re: What makes the Iron Bowl so contentious?

That's just BS and you know it

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RIP Da Booth, though (the real one, not the fake one)

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Yep.


And The Chukker.

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I went to a concert at the amphitheater in Tuscaloosa earlier this year and couldn't believe how much that area had changed since I had last been there in the early 2000's.

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Yea, when I started school in 2004 downtown was pretty old and danky. It was basically an old abandoned Southern downtown except for the strip of restaurants on University and the bars down behind Mellow Mushroom. It isn't even the same place now.

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This... 25% of their fan base are good fans, the other 75% are idiots... The 25% would agree with this.

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I wouldn't put it nearly that high

35% alums (20% of which are fun and cool, 10% of which suck like all schools)

35% are non-alums who are good folks, love the Tide, went to another school/couldn't afford to go to Alabama/military/whatever

30% are backwoods loud mouthed rednecks who put 100 stickers on their car, talk shite about Auburn all the time only to say that Auburn is obsessed with Alabama, argue about national championships, don't give a hoot about other sports, etc

And for Auburn I'd say

50% alums (30% cool, 20% obsessed with Alabama and constantly having to point out we have 3 titles, our average ACT score is 0.4 less than Auburn, something about The Machine, something about George Wallace, the list goes on and on)

30% non alums that are cool and went to Troy/military/etc

20% non alums who are white trash loud mouths trying to outdo the white trash loud mouth Bammers

The difference is Auburn folks like to act like all 100% of them are in that 30% cool category. That is just bogus.

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Well that's a little exaggerated. The University/Greensboro intersection hasn't changed much since the mid 90's, other than the new Embassy Suites. Sure, some stores and restaurants have come and gone, but it still has pretty much the same look.

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Not really, like I said, University had restaurants and the strip of bars behind it in 2004. That hasn't changed. The corner there that was Browns Corner or whatever has always had something. The rest of downtown is what has changed, and the area down by the river, the amphitheater, the area between the Strip and Downtown with the new courthouse and Hooligans moving (grrrrrrr).

All of these new buildings look very nice. It's great to see Tuscaloosa or any city in the state transforming itself for the better.

However, I don't think this type of transformation is unique to Tuscaloosa alone.

Here are the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the state of Alabama, according to 2014 census estimates (growth since 2010):

10.0% Auburn-Opelika MSA
9.8% Daphne-Fairhope-Foley MSA
5.6% Huntsville MSA
3.3% Tuscaloosa MSA
1.7% Dothan
1.4% Birmingham-Hoover MSA
0.5% Mobile
0.3% Florence-Muscle Shoals MSA

Montgomery, Decatur, and the Anniston-Oxford MSAs all have negative growth so far this decade

The Auburn-Opelika MSA is the 8th fastest growing metro in the United States (out of 381). While its easier for smaller metros to grow at a faster rate, its not just percentages.

Here is how each metro has changed from 2010-2014 in terms of actual growth (actual change in people):

+23,493 Huntsville
+17,846 Daphne-Fairhope-Foley
+15,725 Birmingham-Hoover
+14,008 Auburn-Opelika
+ 7,599 Tuscaloosa
+ 2,456 Mobile

Nearly twice the number of people have been added to the Auburn metro area compared to the Tuscaloosa metro area so far this decade.

All of this is bringing new development. There are two separate mix-use residential/retail buildings already approved for downtown Auburn. They will both be six stories or taller.

This comes a year after an old, dilapidated hotel in the center of downtown was bulldozed last year to make way for a new high-rent retail development, containing mostly new restaurants.

The main driver for development in any city is growth. Auburn has very healthy growth.

It's good to see both major college towns in the state following the trend that is taking place across the nation in other college towns.

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However, I don't think this type of transformation is unique to Tuscaloosa alone.

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I don't remember seeing anyone say they were

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Nearly twice the number of people have been added to the Auburn metro area compared to the Tuscaloosa metro area so far this decade. All of this is bringing new development. There are two separate mix-use residential/retail buildings already approved for downtown Auburn. They will both be six stories or taller. This comes a year after an old, dilapidated hotel in the center of downtown was bulldozed last year to make way for a new high-rent retail development, containing mostly new restaurants. The main driver for development in any city is growth. Auburn has very healthy growth.

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Ok? Good for Auburn. Don't think anybody was talking down the City of Auburn or Auburn University in this thread, only contradicting statements about Tuscaloosa being a dump.

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25% of their fan base are good fans, the other 75% are idiots... The 25% would agree with this.

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Pretty sure 100% agree that Auburn still sucks

I wasn't comparing the growths of the two cities, just refuting what you previously said about T-Town. I will say, the Opelika-Auburn region has made tremendous strides in booming their economy and is consistently ranked as one the best small town markets to start up a business. They offer a lot of what a bigger city would offer, while still having a "small town" feel.

What I think would really propel Tuscaloosa into a better city is some more low-rise projects downtown, additional fiber optic cables to provide more efficient and faster internet (T-Town is second in the state in underground fiber optic cables), and a some of the taller buildings to get a facelift.

Both respective college towns have improved over the decade. Much of the focus should be on Birmingham though and the progress they're beginning to have.