The list of my favorite stadiums is already generating a great discussion. Now for a tour of the stadiums that I enjoyed the least. Again, this list only includes stadiums I've visted.
The Worst
1. The Meadowlands - Arm Pit, America Forget the fact that the game I went to see was a horrific mess for Texas. The stadium was atrocious. The Meadowlands is this big, ugly, rotting thing just sitting in New Jersey off the freeway. Once inside, it's a flash back to what life must have been like in the late 1970s. The colors are awful, nothing have been renovated, and the hallways were cramped. Once you entered through the section doorways toward the court, you encountered a monstrosity of ugliness. The stadium seats were atrociously steep, rendering upper deck seats worthless. I don't know about you, but I can't watch hoops through binoculars. And I don't want to. Safe to say, I'll never return. An appropriate stadium for one of America's worst states.
The Meadowlands Sports Complex, otherwise known as Sprawling Dump In New Jersey
2. The Astrodome - Houston, Texas The nasty turf, the painfully colored seats, in Texas' least attractive big city. Yummy! The only good thing I can say about the Astrodome is that I saw Bonds hit two jacks there. And for the rest of you, even that would be a minus. The Astros new digs at Fruit Juice Park are splendid, and almost drew an Honorable Mention for good ballparks - well worth a visit. A touch too cutesy to be great, but a big improvement.
Retired. Not a moment too soon.
3. The Vet - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Vomit on 10 acres and you get an idea of what the Vet was like. It was an eyesore, inside and out. If you never got to attend a game there before it was destroyed, consider it a blessing. You missed nothing.
A fitting death for Veterans Stadium.
4. The Erwin Center - Austin, Texas It's ugly. It's dark. It looks like shit on television. The seats are too far from the action. It befits a university in a vast urban center, not the University of Texas in Austin. There's nothing charming about it, and for all our moaning and groaning about the lack of excitement for Texas basketball, I certainly share in their disinterest in being inside the Drum. Even with the new "upgrades" at the FEC, it's still a giant entertainment stadium for concerts; it sucks for hoops.
Maybe if we take the photo with some flowers in front, it'll look decent? Nope.
5. Qualcomm Stadium - San Diego, California I've seen both football and baseball at Qualcomm. It's passable for football; awful for baseball. In a city as beautiful and charming as San Diego, it's a head-scratchingly boring and unremarkable stadium off to the east of the main city. The Padres new park looks beautiful, so that's solved, though the poor Chargers still have to play in the Q for now.
This is all San Diego could come up with?
Honorable Mention The Superdome (Hurricane vulnerability aside, it's a monstrous block of ugly concrete), Candlestick Park (Way. Too. Cold.)
Up next...
My wish list of stadiums I've yet to visit.
--PB--