BGSU33 wrote:If this game was in Knoxville I would be there. That is why I'll be watching it at home on TV. Don't get me wrong, I love Nashville (very fun city, been there twice), but Tennessee playing at home in Knoxville and Tennessee playing in a neutral site in Nashville just isn't the same.
I was actually just in Knoxville two months ago. I took a tour of the stadium and they take you through the team entrance gate, into the locker room, the press tower, post game interview area, etc. Real nice tour and for only $8. I also did my own "tour" as I found an open the gate at the top of that long ramp that runs up on the southwest side of the stadium. They were resodding the stadium when I was there, putting in a new grass playing field. One thing I found kind of interesting was how there's one small road that wraps underneath and right alongside the east side of the stadium. I also wasn't aware there were what looked to be many old rooms built into the stadium on that side and the south side of the stadium (looked to possibly be old dorm rooms in the stadium I'm guessing, I've seen that in a few otger stadiums before if so). One thing that was interesting from my tour was they explained why Tennessee's endzones are checkerboards like that, stemming off a coach who made the comment about running to the checkerboard that you could see on the top of a building over the north end zone. I didn't know that. There's also a beautiful view of the river and bridges from the upper deck concourse on the east side. While walking through the stadium, you could notice where some of the stadium renovations were done as the capacity increased in phases.
I also took a look around the basketball arena since the renovations they did a few years ago when they took out seating on the one side of the upper level and added those suites, and put in new seats. It was a nice job, and the arena looks much nicer inside than outside (exterior is really bland).
Another pleasant surprise for me was the old historic part of downtown Knoxville. Very cool! Nice restaurants, shops and bars. Spent a little time down there and it was a real nice place to walk around and take things in. I actually like that area much more than the area around the university where the students congregate. I actually like it more than Tennessee's campus too. I'm not being critical but I expected the campus to be a little nicer, though I did like the older part on the hill. But the historic downtown made up for that.
I have also been to the Titans' stadium. It essentially sits on the other side of the river from downtown Nashville. I was last there a couple years ago and they were installing new video boards in the end zones. It's a nice enough stadium, don't get me wrong, most NFL stadiums are. But it just lacks the character and obviously the on-campus atmosphere that you would get if this game was being played in Knoxville.
Glad you liked your tour!!! Just a few quick notes:
1) The old buildings that form the under part of the stadium on the south and east sides were dorms in the 1950s---athletic dorms to the best of my recollection. They were converted to classroom and laboratory uses in the 1970s and are still used. The Department of Anthropology is under there. Just like they said in the movie "The Blind Side," the remains of hundreds of dead people are stored in bone boxes right under the stadium (south end). Most are Native American dead from Kansas-Nebraska, but others are the forensic remains of murder victims---many sad stories there. And yes, part of the future legend of the Tennessee VOLS might well be the ghosts of the many people "buried" under the stadium---and haunting it.
2) The checker board end zones reflect a small group of building stones with the same arrangement at the base of the tower on Ayres Hall---the large,old building that sits right on top of "The Hill."
3) They had extraordinary difficulties constructing the basketball arena. It is built right on top of an area of intense karst topography---no other suitable place to put it. When they were doing pile driving it was Thud!!! Thud!! Thud!!! Thud!!! Thud!!! Whoosh!!! And the pile disappears into into thin air underground. They had to do a lot of engineering work-arounds and mitigations to get it right and safe.
4) When you were downtown, you were probably in the Market Square area or the nearby Old City section. Both are old 1800s areas that have been refurbished to have a Bourbon Street ambiance.
5) Unlike some universities---say Harvard---UTK has torn down most of the old, historical buildings on campus. Being in an urban area right downtown like Columbia University is in New York City, there is a premium on "space," meaning UTK has to serves the ever changing needs of thousands of students in limited space. Since the 1960s, there has been a massive rebuilding program underway throughout the campus, and that program has been intensively accelerated over the past 15 years---with an increased emphasis on high-rise buildings. So, the whole campus looks pretty much new like those British universities they created all at one time from scratch in the 1960s and 1970s.
