VA Tech and Tennessee football to play on a NASCAR track?

[Go Skins]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1805347-virginia-tech-will-reportedly-play-tennessee-at-bristol-motor-speedway-in-2016?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial&hpt=hp_c3

 

The current attendance record for a college football game is 115,109, which happened this September in a game between Michigan and Notre Dame in Ann Arbor.    

 

Bristol Motor Speedway has a capacity of 160,000. A half-mile oval, the speedway is considered one of the most storied tracks in NASCAR history and hosts five races annually between the sport's three different circuits.

 

The city of Bristol, Tenn., itself rests right on the Tennessee-Virginia border. Although there are technically two different Bristols (also one in Virginia), its most noticeable dividing line is that separating Volunteers and Hokies fans. The speedway is nearly equidistant from Blacksburg and Knoxville—both can get there in roughly a two-hour drive—and has long been a target site for the two schools to renew their once-heated rivalry.

 

Bruton Smith, whose Speedway Motorsports, Inc. owns Bristol Motor Speedway, first posited the idea in 2005. He offered $20 million to each school, but the excitement soon fizzled and the idea was put on the backburner. The teams did wind up meeting at the 2009 Chick-fil-A Bowl at the Georgia Dome, but the idea of meeting in Bristol had seemingly been put to rest.

 

The logistics of hosting a game at a major motor speedway have not been worked out. Bristol's midfield area consists almost entirely of concrete and asphalt, two surfaces obviously impossible to play football on. The grass would have to be artificially placed, and there would have to be unprecedented safety precautions for the players.

 

Although Bristol Motor Speedway hosting a football game would certainly be unorthodox, it would not be unprecedented. In its inaugural year (1961), the track played host to a preseason game between the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles. 

 

The Daytona International Speedway in Florida has also expressed interest in hosting football games after its $400 million renovation is completed in January 2016, namely for the Jacksonville Jaguars, Florida State Seminoles and Florida Gators. While no word has been cast down upon that possibility—Daytona is a much larger track, rendering the logistics for fans even more difficult—this game between Virginia Tech and Tennessee could mark a test run for similar future endeavors.

 

[Vol_Bengal]

They've been trying to do this for over 10 years... I know at least 5-6 years ago Bruton Smith was offering $20 million to each school to do it.  He'll knock down the scoring tower, garages, etc. and truck in the dirt, etc. to host it no doubt.  As a Tenn fan - the idea sounds great...

 

But, I just think the sight lines, etc. are going to be horrible.  The field will be WAY too far away from the stands... think the width of the racetrack itself, + the pit row lanes, + the pit row stalls, + another 15-20 feet.  Realistically, even the best seats in the house will be AT LEAST100-120 feet (40 yards) away from a sideline.  I think they'll have to sell it on being "a once in a lifetime event" and part of the "largest football crowd ever" to even have a shot at selling 160,000 tickets to a game with shitty viewability...

 

Here is a picture of way back when the track first opened when it hosted an NFL game that had the Redskins and Eagles... obviously, the seating has changed a bunch but you get the general scale of the field compared to the size of the arena.  You have cars parked length wise on the sides and they're still a long damn way from the seating areas...

 

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5177/5417939976_307e51800a_b.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rubbins-racin.com/forums/showthread.php/35981-Football-at-Bristol-Motor-Speedway&h=768&w=1024&sz=318&tbnid=OzWCNFzmOVDdtM:&tbnh=102&tbnw=136&zoom=1&usg=__F03Z3F8qxqAtHaPCB1HreQr_WUg=&docid=vmrkIiIwShIzaM&sa=X&ei=f59WUvviJYes9ATbv4GoDQ&ved=0CGQQ9QEwBQ

[Go Skins]

I thought about the sightlines, but isn't the sightlines just as bad for the Winter Classic that is on New Years Day too?

[Vol_Bengal]

I thought about the sightlines, but isn't the sightlines just as bad for the Winter Classic that is on New Years Day too?

I'd say they're bad... but from a size standpoint a Nascar venue is substantially larger than a baseball stadium.  I can't find a definitive footprint measurement of Bristol to verify though.

 

It may be alright - I just think you lose a lot of the intimacy of college football particularly when you're 150 feet away (at a minimum) from the field.

[Vol_Bengal]

As an aside... saw this scale picture of someone that laid Neyland Stadium (which holds 102,455) inside Bristol to give an idea of how much bigger the whole venue would be...

 

Essentially, the first row of existing seats at Bristol right now are the same distance from the field as if you were standing outside Neyland Stadium and looking in at the field...  just an interesting scale picture.

 

https://twitter.com/hmize/status/388330507999522816/photo/1

[Go Skins]

PTI briefly discussed this yesterday, and showed a picture but it wasn't an aerial shot.

 

I have followed NASCAR for a few years and been to the track in Richmond multiple times including last month.  It is a rare sport that the higher you sit, the better, because you can see more things.