ATHENS - Sanford Stadium (92,746)

[ReiAyanami]

Damn this thread's name......

[salaverryo]

Originally Posted by CharlieP

Because they're designed to fit around an American football field, and built accordingly.

Yes, but they are foolishly denying themselves the possibility of hosting soccer games, which is a shame. After all, how many games per season does the University of Georgia play in that stadium? Seven, eight at the most? And the rest of the year, what do they do with such a massive stadium? Just look at it?

[ryebreadraz]

This place was built in 1929. It's not a new stadium that is built for all these events. It was built for Georgia football because that's all there was then.

[KingmanIII]

Originally Posted by salaverryo

Yes, but they are foolishly denying themselves the possibility of hosting soccer games, which is a shame. After all, how many games per season does the University of Georgia play in that stadium? Seven, eight at the most? And the rest of the year, what do they do with such a massive stadium? Just look at it?

Why would anyone host association football matches in a college town like Athens, instead of a more heavily populated, cosmopolitan city such as Atlanta?

[yin_yang]

Home of Widespread Panic too...quite the town for music, I see!

[weava]

Originally Posted by salaverryo

Yes, but they are foolishly denying themselves the possibility of hosting soccer games, which is a shame. After all, how many games per season does the University of Georgia play in that stadium? Seven, eight at the most? And the rest of the year, what do they do with such a massive stadium? Just look at it?

I'm guessing in the US we have something like 125-150 football stadiums with 30,000+ seats between the NFL and all the college stadiums so most stadiums are not needed to fit a soccer field for the few soccer matches that are played here that need that much seating.

[Jim856796]

One thing: I don't even like American Football, especially the stadiums that can't easily be fitted with a soccer field. Are there any other American Football stadiums that can't fit a soccer field?

And I hope that an Olympic soccer final will never be held outside a host city's metropolitan area again.

[en1044]

Originally Posted by Jim856796

One thing: I don't even like American Football, especially the stadiums that can't easily be fitted with a soccer field. Are there any other American Football stadiums that can't fit a soccer field?

And I hope that an Olympic soccer final will never be held outside a host city's metropolitan area again.

First, thats a pretty dumb thing to say. You can condemn a stadium for not being able to host a sport it wasnt built for. Thats like hating soccer stadiums for having poor sight lines for American Football. Well no shit they have bad sightlines...wrong sport!

Just wow...

Most American Football stadiums can host a soccer match, just not up to regulation. Very few are big enough.

[Jim856796]

That statement is not dumb. Regulation soccer is 105 x 68 metres. American Football is 110 x 50, and Canadian Football is 136 x 59.

[en1044]

Originally Posted by Jim856796

That statement is not dumb. Regulation soccer is 105 x 68 metres. American Football is 110 x 50, and Canadian Football is 136 x 59.

Ok...?

Your point is what?

We already know that American football stadiums arent wide enough.

[salaverryo]

Originally Posted by KingmanIII

Why would anyone host association football matches in a college town like Athens, instead of a more heavily populated, cosmopolitan city such as Atlanta?

Doesn't the University of Georgia field a soccer team? How about playing their home games in that stadium? You may say, Hey, that stadium is way too big for them. But, who knows? Maybe in a not too far distant future soccer could become really popular with the college sports fans.

[en1044]

Originally Posted by salaverryo

Doesn't the University of Georgia field a soccer team? How about playing their home games in that stadium? You may say, Hey, that stadium is way too big for them. But, who knows? Maybe in a not too far distant future soccer could become really popular with the college sports fans.

Thats really doubtful.

[danny1010]

Doesn't the University of Georgia field a soccer team? How about playing their home games in that stadium? You may say, Hey, that stadium is way too big for them. But, who knows? Maybe in a not too far distant future soccer could become really popular with the college sports fans.

Having games in a stadium that large will have a negative effect on sport's popularity. And I'm not making an indictment on soccer in the US.

But the rules of Title IX (US law for gender equality in college athletics) make growing the popularity of soccer very difficult at the college level. I won't go into a detailed debate about the law, but the result is that very few universities can fund non-revenue generating sports (basically everything outside of football and men's basketball) including soccer.

In the case of Georgia (like many other universities these days), they can only field a women's team due to scholarship rules and funding. Again, not trying to disparage women's sports, but they don't draw nearly the money or fans as the men's sports do.

They play in separate stadium. To give a sense of difference in support from men's football to women's soccer, I took the following excerpts from the UGA athletics website about their soccer facilities:

The Bulldogs felt right at home as they advanced to their first-ever tournament final, facing eventual champion Florida in front of 2,265 fans, the fourth largest crowd in facility history.

Total capacity for the stadium is approximately 1,750 spectators.

As you can see, even with heavy promotion, it would very difficult for the Georgia soccer team to fill even a small fraction of Sanford stadium. As long as Title IX stays in effect, all men's sports outside of football and basketball will be severely limited.

[KingmanIII]

The athletics conference in which Georgia competes, the Southeastern Conference, doesn't even sponsor men's soccer -- Kentucky and South Carolina's men's soccer teams play in Conference USA as a result.

[DN Nation]

Originally Posted by salaverryo

Yes, but they are foolishly denying themselves the possibility of hosting soccer games, which is a shame. After all, how many games per season does the University of Georgia play in that stadium? Seven, eight at the most? And the rest of the year, what do they do with such a massive stadium? Just look at it?

Well, yeah.

Although Sanford is huge, it fits snugly into the middle of Georgia's campus:



You can look right into it on one of the main campus arteries. It's a sweet view.

As for soccer...it wouldn't be a good use of resources, either. Georgia doesn't field a men's team above intramural level, and the women only get thousand or so fans at best. A thousand fans in that stadium would be a lousy atmosphere.

[Huskies]

Originally Posted by www.sercan.de

opned 1929 and renovated 2004



image hosted on flickr

i can see that there are some scattered plastic seats here like on the florida stadium, for those people who pay extra for a seat. at first you would think that the capacity would drop if everybody payed for the seat , since the 92 746 capacity is with mostly bleachers. But since the have to keep in mind that every ticket holder might want a seat, and if one seat would be slightly larger than the bleacher space assigned to each ticket, every row would risk getting messed up.

so wouldnt this mean that this stadium should be a 92 700 seater even when every seat is a plastic seat ? since those seats realistically have to take up the same amount of space as the bleacher space assigned to each ticket , hence same capacity with seats as with bleachers ?

[danny1010]

Those clamped-on seats are the same width as the marked width on the bleachers, so yes you get the same capacity with those clamped-on seats as you do without them. I believe the big difference in the capacity comes from the fact that permanent seats come with arm rests. Instead of a thin line of tape separating seats, you now have a physical space separating seats... thus a lower capacity with all-seaters.

[waccamatt]

Originally Posted by Jim856796

One thing: I don't even like American Football, especially the stadiums that can't easily be fitted with a soccer field. Are there any other American Football stadiums that can't fit a soccer field?

And I hope that an Olympic soccer final will never be held outside a host city's metropolitan area again.

It isn't important because Soccer is not very popular in the U.S. Most Soccer stadiums here are tiny.

[Alemanniafan]

Could we rename the thread to " Athens, GA - Sanford Stadium ( 92,746)" ?
It really is quite misleading. I've been to both of those Athens and was positively surprised, but the first thing that comes to ones mind is indeed Athens in Greece.

[Luke80]

It doesn't look like a 92,000 seater stadium so those seats put in must be narrower than usual. Still, if they're useable then perhaps we could see college stadiums become a conventional all-seater.