Spartan is a GREAT stadium. I have been there more times than I can remember, and I STILL like it. It's cozy.
Best parts: The beer selection, the fact that we're sitting "on top" of the action, even the food selection of late (better than Sharks games)... Worst: Obstructed views, either man-made or due to the stadium. The former include those annoying elevated McAfee signs on the dugouts, which further block a view already obstructed by the dugouts, and the camera at midfield (put it back on the ground or over on the East side!). The latter include the fact that you just can't see part of the sideline if you sit anywhere except the end zone.
I'm in agreement completely with your "Best" parts (can't wait for my nice cold Harp and maybe some sushi tonite)! BUT....keep that giant camera on your side of the field fella!
Although I've only been able to witness a couple of games at Spartan, I like that the stadium is small because it gives you the feeling like you're actually "in" the game. Kinda like you can connect w/ the players a bit more.
The stadium would look a helluva a lot better on TV as well. The west side always fills/looks better than the east.
it would look like a big sunshine on TV. there's a reason that cameras are ALWAYS ALWAYS on the West side of stadiums, just like there's a reason that fans generally prefer to sit on that side. Staring into the sun = not fun.
Hmmm. Not true, at least regarding Spartan. At the WWC in '99, there were cameras on the East side of Spartan, because that's where we had tickets to broil and watch bad, slow soccer. Same thing at Stanford for the semifinal. They just put big camera shades over the ends of the cameras. Do the camera people like it? Probably not. Do many of their shots get used? Probably not. All that said, I'm fully aware they're never going to move the midfield camera for MLS games to the East side. All the hookups and stuff are right in front of our seats. And, while it's too bad they elevated the camera so it partially blocks our view, at least they widened the field (that's why the camera's up there -- it was at field level for '96 and '97).
Speaking of widening the field, I noticed last night that Spartan took down the 3 foot walls on the North and South sides behind the goals making it look like they lengthened the field. When and why did they do this (I haven't been to Spartan for a couple of weeks=out of town vacation)? Do they do it for SJSU pointy ball-I've never noticed it before? It's not a bad thing, it actually makes the field look even cozier.
They just don't put up the sponsor boards for Open Cup games. They did the same thing in 2000 when the Quakes played the Richmond Kickers.