The Gophers were victorious in their bowl game against Syracuse in the Pinstripe Bowl. This did not come without a few injuries significant to the team. Promising freshman QB Athan Kaliakmanis went down in the 1st half and LB Cody Lindenberg going down later in the game. Both injuries resulted from the poor playing surface at Yankee Stadium. In the era of opt-outs and the transfer portal, we can’t be increasing the risk of injury due to poor playing surfaces in these bowl venues.
What Year Is It Anyway?
In the 1920’s, college and pro football games used to be played at Wrigley Field and Yankee Stadium. We now have the luxury of state of the art stadiums we should be taking advantage of. The field is almost always lousy and the view of the field for fans is even worse.
The Bowls
Each of these bowls had their own concerns of the playing surface or fan experience.
- Fenway Bowl (Fenway Park)
- Guaranteed Rate (Chase Field)
- Holiday Bowl (Petco Park)
- Pinstripe Bowl (Yankee Stadium)
Alternative Venues
It doesn’t have to be fancy, but here are a few alternatives that are either climate controlled or in warmer climates.
- US Bank Stadium (Minneapolis, MN)
- SnapDragon Stadium (San Diego, CA)
- Lucas Oil Stadium (Indianapolis, IN)
All in all bowl season is awesome, but its not football’s problem that baseball needs to host a different sport to fill their stadium. For a successful bowl it only takes two things: 1) protect the players and 2) make it fun for everyone!
Parlay engineer with Twitter fingers.