ESPN Mag: Carter-Finley’s student section among five most spirited

Fans General NCS Football Rankings & Lists65

I know this article is old. But, this is why I save old links so as to not forget them! You can click here to ESPN The Magazine’s ranking of student sections in college football stadiums across the country. The only two ACC programs that gain a mention in the rankings are NC State and Virginia Tech.

As a follow-up to the enormous attendance of the Wolfpack’s spring football game, I thought it would be a good time to highlight another positive mention for North Carolina’s most loyal fan base. (You should click on that link)

Related:

  • ESPN’s Road Trip @ Carter-Finley (Link)

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    Fans General NCS Football Rankings & Lists

    65 Responses to ESPN Mag: Carter-Finley’s student section among five most spirited

    1. Sw0rdf1sh 04/27/2009 at 7:07 AM #

      Damn skippy!

      Loved getting this alert via Twitter this morning.

    2. howlie 04/27/2009 at 7:24 AM #

      I see Clemson, GaTech, & Carolina (“students mysteriously emerging from the pines”) but no mention of the Pack in the actual article.

      Is ‘Most Spirited’ the reason we went to tailgating 4 hours before kickoff?

    3. choppack1 04/27/2009 at 7:39 AM #

      Watching the Canes game last night got me thinking some more about the RBC – and how we are really “guests” in this arena.

      While I enjoyed watching the Canes win and I liked watching the fans tailgate before the game, it saddens me somewhat because of the realization that THIS COULD BE A SLICE OF THE ATMOSPHERE for some State basketball games.

      The sad fact is that attending NC State games at the RBC hasn’t been rewarding enough for that to be the case. Granted, it helps that the Canes are playing playoff games in the arena and that it’s May – but still, wouldn’t it be great to see those same kind of shots of NC State fans in the parking lot before a big game? Wouldn’t it be great to have 25% of the atmosphere that you have for a Canes game?

      Then I thought some about our spring game: After the game, I saw several folks w/ pocket knives carving out pieces of turf…If we were getting rid of the basketball floor at the RBC – do you think anyone is trying to carve that up?

    4. BJD95 04/27/2009 at 8:05 AM #

      Several of my law partners have been going to the Canes playoff games, and they all told me that NC State could have a great home atmosphere if we ever had a basketball program to be excited about.

      We do go to LSU for a game sometime in the next 10-15 years, I think. Sounds like a good road trip.

    5. StateFans 04/27/2009 at 8:08 AM #

      If you have never been to an LSU game then you really need to go if the opportunity ever presents itself — particularly a night game. Wow!

    6. Noah 04/27/2009 at 8:10 AM #

      LSU night games are mystical experiences. With the exception of a few restaurants and jazz clubs in the French Quarter, I hate everything about Louisiana. But if I was a recruit and you took me down there for a night game…with those song girls (or whatever they call them) and the crowd and the atmosphere…yeah, I think I’d commit too.

    7. choppack1 04/27/2009 at 8:27 AM #

      A night game at LSU is one of the things on my bucket list. Some co-workers from App went down there for the game last year…I felt bad for them because this was the game that they played at 10 AM because of the incoming hurricane.

      BJD – they definiitely have a great playoff atmosphere for those hockey games, but there are some key differences:
      1) They serve beer.
      2) They encourage tailgating – and the weather is better for tailgating.
      3) The arena is built for hockey. As a basketball arena, the RBC is decidedly mediocre. It’s sight lines are good, but the fans are way to segmented and far from the action.
      4) As I’ve stated before, by the design of each sport – NC State will never play a game as important in the RBC as the games that are played in a hockey playoff in the RBC. Championships in college basketball are decided on nuetral sites – championships in pro hockey are decided at the site of one of the two teams.

      That said, it’s not fair to write off the RBC as a basketball arena since we’ve never really played any huge games there. Hopefully, we’ll get to see what the arena is like when we play a game that determines whether NC State wins the ACC regular season and/or gets a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tourney.

    8. Gene 04/27/2009 at 8:48 AM #

      A full RBC Center can be just as good as any place in the country. It’s a beautiful arena. Even if we’re splitting it with a hockey team, it’s a great place to play. Remember reading an Archie Miller quote about recruiting, while he was an assistant for us and he said with Reynolds, you had to sell recruits on history, tradition, etc., but an empty RBC Center sort of sells itself.

      I loved going to basketball games at Reynolds. The place was intimate and the students were really right at courtside.

      I doubt the RBC Center could ever be that intimate, but I think if we can ever fill it up every night, it will make up for it by sheer size. We’ve rarely ever experienced 19,000+ red clad fans screaming at the top of their lungs at the place (though I never experienced this at Reynolds either, but I can’t help the timing of my birth and landing in school during Les’ tenure as coach).

      I only wish the student section could be closer to the court, like it was at Reynolds.

      I also wish I could snag something other than nose bleed section tickets, when I get a chance to head back to Raleigh over Thanksgiving or Christmas, but we don’t let people sell their season tickets, if they won’t use them and the place is relatively empty for those OOC games, with a lot of the fans in the 300 section.

    9. Dr. BadgerPack 04/27/2009 at 8:57 AM #

      Going to LSU is certainly a fun trip. However, it isn’t much fun for the players if, say, their cell phone number get splashed out all over the internet.

    10. Clarksa 04/27/2009 at 9:13 AM #

      Sorry…no way in hell you’d ever get people tailgaitng in January for a 7pm UNC or Duke game…most of the people would still be trying to get into the parking lot because of I-40 traffic.

      Unless you had good seats, Reynolds is a terrible place to watch a game…it is the teams that play on the court that make a building “special” so if we could have a few good teams, then the RBC would rock just like Reynolds, or like it does for the hockey games.

    11. Sw0rdf1sh 04/27/2009 at 9:40 AM #

      I have had blasts in both venues. When I was a kid and then a student, Reynolds just seemed to amaze me at the time. Camping out for tickets too.

      Now that I’m older, I have to admit I love the RBC. I REALLY like the fact that the bar is open on the second level until 30 minutes prior to the game. Although it does seem like we are a little removed from the players, the view is fabulous.

    12. choppack1 04/27/2009 at 9:52 AM #

      “Sorry…no way in hell you’d ever get people tailgaitng in January for a 7pm UNC or Duke game…most of the people would still be trying to get into the parking lot because of I-40 traffic.”

      Don’t they have the same problem for a 7pm weeknight game at the RBC for a hockey game? OTOH, we have weekend games where traffic is not an issue for NC State basketball games.

      Also, not every ACC game is played in January. But I see your point…if it’s really cold outside – and dark – you’re not going to have a lot of tailgating.

      Swordfish – How is the bar at the game priced? Also, can you grab a cerveza, say 30 minutes before tip off and watch the guys shoot around or does it have to be finished at the 30 minute before game time mark? (These are not rhetorical questions – just curious since the group I go to games w/ often meet at a restaurant/bar before game.)

    13. Alpha Wolf 04/27/2009 at 9:55 AM #

      Chop, for 7pm regular season hockey a late-arriving crowd is the norm.

    14. old13 04/27/2009 at 10:17 AM #

      Gee, SFN, I wish you hadn’t posted this. Now the student section will have a target on its back for Oblinger, Stafford and Foulup to quell the enthusiasm!

    15. choppack1 04/27/2009 at 10:30 AM #

      Thanks alpha!

      I hate that I got this thing so sidetracked, but it’s really been on my mind lately.

      One thing that stands out about Carter-Finley stadium is how electic the atmosphere is for almost every game there that is NOT a noon kickoff.

      One thing THAT should be mentioned – for the game this year vs. Miami – we had a noon kickoff, and the atmosphere was PDG. However, it would be even better if our bureaucracy could find a way to get the one of the country’s “most spirited students” into the seats by kickoff.

    16. ktoh 04/27/2009 at 10:32 AM #

      It would be a great venue if we are good and the place is jumping ,the past 3 years it has been dead and it is getting worse . Nothing worse than a 1/2 full RBC center.

    17. Greywolf 04/27/2009 at 10:54 AM #

      “However, it would be even better if our bureaucracy could find a way to get the one of the country’s “most spirited students” into the seats by kickoff.”
      `
      Perhaps our bureaucracy could ban partying in the student parking lots, that would get them to the stadium in time for the kick0ff. It’s amazing to me to see students heading UP Trinity Road towards Blue Ridge Road as I’m heading to the C-F before the game. Equally amazing is the number of people under the stands while the game is going on.
      `
      If the bureaucracy would just take the fences down and let the students in all at one time, it would help get them in before kickoff. A big complaint is the student gates are at the north end. (That’s the end that doesn’t have Murphy Center taking up 3/4 of the entry space.) We could send the recruits around to the North end and let them work their way back through the crowd to the Murphy Center end, then the students take a short cut thru the recruits gate. But then we’d have to have the bureaucrats figure out a way to get the alums out of the way so students could reach the student section in the North end.
      `
      This problem is not simple but what else do the bureaucrats have to do?

    18. highstick 04/27/2009 at 11:06 AM #

      Don’t get me started about the scum of the earth…an LSU fan. If you go there and you’re an opposing fan, be sure to take a raincoat and ear plugs cause you may get all sorts of things spilled and spat upon you and you will not like the vitriolic trash that flows from their mouths! That is, if they are sober enough for you to even remotely understand it.

      “If the administration would……”. Well, if Lee were gone, maybe a decent AD could propose a workable plan.

    19. Thinkpack17 04/27/2009 at 11:15 AM #

      “Don’t get me started about the scum of the earth…an LSU fan.”

      And I don’t understand how some of them are such racists when 75% of the team is black. It’s crazy.

    20. Greywolf 04/27/2009 at 11:40 AM #

      Alpha Wolf
      April 27th, 2009 at 9:55 am
      Chop, for 7pm regular season hockey a late-arriving crowd is the norm.
      `
      Likely this is why the playoffs start at 7:30.
      `
      Hockey fans are a different bred of cat. Nearly everyone of them has either a $300 game sweater or a $165 replica. Most hard-core fans have an alternate sweater to wear when the team is wearing their alternate sweaters. Lot’s have home and away sweaters plus the alternate. I met some fans from Albany who were wearing their “River Rats” sweaters — same as Canes except it had River Rats patches on it. It’s nothing to have Canes fans coming in from 2 to 3 hours away for weekday games.
      `
      Gotta love the Canes fans — booed like crazy when Tyler Hansblow was introduced but cheered like crazy when David and Tommy were a part of a Canes promo

    21. choppack1 04/27/2009 at 11:56 AM #

      Grey – here’s my take on the student ticket issue.

      I didn’t notice large blocks of empty seats in the student sections UNTIL THIS YEAR. And I’m not talking about sparsely populated areas of seats, but entire blocks where there were no students.

      I really don’t know what the student ticket seating policy is, but obviously it’s changed from when I was in school. 2 years ago, we had students peeing in the stands, this year we have entire sections open through most of the 1st quarter that are later filled.

    22. choppack1 04/27/2009 at 12:01 PM #

      Grey – you want to know why you see students heading away from the stadium as you enter the C-F grounds. Here’s your explanation – IT’S A DIRECT RESULT OF THE UNIVERSITY’S TICKET POLICY. This is also the same reason you see empty seats: IT IS THE SEATING POLICY.

      http://www.gopack.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9200&ATCLID=1574907

      Somehow, when I was school, they managed to give us actual seats. If the game was a sell-out game, you could get general admission seats on “the hill”. Interesting why they are going to a model that makes the fanbase look apathetic on national TV.

    23. bleedingred08 04/27/2009 at 12:07 PM #

      Last year, Students who won a lottery ticket were all given tickets labeled general admission. You would take your ticket to gate entrance and as you walked in they would stamp your hand and ticket for your section. The sections given to the students started with 7/8 and ended with the endzones. This is why the endzones were always empty untill midway through the first quarter.

    24. Alpha Wolf 04/27/2009 at 12:11 PM #

      The real answer to the student entry problems is the long-delayed and seems forgotten refurbishment of the east concourse.

      CFS is more like Wallace Wade than a modern stadium on once side, and that’s where the students are.

      We’re not talking a major project here, but rebuilding the east side entrances, replacing the bathrooms and other upgrades really should be “what’s next” for CFS before anything else.

    25. wolf2003 04/27/2009 at 12:14 PM #

      To supplement bleedingred, they would only feel up the sections 7/8 first and then once they were filled, move to the two endzones. As a student, I’ve found myself standing line for a good 10 to 20 minutes sometimes.

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