out through the city-students have to use shuttles a lot). Parking was pretty rough, and I imagine getting out would’ve been a pain if it was a close game and we left at the end instead of halftime.
-Tailgating that I saw was pretty eh, typical northern parking lot tailgating. Again noon game probably hurt that as well. However they do have a cool “boardwalk” area on the main drag heading into the stadium. There was a Ferris wheel, a handful of boardwalk type games, and loads of food trucks.
Overall while the atmosphere was just ok, and it’s one of the smaller big 10 fanbases out there, a bottom of the barrel big 10 team had I thought a nicer stadium than the swamp (and outs of course). We still have a long way to go playing catch up.
-They’re a bottom of the barrel big 10 team, but I was impressed with their stadium (Shi stadium). Seats 52k. It’s not huge, but probably the right size for their fanbase. Bleachers on concrete, with bleacher backs for the better seats. You could also rent seat cushions for the game. It was pretty basic, but clean, easy to navigate, and had a lot of different food options-Jersey mikes, BBQ, ice cream, typical stadium food, and other stuff I’m sure (didn’t walk around the entire place). Overall it felt much “cleaner” than the swamp and was a pleasant surprise.
-Game script wasn’t kind to the fans getting into the game at all. They were terrible today. Their QB is awful. Wisconsin just ran them over. So wasn’t a loud atmosphere, plus noon kickoff so was more of a family crowd.
-Stadium is about 3/4 of a mile from one of their campuses (Rutgers has multiple campuses spread out through the city-students have to use shuttles a lot). Parking was pretty rough, and I imagine getting out would’ve been a pain if it was a close game and we left at the end instead of halftime.
-Tailgating that I saw was pretty eh, typical northern parking lot tailgating. Again noon game probably hurt that as well. However they do have a cool “boardwalk” area on the main drag heading into the stadium. There was a Ferris wheel, a handful of boardwalk type games, and loads of food trucks.
Overall while the atmosphere was just ok, and it’s one of the smaller big 10 fanbases out there, a bottom of the barrel big 10 team had I thought a nicer stadium than the swamp (and outs of course). We still have a long way to go playing catch up.
