Bloomington Trip Report
For starters, I took a few posters' advice and waited to buy tickets this morning and got fifth row at the 40 yard line for $40 so thank you for the advice 🙂.
I was shocked at how tiny the stadium is. I knew the stadium layout and have obviously seen it on TV a million times, but that is a small stadium... I've been to MSU, PSU, Iowa, Wisconsin, and of course Michigan, and the difference in those five compared to Indiana is staggering. I walked in the furthest entrance from my section and made it to my section within five minutes...I had the same scenario come up last week at Iowa and it took me a half hour to get to my seat.
That was the closest I've ever been to the field at a road game and it was a really neat experience. The seats are also a lot closer to the bench than I thought and you can hear what they're saying on the sidelines. They always say that about Kinnick, never heard it about a Memorial, but I suppose Memorial isn't exactly where top five teams go to die.
The stadium was also the quietest I've been to, but that's due to a combo of low attendance, small stadium, and a ton of Michigan fans.
The fans for the most part were great, but there were also 10ish awful fans I encountered. I've never actually heard fans in person boo/call names/mock Michigan players when they go down with injuries until today. It seemed to happen every time today (again it was just a few of their fans actually doing it.) One of those same guys spilled his beer all over a Michigan fan and then laughed and walked off when confronted. There was a lot of other less severe juvenile behavior by these guys throughout the game but they were all gone once Michigan went up by 14. Aside from maybe MSU, those were the worst fans I've sat by. With that being said, an overwhelming majority of their fans were great.
Overall it was another great road experience, though the game was a little too close for comfort for much of it. I look forward to checking out Shi Stadium and Ohio Stadium.
October 8th, 2022 at 9:56 PM ^
Glad you had a good time except for a few shitty fans. Looked like a beautiful day for football.
October 8th, 2022 at 9:57 PM ^
Great stuff BenVom. 💪🏽 Bloomington is where top 5 teams go to feast!
October 8th, 2022 at 10:12 PM ^
Indiana fans were pretty darn nice. They brought us into a tailgate, fed us, and were liberal with the adult beverages.
Bloomington as a city is mediocre at best. We found a couple solid bars, but it wasn't easy.
In our eight road trips since 2016, Bloomington and Champaign are easily the dregs of the conference.
October 8th, 2022 at 10:18 PM ^
From the pictures, it looks like IU has one of, if not, the prettiest campus in the conference, apparently the charm doesn’t extend to the town?
(Also, maybe this is a hot take (tm), but while the northeast corner of MSU’s campus around Beaumont Tower is genuinely quite attractive, everything else is a sea of institutional mediocrity)
October 8th, 2022 at 11:06 PM ^
Yeah. The old part of MSU's campus is pretty, but the parts they've built since WWII are nondescript and sprawl on and on, isolated from town, like a bigger North Campus.
October 9th, 2022 at 10:24 AM ^
This has not been my experience with Bloomington at all. It's an incredible college town. Maybe not on a football Saturday, but the vibe is maybe one of my favorites in the B1G, bar none. Beautiful campus, really fun town. Lots of good restaurants and bars, cool farmer's market, good bookstores and such... it's great.
October 9th, 2022 at 11:11 AM ^
Pretty soon Bloomington will be 90% apartments or storage units. We have enough storage units for every city in the Big Ten. They are definitely doing stuff to try and make the campus nicer. Right near the stadium they have that big newer sign that says Indiana University in limestone which is pretty nice.
October 9th, 2022 at 11:27 AM ^
Not sure what part of Bloomington you were in but I think it is one of the nicest college towns in the B1G, one of the nicest courthouses in the country and a beautiful court house square. Plenty of bars and 3 good breweries. Walnut, College Ave and Kirkwood are loaded with bars and a good number (not A2 level) of restaurants
it reminds me of Ann Arbor 30-40 years ago.
Been to 7-8 games there and till yesterday never experienced the A Holes. Must be post Covid American behavior
generally IU fans are awesome
October 8th, 2022 at 10:06 PM ^
Hoosiers: great movie, shitty fans.
October 9th, 2022 at 9:46 AM ^
they came around once Coach Dale put Jimmy in and Hickory started winning!
October 8th, 2022 at 10:09 PM ^
I was there in 2010 when Denard got hurt and the crowd cheered. Just awful fans. The majority of “IU football fans” are just truly ND football fans and IU basketball fans. To hell with IU
October 9th, 2022 at 2:36 AM ^
I was at that game too and fans spit in my cousins wife's face. Not one of us, including her said a word to them prior. They walked up and said F*** Michigan and just spit on her. Didn't turn out well for them. Ive been back once and the fans were just terrible again, cursing at us and just very aggressive. I'll never go back there a deal with those POS fans.
October 9th, 2022 at 11:18 AM ^
Fun story real quick when I was in college I worked in the athletic department and became friends with some of the guys on the football team. In particular there was a walk-on named AJ. He was a TE/DE something like 6’4” 265. After the Michigan-IU game I was waiting for AJ to come out of the locker and go get some food. As I’m waiting about 5 IU fans walk up and try to start a fight with me. Out walks AJ and he says basically this guy is with me and you should have seen how quickly those people scattered.
I also listened to F Michigan a lot walking through the dorm areas and most of the people would yell oh well OSU will destroy you still anyways. You’d be surprised by how many of them are actually OSU fans. People said a lot of them are Notre Dame fans. But I’d bet anything there’s more OSU fans on IUs campus than there is Notre Dame or IU fans.
October 9th, 2022 at 11:08 AM ^
I was with a friend driving to the Iowa-PSU game that day in 2010. We were listening to the Indy announcers. I remember the cheering when Denard got hurt (temporarily) and the announcers were chewing out their own fans for being unclassy.
Back in the RR days, Indy was the only B1G team we could beat, and even that was barely. I think their fans were frustrated because they wanted to beat us for the 1st time since 1987, and the two close losses to UM in 2009/10 really pissed them off. RR was 6-18 vs B1G, but 2-0 vs. IU.
October 8th, 2022 at 10:15 PM ^
I was surprised when Hart went down, the people next to us didn't know who he was. I told them he was one of your coaches for 3-4 years. Got blank stares. I realized many don't really pay attention to football!
October 8th, 2022 at 10:16 PM ^
Reminds me of Northwestern fans (students) who yelled "Cheaters!" every time there was a penalty. Hugely annoying.
October 8th, 2022 at 10:29 PM ^
“YOU CANT DO THAT’”
October 8th, 2022 at 10:37 PM ^
I made the trip too. Mike went down right in front of me and my son. We couldn't see his face, but we saw his arms and legs in the air. It was horrific and just scary. About a minute after people realized what was happening, coaches got the players to shield all the fans from seeing what was happening. I have no idea how those kids were able to get back on the field after witnessing what happened. Lots of prayers for Mike today and tonight.
Also, my son is five, so everyone was nice to us.
October 8th, 2022 at 10:42 PM ^
Glad you went and had a good experience Benvom. 40 $ on the 40 yard line seems like a good deal to see Michigan play a conference football game. Sadly these days, sometimes a few A hats in crowds. Thanks for sharing.
October 8th, 2022 at 10:42 PM ^
I would like to share my experience as well at this game:
The fans were terrific and awesome to talk to too. Had nothing but a good experience whether that was walking to the stadium or interacting with them around me in my seat. They wished me luck against OSU. Good guys all around
Unfortunate for OP that he didn't have the same good experience
October 8th, 2022 at 10:48 PM ^
Really good to hear. The way it should be.
October 8th, 2022 at 10:59 PM ^
The main reasons for the stadium being empty is allowing in and outs and no one caring about IU football. Half of the stadium is outside tailgating at anytime. At kickoff, you can see a few thousand undergrads walking back home. They just come for the party.
October 8th, 2022 at 11:07 PM ^
One of my co-workers, an IU grad, told me she had only been to two football games her entire time on campus. She said exactly what you are saying - a really big number of students only go to tailgate and never make it into the games. She also said that when the basketball team is good, you have to buy football tickets in order to get basketball tickets.
October 9th, 2022 at 11:21 AM ^
They are most proud of being the “best tailgating” college in the Big Ten. Probably only 5% of the people there actually care about football.
October 8th, 2022 at 11:04 PM ^
15 rows up on about the 47. I thought the fans were mostly fine, except for the family who sat down directly in front of me -- with maybe 2 minutes left in the first quarter. The (adult) kids were OK, but mom kept jumping up and screaming whenever even the smallest thing went well for IU. Exaggerated "first down" signals… she was her own one-woman hype show. Which is fine, but then why are you sitting behind the opponent bench at an IU football game? Luckily, she went to get beer for about five minutes of the second quarter.
At halftime, she got up, and the daughter said something about "gotta watch the wedding," and I assumed it was some sort of inside joke or whatever... but she was serious. They never returned, presumably to go attend somebody's fall Saturday wedding.
They came to the game for maybe 17 minutes of game action, 5 minutes of which mom spent in line for beer. 🤔
October 9th, 2022 at 9:13 AM ^
Sorry for having fun at a football game Clarence
October 9th, 2022 at 10:52 AM ^
Did she even finish her beer before they left?
October 9th, 2022 at 12:10 AM ^
As small as that stadium is, it used to be even smaller. When I went there for a game in 1998, the end zones weren't enclosed. It looked very much like a MAC stadium.
Indiana's marching band announcer is annoying. Carl Grapentine he is not.
October 9th, 2022 at 7:30 AM ^
Make the trip to OSU this year if we’re both undefeated. If they win it’ll feel like your part of a somewhat controlled prison riot. If we win you’ll be ducking and grooving through back alleys making deals with the man above. I was on OSU campus (buddy was a wrestler) the year Sparty knocked off Coopers greatest team and can still taste the tear gas. I was stupid enough to go in 06 with my wife and, at that time young son. Total mayhem. Hands down the worst, most hateful fans in the country whose lives revolve around OSU football. Work and summer is just a way to pass time till football Saturdays. Maybe things have changed, but no way am I going back to find out. When there’s a PSA to rent a car with Ohio plates for your gameday safety, you know what your getting into.
October 9th, 2022 at 11:16 AM ^
Been to games at Iowa and MSU. Will never consider going to Columbus for personal safety. Considering they have 1 win since 1987 vs. us, and that was Milton and Covid year (plus DB's D had been exposed for good by Rocky, Penix, etc.), I can see the apathy. Really, the hoops program slide under Crean probably felt like out descent into the abyss under RR and most of Hoke's time.
Would love to go to a game there someday. Along with a hoops game in Assembly Hall.