Rank 'em: ACC Football Venues

[TarHeelNation11]

Yes, I know 14 is a lot for a rank 'em, but hang in there. You'll manage. Use any criteria you want.

ACC* Venues

Boston College -- Alumni Stadium (44,500)

Clemson -- Memorial Stadium, AKA "Death Valley" (81,473)

Duke -- Wallace Wade Stadium (33,941)

Florida State -- Doak Campbell Stadium (82,300)

Georgia Tech -- Boddy Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field (55,000)

Louisville -- Papa John's Cardinal Stadium (55,000)

Miami -- Sun Life Stadium (74,916)

North Carolina -- Kenan Memorial Stadium (63,000)

NC State -- Carter-Finley Stadium (57,583)

Pittsburgh -- Heinz Field (65,050)

Syracuse -- Carrier Dome (49,262)

Virginia -- Scott Stadium (61,500)

Virginia Tech -- Lane Stadium (65,632)

Wake Forest -- BB&T Field at Groves Stadium (31,500)

*Not including Notre Dame since they aren't a football member

 

[Realfreedom]

I would go with:

Clemson -- Memorial Stadium, AKA "Death Valley" (81,473)

Florida State -- Doak Campbell Stadium (82,300)

North Carolina -- Kenan Memorial Stadium (63,000)

Virginia -- Scott Stadium (61,500)

Virginia Tech -- Lane Stadium (65,632)

NC State -- Carter-Finley Stadium (57,583)

Syracuse -- Carrier Dome (49,262)

Georgia Tech -- Boddy Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field (55,000)

Louisville -- Papa John's Cardinal Stadium (55,000)

Wake Forest -- BB&T Field at Groves Stadium (31,500)

Pittsburgh -- Heinz Field (65,050)

Miami -- Sun Life Stadium (74,916)

Boston College -- Alumni Stadium (44,500)

Duke -- Wallace Wade Stadium (33,941)

 

[UNC71-00]

Nice thread. I will rank by venue disregarding all tailgating.


1) Kenan- just because of the pines and the way it sits in the middle of campus.
2) Scott Stadium- also aesthetically pleasing
3) Death Valley- I like the tradition, looks nice and the crowd is always in it.
4) Doak Campbell- also a great crowd and the whole Seminole flaming spear thing.
5) Carrier Dome- great place to see a lacrosse game.
6) Groves- nice, pleasant low stress way to spend an afternoon.
7) Bobby Dodd- looks ugly from the interstate, but I have at least seen it.
8) Boston College- never been but at least it's not a pro stadium
9) Sun Life- pro stadium but I love Miami
10) Heinz- pro stadium but its better than the remaining venues
11) Papa Jonhs Stadium- Papa John gives me the creeps on the commercials
12) Wallace Wade- it's a joke, but an easy ticket and hell, the Rose Bowl was played there
13) Lane- ugly, cold and full of cHokies. But at least it's not...
14) ...Carter Finley- wear body armor, bring a gun and get your rabies and tetanus shots before you go. Also wear galoshes so your shoes don't get all nasty from the idiots pissing on your feet.

 

[gunslingerdick]

I think this is an interesting topic and I am advocating for full Board participation in this thread. My desire is that everyone that posts on this board will flock to this topic and not only rank the venues, but write Dsouthr-like posts discussing their every thought about the venue. I am grateful beyond words to THN11 for starting this most interesting and discussion-worthy thread.

Kenan - Home team bias. I once met Ed Cota in the bathroom. I also met Antawn Jamison at the same game. He was kind of short with me. I think I've told that story before so I'll spare you. Hmmm, what else...I like being on the sun side sometimes and then I like being on the shade side other times. I guess it's directly related to whether the sun is out and if it's hot or if it's cold. I have a buddy that has 4 season tickets in section 121 (I think). Not the best seats but I like them ok. But there is this one guy that flips out about everything. Boy, he gets mad at some of the most trivial stuff. Like I remember this one time when he got all mad at Butch Davis calling a timeout when we had clearly lost the game and there was no way were coming back. He just ranted and raved. Hmmm....that's about all I got.

Wallace Wade - I like stepping back in time. I always go to this game with a good friend of mine. We always take our kids and usually move around throughout the game. They also have jumpy things at some of their games - which is nice for those of us with kids. But it usually takes away from my yelling and screaming. I feel so ashamed when I don't yell and scream like I'm supposed to. Oh yeah, the parking there is not very good. I usually have to walk a long way and I hate that because I usually have to pee really bad from drinking at the tailgate. And you can't just pull off to the side, you know? There are usually people walking all around and they'd see my peeing. I don't want to go to jail. No way.

Scott stadium - I'm a closet UVa fan. My dad is a UVa alum and he always takes me to games. I also really like Charlottesville. Great little town with some great music venues. Hey, maybe we should do a rank 'em of music venues. Anyway, I also had a buddy that lived next door to Old Crow Medicine Show. He didn't know who they were and one day he heard them playing on the porch. So he walked over and told them, "man,...you guys are pretty good. Y'all should start a band." haha. It was a real hoot. I mean, I guess it was. I wasn't there but he told me the story.

BB&T - lame. Have I ever told y'all about the time my friend threw an empty Jack Daniels bottle off the top row? Whoa. He could have killed someone. But we were really drunk. We had been at Sagebrush. And my friends were idiots back in the day. He sent a shot of 151 (lit on fire) to a 75 year old woman sitting at the bar. He also convinced the bartender that he was a professional ice dancer. He wasn't really a professional ice dancer. You probably figured that out but I just wanted to make sure you don't think I hang around with professional ice dancers. Not that there's anything wrong with hanging out with professional ice dancers or even being a professional ice dancer.

Lane Stadium - I hate it. It has a cold feeling to it even in 80 degree weather. "Key play...whoo-hoo...we're so clever." That place sucks. The whole campus sucks. My sister is an alum and I liked VT before they got too big for their britches. I used to have a good time when I'd go to visit her. I almost got beat up by an entire fraternity once. And I also slept with a pig. Whoa...wait a minute. I didn't have sex with the pig. I just slept on the floor with it. My buddy was there. He can vouch for me. He didn't have sex with the pig either. He also just slept on the floor. Now that I think about it, that was in Radford - not Balcksburg. Can I rank Radford's stadium?

Doak Campbell - never been, can't comment
Death Valley - never been, can't comment
Cater-Finley - never been can't comment
Carrier Dome - never been, can't comment
Bobby Dodd - never been, can't comment
Papa John's - never been, can't comment
Heinz - never been, can't comment
Sun Life - never been, can't comment
Alumni Stadium - never been, can't comment

**For the record, I've been to a few of the above that I listed as "never been". I should have written, "never been for a football game".

 

[Raising Heel]

Hello. My name is Raising Heel, and I'll be ranking ACC venues by the hotness of their co-eds and cheeleaders that can be found within. Venues I've personally visited are marked with an asterisk (*).

1. Florida State* --- Sure, it's in Florida, but Tallahassee is far enough north to be southern if that makes any sense. A cross between pure sun-kissed sexy and southern allure.

2. Syracuse --- Haha just kidding.

3. North Carolina* --- Google UNC cheerleaders. Every one looks like you could take her home to mom, but still has that girl-next-door hot factor working for her.

4. Clemson* --- The epitome of Southern Belles. What they might (might) lack in pure beauty they make up in charm.

5. Miami* --- The Hurricanes really should be higher on this list. Despite the amazing talent available in south Florida, Miami girls aren't as consistently hot as the schools above them. Still, they have an exotic and diverse quality that places them high on the list.

6. Virginia* --- Like North Carolina girls, but not. Something about being too close to D.C. reduces their likeability and therefore their hotness. But still pretty cute.

7. Louisville* --- A blend of midwestern sensibility and southern grace. There are some smoking hot girls there, but unfortunately also a frequent overdependence on makeup and hair spray.

8. Wake Forest* --- I'm awarding this spot solely based on a former Wake Forest dancer I used to work with. She was tall, blonde, and sexy and made me have impure thoughts about her.

9. Boston College --- I've been to Boston. Never visited the campus, but Boston women generally seem like they go to a lot of effort to look their best. They have some hot cheerleaders, so they get the last single-digit ranking.

10. Virginia Tech --- Add points for being southern. Subtract points for generations of inbreeding.

11. Georgia Tech --- No.

12. Syracuse --- They would be much higher on this list if they didn't ever speak and I never had to hear that accent. But of course they're New Yorkers, so they can't ever shut up.

13. Pittsburgh --- Their co-eds have rusty vaginas.

14. dook --- You're familiar with Matt Doherty, right?

15. Moo U* --- It's no wonder so many lol@state fans have a deep and abiding love of livestock.





This post was edited on 4/15 3:06 PM by Raising Heel

 

[gunslingerdick]

Originally posted by Raising Heel:


13. Pittsburgh --- Their co-eds have rusty vaginas.

 

[JamestownJim]

4. Clemson* --- The epitome of Southern Belles. What they might (might) lack in pure beauty they make up in charm.

Hang around Anderson, Pickens and Greenville Counties a while and you;ll change your mind.

 

[uncboy10]

Originally posted by JamestownJim:
4. Clemson* --- The epitome of Southern Belles. What they might (might) lack in pure beauty they make up in charm.

Hang around Anderson, Pickens and Greenville Counties a while and you;ll change your mind.

+1

 

[Raising Heel]

Originally posted by JamestownJim:

Hang around Anderson, Pickens and Greenville Counties a while and you;ll change your mind.

I specifically said within the venue.

 

[WoadBlue]

1. Clemson -- Memorial Stadium, AKA "Death Valley" (81,473)

2. Virginia Tech -- Lane Stadium (65,632)

3. Florida State -- Doak Campbell Stadium (82,300)

4. Georgia Tech -- Boddy Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field (55,000)

5. North Carolina -- Kenan Memorial Stadium (63,000)

6. Louisville -- Papa John's Cardinal Stadium (55,000)

7. NC State -- Carter-Finley Stadium (57,583)

8. Virginia -- Scott Stadium (61,500)

9. Boston College -- Alumni Stadium (44,500)

10. Syracuse -- Carrier Dome (49,262)

11. Pittsburgh -- Heinz Field (65,050)

12. Miami -- Sun Life Stadium (74,916)

13. Duke -- Wallace Wade Stadium (33,941)

14. Wake Forest -- BB&T Field at Groves Stadium (31,500)

 

[JamestownJim]

Originally posted by Raising Heel:

Originally posted by JamestownJim:

Hang around Anderson, Pickens and Greenville Counties a while and you;ll change your mind.

I specifically said within the venue.

OK... I'll give you that one... but the people from these 3 counties as well as Oconee County go to the game there.

If a quail flew through the stadium, half the women would point...

This post was edited on 4/15 4:29 PM by JamestownJim

 

[HeelFan58]

Kenan hands down the best because of campus setting , the pines and "What it was Football". I went to Wallace Wade once when I was either a late teen or an early twenty something and dook had to enter their locker room right in front of the Carolina section. When the dookies came off the field at the half the Carolina fans showered them with plastic drink cups in their own damn stadium. One of my great dook-UNC FB memories. FSU and Clemson tied for #2 and UVa 4th. The rest I haven't been to , or just didn't make any kind of impression.

 

[gteeitup]

clemson- if you've never been, especially at night, go!
fsu
va tech
the next four in any order
pitt
duke
uva
miami
bc
syracuse
wake

 

[TarHeelNation11]

My criteria is a hodgepodge of sightlines, atmosphere, etc. An asterisk denotes I've been there.

1. Kenan* -- to be honest, this is #1 simply due to bias. It's a pretty stadium on a pretty campus, and I love games there, but it definitely has some major problems, some that can be addressed and some that can't.

2. Clemson* -- Death Valley embodies everything college football is about. Huge stadium, a sea of orange (hey what a novel concept!! Fans wear the actual team color and not green, yellow, pink, or whatever random color), the band blaring an iconic fight song, chants, pageantry, the walk down the hill touching Howard's Rock. Amazing.

3. Florida State* -- big time atmosphere, with fans who truly know football and are perfectionist. They can be up by 35 and get on to a player if he isn't hustling. Great looking women for the most part. Great band / fight songs. Minus points for *some* of their fans being obnoxious assholes, including one (during the UNC-FSU game that we won in Doak under Butch Davis) drunk dude in the alumni season ticket section telling my 15-year-old-brother that he was going to "kick his ****ing a**, even if he is only 15." My brother, an offensive lineman, stood up and looked around; the dude realized how big he was and immediately shut his mouth

Every stadium has those type of fans though. No worries.

4. Georgia Tech* -- I love Bobby Dodd Stadium. It has so much history (oldest stadium in the ACC I believe) and GT Football has such underrated history, tradition, and pageantry -- no one knows about their traditions anymore though because they've been mediocre for 25 years and are now dwarfed by UGA and the SEC. And because in that time, their student body has morphed drastically from smart good ol' boys to Duke-level nerds who care nothing for football. But anyway, great setting to watch a game, nestled among skyscrapers. Very intimate, close-to-the-action seating. Seen many a game there.

5. NC State* -- it's a shame that Moo fans are so trashy/rude/obnoxious, because from a purely football standpoint, Carter-Finley is a NICE stadium in which to watch football. I know that's an unpopular opinion, but I've sat pretty low down in the lower level and the sightlines are absolutely fantastic (because their field is lowered.....hint hint). Maybe one day, when UNC is dominating in football and Moo is still toiling with 6-win seasons, Carolina fans can turn CF Carolina Blue.

I haven't been to any of the rest of the stadiums (isn't it weird that in America, "stadiums" is universally accepted and used, even by writers, when technically, it should be "stadia" ?), but here's my opinion on them from afar.

6. Virginia Tech -- nice setting, great atmosphere and tradition. That one stand would give me vertigo though. So steep.

7. Virginia -- on campus, decent looking, would be nicer if they filled it past 50% capacity. But you could say the same about Kenan some games.

8. Louisville -- looks to be excellent facilities and I've heard good things. Plus they sell beer.

9. Wake Forest -- despite how uber lame and unexciting WF is, in general, it looks like a nice stadium. Clemson fans sure do enjoy filling it every other year.

10. Pittsburgh -- I mean, they used this stadium in The Dark Knight Rises, so that's pretty cool. The downside is of course, no one knows that Pitt football exists. Not even their students.

 

[Raising Heel]

Originally posted by JamestownJim:

If a quail flew through the stadium, half the women would point...

That's a great line.

Admittedly, I'm a bit biased. My ex-girlfriend was a Tiger. Also, she attended Clemson.

 

[Raising Heel]

Originally posted by TarHeelNation11:
You sorta just want to curl up and cry for your mom because the cavernous ceiling and emptiness of it all fills you with woe and despair.

At first I was like:

Originally posted by TarHeelNation11:
Also, sack up and get a GD baseball team, or just get out of our conference / out of Cary.

But then I was like:

 

[WoadBlue]

Originally posted by TarHeelNation11:
My criteria is a hodgepodge of sightlines, atmosphere, etc. An asterisk denotes I've been there.

1. Kenan* -- to be honest, this is #1 simply due to bias. It's a pretty stadium on a pretty campus, and I love games there, but it definitely has some major problems, some that can be addressed and some that can't.

2. Clemson* -- Death Valley embodies everything college football is about. Huge stadium, a sea of orange (hey what a novel concept!! Fans wear the actual team color and not green, yellow, pink, or whatever random color), the band blaring an iconic fight song, chants, pageantry, the walk down the hill touching Howard's Rock. Amazing.

3. Florida State* -- big time atmosphere, with fans who truly know football and are perfectionist. They can be up by 35 and get on to a player if he isn't hustling. Great looking women for the most part. Great band / fight songs. Minus points for *some* of their fans being obnoxious assholes, including one (during the UNC-FSU game that we won in Doak under Butch Davis) drunk dude in the alumni season ticket section telling my 15-year-old-brother that he was going to "kick his ****ing a**, even if he is only 15." My brother, an offensive lineman, stood up and looked around; the dude realized how big he was and immediately shut his mouth

Every stadium has those type of fans though. No worries.

4. Georgia Tech* -- I love Bobby Dodd Stadium. It has so much history (oldest stadium in the ACC I believe) and GT Football has such underrated history, tradition, and pageantry -- no one knows about their traditions anymore though because they've been mediocre for 25 years and are now dwarfed by UGA and the SEC. And because in that time, their student body has morphed drastically from smart good ol' boys to Duke-level nerds who care nothing for football. But anyway, great setting to watch a game, nestled among skyscrapers. Very intimate, close-to-the-action seating. Seen many a game there.

5. NC State* -- it's a shame that Moo fans are so trashy/rude/obnoxious, because from a purely football standpoint, Carter-Finley is a NICE stadium in which to watch football. I know that's an unpopular opinion, but I've sat pretty low down in the lower level and the sightlines are absolutely fantastic (because their field is lowered.....hint hint). Maybe one day, when UNC is dominating in football and Moo is still toiling with 6-win seasons, Carolina fans can turn CF Carolina Blue.

I haven't been to any of the rest of the stadiums (isn't it weird that in America, "stadiums" is universally accepted and used, even by writers, when technically, it should be "stadia" ?), but here's my opinion on them from afar.

6. Virginia Tech -- nice setting, great atmosphere and tradition. That one stand would give me vertigo though. So steep.

7. Virginia -- on campus, decent looking, would be nicer if they filled it past 50% capacity. But you could say the same about Kenan some games.

8. Louisville -- looks to be excellent facilities and I've heard good things. Plus they sell beer.

9. Wake Forest -- despite how uber lame and unexciting WF is, in general, it looks like a nice stadium. Clemson fans sure do enjoy filling it every other year.

10. Pittsburgh -- I mean, they used this stadium in The Dark Knight Rises, so that's pretty cool. The downside is of course, no one knows that Pitt football exists. Not even their students.