Chesapeake facility thoughts

[Pioneer_PA]

First, it is beautiful. There should be much pride taken in that facility.

Did want to point a few things out, though. There are fewer visiting bleachers now. Looks as though they are about one row shorter and 10-20 yards shorter. Also, since the walkway is in front of the seats now, there are fewer places to stand. This is magnified by the lack of visiting band bleachers like they used to have.

When Wayne was there Friday night, because of the crunch, Wayne fans filled the visiting side and about 1/3-2/5 of the home side bleachers. There were plenty standing, too. Just seems like they missed a chance to improve visiting seating and went backward in that regard.

And didn't they have 25 second clocks before? I thought for sure they did in 2011. They did not this year.

But the facility, the playing field, the pressbox, and above all the people there, as always, are first class.

Anyway, just thought folks who will be visiting there for the first time this year would be intersted in the seat reduction for visitors. You'll want to get there early.

Best wishes to the Panthers.

[CharlieHustle]

I see with most new facilities, they do not really care about the visiting side, to be frank. They make the bleachers smaller, not in a good viewing level, and they'll put visiting fans in direct line with the sun. Portsmouth's new stadium and obviously Chesapeake's new stadiums are good examples of this.

I'm not necessarily opposed to it, though. It goes with home field advantage, and does a school really want to spend alot of extra money to accomodate the visitors?

[4thgoal]

Nearly all fotball fields run north-south to keep the sun out of the players eyes and how often would you design it to where you had to sit looking into the sun if you had that choice?

[PantherPride]

First, it is beautiful. There should be much pride taken in that facility.

Did want to point a few things out, though. There are fewer visiting bleachers now. Looks as though they are about one row shorter and 10-20 yards shorter. Also, since the walkway is in front of the seats now, there are fewer places to stand. This is magnified by the lack of visiting band bleachers like they used to have.

When Wayne was there Friday night, because of the crunch, Wayne fans filled the visiting side and about 1/3-2/5 of the home side bleachers. There were plenty standing, too. Just seems like they missed a chance to improve visiting seating and went backward in that regard.

And didn't they have 25 second clocks before? I thought for sure they did in 2011. They did not this year.

But the facility, the playing field, the pressbox, and above all the people there, as always, are first class.

Anyway, just thought folks who will be visiting there for the first time this year would be intersted in the seat reduction for visitors. You'll want to get there early.

Best wishes to the Panthers.

Thank you, we are very proud of our new facilities. It's been a long time coming! We haven't been able to host a track meet in 4 years, I believe, and the kids have had to "practice" in the parking lot and around the schools. And of course we had to play all our games on the road last year which is a big strain on the school, players, coaches, parents, etc.

I realize the visitors bleachers are not ideal or maybe not even adequate but I don't think it was done with any bad intent towards our opponents as another poster had suggested. I know there was an issue with the "right-of-way" of the highway behind the bleachers. There just isn't alot of space to expand upon. If you expand towards the home side then you're taking away a big portion of the main parking lot. More seating but less parking would just create another problem. I would have to say parking at Wayne would be my biggest complaint. Getting blocked in and having to wait what seems like an eternity to get back on the road is no fun either...haha. The new bleachers stretch from one 20 yard line to the other 20. I'd be willing to bet that the old bleachers weren't that long.
There are very few schools who bring the amount of fans that Wayne does. I've seen many many games where even our small visitors side isn't even half full. It's just not a problem that is going to come up very often.

I'm pretty sure we've never had a 25 second clock. Definitely not in 2011. Which leads me to believe you might be mistaken on how big our visitor side bleachers use to be. I've never watched a game from that side so I can't really say.

I'm glad you enjoyed your visit Friday night. We ordered perfect weather for your visit. I just wish the game could have been a little less one sided....haha. We're a very young and inexperienced team trying to rebuild.

Good luck to the Pioneers on your quest for a "3-peat"!!!

[PantherPride]

I see with most new facilities, they do not really care about the visiting side, to be frank. They make the bleachers smaller, not in a good viewing level, and they'll put visiting fans in direct line with the sun. Portsmouth's new stadium and obviously Chesapeake's new stadiums are good examples of this.

I'm not necessarily opposed to it, though. It goes with home field advantage, and does a school really want to spend alot of extra money to accomodate the visitors?

Have you been to a game at Chesapeake? Because before the game starts and the sun goes behind the trees I have to wear my sunglasses, and I sit on the home side. If the visitors were in "direct line with the sun" I'm pretty sure I wouldn't need them. I believe the sun is to the left of the home side and right of the visitor side. It is certainly not directly behind the home bleachers. The sun usually goes behind the trees right at kickoff, so unless you're there for an earlier starting middle school or JV game it's not an issue during a varsity game.

As far as spending "extra money" to accommodate visitors, again, I don't know what your point is. The original plans called for a new home locker room and weight room. Unforeseen problems arose and expenses did too. Plans had to be changed. A new locker room and weight room are sorely needed for our kids but they are the ones doing without. I'm sorry for your bitterness towards Portsmouth and Chesapeake's new facilities. If you could design, build, and pay for a new stadium with the space there was to work with, your input was greatly needed a couple years ago when this process started.

[CharlieHustle]

When referring to the "fans in the sun", I was talking about Portsmouth's stadium--visiting fans are blinded at gametime (which I like). I have never actually been in Chesapeake's new stadium, just driven by it. What I'm saying about the money thing is, do schools really want to spend extra money just to make a surplus of seats on the away side? No, they don't, and I don't blame them. That money could be spent for nicer locker rooms, etc (as you stated).

I think you misinterpreted me...I said I'm fine with the visiting stands not being very big, or being accommodating to fans. It goes with home-field advantage. I love Portsmouth's stadium, and Chesapeake's looks very nice from the outside and from pictures.

[Pioneer_PA]

That's a pretty bad attitude scarlet-gray. You limit seating too much and you'll start losing fans coming to games. Football is the one sport that brings people to your school. If people can't sit there, they will quit going. When visiting fans take up 40% of the home side, that becomes a hassle for home fans, too.

I just wonder what happened to the old band bleachers that sat in the end zone. That was a full section on its own and would alleviate some of the crunch.

Visiting seating goes far beyond football season. Graduation, relay for life, other events, etc can bring large crowds to your PUBLIC school. I was just surprised to see them take a step back instead of forward there.

In West Virginia, we have guidelines to be playoff approved that determines who can host playoff games. Most fields in WV are playoff approved.

I wasn't sure about the playclock in 2011, but I know the old bleachers ran from about the 12 to the opposite 12. I peaked at an old video to doublecheck.

The parking at Wayne isn't terrible. There's just always about 3-4 people who will park so poorly, they block dozens of people in. It did get worse this year, though. They redid the practice field so no one can park there now. Adds to the parking crunch since there are now fewer spaces.