Football in baseball stadiums today
Like the Cubs in October, there will be little action in this endzone
The hot topic on the sports front this weekend is a thrilling weekend of November NBA basketball. Just kidding. Everyone is talking about two college football games being played today: Illinois vs. Northwestern and Army vs. Notre Dame. On a normal weekend, those games are as ho-hum as it gets, but the first game is being played in Wrigley Field while the second game will take place in the new Yankee Stadium later tonight. It’s odd that professional sports teams have made it a point in the last 20 years to do away with multi-purpose stadiums only to try and promote other sports and events in its venues now. It’s quite apparent that local government never thought through the financial problems of having a handful of large stadiums and arenas within miles of each other only being used part time and competing with each other for events, but that’s a subject for another post (or another website). In the meantime, here is the topic-worthy news about the games today:
While everything seems to be running smooth regarding the game at Yankee Stadium, there has been quite a snag in the game at Wrigley Field. Despite a months old field design and lines on the field for weeks now, officials from the Big Ten finally took a look at how close the east end zone is to the right field wall and, citing player safety, decided to restrict all offense to the west end zone! The actual decision shouldn’t cause too much confusion in the game itself (everything will operate the same, but the ball will be respotted with the offense facing west after each change of possession), but the timing of the decision is what has many people up in arms, especially those who shelled out three figures for a seat near the east end zone. For much of the day, they will be watching the quarterback’s butt get smaller and smaller on each drive.
It should be noted that the Chicago Bears played in Wrigley Field for decades, but the football field was built north-south which can’t be done now due to additional permanent seating which didn’t exist back then. The video below provides more detail.
Read on:
ESPN.com – One end zone for offense at Wrigley
(image taken from chicagotribune.com)
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