Toughest Place to Play in Your Conference

[K-Mack]

I just ran down my list of 49 stadiums. Ten have better press boxes than St. John's and an 11th is borderline. But hey, it's a pretty good press box if only 10 of my 49 definitely beat it.

Still nearly 190 I haven't seen.

You should post your list. I'll do mine, but not until I finish ATN. Gotta prioritize, you know.

(leaves board immediately)

[K-Mack]

Another thing to think of (hasn't left board yet) is that all the "best" distinctions are a matter of preference. One man's dump is another man's classic old-school stadium and vice versa.

One thing I noticed though looking up something a few weeks ago ... The ODAC led Division III in attendance, much I'm sure, on the strength of big crowds at Emory & Henry and now Bridgewater, and the annual 10Gs at the R-MC/H-SC game ... for almost a decade running from '88 through '98. Certain schools (Like Linfield) weren't even D3 for much of that time, and the OAC and MIAC has since claimed the top spot.

But that surprised me a little bit.

Before teh ODAC, the Heartland had a run too.

The average D3 crowd is about 1,800, down from 2,700 in the 70s or something (this is all off the top of my head from what I remember, not sure how verifiable it is)

It's also worth noting that attendance numbers in D3 are often estimates since games are free, and there is no gate or ticket stubs to count. Sometimes the tailgates and game crowds blend, so there's really no telling.

But anyway ...

[Pat Coleman]

Depending on who you ask, there are still big crowds at Emory and Henry.

[repete]

I certainly don't doubt Pat's press box rankings a bit, and I agree it should be be only a minuscule (if any) part of this discussion since it's somewhat restricted to a very small  part of the d3 community. 

The SJU box is, however, a huge improvement over what I saw on my first trip nearly 40 years ago ... almost seemed like a bunch of icefishing houses nailed together.

Here's the next factor: Any stadium food standout?  Or are there any fields relatively close to a dining/socializing institutions that become parts of a game-day experience?

[ADL70]

Denison has a great setting in a natural bowl with both pine trees and oaks and maples for color in the late fall.  And it just got an upgrade with in-fill turf.

Too bad the team hasn't matched the setting since when they ran the single wing (not as long ago as that sounds!)

[retagent]

I think K-Mack's analogy of "best book in the library" or maybe "Best Movie" is dead on. You even have trouble when you break it down to best comedy, best western (movie, not motel) ....  Well said Kyle, er Kevin........ I mean Keith

[pg04]

Unless the press box has changed significantly since I was last there in 2003, it's not even in the top 10 press boxes. Two other press boxes just among the stadiums you listed as having seen blow SJU's away.

A press box is not even close to the be-all and end-all of a stadium or its atmosphere, don't get me wrong, but just a heads-up that you're way off there.

I have only been to 6 Press Boxes, but of them, I think I liked TCNJ's the best.  It was pretty nice. 

As for tough places to play, Ithaca always seems like a tough place for people to go in and win. 

[AUPepBand]

THE PLAYOFFS ARE AT MERRILL FIELD!!!
Oct. 28--Hobart 21, Alfred 14
Nov. 4--Ithaca (7-1) at Alfred (6-2)
Nov. 11--St. John Fisher (8-1) at Alfred (6-2)

Given its propensity for making noise and occasionally playing some somewhat recognizable tunes, AUPepBand would like to think that its presence albeit under a tent in the stands (in the inclement weather) will make Alfred University's Merrill Field the ultimately toughest, most intimidating, difficult place for any D3 football team, no matter their record or ranking, to play from 1 p.m. Saterday, Oct. 28 through 3:30 p.m. Saterday, Nov. 11.

AU is riding a nine-game win streak at Merrill Field and the game plan is to extend that streak, one game at a time, from ten, to eleven, to twelve, and, per chance given a home playoff game, thirteen games. Reset the home winning streak starting Nov. 4.

AUPepBand....it's the Sound of the Saxons!.....GO AU!!
Note to Band: Tune your kazoos!

[K-Mack]

I just ran down my list of 49 stadiums. Ten have better press boxes than St. John's and an 11th is borderline. But hey, it's a pretty good press box if only 10 of my 49 definitely beat it.

Still nearly 190 I haven't seen.

You should post your list. I'll do mine, but not until I finish ATN. Gotta prioritize, you know.

(leaves board immediately)

Wow.

I finished my list. It looks long, but turns out ...

I've seen 59 teams in action at least once, 60 if you count Newport News and more than that if you allow me leeway for non-D3s. I have skipped four games in seven years for various reasons that would have given me six more teams.

I have seen 29 stadiums on game day, not counting Salem HS stadium aka Home of the Stagg Bowl, and I have seen 14 more not during a game, and another handful on video. I've also been to Kean and Dickinson without seeing the stadium, although that's pre-National Columnist days for sure.

So Pat's 77/49 crushes my 60/43.

Even if we never went to the same game or stadium twice, we'd have what, 137 teams and 92 stadiums?

Long way to go for complete "seen it all" status, and by the time we get there, some stadiums will have been redone, etc. 

That is a lot of Saturdays though.

[TC]

Unless the press box has changed significantly since I was last there in 2003, it's not even in the top 10 press boxes. Two other press boxes just among the stadiums you listed as having seen blow SJU's away.

A press box is not even close to the be-all and end-all of a stadium or its atmosphere, don't get me wrong, but just a heads-up that you're way off there.

Yikes.  I used HORRIBLE terminology in my post.  In fact, I've never even been in the SJU pressbox.  For all I know, there could be sawdust on the floor and exposed wires everywhere.  I was using the term to describe the wooden structure part of the stadium.  I couldn't think of anything better to call it at the time, which was pretty careless.  (And, as a fan, I really don't care what the press box is like, either, which I think was your point in "not even close to the be-all and end-all of a stadium".)

Careless wording on my part, and you were right to tear it apart.  That said, I'm sticking with SJU as the Best of the Best in D3--but I would be happy to accept an all-expense paid trip to the stadium of your choice if anyone disagrees!

GO JOHNNIES!
TOMMIES SUCK!

[retagent]

I had forgotten that I had been to W&L a few years ago, but it was when my son went to a Lacrosse Camp there. That is also a beautiful setting, but as I recall, the stadium was a bit sterile.

[K-Mack]

I remember really liking W&L's campus ... we had to walk over a stone bridge to get to this pristine grass field with one concrete grandstand ... but it was also a pretty empty place, if I recall correctly.

That was 10 years ago though.

[AUPepBand]

I remember really liking W&L's campus ... we had to walk over a stone bridge to get to this pristine grass field with one concrete grandstand ... but it was also a pretty empty place, if I recall correctly.

That was 10 years ago though.

Indeed, Wilson Field....huge grandstand (no visitor bleachers) going back to W&L's bigtime program. AU Pep Band was there for AU's opener in Lexington, VA in 2005 (a 36-22 loss to the Generals). With relatives up the road at JMU, made a nice pep band road trip but heat was unbearable...especially for the Saxons on the field. It was pretty empty and AU Pep Band's attempt at Hawaii Five-O was rated a Three-O at best.

[K-Mack]

That's pretty funny.

So we were once discussing biggest crowd ever at a D3 game, since someone erroneously reported 9,570 at UW-W to be a D3 record, not a stadium record.

I have since read one account of Monon Bell going over 11,000.

Pat pointed out a 13,000+ Johnnie/Tommie crowd.

But it brings me great pride to announce that in my unofficial and incomplete research, the 14,000 at the 100th R-MC/H-SC game in 1994 (I was in uniform at that game, though hopelessly buried on the depth chart) is now the highest listed attendance I have seen accounted for in print by a reputable source.

I don't know if I've seen the Game Book from that day, or if the NCAA has compiled highest single-game attendances for D3 and just cleverly hid them somewhere in the record book, but so far ... this is what I've got.

[Pat Coleman]

I have never seen attendance in the D-III football records, no.