Well why don't I rank the facilities that I have been to for soccer.
I have been to or seen UConn, Duke, UNC, Wake, St. John's, Syracuse, DePaul, Notre Dame, Marquette, South Florida, Seton Hall, Rutgers, Boston College, Penn State, Providence, Franklin Pierce, West Virginia, (I have been to Pittsburgh and Harvard, but not there new facility so they won't count) Boston University,
1. Notre Dame - I really don't think this is close. Notre Dame has by far the nicest stadium that I have been to. Not even close. Amazing Press Box, beautiful stadium itself. Clean, plenty of practice fields. I don't know exactly what is in their stadium, but they have room for themselves in there. A+ facility. It's amazing, but hopefully Notre Dame realizes that not every other school can have what they have, but can still have nice overall facilities.
2. Penn State - I loved the stadium and the practice fields. I thought the stadium had a great atmosphere. I liked the set-up of the stadium, and that I could film from inside. It was clean. The practice fields were also really nice. They had plenty of fields and plenty of goals. I was very impressed with what they had.
3. Wake Forest - Of the ACC schools that I have been to I liked Wake Forest's stadium the best. It felt new. Stadium was nice, and loved the practice fields (other than that they were sloped) Grass was well maintained on their practice fields in my mind. I didn't the ladder to the film platform, and that it was poor planning, but that's a minor problem that most people don't care about.
4.West Virginia - The stadium didn't really blow me away. I didn't like or dislike it. (I do wish they had a larger net behind the endline) However, I was blown away by their practice facility, with lights. I think every soccer practice facility should have the look and feel of West Virginia's. It's also a plus that they have storage at their facility, complete with parking as well for student athletes and coaches. I believe they may have even added a meeting room there. The grass on the field was so well maintained that I couldn't tell if it was turf or grass.
5. UConn - I know more about this schools facilities than any of the others. I am trying to be unbiased. I'd put Morrone Stadium only behind Notre Dame, Penn State and Wake Forest's (maybe tied with Wake). I love the stadium. I like the practice fields, other than for the fact that they don't have lights. Lights are a necessity. Having some turf for practice might be nice. If we ranked spring facilities, I'd think that Shenkman is better than any other facility. You have the training room, and weight room right next to the field.
Now nothing with soccer should still be in the field house. The field house and the fact that the offices and lockerroms are not near the practice field hurt the rankings. I'm also thinking that the lockerrooms could be outdated. Not sure, but it's an impression I have. I can't rank lockerrooms because I haven't been to any. UConn is upgrading sometime in the future and I think they should strive to have a world class stadium like they already have, with upgrades (like taking away the ugly grey fence exterior) and have soccer offices and lockerooms located at the field. UConn should be forward thinking, as should any other school making a facility. It's not good enough to have the bare minimum if you are a BCS program, because you will find yourself well behind competitors.
Schools building facilities should do things right the first time and think hard about what they want the program to be like in the future and build to that, or make it upgradeable. A new fixed up, average facility with no room for improvements is a headache in 15 years.
6. Boston College - I'm not sure where B.C. practices, but I would sort of assume they could just practice on their turf game field. I like that B.C. has mobile trailers for lockerroms on the site. I think the press box is decent. I just don't like that the field isn't on the main campus and that it is turf. B.C. feels like it could use more stands. I like that the field is out in the woods. Overall it's pretty nice.
7. Duke - From what I saw the stadium was above average. It was nice. Not amazing, but very nice. I'd say the same things about their practice fields. It's not a Notre Dame, but it's extremely useful and relatively very nice. I liked it overall, and having the ability to practice under the lights is a bonus.
8. UNC - UNC could be too low on this list. I really am impressed that their game field has their soccer offices. I'm sure if I actually walked into their offices and soccer specific building, that I would move them up the list. They appeared to have nice turf practice fields as well. However, I was THAT unimpressed with their actual game field. Maybe it would show nicer with soccer nets, but I'm not a fan of soccer stadiums with a track around the outside of it.
9. South Florida - South Florida has a beautiful new soccer stadium. It's really top notch. It's a beautiful lay out and I like the bank on the other side of the field, opposite of the stands. Everything at USF is nice, and their stadium is much nicer in my opinion that UNC's. I'm not sure where the team practices. I know that when I was there the visiting team practiced on their old game field. It wasn't anything special in terms of practice. My only dislike of their wonderful stadium was their lack of stands on both sides. They do have room to expand though from what it looks like. They could have had a nicer scoreboard as well.
All of those schools, had really nice facilities. Overall, these were the best I went too.
These are more of the average facilities.
10. Boston University - Considering that it is not even a BCS school,
Boston University had a nice set-up. They were the only school with a
video board, which I of course love. (Obviously this is not a soccer
specific facility) I liked the landscaping one the end line by the
guests bench. I liked the home teams bench with the big BOSTON
UNIVERSITY sign, with the Ivy coming down. It also seemed cool to have
the dorms surrounding the field. The press box was nice. It even had a heater. It also had lockerrooms at the facility. My only knock on the place is that it felt too big for soccer. The stands felt like they were so far away from the field. I really didn't like the turf either. It's great for a mid major school though.
11. Marquette - I didn't like the smell of Marquette and it's fields. That brings it down. I loved the evergreen trees at each side of the stadium though. It helped make the stadium feel more intimate and it helped hide a not so nice background. The stands were made of wood and the wood didn't look new. Taking away the bad smells and where it was, Marquette wasn't that awful, but to me it was, average.
12. Rutgers - Average to the definition. I don't like the stands at all. The stands go really tall on one side and there is nothing on the other side. It's nice they can pack so many people in, and it's nice they have a big press box, but overall it felt a little dated and too big. Lockerrooms in the stadium are a plus. I didn't like the facility and I don't know why it hosted the Big East Tournament. The plus for Rutgers is that they had a bubble that could be used to practice in.
Needs improvement
13. Seton Hall - I don't like that it's a turf field, or that it's shared with baseball. I don't like the filming location either. It could be worse though. For some reason, I didn't dislike the field enough to say it should be blown up. Something about the stadium I sort of liked. Now, the fact that they don't have a field that could be practiced on when a lot of events are going on is a joke. Seton Hall does not belong in the BIG EAST in terms of it's facilities. Somehow it survives the blowing up for some unexplainable, "this isn't as awful as I thought reason." Sometimes beating expectations or meeting them does a world of good in rankings.
I like Franklin Pierce's facilities over all of these following facilities that I think should be blown up.
Blow these up.
14. Syracuse - I probably have better things to say about Syracuse than Seton Hall. The stands and stadium itself at Syracuse was average. Their practice field was nice. However, they had pot holes or divots in front of the goalposts. They also didn't do anything about it when it was pointed out to them. Syracuse had divots in front of the goal posts for a goalkeeper to turn their ankle on. For this reason their soccer facility is a joke.
15. Providence - They really don't have any stands. The field is sloped. It just feels like no one cares about the teams there. It felt like I could have been at a high school field. It would be a decent high school field, except Providence is a Division I school. I'd probably rank Franklin Pierce's field and stadium higher.
16. St. John's -Their press box was quite nice. However, the game is on a turf field that is on top of a parking garage. You could feel the field move or shake when a car left the garage. It's the best way to use space efficiently at any college sport facility that I know of. However, it's a turf field on a lot of cement. It's not appealing at all. It doesn't help that for some reason they couldn't manage to get water for a visiting team to practice. That seems like a necessity. If they can't bring drinking water, their facility should be blown up.
17. DePaul - Not a fan of turf. Not a fan of turf that isn't well connected at the seams. Not a fan of turf that is shared with a softball team. Not a fan of a place with a subway/train going past the field every two minutes. How do you practice or have a game when you have to listen to a train rumbling by? You can't hear a thing when the train passes. It would be a great Division II facility. It doesn't belong in the BIG EAST though.
The worst place I ever went to was Pitt, but they have a new field which has to be much nicer.
This is strictly my opinion. This is based on what I know, have heard and mostly first impressions. It's inaccurate and incomplete, but whatever, it's what I think.
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