Stadium Experience
A couple of thoughts from the in stadium experience today.
- The new scoreboards are nice. Big, easy to see picture.
- The scrolling of out of town scores was nice, but it oddly seemed to much more heavily show games from Thursday or Friday night or games that had yet to start. I didn't see a TCU / Colorado score until the 4th quarter
- The lack of in game replays continues to be hard to understand. Even when Michigan scores a touchdown they don't seem to show a replay. Just straight to the next promotion or crowd shots. Lots and lots and lots of crowd shots.
- It's interesting that the red hat guy now has a clock / timer. In the first half the breaks seemed to be 2:30. In the second half they varied between 2:40, 2:45, and 2:50.
- They gave ECU a loooong time to get into the tunnel at halftime. I did notice that they didn't start the 20:00 timer until they let Michigan in though.
Anyone else notice anything interesting?
September 2nd, 2023 at 10:32 PM ^
OK, so this may have been when I had to go on my water run in the third quarter.
September 2nd, 2023 at 7:35 PM ^
Heard ECU fans talking about how nice it is not having to put up with advertising.
I’m glad Michigan didn’t try and use the new lighting
Out of town scores are too big.
Sound system sucks
A great day hanging with my mom.
September 2nd, 2023 at 7:39 PM ^
The mix between band and pumped in music is terrible. Way too much pumped in music, not enough band
September 2nd, 2023 at 7:51 PM ^
Sound blows. Need speakers that aren't on just one end of the stadium. The scoreboard screens are the same size once you factor in the scores they put on the margins. Didn't show score of games that were going on. Only ones from earlier in the week. Ref blew his whistle into the mike and it hurt my ear. The lights were on for some reason. Show me the replay of JJ's beautiful TD pass that he roped to Wilson.
September 3rd, 2023 at 9:49 AM ^
I don't think you can have speakers in both end zones; wouldn't that create a weird echo situation for people at (say) the 10-yard-line on one end or the other? The distance is just long enough that speed-of-sound effects would come into play is my guess.
If you put the speakers along the sidelines rather than in an endzone, that would solve that problem.
September 2nd, 2023 at 7:54 PM ^
I found the new scoreboards maddening. The blue lettering on bright yellow was hard to see. The ingame stats were so large that basic info like…the SCORE…ahem… were hard to locate. The time on the game clock was subdued and invisible relative to the time-of-possession, on the same font size, right next to them.
The other-game scores would have been an improvement but WHY waste real estate on games that havent started yet.
Couldn't hear a word from the officiants or the on-field djs all night
i did manage to get a text through. But the west side upper concourse concessions were…awful.
September 2nd, 2023 at 8:20 PM ^
I wasnt paying huge attention but was were timeouts left for each team even on the screen at all? I dont remember seeing them
September 2nd, 2023 at 8:27 PM ^
Yes they were. Right below team name, closer to their point total.
September 3rd, 2023 at 8:14 AM ^
It was displayed as "- - -" rather than "TOL 3"
September 2nd, 2023 at 8:04 PM ^
This was a pretty fast game, and I think having the longest commercial break being 2 minutes and 45 seconds played into that (opposed to 3:30, and 4 minute breaks). This adds up over the course of the game, and I got in my car at Pioneer at 3:30 which has to be the earliest in a long time for a noon kick.
September 2nd, 2023 at 8:29 PM ^
I was thinking the same thing! The running clock reduced the game time!
September 2nd, 2023 at 8:05 PM ^
Not sure if the new scoreboards impacted the dB levels much, but they looked fantastic.
September 2nd, 2023 at 8:12 PM ^
The sound system was pathetic and while I agree some of the scoreboard content needs to be tweaked, they sure look nice and are B1G!!!!
We had a great time and enjoyed a very vanilla, but solid win.
September 2nd, 2023 at 8:14 PM ^
Shout out to Victor the Frisbee dog, the girl who caught two punts from the jugs machine, and the guy who nailed the 26 yd field goal
September 2nd, 2023 at 8:25 PM ^
If they're going to do the punt catch every week it'd be really helpful if they could actually send punts that are catchable. They also should have done the shorter field goal first so both could kick.
September 2nd, 2023 at 9:06 PM ^
Victor looked stronger this year. Great catches made.
September 2nd, 2023 at 8:35 PM ^
The sound is inexcusably bad. It (again) only comes from the north end zone board. It sounded like a New York subway car audio, if it were underwater. I'm really surprised that they'd fail so badly on the sound. Didn't they invest in an upgrade? Did someone think "more power = more better"? Was the band mic'ed? Or not mic'ed? Or mic'ed for some tracks and not others? I'm not sure I even heard The Victors after touchdowns (I'm in section 22). Is South Park's Kenny the new PA announcer?
The video board themselves? Huge, and any bigger would be almost absurd, but the A/V folks need a ton of help learning how to better display content (and display useful content in appropriate sizes/colors). The in-game stats on the left side rotate and include whatever you aren't looking for at the time you glance up. Want to see "Yards Rushing," "Yards Passing," and the other basics that used to always be visible? Well, keep looking up and you might catch what you want during another super long commercial break. Out of town scores take up about 5 times more space than necessary (and feature the games who aren't curious about). In general, it's a mess and I hope they take the time to see what went wrong and make (a lot of) changes.
At least the team is going to be great...but man, I was really hopeful that they'd at least have the sound issues resolved rather than going backward fast.
September 2nd, 2023 at 8:44 PM ^
I had a passionate make out sesh with RGard's mom in the dirtiest portable potty I could find
September 2nd, 2023 at 8:55 PM ^
Agree with all the criticisms of the sound system and scoreboard with unneeded old scores, the Joe Milton overthrow jugs gun in the uncatchable punt contest, but a big plus one for the frisbee catching dog.
September 2nd, 2023 at 9:15 PM ^
Can we put “pump it up” to rest? It really worked great against OSU in 21, but now it just seems very dull. Can we sign up the dog? Really ran some good routes.
September 2nd, 2023 at 9:23 PM ^
Does anybody know what kind of airplanes did the flyover? I found a website that says they were supposed to be five L-39s but there were six planes and they didn’t look like the picture of L-39s that I looked up.
September 2nd, 2023 at 9:30 PM ^
The sound system was completely inaudible in section 7. Couldn’t make out a single word that was said all day. Music was super garbled. Extremely disappointing.
September 2nd, 2023 at 10:19 PM ^
Total hot mess on the sound (or lack there of). Section 21. Couldn’t hear a damn thing all day…massive fail…didn’t seem like any sound was coming out of the south endzone boards….new screens great but TONs of wasted real estate
September 3rd, 2023 at 7:56 AM ^
I don't think sound has ever come out of the south endzone boards - I hope they keep it that way. People in the north endzone complain about how loud it is.
September 3rd, 2023 at 9:27 AM ^
You are correct. Sound isn’t supposed to come out of that end.
September 2nd, 2023 at 11:05 PM ^
Wifi. Add it.
That should be table stakes in this day and age. It’s pathetic that I can’t get coverage in that stadium to save my life.
September 2nd, 2023 at 11:19 PM ^
One thing that's annoying: they're ending 4th quarter passes for suite holders. I'm never going to own a suite, but I get 4th quarter invites sometimes and that's the only way a lot of fans are ever going to get to take advantage of those amenities. I guess this is part of getting a liquor license.
September 2nd, 2023 at 11:43 PM ^
I got sunburned and I didn’t have a care in the world
September 3rd, 2023 at 7:06 AM ^
People that can’t/don’t complain have my unending respect
September 3rd, 2023 at 6:10 AM ^
- Passing Yards and Rushing Yards should be displayed on the scoreboards continuously
- The yellow background and blue font is too much
- What makes wearing hats a Barbie day thing? Did Barbie ever wear hats?
- Sold out of many key concessions at halftime. I’ve never been much for buying food at Michigan Stadium but took my 5 year old to the game and he was all about the snacks.
- I think some of the outside the game entertainment is gimmicky. On the field host, a bunch of competitions for random fans, etc. I guess the longer TV timeouts start to necessitate this stuff but I miss the Saturdays of yesteryear that was all football, marching band, and celebrating other sports’ successes
September 3rd, 2023 at 8:43 AM ^
I don't mind the fan competitions but the mc or whatever is annoying
September 3rd, 2023 at 6:56 AM ^
I had the opposite experience of most regarding the new sound system. I sit under the scoreboard in section 34 and the new speakers were waaaaaay too loud. Hubby and I had to yell to each other the whole game in order to hear each other. There was also way too much piped in music and not enough MMB. And once again, too much Duff Man on the field introducing cheers everyone knows how to do and no one needs an explanation for. And although I realize these cheesy fan competitions are probably not going away, to have one before the MMB comes out onto the field for pregame just felt so wrong. I do love the frisbee catching dog, though!
I also agree with many here that the new layout of stats on the larger screens is not nearly as intuitive and easy to read as the old one. I used to always follow the stats on the board but honestly don't feel like I was able to pay much attention to them at all yesterday due to not knowing where to find what I wanted to see and them constantly changing what was being displayed. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
September 3rd, 2023 at 7:52 AM ^
I was sitting in the southeast corner. The sound was still loud but other than Carl Grapentine it was muffled. It was hard to understand the referee and the piped in music wasn't clear. The video quality is really good - the graphics were meh.
September 3rd, 2023 at 7:21 AM ^
Buddy’s pizza was good
$15 and four slices
September 3rd, 2023 at 7:46 AM ^
There were a lot of media time outs for a game that wasn't on TV
September 3rd, 2023 at 7:49 AM ^
In the spirit of the Athletic Department turning the fan experience into what you would find at Pistons game, they played "The Final Countdown" when the score was 30-0.
September 3rd, 2023 at 9:11 AM ^
Almost as when there was a false start penalty for ECU and the scoreboard said it was caused by Big House Noise - when there wasn't any.
September 3rd, 2023 at 7:50 AM ^
The TVs were so big it was almost as good as watching the game at home.
September 3rd, 2023 at 8:04 AM ^
I also noticed that some things that normally happen later in the game, like the wave and the Blues Brothers, happened in the 2nd quarter. Well, the wave didn't really get going, but the students were trying to make it happen.
September 3rd, 2023 at 9:06 AM ^
Blues brothers happened at the end of the 3rd quarter. My daughter asked me all 3rd quarter when they were going to do it. I didn’t like the video from the movie up on the boards. Didn’t seem to sync up with what was going on. never did see the wave.
September 3rd, 2023 at 10:34 AM ^
Oh yeah, they did try to start the wave in the second quarter! And the wrong way, on top of it. I guess the old traditions regarding the wave have been lost to the new students. Sadly the covid break year probably helped hasten that.
September 3rd, 2023 at 8:41 AM ^
Dog was great, didn't notice alcohol being sold in stadium
September 3rd, 2023 at 9:07 AM ^
The concession stands ran out of a ton of things before half time. We were at a stand right at halftime and they were already out of hot dogs, popcorn, all condiments, Icees, and nachos. All they had were cheeseburgers and salad.
September 3rd, 2023 at 10:41 AM ^
Yikes. I did notice that the lines for everything were crazy long at halftime since everyone had left the bowl to try and get out of the heat. Also, before the game the concession stand I went to was having tech problems and couldn't use the portion of their registers that took payment from phones. They're lucky they could at least take cards, what with the new no cash rule and all.
September 3rd, 2023 at 9:14 AM ^
The scoreboards were nice, but the sound system,which was supposed to be this major upgrade was negilible to me, especially the on field host. His mike came in and out and even when it was functioning fully, he was hard to understand. My two long standing pet peeves from over 30 years of in stadium experience is the lack of replays on an equitable basis and the out of town scoreboard or lack thereof. I want to see all the replays and more of them. Michigan has always maintained a "good news network" policy for showing replays and it still continues. If the news is favorable you might see it again. If its murky or bad, you probably aren't going to see it. I've been to several road venues and almost every single one has delivered a better replay and in game video experience than UM does, even Northwestern. Many times each season Im caught saying to myself that its a shame that the people in the stadium paying for the ticket are the last to know on many of these replays. My case in point was the near interception on a incredible play near the visitors sideline that was overturned. Unless I totally missed it I dont think there was a single replay shown of that near interception. The upgrades were nice, but its still clear that the production end of the system still needs some work. The only other points I'll add were, I heard many complaints from others about slow concessions and running out of food long before the end of the 3rd quarter. I did not go up myself but it was a constant refrain from those around me. Lastly the time of possesion for each team, needs to be moved away from the actual stadium game clock. All three of those clock numbers in such close proximity, confused me several times before I started to differentiate where to look. Don't get me wrong, nothing beats the live game day experience, but from a video production standpoint, UM has a long way to go for this longtime fan.
September 3rd, 2023 at 10:09 AM ^
The scoreboard experience was a meh to me. The far right side was also a lot of block M variations which got to be too redundant. The font for the out of town scores is too big so making it smaller could show more scores. I also noticed a delay in showing replays so it wasn't much different than the old scoreboard. The game stats were parsed out more. I would have liked to see a box score type summary after each quarter. I didn't know that JJ was 18 for 20 in pass completions until halftime and then it was up there for a short time. I happened to notice it at the right time.
Hopefully, the U of M folks in charge of the scoreboard will look at some feedback from some of us folks and make a few changes. We'll see. I can live with things the way they are.
September 3rd, 2023 at 6:21 PM ^
It occurs to me that the scoreboard graphics being maize backgrounds with navy text could have been a concession to the Maize Out, and, as such, we might return to navy backgrounds with maize text for Week 2.
I also think the Out of Town Scoreboard will be better without the Week 0 and Th-F backlog, if they can just focus on completed games in the noon slot and games in progress in the 3:30 PM slot. (Also, Week 1-3 just have too many games because so many FBS teams are playing FCS teams in this period.)
You make your biggest improvement between Week 1 and Week 2, right?
September 4th, 2023 at 10:59 AM ^
Scoreboards were great, very clear. Loved the placement of the captions. I’m noise+light sensitive so having those in an easy to read place and very legible was super helpful for me and many others. The sound was perfect for me, although I’ve got seats in section 1 so people who sit closer to the corners might not have the same experience. The bigger scoreboards seemed to keep the sound inside the stadium more, but I could be wrong about that(?). The graphics on said scoreboards were very nice as well, great colours and quite crisp. Transitions were smooth as well. Would have liked for the scores of other games to only show todays games, but it’s a nice addition! The stats were also perfect. I’m a statistics nerd and usually like to use an external source for that info, it was awesome to have it right there. Only suggestion I might propose to the scoreboard graphics is to show the other games when there’s a timeout, reply, etc. and have those two side panels dedicated to showing different stats. I found that when the stat screens are rotating it can be difficult to find the info you’re looking for right away unless you wait to catch it. Overall, I loved the stadium experience! Took a friend to a game (he had been to the MSU game last year as well) and he equally thought it was in improvement. They still have a few bugs and issues to work out but, overall, I found the changes to be for the best. (Still kind of upset about the lack of aisle for section 1 but I didn’t find it too annoying or difficult to get to the seats. In the case of an emergency, though, it’s probably good to have easier access to the tunnel but accessibility and accommodations would be needed to make that go smoothly. Not the biggest of my concerns though)
September 4th, 2023 at 1:29 PM ^
I watched on Peacock. The picture was great, but the feed had zero crowd noise. Was the stadium dead?
September 4th, 2023 at 5:40 PM ^
So the athletic department spends $41 million on new scoreboards that have shitty or non-existent replays, no updating of scores of other games, hard to read graphics, and terrible sound quality.
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