But Tim’s D came to play…
(and the NU Grad doing color wasn’t half bad either. Have to see how he’ll do with other teams, but I thought his first game wasn’t bad.
View from the West stands.
Bad
Logistics - quarter mile line to enter the stadium in the north
No staff providing directions and limited signage
Seats in the west bleachers were fine on width, but very poor on depth. Eating your knees and lots of back pain.
Not very accessible for those who have trouble walking. We had the closest parking and it was easily a half mile walk. We sat with a person with a ADA tag north garage so this was as close as you get. Handrails sketchy for those with mobility problems for seating and portable restrooms.
Sound system poor. We could barely hear anything.
Down and distance besides being near invisible in the northeast corner was often wrong or a play behind.
Video board mixed. Good visibility despite the sun shining directly into it all game, however space not well used as it could’ve used better game details.
Good
Concessions great. Short lines and better than normal selections. Alcohol sales, which could be a positive or a negative.
Restrooms surprisingly great. Short lines and better facilities than Dyche.
Easier in/out than Dyche. Came down Central to Sheridan to Lincoln without big delays. Out was even easier as we used Isabella.
Good weather and we were in shade for most of the game – Row 15 which is the last row.
View phenomenal!
We won!
The TV had a drone flying around, to replace the overhead camera on the cables they use for the overhead shots.
It seemed like it was just flying around and around the stadium, same picture every time, and was obviously not set up with the same color balance as the rest of the cameras. I know the drone/unmanned cameras have limitations on settings, and it wasn’t until after half time that they got the drone set so it kinda matched the rest of the cameras on the broadcast. (Its been a while, but I think its the aperture?)
The drone guy finally figured out how to set up behind the offense and they got some decent shots of the TD’s from overhead, but in the beginning it seemed like a “new toy” for the director to play with, and it didn’t add much to the broadcast.
Yes, I am one of those goofballs who walk into televised ballgame and make note of where the cameras are located. At the World Series we have to know because the center field camera shoots right into our pressbox, and at certain times of the day you can see what all of us in there are doing.
Go B1G Cats (1-0)
rsl
I got tired of the panoramic drone shots quickly, too, I wanted to watch the GAME! But when they started using drones for the spring football leagues (whatever they were called), it took a while for them to do anything useful with the drones, too.
IMHO, BTN doesn’t have the best technical crews, and they’ve got a new set of challenges to deal with for NU home games this year.
The same is likely true of the issues with the stadium: it takes time to settle in to a new facility
When I watched the video tour of it that NU posted, my first reaction was that there would be a huge bottleneck at the gate, so I was not surprised to read that. The parking issues are just not readily resolved. The scoreboard/video screen issues are probably harder to correct than the sound system ones, and NU’s attitude may be “it’s a short term problem that will go away in 2026”.
2 years is a long temporary problem.
Nothing is a killer defect. Wrigley was much worse in most aspects – parking, sightlines, accessibility from parking, etc.
They will learn and the fans will learn and only the Wisconsin game this year is likely to be a problem with more fans without tickets trying to “attend”.
If I were still Delt social chairman, I would have lobbied for some sand tossed in between the stands and the shoreline and would have staged some awesome keggers for September games.
FR