Durzblog

Decided to start a new section of stadium guides...this first post will be long as it will encompass all of the places I have gone (college or pro, that I can remember) in my first 30 or so years of going to games and some thoughts about the events I witnessed there....I will update and feature places going forward that I visit. Away we go...

College Basketball
the Fieldhouse: the first place I saw my beloved Huskies play on campus...the place was not all that impressive, but the proximity to the court was pretty cool and these weren't exactly the best Husky teams.lasting memories for sure. run down and small (seating approx 4,500) the Huskies built the...
Harry A Gampel Pavilion: and began play their in the 1989-90 "Dream Season"...Gampel opened with a bang as I watched for the concourse of the Civic Center during a Whaler game, the Huskies takeout a tough St John's squad -- led by some nasty play by Chris Smith, as Mike Gorman would say as the half ended..."Oh, and they like their new building..." Indeed they have. I am partial however to the...
XL Center: it may have been watching those Cuse and Gtown wins on Henefeld triples or watching that team destroy Cal as I sat by myself -- with my dad upstairs in a box with clients -- that season did it for me. Since, they have won nearly every time they have taken the floor there, the walk over from the parking garage under the Gold Building and the run back after words bring back amazing memories. For my money I will take at game in Hartford, though I am sure to be in a huge minority. But when that place does get rocking, its good times
MSG: If the Johnies are good, its a great venue. If not, its not even really worth going. The place is too big for a crowd of 7,200 and frankly deserves better than that. Overall though, including the Big East Tournament and my beloved Blueshirts -- truly my favorite place to be in NYC -- with the possible exception of having parm fritters at Chesca
Izod Center: the building stinks, but if the Hall is game -- the atmosphere can be pretty intense -- not lately. Good venue for an NCAA game though
BankNorth Garden: A very nice building, the Hall of fame Classic in 07 was a great time. I hate Boston sports teams, but a game in the city is generally fun -- as long as its not in Chestnut Hill
Wachovia Center: nice enough building, though in the middle of nowhere, was fun back in the day when the Husky fans would go down in mass and fill the place. Villanova's recent play has made it a tougher ticket for the out of towners. Not that hard though
Carrier Dome: the best place, outside the Garden, to watch a Big East game, 30,000 Orange fans is pretty impressive. They hate Husky Blue up there, but in a non threatening way
Providence Civic Center: Haven't been since the re-do. It was like the Civic Center, only smaller. PC fans are a hoot, 70 percent alcoholics I'd say and they loathe Calhoun something awful
New Haven Coliseum: Not a great venue by any stretch, but not the worst either, also the only place I will list that I actually played something in (Middlesex Mights hockey, circa 83')
Harbor Yards: Have seen some MAAC basketball action here and with the way the lounge areas are set up all over the place, it is actually a perfect place to go if you are going to see a few games. Walking over to that train station is a nightmare however
Conte Forum: Nice building, dead quiet most of the time..perfect size for college basketball and for Eagle hockey
McCann Center: The gym in Po-town with the off wood walls was a site of many good tilts when resided up there, the "toughest place to play in the MAAC"
Detrick Gymnasium: Site of many a high school final for me and some decent Central Hoops, can't really think of that place without remembering the show Sean Tabb put on in the 1994 Class S final. They need a new gym at some point soon..


College Football
Rentschler Field: home of Huskies, where the state is slowly learning the intricacies of college football. Its a perfect size for the program currently, its a bit grey overall. But the games tend to be exciting and the atmosphere at night is very good
Michigan Stadium: Went for a Michigan v Penn State game about 8 years ago with my pops. Massive place and the fight song is wicked cool. Tailgating did not seem to be a priority, but the Stadium was very impressive
Yale Bowl: Its old and big and generally speaking a pretty cool place to go, hopefully recent upgrades have not taken away any of the charm. "the game" is fun
Fisher Field: Home to the Lafayette Leopards, don't remember diddly about the place...but the Lehigh/Lafayette game is a must
Villanova Stadium: Always had a good time here and when the Cats are playing well the stands can get pretty full, my 6 or so visits always involved Brian Westbrook. Pretty lucky in that regard

Baseball
Fenway: first place I ever saw a game a double dip vs the Twins, John Butcher took the hill for the Twins in the first game. Have been back about 10 times, its always impressive, sometime a bit hazy
Yankee Stadium: Didn't make it to the Bronx until I was 22 years old and was there with some friends to see the Boomer pitch, the place is like no other. had the privilege of seeing some World Series games there and the buzz of the Stadium is incredible
Veterans Stadium: What can you say? It was the Vet. That plexi glass on the outfield walls and the turf, it was just perfect Philadelphia. People smoking cigs in the concourse in 2001, unreal
Citizen's Bank: Great place and great food. Like any Philly venue it is in the middle of nowhere, but its a great place to spend an afternoon and have a Cheese Steak
Shea Stadium: The Big Shea was a big dump, but on a nice day in the summer and the Mets in a chase it was always a great place to watch a game...and as opposed to what John Rocker might think, the 7 train is a great way to get to a game
Wrigley: This place is a gem with the ivy walls and old school scoreboards, was there once and sat a row behind Bill Murray, the sing songs..all good stuff. The Cubs suck though, even when they are good like this year, they still suck
Pac Bell: A great place to watch a game, the back bay in RF and the overall vibe of the place is great. Saw Bonds hit one out (and not run the entire game) and the garlic fries are out of this world
Coors: Good place to watch a game for sure, the views are killer and the Beers are relatively cheep. Plus the balls fly out of the yard, making it very entertaining

on the farm...
Beehive, the old Britsox stadium in New Britsky. Likely saw about 20 games there. All of which seemed to have Tony Beal in center for the home team. Some greats I saw as youth included...Sam Horn, Cory Snyder, Oil Can Boyd, Bam Bam Muelens and Jackie Gutierrez. Fond memories of sneaking into the press/scout area behind home plate with my dad and watching the guys radar the pitchers, listening to the pop of a heater (that was likely never going to be good enough for the show) was pretty neat. Not a beauty of a stadium, but definitely a good time
Yale Field, only been once and it was for a high school title game, but the place is really cool. Old school as it gets, but a really neat set up
Dutchess Stadium, home of the Hudson Valley Renegades, actually quite nice for the beautiful residents of Dutchess...his an interesting note, they broke ground on the stadium in March and was ready in June of that year, 1994. The Boss perfromed there as part of K'rock's Kfest and the park offers a lovely view of a state pen.

Soccer
Stadion der Freundschaft: my introduction to European Soccer, the Stadium of Friendship (as it translates) in Cottbus, a small city in Eastern Germany. I likely saw about 7 games there over a 3 year span. It is intimate (could fit about 16k)...if not very flashy, but for me it was a great place to go. The flashing noise of the out of town score, the team mysteriously coming out to "Hey-hey goodbye" and the spread of beer, brats and pretzels in the club lounge for pregame, halftime and postgame couldn't have been more right up my alley! You were always very close to the action and very close to someone having a cigarette and saying something crude in German...
Tynecastle Stadium, speaking of crude language! Oh My. Home to the Hearts of Edinburgh, Scotland. Stadium was ok..the walk through the streets to get there was really cool -- it was like we were going to war...and it was pretty sweet that we could walk up 5 minutes before the start and get 3rd row -- apparently that is not considered choice, too close i guess. Hearts and Motherwell played a relatively meaningless game (in front of 13,000 in a 17,500 seater), neither had any chance at the UEFA spot..the tension in the Stadium was massive however and the officials and players were called names throughout that had my dad, wife and myself in tears from laughter. Hearing grown men screaming the C-word with their Scottish accents, it was absurd. I could see the atmosphere for a Celtic, Rangers and Hibs games to be quite good. Next time we will have to go to a game in Glasgow though.
Allianz Arena, the home to 1860 Munich and some other team, Bayern Munich or something like that. When you hit about two miles away and begin to see the stadium it is an impressive site, its looks like a big cloud. The outer lighting of the stadium, changes depending on if the Lions, Bayern or if the German National team are playing. The parking is under the stadium and we took an elevator right up to the club section. Where I in typical fashion made a mess of the buffet and a few beers and then went out to our seats. The place is enormous, no detail was left out, the place is literally immaculate. A model for other arenas to emulate. Should be back in the Spring to see a game.
Gillette Stadium, saw USA v Holland in the build-up to Korea 02. Less than 40,000 in the brand new Stadium, the place is pretty cool even if it is the home to the Patriots. On this day the Dutch looked like the team who should be going to the WC, but little did we know the Americans were ready to shock Portugal and get to the quarters. Got to see Edgar Davids and Roy Makaay in the Orange jerseys and actually met both my (future) brother-in-laws in the tunnel after words for the first time.
RFK, this place is great...was great. Saw a couple men's national team games there. DC supports the game very well. The place is a crap box, but sometimes that is the best way to see a match.
Veltins-Arena, USA v Czech -- the opener of the 2006 WC for the US. Beautiful Stadium -- home to top German club, Schalke. Sits over 60,000 for Bundesliga games. Under FIFA regulations there were 52,000 when I was there. Koller headed one home early and this puppy was over in the 36th, Rosický's first of two. Not a great experience for the USA, but an awesome stadium and my first ever WC game.
Fritz Walter Stadion, Kaiserslautern's home base. A stadium that had been remodeled for a the World Cup...but was not stripped of any charm. The steepest stadium I have ever been in, and made the upper deck at Yankee Stadium look flat but it keeps all 50,000 fans close to the action...the walk up to the top of the hill where the stadium sits was pretty cool, actually it kind of sucked -- but I still like the communal walk to a game. The best effort of the tournament from the USA as they drew with the Italians -- who were two weeks away from winning the whole thing. Hearing Springstein's "Born in the USA" before the game was one of the highlights of the hole trip..Seeing Pirlo, Toni and Toti was not so bad either.
Frankenstadion, Home to FC Nuremberg a 47,000 seater that has ambiance issues created by the track surrounding the pitch. Also that minor issue of it being the former stopping grounds of "Hitler's Youth" -- but its history I guess. All in all its an easy place to get around with large concourse areas and a very fan friendly set-up. The game I was at, was a tough one to watch. We were pumped for a minute after Duece Dempsey's goal, but the PK left a sour taste in the mouth. pretty cool to see Essien play in person though.
Morrone Stadium, home to Uconn Soccer. Annually voted as one of the best venues to watch a soccer game in the country. Been going there for about 25 years now, used to be a Sunday afternoon driving up listening to "NFL Now" on WFAN and watching Uconn battle Seton Hall, Hartwick, Philly Textiles and the like and more recently some great games with St John's, Rutgers and South Florida. Always a great time. Now they are mostly at night, but the tournament games tend to be during the day and its a great time to relive some of the old day with usually 5,000 or so -- not a bad turnout ever up there, the 25 year record of 9, 200 proudly stands ...and the hot chocolate is dynamite
Willowbrook Stadium, current home to New Britain High football and formerly some Uconn soccer back in the day. Saw some great games there under the lights..one time next to Vin Jajuga's dad who was listening to WHUS's John Tuite call the game on his walkman.


NFL
Giants Stadium: Lets start by saying the NFL is like no other production, grown men in those zebra pants howling like animals for 3 hours. The stadium is a fantastic place to watch a game and the tailgating is where its at....Have all seen some great international soccer matches and saw Beckham play there. The place has a buzz to it. Not so much for a normal Red Bulls game though..
(OLD)Foxboro Stadium: Went when i was a youngster, it was cold and the aluminum seating didn't help, the 5 hours it took to get out of the parking lot didn't help dad's overall impression of the joint. However we did see Flutie lead an improbable comeback and saw the Pats place kicker miss an extra point low and wide...easily the worst kick either of us have or will ever see
Ralph Wilson: The Stadium is very 1984....some pluses are that bathrooms are readily available and you can get a Labatt the size of your arm for like 8 bucks...that and every time the Bills score, you get to scream the Buffalo rendition of "Shout"..Let's go Buffalooooooo

NHL and NBA
XL, MSG, Izod, BankNorth I have mentioned before...They are much the same for hockey/NBA as they are for college hoop. Except Boston is a bit more rabid for a good Bruins team and the recent Celts. I have not mentioned in this genre....
Prudential Center: really nice building. good food and brew choices, also can go whenever you want because despite 4 cups in 10 years the Devs have no fans.
HSBC Arena: Sabes fans no how to watch hockey..Plus there are always a bunch of Canadian hosers in the stands to give it that authentic hockey feel. Nice building, pretty big. Lindy Ruff is also a God
Pepsi Center: A seemingly huge building was there to see Tim Duncan for the only time in my life. Crowd was a bit bland, but the place was nice and the bars around in downtown Denver were fun.
Centre Bell: Home to the Canadians in Montreal is a must stop if you are in Quebec, the crowd is awesome and the Molson is strong. You can feel the passion, its always Hockey Night in Canada...

Tennis
US Tennis Center: is great, though I prefer the outside courts unless you have very good seats at Ashe. I saw Henman from the nosebleeds last year, I think it was Henman! The crowds are great and the brew is not that unreasonable.
Connecticut Tennis Center: on the campus of Yale -- is way too big. However the food courts are nice and the action is generally good. James Blake fans are annoying though, i'm sorry -- nothing against James. but its true. Have seen some greats there though. Goran, Kevelnikov, Becker, Agassi, Sampras and Lendl to name a few

Randos...the new rink at Quinnipiac is very nice as is the basketball gym, Ingalls in New Haven is a classic, visited Panathinaiko Stadium (birthplace of the Olympics) last year -- interesting place, Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City is actually a great place to watch boxing and the Mohegan Sun Arena (home to the Calhoun Classic) is a very nice and a good sized venue...

Immediate plans are to go to Notre Dame Stadium next fall and check out my new neighborhood arena the Nassau Coliseum this winter, wonder which will be more impressive?

I'm sure that I have missed some, but that's what I recall for now. Let me know what you think and if you have any suggested venues that I have to go to.

Cheers