FB: American Rivers Conference

[Klopenhiemer]

Here are a few thoughts of the IIAC football stadiums.  And some of these thoughts are coming from 20+ year old memories and some from pictures.  I will work somewhat east to west.

Dubuque - With new home seating attached to the new recreation and wellness center, new press box and presidential suite, new playing surface, new track, new scoreboard, new visitor seating, new concessions area.  The Spartans will have as nice of a facility as there is in the IIAC...not better...just as nice. 

Loras - New home seating, new press box, new playing surface, new track, visitor seating on top of a bluff...a bit far away from the action but an unique experiance none the less, a view overlooking the city of Dubuque, the Rock Bowl gets two thumbs up from me.

Luther - Probably the largest home seating in the conference, beautiful view...especially in October, grass field normally kept in good condition, Decorah is a nice town, could use some more visitor side seating in my opinion...but a great place to watch a game. 

Wartburg - New home side seating, new playing surface, new track, the W is part of the whole experiance, large and passionate home fans, Waverly is another great college town, overall a great advertisement for D3 football.

Coe - New playing surface which was needed as the grass there had taken a beating in recent years.  My only complaint is Coe needs more seating on both the home and visitor sides.  I know Cedar Rapids is Hawkeye country, but with the population base there I think if Coe put up an impressive football stadium with their on field track record you could really get some good crowds at Coe. 

Cornell - A good old-time football facility with a great name...Ash Park.  I think all Cornell really needs is a bit of a make over.  Add a new press box and presidential suite on top, maybe extend the home seating 10 yards on each end, possibly replace the chain link fence around the perimeter with some sort of brick and black iron deal...a fresh coat of paint and maybe try to schedule even more trains to go by during games, just to mess with the visitors and you would have yourself a winner. 

Central - It has been said Central has enough seating for the crowds they get.  I just think a team that has won 29 conference titles and has made the playoffs a whole mess of times deserves a little nicer looking set up than what they currently have.  And from what has been written here...if they move the home side across the field and build party decks and what not.  That will be a great place.  The Dutch have already put in a new playing surface and track.

Simpson - Another place that I think just needs a little updating.  From pictures it looks like 3 seperate home stands.  I think you built one big home stand you would get a more festive crowd than you get with 3 seperate stands.  Also from listening to both the Simpson and Dubuque radio announcers...the Storm might also want to build a new press box.  Now might be a good time with a new coach in town and from what seems like a turn around back to their old winning ways.  Might help get some more Des Moines area kids on campus. 

Buena Vista - I think their seating capacity is just fine, over looks the lake, not much to say really, the wind might blow in November but that's your home field advantage. 

Could do without the purple track at Loras... who does that anyways?  i know it is part of the colors and all, but really...

I'm with you on that.  Loras will go from an A to an A- on my list for having the purple track.  And while we're at it.  I don't like seeing multiple sports lines on a field at the same time.  If a school feels they must have football and soccer and lacrosse and whatever else sports on the same field so they go with field turf.  Would it be impossible to get a field without the lines painted on and then chalk them in for each individual sport???  Please??? 

agreed, that is the only thing wrong wiht Coe's field turf... the freakin soccer lines, and to think, in a couple years they wont even be playing soccer on the field... they are buidling that new complex with a soccer field in it i think... what a waste.

No that is the downside.   With a good installation you can actually sow the lines into the turf for a much better line performance.  Upside is no more money in painting fields.  Downside is, it can look like a Zebra if you put to many stripes on it. 

[Walston Hoover]

I will comment on the press boxes of the IIAC, but keep in mind 2005 was the last time I was in them.
UD-Sucked. Dreaded going there. Was worse last year during construction when they had to be outside on a semi trailer if I remember correctly. Site lines were off and got splinters from all the exposed wood. Chairs in there were horrible and felt like they were going to collapse. Hopefully I get a chance to get in the new one. semiprivate booth.

Loras-Once you are in the radio booth, its fine, but we were very disconnected from everything else going on in the box and stats were always late getting to us. Each booth has its own door to the outside. I think I remember some trouble with seeing some of the action in the left endzone. private booth.

Luther-Dividers seperate you in the cafeteria from everyone else in the box and they are anything but soundproof. You walk through students eating to get where you are seated and we were right beside the home radio guy (who I incidentally worked with briefly in a previous life), and you could hear everything they said. Felt very bad for the coaches. Nothing is kept secret up there. Had people I didn't know literally watching the game over my shoulder. very public booth

Wartburg-Ideal setup as far as access to booth. Siteline is great, but can get VERY hot in there on a sunny day and the acoustics make the sound echo all over. Best pressbox food in the conference. private booth.

Coe- I was a little put off by being in a public booth, but everyone was quite friendly. When I was there I think it was the SID's first year and he was a very young guy so he was going above and beyond on everything he needed to do which was very much appreciated. Not a very good setup as far as where everyone is, but in terms of hospitality, (food, stats, scores) they probably were the best. public booth

Cornell- It seemed like everyone was clueless there, and I spent most of the game pounding on the wall next to me because the clock operator couldn't get anything right. Largest private booth in the conference but very tough to see. If I remember right I had to hang out the window a little to see the scoreboard as well.

Central- No complaints. Enter into common area and then each booth has "Sunday School curtains" to make them private. Not a ton of space, but winning there made everything better.

Simpson- Very high school like setup. Semi private with windows that need to be taken out to see much of anything not taking place between the 30s. Not very high up and too close to the action to get a good take on everything. Walking into their pressbox reminds me of walking into the 1900 house at Living History Farm. It could be very easy to get lost in there with several nooks and crannies. public booth IIRC.

BV-Sucked. You see the pressbox and think there's going to be lots of space.  The president and his dudes take up all that space. The closet in my daughter's room seriously has more space. Room for 2 undersized 5th graders to stand side-by-side. We had to stand one in front of the other to see the action. Coaches had to go outside since there is absolutely no room for them to be in their booth. private booth

This is from '05, so things may have changed. Simpson has not since I was just there last year for our game at Indianola. Most places do a very good job of keeping you updated on stats and scores from around the league. I think Loras had plans to get a live stats screens in the booth but I don't know if that is the case now or not.

Here are a few thoughts of the IIAC football stadiums.  And some of these thoughts are coming from 20+ year old memories and some from pictures.  I will work somewhat east to west.

Dubuque - With new home seating attached to the new recreation and wellness center, new press box and presidential suite, new playing surface, new track, new scoreboard, new visitor seating, new concessions area.  The Spartans will have as nice of a facility as there is in the IIAC...not better...just as nice. 

Loras - New home seating, new press box, new playing surface, new track, visitor seating on top of a bluff...a bit far away from the action but an unique experiance none the less, a view overlooking the city of Dubuque, the Rock Bowl gets two thumbs up from me.

Luther - Probably the largest home seating in the conference, beautiful view...especially in October, grass field normally kept in good condition, Decorah is a nice town, could use some more visitor side seating in my opinion...but a great place to watch a game. 

Wartburg - New home side seating, new playing surface, new track, the W is part of the whole experiance, large and passionate home fans, Waverly is another great college town, overall a great advertisement for D3 football.

Coe - New playing surface which was needed as the grass there had taken a beating in recent years.  My only complaint is Coe needs more seating on both the home and visitor sides.  I know Cedar Rapids is Hawkeye country, but with the population base there I think if Coe put up an impressive football stadium with their on field track record you could really get some good crowds at Coe. 

Cornell - A good old-time football facility with a great name...Ash Park.  I think all Cornell really needs is a bit of a make over.  Add a new press box and presidential suite on top, maybe extend the home seating 10 yards on each end, possibly replace the chain link fence around the perimeter with some sort of brick and black iron deal...a fresh coat of paint and maybe try to schedule even more trains to go by during games, just to mess with the visitors and you would have yourself a winner. 

Central - It has been said Central has enough seating for the crowds they get.  I just think a team that has won 29 conference titles and has made the playoffs a whole mess of times deserves a little nicer looking set up than what they currently have.  And from what has been written here...if they move the home side across the field and build party decks and what not.  That will be a great place.  The Dutch have already put in a new playing surface and track.

Simpson - Another place that I think just needs a little updating.  From pictures it looks like 3 seperate home stands.  I think you built one big home stand you would get a more festive crowd than you get with 3 seperate stands.  Also from listening to both the Simpson and Dubuque radio announcers...the Storm might also want to build a new press box.  Now might be a good time with a new coach in town and from what seems like a turn around back to their old winning ways.  Might help get some more Des Moines area kids on campus. 

Buena Vista - I think their seating capacity is just fine, over looks the lake, not much to say really, the wind might blow in November but that's your home field advantage. 

[Klompen]

Wartburg - New home side seating, new playing surface, new track, the W is part of the whole experiance, large and passionate home fans, Waverly is another great college town, overall a great advertisement for D3 football.

Wartburg has a first class facility for its team and fans, it makes a great impression for potential recruits as well.  My only issue is that they can't improve the visitor seating because of the residence hall behind the stands.  The seating is too small and unless you get one of the top two rows, you are always looking through the bleacher railings.  I realize they really don't have any good options, but it is the one thing that will, in my mind, keep this from being the best facilities in the IIAC.   If visiting fan seating doesn't count, they win hands down.

[Pat Coleman]

As the discussion here takes interestting twists from football to stadiums to fields to grass vs. turf and then grass, weed, etc., I remember that we rented a farm house in Dunkerton the year ('71-'72) I was doing graduate work at UNI.  While the farm was in corn ... grass or ditch weed or Iowa Gold as I heard it called  grew wild and plentiful.  Also on the farm was a donkey named "Jack" ... and I think he did enough grazing to get a little crazy every so often.  Maybe that's what was meant by "loco weed."  Anyway ... Jack would greet us every morning with a series of loud brays when we left the house.

There was an ad in the swap sheet here last week for miniature donkeys for $25.00!!!  Should I buy one and ship him out to Michigan so you and your wife can remember the old times???  I haven't noticed any of the old ditch weed growing around our place since we tore that fence out.  My dad has told me that during WWII there was a hemp plant in Traer that made rope and that you saw fields of hemp being grown around here at that time.  Don't know if he is pulling my leg or not though!!!

Are there any team besides Army that have a mule for a mascot?

The Muhlenberg Mules.

[Walston Hoover]

Wartburg - New home side seating, new playing surface, new track, the W is part of the whole experiance, large and passionate home fans, Waverly is another great college town, overall a great advertisement for D3 football.

Wartburg has a first class facility for its team and fans, it makes a great impression for potential recruits as well.  My only issue is that they can't improve the visitor seating because of the residence hall behind the stands.  The seating is too small and unless you get one of the top two rows, you are always looking through the bleacher railings.  I realize they really don't have any good options, but it is the one thing that will, in my mind, keep this from being the best facilities in the IIAC.   If fan seating doesn't count, they win hands down.

I think the intent was to have the retaining wall on that side be high enough so that the bottom row could see over, but obviously that didn't work out. Amount of seating isn't an issue since that side only gets filled once every other year when the Dutch are in town. If they could get those bleachers raised about 5 feet, that would probably be more than enough to provide adequate site lines.

[doolittledog]

Walston, you didn't like the exposed wood and lightbulbs and climbing a ladder to get to the top of the UD pressbox??? 

Here is a picture of the "former" UD press box.  The new one will be MUCH nicer.  The kids in the pick are Coach Brautigams sons.  They used to be part of the radio broadcast.  The older one Nick is getting D1 interest for football.  http://sports.webshots.com/photo/1051739837040272963piNeMA

[Walston Hoover]

That's funny. The homecoming queen in the next picture was my neighbor growing up. We went to church together as well. She would fall under the realm of one of those people who got a lot more out of college than high school.

[Kohawk Remedy]

I'm with you on that.  Loras will go from an A to an A- on my list for having the purple track.  And while we're at it.  I don't like seeing multiple sports lines on a field at the same time.  If a school feels they must have football and soccer and lacrosse and whatever else sports on the same field so they go with field turf.  Would it be impossible to get a field without the lines painted on and then chalk them in for each individual sport???  Please??? 
[/quote]

I agree that soccer teams should have their own fields.  The soccer lines just make football fields look bad and plus both teams have to share the field for practices!  Especially in Coe's case where the mens soccer team hadn't won a game for 2-3 years until this year (not exactly sure what their record was)  However, I feel Coe's soccer lines don't stand out as much as Loras'.  Coe's line are the Vegas Gold which is a light color compared to Loras' bright yellow that makes the field look really bad.  All in all I was pretty pissed when I heard Coe was putting in the soccer lines because most of the money came from Football Alum gifts as opposed to Soccer money...but I'm just glad they aren't as bright as the bright gold lines at the Rock Bowl.

[doolittledog]

That's funny. The homecoming queen in the next picture was my neighbor growing up. We went to church together as well. She would fall under the realm of one of those people who got a lot more out of college than high school.

So I guess you're saying you didn't hit that during your high school days!!!

On the D3 main page they mention Aurora hiring Matt Kalb who had been the OC at Loras.  Did they just get him away from Loras or had he been gone from the Loras staff for awhile???  That would be pretty late in the game to lose your OC I would think.  

[5 Words or Less]

Gustavus has a new $4.6M facility

www.architecturalshowcase.com/2008/project.aspx?id=29

[doolittledog]

Gustavus has a new $4.6M facility

www.architecturalshowcase.com/2008/project.aspx?id=29

I like seeing a field that doesn't have a track around it.  I like watching football right on top of the action like that.  I realise at the D3 level that probably isn't an option at most schools though.  Gustavus did a nice job with that place. 

[DBQ1965]

doolittledog ...

Thanks for the link to the college mascots.  You always seem to come up with whatever someone asks for or about on here. 

And for the rest of the IIAC crew ... on the matter of Loras's purple track ... is there anything worse than Boise State's blue football field?

[Klopenhiemer]

doolittledog ...

Thanks for the link to the college mascots.  You always seem to come up with whatever someone asks for or about on here. 

And for the rest of the IIAC crew ... on the matter of Loras's purple track ... is there anything worse than Boise State's blue football field?

The purple track does not offend me, but the blue turf is out there.  I have a hard time understanding what the thought process was on that one. 

[Fannosaurus Rex]

Back in 1968 I shot a pheasant near where Central's visitors' stands are now.

[New Storm]

doolittledog ...

Thanks for the link to the college mascots.  You always seem to come up with whatever someone asks for or about on here. 

And for the rest of the IIAC crew ... on the matter of Loras's purple track ... is there anything worse than Boise State's blue football field?

I hate that thing