Sunday, July 25, 2010

Is Lambeau Field The Best Option For the Big Ten Title Game?

Okay, by now you’ve heard that the Green Bay Packers have pitched the Big Ten about hosting its conference football championship game at Lambeau Field.

This is, on the surface, incredibly intriguing.

For starters, Lambeau Field is one of the most historic sports facilities on earth. In fact, Sports Illustrated named it the eighth-best facility in the world to watch sports and the only NFL stadium to make it. SI also named Lambeau Field as the NFL’s No. 1 stadium experience in 2007 and 2008.

It’s been around for 53 years, making it the NFL’s oldest continuously occupied stadium. Can you guess what the second oldest is?

We’ll wait …

And wait …

And …

Okay, it’s San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium, home of the Chargers, at 43 years. In pro sports overall, the only ones older are Boston’s Fenway Park (98 seasons) and Chicago’s Wrigley Field (96 seasons).

Green Bay’s stadium was originally called City Stadium when it debuted in 1957 (imagination must have taken a holiday back then), but was changed to Lambeau Field after the 1965 death of Curly Lambeau, the Packers founder and first coach.

The place seats about 73,000, or 40,000 more than the original stadium. Packers officials are talking about increasing the capacity. The field is heated by 30 miles of radiant heating pipe. The stands are heated by fans’ behinds.

Or something like that.

Oh, and we can’t stress this enough, scientific studies have proven that the average temperature at Lambeau Field in the first weekend in December, which is when a title game would likely be played, is one degree warmer than Absolute Zero. That’s basically -459 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. That’s COLDER than outer space. That means life would cease to exist right at kickoff, which would certainly hurt attendance -– at least, after the first game.

Remember, Lambeau Field was the site of the famous Ice Bowl, which the Packers won when the Dallas Cowboys froze into statues on the goal line, thus allowing Green Bay QB Bart Starr to sneak in for the winning TD.

As you know, several other cities have expressed interest in hosting the game, which doesn’t actually exist yet, but which is expected to debut in 2011 to coincide with Nebraska’s entering the conference.

Detroit, Minnesota, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Chicago also are interested. Detroit, Minnesota and Indianapolis have indoor stadiums. The other three do not.

Big Ten officials will consider all the options. Next week is the annual football media gathering in Chicago and it’s 100 percent certain that the championship game –- and possible location –- will be discussed. Perhaps even finalized.

As we mentioned in an earlier blog, our choice is Indianapolis because of fan friendliness, central location, lowest cost for hotels and meals, accessibility to downtown hotels and meals, the world-class Lucas Oil Stadium and because it’s God’s will.

Yes, God’s will.

For those who disagreed with us and picked Chicago, well, you weren’t really disagreeing with us, you were disagreeing with the Highest Power and is it REALLY in your best interest to do that…

Sorry. We’ve tried that argument with our kids. They didn’t buy it. We figure you won’t either, which is a shame because, and we also can’t stress this enough, the entity guarding the Pearly Gates is Peter, which also just happens to be the name of the entity writing this blog.

Coincidence?

We think not.

2 comments:

  1. I don't know about God's will, but if the question comes down to indoor or outdoor football then Indy has both if need be to go along cheaper cost over all, etc.

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  2. The Dodgers have been in Dodger Stadium since 1962. 48 yrs.

    ReplyDelete