Stadium amenities

W

westender

Well-Known Member
Went to a Cardinals baseball game last Friday at Busch Stadium. Had been before but had been a number of years. But in terms of trying to continually draw people in today's world, that stadium and surrounding area to me are a perfect set up. Even parking and traffic are not terrible. If I were advising Barta or anyone else in CFB I would advise to take a look at what they have done there. I realize a MLB is worth a lot more than a college football team and has greater resources, but still some could definitely be incorporated.

When we were inside the stadium I told my wife that Kinnick holds about 24,000 more people than Busch. She couldn't believe it because it still looks so big. I said in Kinnick everything is just packed in and vertical and you don't get your own personal seat.
 
Nah, it doesn't make sense to drop a ton on amenities at a college stadium. You only get 7 or 8 home games. Baseball you have 81. And the area around Kinnick is what it is. There's not a whole lot they can do.
 
Beer. Was $10.50 a draw. Just for when people bitch about the price when they do eventually sell it. Also they had WiFi in the stadium. Still a lot they could do with food vendors at Kinnick also. They could expand Kinnick to the west. Just have some means of incorporating the same amount of parking space and have it also contain things that may be open beyond football season. And the individual seats were appreciated although still not great leg room for me.
 
Bathrooms, food options, and wifi/cellular situation. These 3 are weaknesses of Kinnick. The stadium is obviously old-school and some might argue that the non-luxurious style is charming. But it's a poor argument.

The inability to make a text or phone call is a (dangerous) problem. That should be the priority.
 
okeefe4prez said:
Yeah, there were a bunch of games in the '80's and '90's where tens of thousands died when they couldn't make phone calls.
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I am with you, but man times have changed. With gambling legal this month even more interest as games on going on keeping track. Putting the betting windows right in Kinnick.
 
QUOTE="westender, post: 1853669, member: 80933"]I am with you, but man times have changed. With gambling legal this month even more interest as games on going on keeping track. Putting the betting windows right in Kinnick.[/QUOTE]

Imagine what could have been.
Ronnie might have hid his phone on the sideline just in case he was about to receive a very important text. ;) :p
 
okeefe4prez said:
Nah, it doesn't make sense to drop a ton on amenities at a college stadium. You only get 7 or 8 home games. Baseball you have 81. And the area around Kinnick is what it is. There's not a whole lot they can do.
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Agree. Kinnick is pretty much landlocked. It actually has some nice sized large lots for tailgating relatively close even though landlocked. Agree, there are only a handful of games. People come for the tailgating and game, not so much what's in the concourse of the stadium. Baseball has to try to entice people to come to 80 games, like you state. Completely different.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Agree. Kinnick is pretty much landlocked. It actually has some nice sized large lots for tailgating relatively close even though landlocked. Agree, there are only a handful of games. People come for the tailgating and game, not so much what's in the concourse of the stadium. Baseball has to try to entice people to come to 80 games, like you state. Completely different.
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Yep. I remember the moment when I realized the world was changing from phones. It was late in the 2008 season and I remember going to a Cubs game that Kerry Wood was closing. It was late in the game and like 1/3rd of the people there were looking at their phones. Baseball really needs to bend over backwards to accommodate modern fans.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Agree. Kinnick is pretty much landlocked. It actually has some nice sized large lots for tailgating relatively close even though landlocked. Agree, there are only a handful of games. People come for the tailgating and game, not so much what's in the concourse of the stadium. Baseball has to try to entice people to come to 80 games, like you state. Completely different.
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Then maybe more people should accept what is, if most agree you can't do much with only 7 home games, but yet you still have to figure out how to replace those either dying off or who choose to quit going or cannot go any more.
 
MelroseHawkins said:
Lol. One could literally throw a baseball and hit the hospital.
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I believe it was last season I do know of one person who went into cardiac arrest and I guess technically died at the hospital but they coded during the football game in Kinnick. Some heart situations you cannot do anything about no matter where you are.
 
westender said:
I believe it was last season I do know of one person who went into cardiac arrest and I guess technically died at the hospital but they coded during the football game in Kinnick. Some heart situations you cannot do anything about no matter where you are.
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Yeah, if you're gonna have a grabber, I cannot imagine a single place on earth other than actually in the ER where you could have it where you would have better odds of survival than at Kinnick. You have paramedics very close, you are a minute from a great hospital. Sometimes it's just your time to go.
 
westender said:
Went to a Cardinals baseball game last Friday at Busch Stadium. Had been before but had been a number of years. But in terms of trying to continually draw people in today's world, that stadium and surrounding area to me are a perfect set up. Even parking and traffic are not terrible. If I were advising Barta or anyone else in CFB I would advise to take a look at what they have done there. I realize a MLB is worth a lot more than a college football team and has greater resources, but still some could definitely be incorporated.

When we were inside the stadium I told my wife that Kinnick holds about 24,000 more people than Busch. She couldn't believe it because it still looks so big. I said in Kinnick everything is just packed in and vertical and you don't get your own personal seat.
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I agree. If Busch Stadium or Wrigley Field or Miller Park had bleachers all the way around instead of seats I'm sure you could easily get 70,000 in there like you can at Kinnick, maybe even the 79,000 you can get into Camp Randall.

Busch Stadium, by the way, does have a nice set up and looks even nicer when the Cubs go in there and win, which they have had trouble doing the last two or three years.
 
I do not want them to add more parking to Kinnick as the streets to and from the stadium are not set up for heavy traffic. It's a mess getting in and out of Kinnick as it is.

If you were impressed with Busch Stadium then you should give Wrigleyville a try, parking is a mess but, IMO, there isn't a better venue in baseball. I may be biased as a Cubs fan but I know it beats Busch Stadium. For baseball games you really don't want miles and miles of concrete slabs for parking, I think the Brewers made a huge mistake doing that for their ballpark.

I don't need this at Kinnick, for me the tailgating and the game itself is enough of an attraction for a football game. The main thing they need to improve on is the wifi, which has been mentioned, but also the concessions.
 
westender said:
Then maybe more people should accept what is, if most agree you can't do much with only 7 home games, but yet you still have to figure out how to replace those either dying off or who choose to quit going or cannot go any more.
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Kinnick is always going to have at least 63,000-65,000 fans at games. We are one team that has always had pretty good support, win or lose. People die off but a next generation is coming up and filling that age group. They don't die off and you just lose population. Iowa will always have fans.

It is an event to go for the day or 2 days for some, tailgate and watch the game. In Iowa, there are limited sports venues to attend as a whole on this kind of level. This is whey we Iowans annually have so much support for Iowa and actually Iowa State. They get a great amount of fans as well. It's what we do in the fall at Iowa.
 
westender said:
I believe it was last season I do know of one person who went into cardiac arrest and I guess technically died at the hospital but they coded during the football game in Kinnick. Some heart situations you cannot do anything about no matter where you are.
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Unfortunately yes, you are correct. I had a cousin in his early 50's who passed away last fall from what is called a "widow maker" heart attack. Google it. One has a veeeery small chance of surviving it, even if they were in the hospital with everything at their disposal.

My cousin went to the base of the steps and yelled up for his daughter who was putting her daughter down for a nap. He went down at the base of the steps. He was purple by the time his daughter got to the top of the steps and down to help him (a matter of seconds). Cops and ambulance came. He did not leave his home alive. He had no chance.
 
okeefe4prez said:
Yeah, if you're gonna have a grabber, I cannot imagine a single place on earth other than actually in the ER where you could have it where you would have better odds of survival than at Kinnick. You have paramedics very close, you are a minute from a great hospital. Sometimes it's just your time to go.
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I think one has to be a little naive to think that that couldn't happen in that kind of setting every once-in-awhile. Actually, you would think it would happen more. I mean you literally have the population of a small city jammed in one area or stadium. Kinnick prob seats 71,000 now but there are also thousands still outside the stadium tailgating and watching the game. The same individual who had a heart attack could have very well had one at home or while mowing the lawn or something. Comparing is playing odds with numbers. You take that many people in one geographical area and it's going to happen, regardless if talking square miles or in a stadium setting.
 
baseball
MelroseHawkins said:
I think one has to be a little naive to think that that couldn't happen in that kind of setting every once-in-awhile. Actually, you would think it would happen more. I mean you literally have the population of a small city jammed in one area or stadium. Kinnick prob seats 71,000 now but there are also thousands still outside the stadium tailgating and watching the game. The same individual who had a heart attack could have very well had one at home or while mowing the lawn or something. Comparing is playing odds with numbers. You take that many people in one geographical area and it's going to happen, regardless if talking square miles or in a stadium setting.
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This.

Especially when you introduce additional physical stress into the situation. (hot weather, dehydration, a crowd, excitement, an uncomfortable seat and noise) My Dad said pretty much what you did above the first time he attended a game at Kinnick. We take it for granted being fans, but for someone who doesn't go to big sporting events regularly these crowds are pretty impressive.

Think of it this way. During a game, You have about as many people in Kinnick as you do in the rest of Iowa City/Coralville outside the stadium.
 
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