re: Favorite SEC Venues

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I really wish LSU played Arkansas in Fayetteville. I have always heard it is really nice and picturesque. War Memorial in Little Rock is a dump.

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True. Wish we could get you guys up there too. I think you'd like it.

For football, outside of Fayetteville, the best places to watch a game - not just stadium quality but overall atmosphere, the ones I have visited go like this:

1. LSU - Love the people and tailgating. Stadium is sub-par, but the gameday experience more than makes up for it. Golden Girls could make War Memorial look nice.

2. Neyland - The size is impressive. The band playing the visitors' fight song in pregame is a nice touch. Loss of points for (a) being the home of the vols; (b) all that fugly orange; (c) endless playing of rocky top. Oh, and that stupid "smoky is on the prowl" thing they do over the loud speakers. The cock crowing at South Carolina isn't that ghey.

3. Old Miss - I would not have them third if I had attended games at other places. I can't imagine how a place could be any worse. After decades of playing football in that town, Oxford's finest still haven't figured out how to route traffic into that town without creating the Mother of all Clusterf**ks. They have one single-file line to get into the one open gate in the visitors end zone. When you finally get in, you need to be wearing a poncho - regardless of the weather - because the people above are spilling their drinks and food. You literally stand in a shite-shower when trying to order food and hope someone's garbage from above doesn't fall onto your luke-warm papa-john's re-heated pizza-like substance on a plate. The stadium itself is unimpressive. I have seen a half dozen nicer high school ones in and around the Dallas area.

I would like to go to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and see a game at the swamp. Just haven't figured out how to do that in a way so as to not have to (a) be around their fans; and (b) see the FU gators play.

I would like to see a game at Bryant Denney.

I want to do a game at UGA between the hedges. I like Athens.

The rest, I could take 'em or leave 'em.


The only basketball venues I have ever seen an SEC game outside of Arkansas are Thompson Boling and the Sad Pad. Thompson Boling is big. Their sky boxes look weird. Their basketball fans are especially knowledgeable.

And the Sad Pad is beyond words. I've never seen a more dilapidated building in my life - and I used to attend games at Barton Coliseum on the fairgrounds in LR. Narrow concrete stairs leading to the Men's room/piss trough. Hand rails falling off the wall and just laying in the middle of the stairs. Poor lighting. Just not that impressive.