What's good about Cal's experience at AT&T this year?

4,184 Views | 43 Replies | Last: 14 yr ago by Mama Bear
FiatSlug
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[U]Easy access via mass transit[/U] - BART to the Embarcadero, Muni from there to AT&T is a piece of cake. Wish that Muni ran more frequently post-game when the crush develops. Yesterday, a crush developed towards the end of the 3rd quarter when the weather got wetter and colder, but there were no more Muni LRVs to take up the slack.

[U]Decent access for people with disabilities[/U] - Mrs FiatSlug's knees are arthritic, so getting to the View Deck could have been nasty. AT&T has elevators near the Willie Mays Gate that whisk us up to View Level and drop us in front of our section.

[U]Jumbotron[/U] - While a good portion of the screen is taken up with ads, the picture is excellent and useful for replays.

[U]View of the Bay and the East Bay Hills[/U] - If I can't have a view of SF then this is a good substitute.

Reminding me why I love Cal Memorial - AT&T is a baseball stadium; a beautiful baseball stadium, to be sure. But AT&T is not suited for football. Football is best played in a football stadium.

[U]Sightlines[/U] - The sightlines are different at AT&T. Cal Memorial's seating is in a perfect bowl and there are precious few, if any, bad seats at Cal Memorial. There are way too many bad seats at AT&T, especially in the View Level out in the left field corner.

[U]Student Section[/U] - At AT&T the student section is shoved into the North End Zone (behind left field wall). It's a bad place given that the students are barely noticeable. The energy from the student section seems to have been dissipated by this placement, in large part because AT&T is not enclosed as Cal Memorial is. At Cal Memorial, the Student Section occupies seats between the North 35 and the South 20, backing the team and spreading its energy across the rest of the stadium.

[U]Victory Cannon[/U] - maybe the Victory Cannon is actually at AT&T, but it's rarely seen and never heard. Instead, after a Cal TD we're treated to a foghorn blast and spout of water from behind right field. After a Cal FG, we get only the foghorn.

[U]Views from Cal Memorial[/U] - from the West Side, we see the natural backdrop of Strawberry Canyon. From the East Side, the Campanile rises from the Northwest Rim and the dome of I-House rises from the Southwest Rim. From Tightwad Hill, there are glorious views of the Bay and San Francisco.

[U]Being on campus[/U] - San Francisco is nice, but it just isn't at all like being on campus. I miss the walk through campus on gameday and the familiar sights and sounds. It is like a void that cannot be filled until we return to Cal Memorial in 2012.
GB54
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southseasbear;616870 said:

Old stadia have a certain aura due to ghosts of past legends and championships that must be earned over time and therefore cannot be manufactured. As a Dodger fan, I have to say that whoever was responsible (Giants organization? San Francisco fans? Pac Bell?) did a great job in creating a worthy temple for the sport and team that plays there. It is a beautiful facility with modern materials and construction that is reminiscent of the ball parks of yesteryear and worthy of being home to a World Series championship.




Old stadia have an aura if you are an old fan and can remember the ghosts. But ever since Camden-which deserves a ton of credit since it was a first-baseball stadium designers have incorporated nostalgia and eccentricity into designs thereby replicating the charm factor while greatly improving the experience. Are people in Baltimore nostalgic for the old memorial stadium; in San Francisco for Candlestick?

A place like Fenway only exists because of the staggering incompetence of the Red Sox and the city of Boston. It was scheduled and should have been dynamited about a half a dozen times. Somewhere along the way it morphed into national treasure but what it is really is a chance to wring out millions of dollars per square inch for a lousy experience (if you are a local fan as opposed to those attending because you think you are in church)
sycasey
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GB54;616916 said:

Are people in Baltimore nostalgic for the old memorial stadium; in San Francisco for Candlestick?


No, but those stadiums were ugly and (at least in Candlestick's case) a real pain to get to. Fenway and Wrigely are beautiful and in the middle of the city. It's not really a fair comparison. If Boston or Chicago got rid of those stadiums, people would be unhappy.

GB54;616916 said:

A place like Fenway only exists because of the staggering incompetence of the Red Sox and the city of Boston. It was scheduled and should have been dynamited about a half a dozen times.


That's actually true (and during the 90s plenty of Boston fans wanted to get rid of it), but my understanding is that the John Henry ownership group spruced it up pretty nicely and now no one would dream of destroying it. I don't necessarily see it as a point against the stadium that the local fans love it.
GB54
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sycasey;616936 said:

No, but those stadiums were ugly and (at least in Candlestick's case) a real pain to get to. Fenway and Wrigely are beautiful and in the middle of the city. It's not really a fair comparison. If Boston or Chicago got rid of those stadiums, people would be unhappy.


That's actually true (and during the 90s plenty of Boston fans wanted to get rid of it), but my understanding is that the John Henry ownership group spruced it up pretty nicely and now no one would dream of destroying it. I don't necessarily see it as a point against the stadium that the local fans love it.


Not if the alternative were better and there is no reason to think it couldn't be if it incorporated all the intimacy and none of the negatives.

Spruce up is relative-add some more expensive seats and increase prices. It remains a horrible fan experience that exists because it has been elevated to high church of baseball. The corridors are crowded, bathrooms impossible, sight lines bad.
southseasbear
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GB54;616916 said:

...Are people in Baltimore nostalgic for the old memorial stadium; in San Francisco for Candlestick?

A place like Fenway only exists because of the staggering incompetence of the Red Sox and the city of Boston....


My cousins in Boston love Fenway. Sure, some non-Bostonians consider it a dump, as many of our opposing fans felt we were playing in a dump, but to many of us Memorial is very special (worthy of near religious devotion). After all, we could have built a fabulous new stadium for a lot less money than what the renovation is costing (and will continue to cost for a long time).

Regarding Candlestick, unlike Memorial and Fenway, it was a dump the day it opened and attempts to improve it were inconsequential at best. More importantly, the nostalgia factor is directly related to all of the World Series the Giants won while being incarcerated there. (Seriously, for those of us in LA it was the topic of many jokes: how could one of the most beautiful cities in the world have such an inferior and ugly baseball stadium? Even the SF'ers who love to publicize their hatred of LA had to admit that we were far superior in at least that one respect.)
GB54
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southseasbear;616954 said:

My cousins in Boston love Fenway. Sure, some non-Bostonians consider it a dump, as many of our opposing fans felt we were playing in a dump, but to many of us Memorial is very special (worthy of near religious devotion). After all, we could have built a fabulous new stadium for a lot less money than what the renovation is costing (and will continue to cost for a long time).

Regarding Candlestick, unlike Memorial and Fenway, it was a dump the day it opened and attempts to improve it were inconsequential at best. More importantly, the nostalgia factor is directly related to all of the World Series the Giants won while being incarcerated there. (Seriously, for those of us in LA it was the topic of many jokes: how could one of the most beautiful cities in the world have such an inferior and ugly baseball stadium? Even the SF'ers who love to publicize their hatred of LA had to admit that we were far superior in at least that one respect.)


I grew up in Boston and think it is a dump. Your point was that there was an aura established to old parks. But it isn't old parks in general; it is only a couple of old parks.
southseasbear
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GB54;616957 said:

I grew up in Boston and think it is a dump. Your point was that there was an aura established to old parks. But it isn't old parks in general; it is only a couple of old parks.


I was responding to a complaint that AT&T lacked the charm of Fenway and other old parks and compared it to Stanford's new box. A new park cannot be an old park, but if it is beautiful (as AT&T is) it will grow its own charm and tradition over time.

I was defending AT&T (ironic for a Dodger fan) not Fenway or Candlestick.
Mama Bear
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"Stick" nostalgia is often heard AT&T during the baseball season, not for its design or location, but for establishing hard-core Giants fans, and making Dodger fans miserable. Many good stories, and the red fox who salvaged food in the upper deck was a handsome boy!

Fans who climbed aboard when Pac-Bell opened are of another ilk. This is not bad, as they have developed into great fans--hence my remark about "soul". This is not to say we have as many ghosts as Fenway, or the charm of Wrigley, or CYard, etc. but we are getting there.
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