Braly as we know it today is a nice place to watch a football game, especially at the D2 level. I know most of us haven't been to many other D2 stadiums, but I have seen some pictures; trust me, there are high schools with better facilities than some of those teams. However, I think I understand what the NCAA is saying here (and I agree with the NCAA on very few things). The D2 championship game needs to be played in one of the best, if not THE best, stadiums in the country. It gives the players and the fans going to the game something to look forward to. While "pretty nice", Braly is far from being the best even in D2.
One thing I feel should be addressed is the parking situation. While there are a lot of college football stadiums that require you to park on the street in a neighborhood, we can do better. I present to you exhibit A:
If you notice, on the south side of the stadium there is a baseball field that was once used by Coffee High School. Well, as you know that school no longer exists. Florence High School plays their baseball games at the former Bradshaw High School. This field may be used by a JV team, I'm not sure; regardless, baseball fields are not hard to replace. In my opinion, this piece of land should be used to build a parking deck for gamedays. This would obviously solve a lot of the parking problems and put you directly at the field when you get out of your car. Also, the deck could be used by UNA students during the week (with the shuttle buses used to take students to campus).
This picture is looking towards the south endzone at Braly. If the parking deck is rising above the field there, why not add an additional bonus: a couple of luxury boxes on the end facing the field, a la what was done at Bryant-Denny Stadium? Some new concession stands could also be incorporated, perhaps offering some "higher end" foods than what you find currently.The final part of this plan would be a new "plaza" style entrance at field level in the south endzone. It would be here that fans could meet before the game, perhaps buy some souvenirs, etc. Statues could be incorprated, just like at Bryant-Denny, to honor former Lions and the national championship teams. Walking into the stadium here, you would be looking up towards the north endzone where I envision a new HD scoreboard would be. It would make for a great entrance to the stadium and pump up not only UNA fans, but fans visiting for the championship game.
Those are just a few of my thoughts, I'd love to hear others.
I'll have to say I agree with the NCAA on this except for the artificial turf. Unless you are in a dome, you should be playing on real turf.
ReplyDeleteI must politely disagree about potentially building a parking deck where the old Coffee baseball field is. If it weren't for the fact that it gets regular game day use by a very important fixture in Lion Country known as the Pride of Dixie, I would be all for it, but surely there are other places that there could potentially be a parking deck built? I agree more parking would be great, and to be quite honest I think perhaps they should have built a parking deck directly adjactent to Appleby East and West, which could serve on game day, and would not require an additional shuttle stop location because it is already on the route.
ReplyDeleteI did think about the POD when coming up with my plan. I have nothing against the band - in fact I love marching bands, and wish the POD was even more involved in the games instead of the music over the PA. I just think using that space would be the most logical thing if you want to include the plaza entrance also. Maybe the POD could use the grassy area behind Coffee, beside Hermitage Drive?
ReplyDeleteAnd Andrew, I agree about the turf. The only thing wrong with the field at Braly is the fact that we apparently can't paint it for gameday. The Lion head logo at midfield would rule the school.