10 College Football Stadiums That Don't Completely Ruin Their Cities
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 ส.ค. 2023
- Sports venues that host like 7 home games a year. Do they belong in cities at all? Let us discuss.
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Previous CityNerd Videos Referenced:
- Urbanist Universities: • 10 Best Universities f...
- NFL Stadiums with ten best Transit: • Top Ten Transit to NFL...
- Texas High Speed Rail Race: • High Speed Rail vs. Ai...
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Resources:
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...
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Images
- Map of FBS schools By DanDG44 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Snapdragon Stadium By Terrible Tim - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Thumbnail UMN Stadium By A Syn - originally posted to Flickr as TCF Bank Stadium - Minnesota Golden Gophers, CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Thumbnail Husky Stadium By Abhattarai7 - I took the photo at a Husky football game, CC BY-SA 4.0, en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?...
- Thumbnail Georgia Tech Stadium By JJonahJackalope - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Thumbnail Cal Stadium By Kilfmuny - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
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Embrace the chaos. Do the Cities Within Cities video. Descend further into content madness.
I can vouch for this idea.
Beverly Hills is the most famous one I can think of. Dallas has three.
Wow, never expected to see you here! I guess it makes sense as designing a city in Minecraft involves inspiration.
Hamtramck and Highland Park, Michigan could fill a video by themselves.
Mt. Oliver, Pennsylvania is interesting, too.
It's sure to be unsavory
The rail requirement wipes out Cincinnati, but nippert stadium is an incredibly well integrated stadium, you’d never know it’s there and open all the time, I used to walk through it all the time in the way to class!
Came here to stand up for the Nip as well!
I've never seen a stadium like that before. I was in Cincinnati a few years ago and decided to check out campus, so many students were walking through the concourses to class. Really unique
I was so sad when he mentioned the rail requirement. Nipp would’ve definitely made the list if it wasn’t for that
And not a single surface parking lot in sight. Really a fantastically well integrated stadium. How many other stadiums can you walk through to get to class? The entire campus is one of the best urban campuses I've ever seen.
Maybe I'll do a different list sometime that just focuses on walkability and urban design
I lived for eleven years two blocks away from Camp Randall Stadium in Madison. While its lack of rail access disqualifies it from your list, it is ideal in nearly every other category. It does not create a moat (I walked from my house to my office on campus nearly every day, and it was a pleasant walk), in part because it has very little parking around it. It holds 80,000 and yet fits in the fabric of the neighborhood. And it is walking distance of lots of restaurants and bars.
Yes! Thank you for mentioning Camp Randall! From what I've seen, the bus service in the area is also decent, even if we can't get any sort of trail network put in place.
As a Minnesota fan, it pains me to agree but you are absolutely correct. It abuts some high-density residential and commercial, as well as some mid-density single family homes. Parking and tailgating happens whereever it can be found. It's a great setting overall, but I still want Camp Randall's home team to lose the last weekend in November.
Agreed! I lived directly across the street on Breese Terrace in my college years and always was impressed by how well it integrates between the engineering campus and the neighborhoods on the opposite side. Now if Madison can get their BRT network up to the level it can be, then it really would deserve to be on this list (even without rail).
Camp Randall Stadium is worthy in every way but transit access. No trains, not even any BRT yet. I have never understood how such a supposedly progressive city keeps failing at transit.
I worked on State Street for ten years, often getting off work at the same time the game was letting out, and those buses were totally mobbed. I'd always just hope the Badgers won, because at least then it'd be a bus crammed with happy drunks.
@@c.d.9035could not agree more. For such a progressive city, Madison has a horrific case of carbrain. Bus frequency was immaculate if you rode between the square and Hilldale. Everywhere else has service comparable to Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The city always ranks high for cycling yet far too much of the bike infrastructure is just painted bike lanes. Granted there have been a couple recent projects to improve this like the bike bridge over University Bay Drive and adding a path next to Fish Hatchery in Fitchburg.
I really think that because of your Rail limitation, you left out a lot of really cool and interesting stadiums that still have solid urbanism. College campuses (should) be the perfect situation to have an urban stadium. Students (should) always be able to walk to games, and the bus system (should) be able to easily handle the brunt of incoming fans.
Why is (should) in parentheses?
@@jimmybuckets5863I guess the idea is they wanted to account for campuses which do it badly, rather than just asserting they’re all great.
No real need to put it in brackets though, and it’d probably read better without. But it does somewhat heighten the gap between expectation and reality, by calling attention to it with a formatting device.
@@jimmybuckets5863 it’s a device to indicate that these things are sensible but not necessarily always the case
But...the channel is City Nerd, not College Town Nerd!
@@CityNerd You WILL review the Kibbie Dome and you WILL like it
In defense of ASU’s Sun Devil Stadium, a bunch of land is being redeveloped into medium density mixed use buildings. The whole area is called novus development and they are building some good stuff
I hope they manage to follow through with it! We have plans to do some extra development around Angel Stadium here, but it keeps getting delayed 😞
That’s cool to here, Tempe seems like the only city in The Phoenix Metro Area that is at least trying to improve the city design and urbanism.
@@barryand601the city of Phoenix is also trying to improve itself, but a lot of it seems to be focused on downtown.
The ASU stadium not only has Valley Metro light rail access but it also has access to the Tempe streetcar
@@barryand601Tempe is a real one. I've been following the Cul De Sac development too closely but it seems awesome. Is Phoenix Metro area the next Pittsburgh??
Omg my idea became a video, I've truly made it in life now. Time to go increase my Patreon tier to Super Nerd haha
Edit: Ayyyyy Bobby Dodd was 1st place, Go Jackets!
Go Jackets! Even before the video started I knew we would be #1.
I’m really bummed the University of Cincinnati Nippert Stadium didn’t make the list. I know we don’t have any rail which really sucks but it’s super well integrated into the urban environment. It’s also the only ncaa stadium that is always open. I could go down there right now and walk onto the field. It means it’s really a part of the uptown Cincinnati area that can be walked right through. It’s a great center part of the UC campus
Yeah honestly it’s probably better integrated than any other stadium on the list except for no. 1. More reason to someday build a rail system i guess
it’s really well integrated in the middle of campus
I am curious where Nippert might fall if the streetcar were brought up the hill to UC or to the zoo, as has been discussed.
If the streetcar was extended up the hill to serve the UC area, as was planned, I don't see how CityNerd could rank Nippert any lower than first.
I came to the comment section to say Nippert too! So unintrusive that you don't even know you're walking up to it until your practically on top of it. Very well integrated into the campus and the neighborhood that's very very walkable and transit friendly (minus rail).
I’d call the Cotton Bowl in Dallas a dishonorable mention simply due to the fact that it’s a 90,000+ capacity college stadium in one of the largest cities in the country and no college teams use it as their home stadium. In fact, no team in any sport at any level currently uses it as it’s home stadium. it hosts exactly 2 college football games a year now, one of which is between two FCS teams. Even the bowl game bearing its name is no longer played there.
Not sure that would qualify for either list though, since it’s part of the state fair and not by a college or really associated with any college. SMU played there once upon a time, but they’re not close and they have their own stadium now.
It does have concerts and other events though plus its a 2 minute walk to the DART station. Definitely feel like there are worse.
Aside from Red River it does host a frequent amount of soccer games and concerts
Atlanta's core is a lot better than people think, especially since 2013. We are in a perpetual construction boom and that infill has actually made the city a lot more walkable along with public trail systems like the Beltline and Path trails.
Agree. Georgia State could have been on this list being a FBS school too
@@Notseanevans GA State is off the rail line by over a mile. They took over Turner Field and the prevailing politics when Turner was built prevented it from being built near the rail line.
Agree that it is infilling / gentrifying slowly in town south of the connector split, but if these lists included the possibility of being violently crimed on while attending a game, Atlanta (and my alma mater #1 on this list, Georgia Tech) would surely fall out of the top 10 and perhaps the honorable mention as well...and, it has been that way for 40ish+ years.
I went to the University of Michigan. They have an incredible stadium, and it’s nearly 100 years old. The idea that pro teams need new stadiums every few decades is bizarre.
To be fair, universities cannot exactly threaten to leave town if they don't get their way
@@tonywalters7298 Well UM could move their football games out of town (maybe to Ford Field in Detroit) and re-use the land the stadium is on for something else. But I think hell would have to freeze over first.
The pro teams have a different revenue model from the D1 schools, so there is less need to have expensive amenities (heated suites, modern toilets, concessions more complicated than a hot dog and soda).
And, let's be real, the D1 schools are essentially a minor/developmental league for the NFL. The games are fun, but the level of play is inferior to the pros.
@@MikeB3542 Have you been to Michigan Stadium? It has everything you’re talking about. And a capacity of over 115,000 (largest pro stadium is 82k). It also has history, which is not something I can say of any pro stadium.
@@tonywalters7298 And that right there is the reason pro teams get new stadiums at taxpayer expense every 25 years.
The rail requirement immediate eliminates a lot of stadiums. College towns are often just not going to have that infrastructure. I did think Stanford (my alma mater) might slip into the list based on relatively easy access to Caltrain, but then, while there is no adjacent parking lot desert, Stanford in general fits into no urban grid as it is sort of its own world entirely. And, when push comes to shove, Stanford doesn't really care that much about the football team anyway.
Yeah I think the rail requirement would make perfect sense if this was ranking NFL stadiums, but for CFB it doesn't make much sense considering most universities are in cities and towns that are too small to support a rail network.
For example, CU Boulder would also fit great on this list but it's not on here because Boulder decided to focus on bus service.
It's such a bizarre requirement. For a relatively dense campus at a large school, you're going to have 30-40k fans within easy walking distance of the stadium, supplemented with the robust shuttle services that tend to be ubiquitous on colleges today. No need for rail.
Stanford guy always finds a way to talk about Stanford
@@oafishnephew5126 OK. Guilty as charged.
Cal 25, Stanford 20
Rail requirement automatically eliminates the SEC lmaoooo. Neyland Stadium and Vanderbilt Stadium both do a good job incorporating their stadiums onto the campus imo.
Georgia’s is also perfectly built into the campus. Rail is a dumb requirement for this video.
Pretty sad to see that Camp Randall missed this list. Sure, Madison doesn't have rail transit and land is scarce on the isthmus, but having a CFB stadium with very little surface lot parking tucked right into a residential part of the city is pretty special.
Was going to comment the same thing! No love for UW.
It's also the one closest to a bike trail.
@@jamespyle777yup. Bike from the east side when I want to go to a game. Takes 40 minutes tops
Where do they park?
The rare Atlanta urbanism W, I'll take it
Atlanta doesn’t get enough credit! Yes it’s a sunbelt city where a lot of people drive, but it has the only subway system in the south, the Beltline, leafy walkable neighborhoods, and an expanding bicycle network.
@@shivtim True! Whenever I look at Marta, I can't help but bemoan how limited the network is, but I suppose it's good to count our blessings!
Another Twin Cities W!
I think it's worth noting, to also comment on past commentary, that Huntington Bank stadium actually has gotten a lot of use before. When the Metrodome collapsed and construction of USBank Stadium was underway, the Vikings played at Huntington Bank. Similarly, MNUFC had to play at Huntington Bank before the opening of Allianz Field. The Green Line was a massive improvement to that whole University corridor, and especially connecting Stadium Village. For being a college stadium, it has had a wild history.
Either way, the fact Minneapolis-St Paul keep getting on these lists, shows that public transit sports ridership culture is definitely real up here. Great video!
Edit: For what it's worth, I would love an enclave city video!
Yeah I remember the Vikes playing there
When the Metrodome roof collapsed, the Vikings played in Detroit.
I’m surprised that USC’s Colosseum in Los Angeles didn’t take a higher ranking given its central location in a large city, multiuse history and proximity to museums, bus, and rail lines.
Agree - the Coli should have at least ranked #5 given that it has a relatively small footprint and great access to Expo line.
Seriously! I'm surprised by the low ranking.. Expo Park has even got to work reducing parking. They replaced the entire west parking lots with the new George Lucas Museum and a public soccer field.
I agree, it's the best mixed use stadium on the list. And it's a historical site.
@@dkpqzmThe Coliseum is a freakin' dump!
Glad my Alma Mater made the list, even if it was only number 9.
I am a reluctant college football fan. I understand how problematic the entire enterprise is, but something about the morning of a game day in early October, the buzz of activity, the band warming up. Maybe it’s just nostalgia for being back in College, but it just hits me. Even now when I moved to Vancouver which has neither college football nor crisp autumn weather, it still hits me when I turn on the game on TV.
No mention of Nippert Stadium of Cincinnati??? Kinda wild it is the stadium built so much into campus
Has no rail access, so it got nixed.
Not a great transit town but my alma mater of the University of Tennessee has one of the largest stadiums in the world that seamlessly mixes into campus right on the Tennessee River. From a student perspective, it’s the perfect stadium. Go Vols!
Bobby Dodd is a solid pick. I went to GT for grad school and the stadium is pretty neatly tucked into the southeast part of campus along I-75, almost hidden except it’s next to the administrative buildings. There’s virtually no additional parking lots dedicated for it (which was also an annoyance at times since, as with some other schools, they took away most student/faculty parking on game days which occasionally were on Thursdays), and it’s a quick bus ride to/from areas of interest in Midtown and Downtown ATL.
As much as Cal Football perpetually disappoints, I feel the game day experience of going to Memorial Stadium in Berkeley involves layers of quality urbanism, at least by the standards of California.
Memorial Stadium is easily in the most urban environment out of all the other stadiums on this list. I'm guessing it only got an honorable mention since it's a bit far from the Downtown Berkeley BART station (about 20 min).
Agree it should have been high on the list, and agree with the comment about it being too far from BART. But that walk from BART to the Stadium is one of the most pleasant in the world, in an urban environment.
+1. Obviously I’m biased as a Cal alumna, but that 20min walk from BART to the stadium and very pleasant (shade in many spots, paved for pedestrians), takes you right through all the hot spots of an urban-connected campus, and isn’t too steep of a walk comparatively.
The opening zoom of Ohio Stadium could use a comparison against the stadiums that *really* ruin their locations. Jerryworld in Dallas and Arrowhead in Kansas City are true parking lot wastelands. OSU's stadium is close enough to campus that students basically never been to drive to the game at least.
Edit: another honorable mention which is disqualified by your rail transit requirement would be Nippert Stadium at the University of Cincinnati. Clifton is an awesome place to be a student, and the compact stadium is enmeshed into a really awesome campus environment.
OSUs parking is at least used during the week by commuters too, and has a lot of non-football events (since they don't have an NFL stadium for concerts, etc).
Now, having to commute to campus by car is an entirely different issue, but the lots are at least used every day instead of being empty.
To be fair ohio stadium is pretty centrally located in terms of the entire campus while also not getting in the way of students walking to class the other 5 days of the week. Most students living around or on campus can walk to the stadium in 10-20 minutes which really isn’t bad.
the shoe is in a pretty good location. i live near OSU it’s close enough to walk and the parking lots are almost always full.
When built in 1922, the "Shoe" at OSU, like the university, was way outside the city of Columbus. It was briefly home to the Columbus Crew soccer team, hosts some special events, and there are large concerts sometimes as well.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ohio_Stadium#:~:text=The%20stadium%20was%20built%20in,stadium's%20original%20capacity%20was%2066%2C210.
With 40K students within walking distance and the limited stadium area parking also used all the time for faculty, staff, grad students, etc during the rest of the week...the parking conundrum is not horrible. That being said, I don't mind Columbus not making the list (and being shamed) as it is the largest city in the USA without light rail/ subway.
Been to Pittsburgh several times and didn't even realize they had a rail network!
Not been to the GA Tech station, but taken the MARTA past there many times.
I did visit U of Washington this Summer and the Link is really convenient...no idea how it is on a game day, but definitely jealous.
Been to U Arizona (I remember the light rails close to campus) and ASU (don't remember public transport accessibility for that but with Hayden Butte? as a border, I'd take the backdrop over an extra 5-min walk any day)
Not a fan of the Philly situation either, although very nice stadiums.
I would like to get to Minnesota some time!
Overall, big thanks to @CityNerd for another great video.
If you ask anyone from Pittsburgh or loves Pittsburgh, it is and always will be Heinz Field to the city. The Steelers changed the name but the Yinz still call it Heinz
The rail qualifier left some good ones out. Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium doesn’t get any more urban. Would love a list of urban stadiums that are actually on the university/college campus.
The rail requirement seemed to reward being near low-capacity light rail (that can only move a couple thousand people an hour) over college town locations where a good chunk of attendees simply walk to the game. I'd take Neyland Stadium or the dome in Syracuse over Heinz field, where >80% of people drive.
What is crazy to me is the trend in moving soccer and track and field facilities out of the football stadium and building a separate stadium just for those events (usually to get some more premium seating into the football stadium). UT Austin did this many years ago. The one bright side is they took a parking lot away to build the soccer/track and field facility.
Tracks ruin the sightlines for football
Tracks and soccer fields take up way more area than football fields, so when the primary/only goal is maximizing the football experience and revenue, the other uses have to go.
Yeah ik Notre Dame now has dedicated:
- Football Stadium
- Lacrosse stadium
- soccer stadium
- track complex
- Rugby Stadium
- Soccer practice field
- Lacrosse practice field
- Intramural football/soccer field x 2
- Intramural soccer field
- field hockey field
- 4x football practice fields (2 indoor 2 outdoor
- Separate baseball and softball stadiums
@@matthewbrach4922 I know some wealthy suburban high schools near me that have separate football fields (and a few football practice fields), soccer fields, lacrosse fields, and a set of separate JV fields. My high school had one field and every sport used that one field, and all the gym classes, too.
The rail requirement screwed this up.
Cincinnati’s Nippert Stadium is literally connected to academic buildings in the middle of campus. Students walk through Nippert on the way to class. It is connected to the student union. There are no surface parking lots around it. You can’t even see it until you walk upon it because it was built into a ravine , with campus buildings hovering over it. It’s even connected to a dorm!
Oh - and they’ve been playing there for over 100 years. The campus grew around it.
Nippert is a treasure.
Sad to see Tennessee’s Neyland Stadium not on this list due to the rail requirement. It’s almost everything you want from a stadium: close to downtown, but not actually in it, few surface lots surrounding it, surrounded by the rest of campus, etc
Camp Randall doesnt have rail but puts the whole top 10 to the test. Camp Randall does have multiple dedicated bike paths converging on it (which are used heavily) and new BRT. Almost all parking is handled by local businesses and residents selling their spots/small lawns: great revenue generators for the students with minimal use of pavement.
Yeah agreed, I think there was an opportunity to look more seriously at smaller cities that don't have rail, where the land use is good and the stadium fits into the fabric, but it's hard to know how the infrastructure manages game day without seeing it for yourself.
Ayeee roll badge!
The parking kinda sucks and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Just wish there was a light rail a bit closer to campus, especially on that one road chunk next to the UW Hospital complex. Walking with my pregnant spouse to the games from miles away because my out-of-towner ass is too dumb to figure out bus routes and there is zero parking in the city on game day is not desirable. I'd love to be able to use the East Towne mall parking lot and rapidly commute into the city center as someone driving from outside the city.
@@errOHneoS this is totally understandable and true. I can't help but love the migration of people from all across town on game day, and the walk back, but the fact of the matter is that pregnant or disabled people need options other than walking paths
This definitely is less of a composite score and more of a pass/fail on one criteria.
Also in Atlanta, I think Georgia State’s stadium could make the list in the near future as the area around it, where the old falcons and braves stadiums were, are redeveloped and turned into things that aren’t parking lots
It has been nice to watch all the parking lots disappear, although it's a shame MARTA fumbled the design of the new BRT line through there.
Of course, the lack of rail/Marta access is part of the reason why the area is the former home of the Falcons and Braves
@@willpsone well for the Falcons, yeah, but the Braves definitely didn’t take marta into consideration when moving to Cumberland lmao
@@croatia0728 There was, of course, much more to the deal but I've always felt that the old stadium area not being super Marta friendly made it a lot easier to abandon it without any public transportation considerations in mind.
Don't they play at what used to be Turner Field?
Go Gophers! I have season tickets and the games are very fun, and love seeing the city skyline in the background. Our team may not be the best ever, but they're fun to watch, and I look forward to game days every fall. Not only do we have light rail access, lots of buses, as well as remote tailgating lots connected by free shuttle bus service.
Great video!
I've taken the train (and walked) to Rice-Eccles Stadium many times for University of Utah games, Real Salt Lake matches during their first few seasons (RSL vs Real Madrid, even!), and other events, like concerts. I was happy to see it as an honorable mention. They play the U's fight song as the train goes up the hill to the stadium station. It's a fun time.
Trax to sports events is just soooooo amazing
@isaacmadsen7842 No designated driver needed when I ride down to America First Field for soccer games! 🍻
Salt lake as a whole has really good public transport for sports events. Trams, busses, and taxis. Rice-Eccles especially with the walkable college campus and the tailgate about a block away.
I think the rail limitation really limits this list's ability to show college stadiums that integrate nicely with the rest of their cities, but i suppose the only qualification for the list was to not "completely ruin" the city... 🤷♂
I was happy to see NU's Ryan Field near the top of the list. FYI, there are plans to rebuild the stadium on the same plot of land. It will actually have LESS seating but will be developed in a way to allow multiple uses for the facility; eg, an outdoor ice skating rink, space for a farmers market, concerts, etc. However, the hazing scandals with NU's football and baseball programs along with concern/opposition from people who live near the stadium may delay the plans or scuttle them altogether.
Just never ask anyone in your party to meet at Mustard's. You'll never find them.
I was on the edge of my seat wondering if Ryan Field would make the list. As it got closer and closer to the end, I was already composing an angry email about overlooking it.
As someone from Pittsburgh, we also have no idea what the hell Acrisure is. At least Heinz had important historical ties to the city, as it started here. Acrisure is some out of state firm.
Though I vote on not naming our stadiums after big corporations. Just call it Three Rivers stadium like the old stadium we had.
Whole heartedly agree. Here in Australia we had a mobile/cell phone retailer called Crazy John and the football team actually refused their sponsorship because they couldn’t handle having the stadium called Crazy John stadium.
never once did i think that i’d see atlanta be #1 on any of your top 10 lists but here we are!
As someone who works near, “Acrisure” stadium, the surface parking lots definitely bug me. But more and more of North Shore is being developed or has plans to be developed, as it grows in popularity as an entertainment district. There’s talk of putting some housing next to the stadium. Though most of the development, past and present, is focused around PNC park.
Heinz Stadium. Get it straight
Top 10 most walkable enclave cities.
Went to school in Tempe and its always crazy every time I see how it's changing and growing. But side note here about some of the reason why. Tempe is, geographically, one of the smallest cities in the Phoenix area, but situated in what (at least at the time I lived there) was in a desirable area to live. While cities like Mesa, Scottsdale, and Chandler nearby were able to extend their city limits all the way out to the county line, Tempe was sandwiched between them all and can only now grow up where the others can still grow out.
Nowadays, even the outlying cities (Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, Scottsdale) also have no room to expand their borders outwards, so they’ll have to start building up at some point, and the only cities in the east valley with more space to sprawl out are in Pinal County (Queen Creek, San Tan Valley, Casa Grande, Maricopa, Apache Junction). The west valley cities still have a ton of room (Glendale doesn’t have so much, but Peoria, Surprise, and Goodyear still have a fair amount of room, assuming water is dealt with, and Buckeye has a ton of room to grow out). How long ago did you go to school in Tempe?
@@grahamturner2640 LONG time ago.... almost 20 years ago now. At the time other cities were still expanding out from the city center after they took advantage of expanding their borders out to the county line.
6:57 Heinz. It's Heinz. It will always be Heinz no matter what the sign says. Not only does the T go right to the stadium, but it also has good bike/ped access from downtown via the bridges and riverfront, and a water taxi station that runs across to the south side. Pretty good multimodal access, especially for a city that size.
plz plz plz do cities in a city video! I think that would be an interesting topic in some way. Maybe the most dense city within a city?
Also, I though UC's Nippert Stadium would make this video, but once you said rail I knew it failed hahaha hopefully in the future Cincinnati's streetcar line can find its way up the hills into Clifton.
Love seeing both Arizona FBS schools on the list! I immediately thought at least ASU belonged on the list, but I saw a concert at UA and the stadium has a dorm built into it! If you do come to the Valley of the Sun soon I hope you plan a meet-up!
The Swamp does pretty good considering what it has to work with in Gainesville. The gratuitous parking is largely located on the opposite side of campus, anyone who lives/works/studies at UF is probably walking past it near daily given how it slots in with classroom and dorm buildings, and it's right up against one of the most walkable neighborhoods in town. Ofc there's no rail, but I bet if you ranked it on some sort of ratio of (stadium urbanism):(city urbanism) it'd score pretty well.
You should visit Atlanta and do a video on MARTA and some of the neighborhoods like Decatur since its a very walkable neighborhood and the MARTA station goes directly to downtown Decatur. I think Atlanta def needs work to be done on an urban/walkable side, but i do think its changing for the good, but very slowly unfortunately.
Sad to not see my alma mater, UC Berkeley on this list! California Memorial Stadium is located in the beautiful East Bay Foothills surrounded by parks and one can easily walk there from downtown Berkeley and one of many AC Transit local or transbay lines and the BART station. And there is almost no parking at all to boot! 💙🐻💛
Would love to see that video on cities completely within other cities. We're here for the geography nerd!
Hamtramck
I think the MARTA's connection to Bobby-Dodd Stadium is actually alot more convenient than you give it credit for. Once you exit the station proper, it's only a 3 block walk to reach the stadium. Having sat in multiple areas of the stadium, it feels like it's actually a longer walk to get from the southeastern end to the northwestern end of the stadium.
I've been working on a project in Atlanta for 2 years now that's adjacent to the North Ave. station. I take it from ATL to the project site and back to ATL regularly enough to have a real breeze card. I never rent a car. What I've learned is just how much people in Atlanta resist taking MARTA in favor of their cars and I just don't get it. My Atlanta colleagues actually go out of their way to dissuade me from taking it.
Every time I go to Bobby Dodd I take Marta I love it
lol, I was about to start typing my comment that there's no way Houston made the list and not Dallas SMU. But #2 not bad. This area gets packed during games and you see people walking all over and actually using the DART rail which is great! :)
I would say Nippert stadium in Cincy is pretty good as well. Could stand with better public transit, but is fairly walkable around it.
Pittsburgher here. None of us know what Acrisure does either we all just still call it Heinz Field unless we're on the payroll of someone who got a slice of those naming rights.
I was going to suggest "Top 10 Urbanist Creamburger Locations" as a video topic, but there only appears to be one so "Top 10 Urbanist Local Burger Joints" will have to do as my suggestion.
"A casino right next to a NFL/FBS stadium... seems prudent." lol I'm dying. Too prudent.
Two thoughts
1. While Acrisure Stadium does fit into the city fairly well with the rail line and it is nice Pitt and the Steelers get to share a stadium, since the stadium is off-campus, it can be a pain to get to the game as a student. Pitt does a pretty good job of offering shuttles from campus to the stadium, but it's nothing like waking up and walking to the stadium.
2. I would be interested in a enclave video. I am intrigued by the different reasons they were created/still exist (though I'm sure some of the reasons wouldn't be very fun to discuss) and would be willing to learn more about them.
Agreed about Acrisure Stadium. We really need an eastward expansion of the T over to Oakland / Pitt / CMU. Currently if students want to travel to games on public transportation, they have to take one of the (many) bus lines to downtown and then take the T up to the stadium. At least the T is free for all of the downtown and north shore stops.
@@Sleepy_OtterAnd sadly both 5th Ave and Forbes Ave sucks from Oakland to Downtown. God forbid you have to pee while on the bus as your bladder will most likely explode on the way! They are going to put in an express bus lane from Oakland to Downtown, but honestly I'd prefer they expand the light rail instead. But since it's Pittsburgh and they always make terrible decisions, we all know that wnt happen🙄
Pittsburgh needs the Spine Line/Fifth Avenue Subway :^(
@@bradleyschmidt7190 Hey, having lived in a variety of cities through my life, I'd say Pittsburgh gets it right a lot more often than wrong. I can't say that for every city I have lived in. It is on a short list of places I would consider moving to when I retire because of how much I like it. Still not a fan of having to commute through tunnels, but they get a lot right there.
@@massiminitrains Mostly agreed. While living in Pittsburgh, it's easy to see how much better things *could* be (most notably if we could expand the light rail to the dense eastern neighborhoods), but trying to navigate any other rust belt city without a car is way way worse in my experience.
It's just a shame that the city was willing to fling hundreds of millions in public funding at sports stadiums, but any time the topic of light rail expansion comes up they say "Sorry, there's no way we can afford that!"
Bonus points to UofA for having a building inside the stadium dedicated to making the mirrors that go on space telescopes?
I would love to see a Valley of the Sun video. Phoenix is awful in so many ways but Tempe is shockingly urban with great (sometimes free!) transit, and the Valley Metro still gets you where you need to go.
Side note, I’d also love to see a Tacoma video if you go back home. 😁 Beautiful highly underrated mid sized city with great urbanism, it’s just a profile you don’t see much on the West Coast
CAN’T WAIT FOR MONTREAL I LOVE THAT CITY SO MUCH
Gonna be in Seattle next month and I do like Tacoma, just won't have time for it on this trip. Have good friends there, though, so it'll happen!
How does Camp Randall in Madison WI not make even the honorable mention list? 80k Stadium tucked into neighborhoods on the edge of the UW-Madison campus
I thought it was gonna be Top 5 of the main list until I heard the rail requirement. Oh well
Sorry, but the Badgers playing there is disqualifying.
LA Coliseum got ROBBED. multiple expo line stops, J line busway easy walk, great museums (which I just so happened to work at NHMLA in the past, which explains some of my bias). An area where transit is the clear way to go as well.
Seriously how was coliseum left out?!?
@@TheIBROWman it’ll be even more juiced if we get a Vermont BRT or subway anytime soon.
I think you seriously overlooked the University of Cincinnati by sticking to rail-only. Power 5 school nestled into a downtown with good bus connections, and Nippert Stadium is built into the ground/campus as a focal point of the campus design. Facilities are used as cafeterias and classrooms, no extra parking lots or footprint around the stadium. Has also been used before as a MLS stadium.
It also was the home of the Bengals for their first 2 seasons as a franchise
The University of Tennessee’s stadium is well-integrated into Knoxville’s urban fabric. No rail though :( It sits on the Tennessee River, although a massively over-designed four-lane divides the stadium and the river. It’s situated on a lot of hilly terrain and has ample public space around it and is one of the more compact stadiums I’ve seen despite it having a 100k-seat capacity.
Google hasn’t updated the map in Knoxville for several years, but Apple Maps shows a lot of the improvements that have occurred over the past five or ten years.
Tennessee’s stadium is one of the few I’ve been in. I was working with a sideline pass, and was surrounded by about 100,000 people wearing orange. I know what looks like to be a fruit fly inside an orange!
It's so dumb how a lot of football stadiums these days insist on large parking moats for 'tailgating'... Like wouldn't they rather be at a pub or bar within walking distance of the game instead of baking on tarmac beforehand?
You'd be surprised, a lot of people really do want to take their charcoal grill and beer coolers out into a parking lot with a bunch of lawn chairs next to their Dodge Ram the size of a tank to go play cornhole, chat shit, and drink for three hours.
nah man that is peak American culture😂
It's cheaper than going to a bar and the weather is usually nice during football season. I'd rather it be a park and to bring tailgating stuff to the park via transit though, but tailgating itself is a lot of fun.
Tailgating is very American. One reason amongst many that our stadiums will probably never have the tiny parking lots that other countries' stadiums do.
nah i like tailgates. it’s also a lot cheaper, and fun to do
Video Idea: Mr. CityNerd, you use headway data to decide how good or bad a transit system is. The only flaw in this is how often these systems stay on the schedules they are supposed to (coming from an annoyed Chicago Blue Line Rider). How about a video looking at the data and discussing how reliable US transit systems are and some ways to improve them. Love your work, keep up the content.
Including a rail component and saying sunlink qualifies... Tucson should appreciate the level of effort made to get included!
As a BC alum I was wondering if our T stop would qualify us for the rail requirement, glad we made the list!
Would definitely love another of your in depth city tours for Chicago.
Cities within cities...CityNerd-Geography King crossover opportunity?
Chatanooga visit for a crossover video! Also, Kyle's an actual city planner who worked in Fresno.
I just noticed the Soundgarden record on your wall! I like you even more now!
Boston College has access to a 3rd line - The C Line (Cleveland Circle) is closer than the D line.
The B line (or Boston College line) is actually pretty close. It is 1500 feet from the stadium.
Not sure what I was expecting from this list but it's essentially just colleges in major US cities. I was hoping it'd highlight smaller cities and how the stadium is incorporated in the town. The only City that made the list that'd you'd consider a college town is Tucson and it was 10th and its City pop is over 500k.
Yeah, I think that came with the justification to focus on places with rail. That said, I feel like all major college stadiums, even in smaller arenas, could benefit from a rail/street car/rapid ride bus system even if it only ran during the football season since the traffic is so miserable and the cost of drunk driving is so high.
I live in Philly and if you ever cycle through the stadiums near lincoln financial when there are no games playing you'd think that the area was still quarantined off due to the pandemic. It is an eerie ghost town of a place.
I think one stadium that’s nestled perfectly in a city, while small is Waldo stadium in Kalamazoo Michigan. While they don’t have a train station, there’s bussing routes that take people to and from real quick along with it being pretty walkable from downtown since it’s on a main road of Kazoo
I was disappointed to see Folsom Field at the University of Colorado not make this. Yes Boulder doesn't have rail service, but the same goes for many other locations with major universities. Folsom fits seemingly with the surrounding campus, doesn't have any parking except for at the training facility behind, and even has classrooms attached to the stadium.
Surprised you didn't mention U. Penn's stadium since it fits so well into the fabric of University City. You almost don't even realize it's there it's so well integrated and it's basically maintained within a single super-block.
Completely agree. Super bizarre
Unfortunately Penn isn’t in FBS.
He was only looking at FBS schools.
2 things… when you mention the 15 minute Saturday service on the MARTA lines, I’m pretty sure they run a special event train on Football Saturdays brining it to 7 minutes. I could be incorrect but still 15 isn’t terrible.
And also I’d be interested in the city within city series. The Vaticans of the USA.
Special event trains were usually not run for GaTech games, only falcons and maybe hawks.
Also dont think they run that anymore since covid.
@@adamt195 thank you for the info. Hence why I said I could be incorrect.
there's 2 lines running 15 minute service so results in ~7 minute service where they overlap between Lindbergh and the Airport
It's a shame that Boulder doesn't have rail in general, but also because I would have reckoned it would make this list with it. It has a great footprint, it doesn't have despicable surface-level parking lots, and of course has quite a view.
I live not too far from TDECU stadium. Cream burger has a silly name but it's a decent mom & pop burger and shake place.
If you drop the rail requirement, Folsom Field at University of Colorado Boulder is really an excellent stadium. It incorporates beautiful Tuscan Vernacular architecture that blends in well with the rest of the university and the city. It's nicely incorporated into the fabric one the university and the city, with essentially zero parking adjacent to the stadium. And even though Boulder isn't a big enough city to have rail services, the stadium and the whole city are very well-served by a dense bus network.
Yes! CU has a beautiful campus and FBS, and I rode the buses in Boulder all the time when I was a student there.
I was a freshman for months without realizing it was the stadium, and I had a class in Muenzinger Auditorium right next to it (wasn't a football fan at the time).
I recently went to the Rose Bowl for a game and absolutely loved it. Here’s stuff I noticed which was really cool:
1) I was able to park at Parsons in Pasadena for $20 and take a free shuttle to the game. This cut the travel time for everyone in my car down substantially! This also lets us get nighttime use out of a parking space which often only gets use from work commuters. Much better than building a whole new parking lot!
2) The Rose Bowl is built with a whole park around it so it gets consistent use every weekend from people attending flea markets to people running or biking on the 5K path for exercise
All in all, I would really like to see more event spaces use robust shuttle systems instead of building massive parking lots. For any LA natives that don’t know: only suckers drive to the Hollywood bowl…everyone else just uses one of the shuttles :-)
LA in general will take decades to really trim down the fat of all the cars we have, and I don't know if we'll ever get direct rail connections to obvious places, but shuttles are really underrated and should be advertised way more. It may be idiotic that we have the Green/C line so close to multiple entertainment venues and the Airport but not have a direct connection, but with bus/shuttle lanes and more frequent/later metro hours on important days like that, hopefully we could get rid of all the parking lots surrounding places like Sofi/Forum/etc. and make them as a more general hub for the community.
@@blores95 yea that’s my attitude as well.
As someone that lives north of dodger stadium I was furious when I found out that there used to be a dodger express shuttle that left from the LA Zoo but it was discontinued so now we only have the one from Union Station.
We need to either get that shuttle restarted as soon as possible or follow through on drastically increasing train frequency on the antelope valley line!
The Hollywood bowl shuttles leave a lot to be desired for me personally. In all cases I would have to drive away from the bowl to catch one of the shuttles, which just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
That’s kind of a microcosm of the problem we have in LA. We have very few obvious hubs to consolidate transit and difficulty feeding transit hubs.
I love the Rose Bowl, but the amount of land used by the stadium and golf course - in Los Angeles? At least the course is a muni.
I'm so excited you're coming to Montréal!
Can't wait to see what you will be covering.
Hope you enjoyed!
Fun fact about the UA stadium - it's also located on top of the mirror lab where the mirrors for most of the world's largest telescopes (including, recently, the Giant Magellan Telescope) are made. So there's some sneaky colocation going on there, too.
Happy to see Husky Stadium at #4, I was hoping for top three as I believe we're the biggest stadium in an urban environment but there's clearly room for improvement. East side line will hopefully provide some reinforcements.
Also love the Udub easter egg of "pre-function". I get a lot of questions from folks who went to different schools about what I mean when I say "pre-funk" instead of "pre-game" so it's good to hear it getting introduced to a national audience. Go Huskies!
Hah I remember saying "prefunc" all the time and it wasn't until I moved away that I learned it wasn't universal. Kind of like Teriyaki joints.
Is that a U-Dub easter egg? I thought everyone said prefunk, lol
@@CityNerd I’ve gotten blanks stares more often than not when I say it out of WA. I also thought it was fairly intuitive but I guess not.
An additional piece of information about Minneapolis is that the stadium replaced a bunch of surface parking when it was built between 2007-2009.
Thankyou for making this extremely specific video. I feel so special
I also think Snapdragon Stadium could be a very interesting site. It would be a massive transit oriented greenfield development, and could serve as an example for San Diego for what's possible with TOD. The only flaw is that the Green Line has lackluster frequencies today and in the future (only will be improved to 7.5 minutes, which IMO is still a bit infrequent)
Don't forget Riverwalk, another infill TOD almost as large as SDSU Mission Valley, on the same LRT line as Snapdragon. Also really cool that SDSU Mission Valley is connected to SDSU main campus by an 8 minute, fully grade-separated LRT ride.
Is on its way as a site. Stadium opened a year ago, rest of the development is under construction.
Never been prouder to be an ATLien.
Ok, since you mentioned Philadelphia's stadium ghetto, what are your thoughts on the last pro sports-ball team leaving Oakland? Is there any chance of that city redeveloping their sportball ghetto into an affordable mixed use zone with good transit and no need for cars?
I'd be very interested in a video about cities entirely contained within other cities. That stuff has always fascinated me.
Don't go to Highland Park Michigan.
It would need a urbanist twist, like the tax revenue or zoning consequences. I have thought that for peek urbanist politics the main city should be able to tax the surrounding areas to prevent tax doggers, but that the surrounding areas should not be able to vote for how the money is spent. (Only those who live in the city (and therefore would likely want public transit and density could vote).) The only problem is this system would likely be illegal in most places. (Taxation without representation and all that).
@zeroone8800 taxation without representation is a slogan, there's no legal right to representation. Otherwise, felons, 16 year olds, and non-citizens would be allowed to vote in the States.
Also, what you're proposing is functionally not very different from just incorporating smaller municipalities into larger ones.
@@thespanishinquisiton8306 It is very different than annexation. Annexation adds a bunch of suburban, or potentially even rural voters, who want nothing to do with public transit and like car oriented development.
@@zeroone8800 you said that the surrounding areas should be able to vote on how the money is spent though, right?
Seattle really needs to build dense 4-5 story student housing on the parking lot for the Husky Stadium.
To be fair, there's actually not that much parking there considering how large UW is and low little surface parking it has. It's basically the only real surface lot I can think of from my time biking around campus besides the small Burke Museum one. If I'm reading the maps correctly, the earthquake damage risk in that area is quite high so they may be limited on how tall they can build based on the soils. If that were not the case, I agree, converting it to housing for students or hospital staffing with maybe a parking garage if absolutely necessary would be a better use.
The building height from zoning is 160 feet (same as the stadium) except for a small corner within the fountain Rainier-view corridor. E1 is the largest open lot and is located just north of the stadium. Another issue with the lot next to the stadium, though, is that the UW Montlake hospital uses the lot for additional staff parking. There are a million ways to mitigate that, but definitely another hurdle
@@emma70707 I’m thinking about the lot closer to 45th. It is almost always empty (or at most only a quarter full). Yes the soild conditions don’t allow high-rises, but you can still build mid-rises.
A point of comparison are the student housing in Reykjavík, which have similar soil conditions (possibly worse) and is also earthquake prone. Yet many 4-5 story dense mid-rises have been built.
CityNerd, is there any chance that we can get an urban planner's analysis on Mackinac Island, Michigan? They have banned most motorized vehicles for over a century.
The land use around the UofMN stadium isn't quite as bad as it may seem. All of those parking lots are also used by the hockey rink, basketball stadium, nearby medical facilities, state fair overflow parking, and for any other events that happen on campus. I used to work at the Hockey rink across the street and the parking lots were at least partially full basically every day. And because of the nearby rail yard, the land that is used by those parking lots it pretty inaccessible to pedestrians anyway.
Don't worry about the French for Montreal... I can understand and speak fine (I did French immersion from K-12, so my teachers, classmates etc all understood me just fine), but as soon as you show any hint of an accent or a grammar mistake, they'll switch to English. It can get frustrating if you want to put your french to use...
It's a nice city with great transit though! Amusez-vous!
Another banger. How does he keep making awesome videos every time?
Enjoy Montreal. It's been a number of years since I last had the pleasure of visiting, but it might just be my favourite city in the country.
Be sure to get a smoked meat sandwich at Schwartz's.
Rice-Eccles Stadium was very easy to get to via light rail. I think the Memorial Coliseum should get more consideration given Exposition Park isn't home to just the an FBS stadium but also the Natural History Museum, California Science Center, California African-American History Museum, Olympic/Kids swimming pool, BMO Stadium home to LAFC, and the underconstruction Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. All easily accessible from two Metro E line light rail stations
Fun fact, The University of Arizona is known for it's optics college (dry air and nearby mountains are good for telescopes) and the stadium actually has a mirror lab underneath it, where they manufacture telescope mirrors! How's that for mixed use?
Also, calling our Sun Link "rail" is very generous :p
Fortunately, UofA fans never have reason to celebrate raucously enough to create imperfections in the mirrors.
I tweeted you a picture of a bus stop 2 days ago and my eyes are still being grazed by America’s amazing bus stops.
The people want a bus stop video but they don’t know it yet.
One day when the MD Purple Line is finally finished hopefully UMD will at least be a contender. I know it's a long walk to the main nightlife on Route 1 but there's some new mixed use on the south end of campus. Don't get me wrong, the delays have been frustrating but I'm excited for the Purple Line and hopefully more light rail in the DMV.
The Cream Burger laugh gave me life, not even kidding. Re-watched a couple times, and looked up Cream Burger. Prices, menu and vibe somewhat comparable to a less tidy & uniform Dick's, looks like.
The only reason we have buses, here in Fayetteville, is so the college can requisition them as shuttles for game-day parking. The whole town is encouraged to drink excessively then all get in their pick-up trucks at once.
Honestly, I just like this video because you included college teams that play in NFL stadium yes I’m looking at you University of Pittsburgh
Im surprised U Penn’s stadium didn’t make the list.
The Ivy League is not in the FBS division.
@@lionvillelion The topic of the video was on, "10 college stadiums that don’t completely ruin their cities." I don’t see how which league plays in what stadium is relevant to this video.
@@jec9050He mentioned in his video one of his criteria was Football Bowl Subdivision schools.