Best DIII Stadiums

Started by hazzben, July 19, 2013, 02:21:17 PM

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Just Bill

A sleeper in this race is (or will be) the Banta Bowl, home of Lawrence University. It has a beautiful setting in a natural bowl, but the bleachers and press box always lacked. But now there's a major overhaul planned to bring the structure up to par with the natural setting...

http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/sports/college/lawrence-planning-banta-bowl-overhaul
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wildcat11

#16
Quote from: hazzben on July 19, 2013, 02:47:30 PM
Linfield College:                   
The CatDome baby! It's the closest we've got to a dome, and you still get to see the game played in the elements while you stay dry.

I think this pic captures the 'Catdome perfectly. 



The other place I've enjoyed the most from a football set standpoint is Saint John's.   Another place is Lewis and Clark.  Yeah, the program struggles but the football stadium has a nice set up.


AO

After taking a quick look around the nation, it is hard to find stadiums without a track.  Even when you're willing to put temporary stands on the track as Linfield does, they still unfortunately felt the need to place the visitor's sideline stands a mile from the field. 

The ODAC stood out to me so I'll feature them today.

Hampden-Sydney Lewis C. Everett Stadium


Emory & Henry Fred Selfe Stadium


Randolph-Macon Day Field


Shenandoah Sprint Field at Shentel Stadium


Pat Coleman

The ODAC does generally have nice stadiums, and they draw well to them.
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jknezek

#19
W&L's new stadium is also up to ODAC standards:

http://www.generalssports.com/information/Facilities/Wilson

Sits on a plateau accessed from campus from a long footbridge. The new pressbox and home stands are great. The endzones are all backdropped with trees, and the only real negative is the huge field on the visitor side that backs up to the 70s era law school building. All of the W&L facilities have really had a nice 10 year facelift, something that I think has benefitted the Generals greatly. Of course, it's also easy to bemoan the costs of the ongoing facilities war...

If you look here:

http://www.generalssports.com/information/Facilities/outdoor_courts

You can see the plaza at the back of the press box/concession area and the footbridge that leads to the field. I guess W&L considers them part of the outdoor tennis courts, and yes, the school has an amazing set of indoor courts that was donated in the 90s for some reason, but the footbridge to me will always be the gateway to Wilson Field.

bman

While it doesn't rank with these, I always enjoy going to Widener's field.  It's tucked into a natural bowl, which shields it from (well..Chester PA)  but also from excessive wind etc...
The only real drawback to this field, is that given the narrow entrance (a long walk on a path tucked between a stream and a dense wooded hill), there is limited room for tailgating, close to the stadium...


wally_wabash

Quote from: AO on July 22, 2013, 09:18:59 AM
After taking a quick look around the nation, it is hard to find stadiums without a track.  Even when you're willing to put temporary stands on the track as Linfield does, they still unfortunately felt the need to place the visitor's sideline stands a mile from the field. 

The ODAC stood out to me so I'll feature them today.

Hampden-Sydney Lewis C. Everett Stadium


Hoping to add Hampden-Sydney to the list of stadiums I've been to when Wabash travels there in 2015.  Looks like a good place to take in a game...dig the architecture on that press box/concourse situation there. 
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jknezek

Hampden-Sydney is a great place to take in a game. Well worth the trip. Looking at all these pictures just has me amazed at how well we can blend a D3 sized stadium into a campus and the landscape. It's just not something you can do with a 50,000 seat concrete and steel behemoth surrounded by parking lots. I'm amazed at how many schools have chosen to make their stadiums work with the area and the campus, instead of just being a place to play the games and house the fans.

Just Bill

I thought UW-Oshkosh was creative in dealing with the issue of having a track around the field. They shifted the football field to be as close as possible to the grandstand as possible, rather than centering it down the middle of the pitch.



Of course having bleachers on only side, which isn't ideal, makes it possible. I thought it was a simple smart decision that I'm surprised more schools don't follow.
"That seems silly and pointless..." - Hoops Fan

The first and still most accurate description of the D3 Championship BeltTM thread.

AO

Quote from: Just Bill on July 23, 2013, 09:48:37 AM
I thought UW-Oshkosh was creative in dealing with the issue of having a track around the field. They shifted the football field to be as close as possible to the grandstand as possible, rather than centering it down the middle of the pitch.



Of course having bleachers on only side, which isn't ideal, makes it possible. I thought it was a simple smart decision that I'm surprised more schools don't follow.
Looks like there's plenty of room to put up some bleachers in the infield if you really wanted to.  Lack of seating doesn't appear to be an issue at Oshkosh, that's for sure.  Looking at the birds eye view, did they build the other track after the stadium?   Are there really track meets in Oshkosh that require 10,000 seats and 2 tracks?  Next time the track or field turf needs replacing, maybe they can reconfigure and get rid of the track around the football field altogether.

ADL70

Quote from: AO on July 23, 2013, 10:22:37 AM
Quote from: Just Bill on July 23, 2013, 09:48:37 AM
I thought UW-Oshkosh was creative in dealing with the issue of having a track around the field. They shifted the football field to be as close as possible to the grandstand as possible, rather than centering it down the middle of the pitch.



Of course having bleachers on only side, which isn't ideal, makes it possible. I thought it was a simple smart decision that I'm surprised more schools don't follow.
Looks like there's plenty of room to put up some bleachers in the infield if you really wanted to.  Lack of seating doesn't appear to be an issue at Oshkosh, that's for sure.  Looking at the birds eye view, did they build the other track after the stadium?   Are there really track meets in Oshkosh that require 10,000 seats and 2 tracks?  Next time the track or field turf needs replacing, maybe they can reconfigure and get rid of the track around the football field altogether.

Bleachers in the infield would be on the soccer pitch.
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Just Bill

Oshkosh has hosted the NCAA Division III Championships, and they would like to wrestle the state HS championships away from La Crosse if they could. So they won't be interested in tearing out the track there. In fact on the last remodel they upgraded the track facilities. They other track is essentially just a practice facility.

They do play home soccer there too, so if they put temporary bleachers on the field, they would have to be REALLY temporary since they would have to go up and down multiple times each fall.
"That seems silly and pointless..." - Hoops Fan

The first and still most accurate description of the D3 Championship BeltTM thread.

Just Bill

Quote from: Just Bill on July 23, 2013, 09:48:37 AM
They shifted the football field to be as close as possible to the grandstand as possible,

This sentence is brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.
"That seems silly and pointless..." - Hoops Fan

The first and still most accurate description of the D3 Championship BeltTM thread.

AO

#28
Quote from: Just Bill on July 23, 2013, 10:58:55 AM
Oshkosh has hosted the NCAA Division III Championships, and they would like to wrestle the state HS championships away from La Crosse if they could. So they won't be interested in tearing out the track there. In fact on the last remodel they upgraded the track facilities. They other track is essentially just a practice facility.

They do play home soccer there too, so if they put temporary bleachers on the field, they would have to be REALLY temporary since they would have to go up and down multiple times each fall.
If you have space for two tracks, why not make one the soccer/track facility and one the football facility.  LaCrosse apparently doesn't need 2 tracks to host the championships, and I doubt they needed all 10,000 seats.  The vast majority of D3 seems to have the space to build separate facilities for track and football and no great desire to host the D3 championships.  It should also be pointed out that most soccer teams not in the pacific northwest would prefer to play on natural grass.

Jonny Utah

As PG mentioned above, Ithaca has a great view from the home stands: (can't figure how to post this here but it is the nicest picture in my opinion)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ithacacollegealumni/285926744/sizes/o/in/photostream/



The home stands are probably your average d3 football size (5000+), but I believe the press box needs a little rehab from what I've heard.