Well, this will be kinda fun. 150,000 at a game?

http://www.sbnation.com/2016/8/18/12545672/bristol-motor-speedway-nascar-track-college-football-stadium-tennessee-virginia-tech

Also, I had no idea downtown Bristol's main street is also the state line between TN and VA.

Crazy, especially when you realize that the field isn't just painting lines on the infield, but constructing an entire artificial turf field on top of the infield.

Some of the seating is going to be 10x worse than where they put the visitors in the LA Colisseum...

This doesn't actually sound fun. The opponents plus the physical set up seem less than ideal. It's definitely a novelty.

Between games in Sydney, Ireland, and now this, I can't say I dislike the outside-the-box thinking.

On a recent minor league trip (an annual tradition), we stopped at both Bristol Motor Speedway and Bristol TN/VA. The base for the field at the Speedway was done, with the yardlines noted to guide installation of the turf. It was impressive. The sightlines will all be good, although some will be distant. But all the seats will be better than worst seats at the old Stanford stadium, particularly those on the on track run-out from which the game was way off to the right.

In Bristol, TN/VA, we wandered back and forth across the state line. The best bars were on the Tennessee side, with the banks and minor league ballpark on the Virginia side. The photo is from an earlier baseball trip. [ATTACH=CONFIG]5838[/ATTACH]

I coached XC and track at the small college in Bristol, VA, a dump called Virginia Intermont. We won NAIA nationals but the school shut the program down that spring. Head coach was a bit shady. Bristol is a very unremarkable town, and so was the Tri-Cities area. It's probably fine for a ball game but there wasn't much else to do there. Definitely Confederate country.

Actually if you like American roots music- old time, bluegrass, country, gospel- it's a great place

Amazon binocular sales are going through the roof.

I won't be making the trip there, but I can tell you that I'll be having a nice little viewing party at home.

When I first heard that this game was going to happen, I was asking myself, "how in the world are they going to pull this off?" There has never been, to my recollection, a football game at a race track. I just couldn't picture it in my head. I couldn't wrap my head around how they were going to convert the track into a football field.

I have no idea how this is going to work, but nonetheless, this should be an unbelievable atmosphere on Saturday night.

Dark Reverie;842722824 said:

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When I first heard that this game was going to happen, I was asking myself, "how in the world are they going to pull this off?" There has never been, to my recollection, a football game at a race track. I just couldn't picture it in my head. I couldn't wrap my head around how they were going to convert the track into a football field.

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The pic shown in the link in my original post helps me picture it, but I'll have to tune in just to see how it looks live. Because, yea, nobody's done this before.

Someone said upthread the opponents seem less than ideal.....but how can it get better than two big programs just 200 miles apart, meeting for only the 3rd time ever, not just on neutral ground but on the state line too! They probably could have sold more than 150K tix to this game.

One thing's for sure....if someone gets into the endzone, they're not high-fiving anyone in the stands, unless they want to run a really long way.

510Bear;842722901 said:

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.....someone said upthread the opponents seem less than ideal.....but how can it get better than two big programs just 200 miles apart, meeting for only the 3rd time ever, not just on neutral ground but on the state line too! .........

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Not quite. Bristol Motor Speedway is well within the bounds of the state of Tennessee. It's about seven miles from the state line.

Went to a Bristol night race in 2000. Amazing. The track is a half mile oval and is considered a small track for racing. Lots of crashes and so loud. The crowd was electric. I would highly recommend as it is a one of a kind experience.

Word is during the game there will be a NASCAR race in progress and deer hunting in the stands.

Cal Junkie;842722730 said:

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I coached XC and track at the small college in Bristol, VA, a dump called Virginia Intermont. We won NAIA nationals but the school shut the program down that spring. Head coach was a bit shady. Bristol is a very unremarkable town, and so was the Tri-Cities area. It's probably fine for a ball game but there wasn't much else to do there. Definitely Confederate country.

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We stumbled across the Virginia Intermont campus during our recent trip. School has been shut down since 2014 and all the buildings were for sale. Although I'm not sure who's buying colleges these days.

BGGB2;842722982 said:

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Not quite. Bristol Motor Speedway is well within the bounds of the state of Tennessee. It's about seven miles from the state line.

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The line dividing the two states runs down the middle of Main Street in Bristol...so, there is Bristol Tn and Bristol Va. with the stadium being a bit down the road.
They have been talking about this for about 10 years, if not more. There isn't a race track anywhere that is like Bristol...seeing a race there was incredible. For racing, there isn't a bad seat in the house...we will see how it goes for the game.

TouchedTheAxeIn82;842722782 said:

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Amazon binocular sales are going through the roof.

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I am surprised. On television it looks like an awesome game environment. Kind of like the old LA Coliseum, but with an additional 50K people.

It was an incredible experience watching on television. To see 156,990 watching a football game in one of the most unique of venues (about 70% of them wearing orange) was something to behold. I can't believe they pulled it off.

Dark Reverie;842726819 said:

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It was an incredible experience watching on television. To see 156,990 watching a football game in one of the most unique of venues (about 70% of them wearing orange) was something to behold. I can't believe they pulled it off.

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Just curious, but how was the traffic to exit the stadium parking lot after the game? The traffic at Qualcomm Stadium's parking lot exiting the Cal vs. San Diego State game looked awful from the trolley, and that was for only 42K fans. Traffic exiting the Rose Bowl "parking lot" (golf course) is always terrible after UCLA games.

jaccpot10;842726855 said:

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Just curious, but how was the traffic to exit the stadium parking lot after the game? The traffic at Qualcomm Stadium's parking lot exiting the Cal vs. San Diego State game looked awful from the trolley, and that was for only 42K fans. Traffic exiting the Rose Bowl "parking lot" (golf course) is always terrible after UCLA games.

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Never been to a nascar event, but when I had season tickets to the Chargers we would spend at least 90 minutes after the game in the parking lot having a few road sodas. I would guess that A LOT of people do the same at Bristol. I also heard that they had a ton of shuttles for lots that were miles away from the stadium. It's not like they don't have experience with crowds that size, so I assume people have figured it out. It is probably a nightmare if you tried to leave right after the game though.

jaccpot10;842726855 said:

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Just curious, but how was the traffic to exit the stadium parking lot after the game? The traffic at Qualcomm Stadium's parking lot exiting the Cal vs. San Diego State game looked awful from the trolley, and that was for only 42K fans. Traffic exiting the Rose Bowl "parking lot" (golf course) is always terrible after UCLA games.

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Well, I didn't attend the game, but if I had to guess, it would have been complete gridlock. Getting 157,000 people to leave one place isn't easy. In Knoxville, the traffic is usually horrendous, and the fact that some streets around the stadium are blocked off to allow for pedestrian traffic doesn't make things any easier.