re: Were the annual AL/AU games played in Birmingham considered neutral

quote:

---

Personally I am glad the IB went on campus and that Alabama no longer has any association with Legion Field. Arkansas should take note.

---

+1

Legion Field was a fantastic venue and was in a great neighborhood, back in the 60’s and 70’s….but now the stadium is “worn out” and the neighborhood surrounding the stadium is less than desirable….

quote:

---

I guess so. The only thing is where else could we have had it? It's not like the equidistant, neutral areas had stadiums which could support the game.

Maybe Mobile?

Ok, I laugh, but I also just threw up a little in my mouth too.

Seriously, though, Mobile would be too far south for 'Bama fans and Huntsville would be too far north for Auburn fans. They should have picked a spot somewhere in like... Wilcox County or something and built a stadium for the game there.

---

Oh it was certainly the best option, no deying that.

quote:

---

but now the stadium is “worn out” and the neighborhood surrounding the stadium is less than desirable….

---

Understatement of a lifetime

But to answer the OP as straight-forward as possible, it was absolutely a neutral site game like OU/TX and GA/FLA. There was a 50/50 ticket split so there's really no other word for it.

And about all the local tickets being distributed to politicians, etc... That happens at every game like this. TX/OU, GA/FLA, SECCG so it's really not a big deal. Hell, even now state politicians have the right to buy Alabama-Auburn tickets at face value every year.

quote:

---

And about all the local tickets being distributed to politicians, etc... That happens at every game like this. TX/OU, GA/FLA, SECCG so it's really not a big deal. Hell, even now state politicians have the right to buy Alabama-Auburn tickets at face value every year.

---

This times 1000

All these Barners claiming it wasnt fair because the politicians were bammers, its your own school's fault for not putting out more quality alumni to go into these positions themselves. Just because Alabama put out higher quality alumni doesn't mean Auburn didn't get a fair shake and shouldn't be a faulting point for UA.

EVERY neutral site game of this nature has ticket allotments for local sponsors and local government officials. So it wouldn't have mattered if it had been in Montgomery (much closer to the halfway point between the schools) those tickets would have been filled with the same colors.

Face it, in those days (and still today, just not to the same extent) there were a HELLUVA lot more of us than there were of you, and it showed in the amount of support our teams had at the games.

quote:

---

All these Barners claiming it wasnt fair

---

No one said it wasn't fair.

Just stating that while neutral by definition the crowds rarely were. This isn't a pissing match.

quote:

---

It was a 50/50 ticket split, so it was technically neutral. The reality, though, is that AU typically couldn't sell their allotment, and the crowds would often be 65/35 or so.

---

Complete BS

quote:

---

piggidyphish

---

The games were not neutral... Around 1980 or so the tickets STOPPED being split 50/50. It is also not neutral when one school(turds) does not want you to move your home games and believed they had the power to stop it(well they did delay it).

INTERESTING FACT: Games played in Tuscaloosa and Auburn, Auburn leads 14-4

Auburn seems to forget they played Tennessee there until 1980 sans 1974, Georgia Tech until 1970 and other non-confernce games until the mid 70's.

The fly in the ointment was some individuals or groups were able to purchase what were known as "stadium certificates" sort of like the PSL in the NFL now where they could purchase tickets to any event at Legion Field. As it turned out a lot of those people (in most years) were for Alabama. Other than that the tickets were split. Even with the stadium certificates that amount was negligible maybe 2-3,000 out of 72,000 seats through 1977 and then 78,000 through the last "split" in 1987.

I went to 3 with the 'split' 1979,1981 and 1987. For the life of me I don't recall anyone thinking "wow,this really is an Alabama home game!" In fact, I would venture to say the Auburn people got hold of the "stadium certificates" in 1987 as it seemed like they had more fans.

Other factors helped Auburn’s cause. The NCAA had strict recruiting rules pertaining to neutral site games, meaning neither Alabama nor Auburn could entertain recruits if the game was in Birmingham.
Another issue was ticket allotment. The schools got a 50-50 split for games in Birmingham, hardly enough to satisfy the tens of thousands of fans who wanted to attend the game. The break in the standoff came when Alabama began its Tide Pride campaign, akin to the Greater Auburn Fund (now Tigers Unlimited), the fund-raising wing on the Plains that had started years earlier.