College Football and the MLS Need to Build a Relationship
Underutilized and beautiful architecture across the country
Major League Soccer ownership has developed an inventory of beautiful stadiums which are generally underutilized, and lower level college football has a neutral site problem.
This premise got a little bit out of hand, but I had some thoughts.
Generally, college football teams play at on-campus stadiums, but championship games are played at off-campus sites, often municipal or high school stadiums, which shrinks the possible inventory and are often a poor fit for the game at hand.
The FCS level has led the way, as they’ve played their championship game at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas - an MLS stadium that is somewhat dated compared to the recent construction boom that has happened in the league as it opened in 2005.
It has been a great venue for the event, partly due to the fact that North Dakota State has played in 10 of the 13 games at the stadium and the driving route, though not short, is relatively simple between Fargo and Frisco and definitely doable for Bison fans who want to drive - assuming the weather cooperates.
The stadium has an official capacity of 20,500 for football and in the 10 games that North Dakota State has been a part of they’ve averaged 19,628 in attendance. The two non-COVID years without ND State has seen an average of 13,725, so there’s definitely an effect.
At the Division 2 level, they had played their championship game at Braly Municipal Stadium in Florence, Alabama from 1986-2013 before moving the game to Children’s Mercy Park, the MLS Stadium in Kansas City for 4 years. The venue benefitted from having a somewhat nearby program in Northwest Missouri State take part in 2015 and 2016, with an attendance of 16,181 in fair weather, and 9,576 in heavy snow. 2014 saw 6,762 and 2017 only 4,259 in attendance, which may have appeared disappointing as they moved the game to the more reliable weather of McKinney ISD Stadium in McKinney, Texas, but the attendance numbers haven’t been terribly strong, possibly due to the teams involved.
In the 4 games at McKinney, attendance has been 4,306 - 3,415 - 3,933 - 6,333. The most recent season was buoyed by the participation of Colorado School of Mines, though then 800 mile drive isn’t trivial, it definitely drove attendance as Ferris State repeated as champion.
McKinney ISD Stadium is a fine venue, and at a capacity of 12,000 it feels appropriately sized for the game, but given where the strength of Division 2 lies, it’s clearly not getting the attendance it deserves. The stadium will continue to be the home for the Division 2 Championship Game through the 2025 season at this time.
The Division 3 level is where things get frustrating for myself.
I realize that these championship venues are based off a bidding process, and so for the management of a venue to be interested in hosting, there needs to be a certain level of potential profitability to be had.
Salem Football Stadium in Salem, Virginia has been the most common host, from 1993-2017 and will once again host this fall. It’s an appropriately sized venue with a capacity of 7,157 and has averaged 5,128 in attendance.
This past season the game was in Annapolis, Maryland, at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, which was wildly outsized for the event with a capacity of 34,000 and a reported attendance of 3,231. It was a poor fit in many ways and hopefully we won’t see something similar again.
Unfortunately, 2024 will see a very disappointing decision by the NCAA to have the Division 3 Championship Game at George Turner Stadium in Humble, Texas. This is a high school facility with a track and plain stands behind each sideline.
I will admit, I have a bias against football stadiums with track and field facilities. I simply don’t like how they look, and outside of the very best of Texas high school football stadiums, playing a college championship at a high school stadium doesn’t feel like a great way to be treating players.
2025 is already booked to return the game to Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio. I really like this stadium, the renovations from 2015 look great to me, and with a capacity of 23,000 it is still a little too large for the game, but the upper deck can be closed to restrict ticket sales to the prime seats. I wouldn’t be upset if this could be the permanent home of the Division 3 Championship Game.
There is one problem, however.
This stadium also hosted the game in 2021 and only had an announced attendance of 1,830. That is not enough to appear viable. 2020 was cancelled due to COVID, but the 2019 game in Shenandoah, Texas did even worse as only 1,362 individuals watched North Central (IL) defeat Wisconsin-Whitewater.
It could be that North Central (IL) simply does not generate ticket sales for the Division 3 Championship Game as attendance has appeared depressed for the last 3 iterations that have all featured the Cardinals from Illinois.
The other reason could be that Canton is a short distance southwest of Mount Union, and given their history, perhaps many of the best tickets available had been bought up by fans of the Purple Raiders and they didn’t flood the market on short notice. I would be very interested to see the attendance numbers in 2025 if Mount Union makes it to that game.
Discussing previous NAIA Championships is a little bit more difficult as attendance information doesn’t appear to be wildly public. The NAIA appears to claim an attendance of only 1,200 for last year’s affair at Durham County Stadium in Durham, North Carolina. It appears that they will host the game for 2023 and 2024 as well, but bidding for 2025 and 2026 is open.
It’s not a bad venue, but again, it’s a facility with a track around the field and I just can’t get over the visual and how it cheapens the event for me.
Previously, the game was held at Eddie G. Robinson Memorial Stadium at Grambling State University in 2019 and Spring 2021 (delayed 2020 season) which is a very interesting venue. The stadium is an extreme example of the “sunken bowl” style and is affectionately referred to as “The Hole”.
One issue with the location is that NAIA championship game participants tend to be based somewhat in the Midwest, so any extension further south or east puts a strain on the ability for fans to travel.
For those interested in the bidding criteria, the NAIA is quite public: NAIA Football Host Bid
The one thing that stands out to me is that they state a requirement for an artificial turf field. This isn’t really much of a concern for any reasonable college or high school level stadiums that could be under consideration, but it does exclude MLS stadiums that really should be part of the conversation.
And that’s really the point of all this. I want to take a look at a few awesome MLS options that should be part of the conversation for future championship games.
Lynn Family Stadium - Louisville, Kentucky
Though not technically an MLS venue, Lynn Family Stadium is a top class design and with a soccer viewing capacity of 11,700, it feels appropriately sized to take on any of the sub-D1 football championships.
The open end of the stadium faces the Ohio River to the northwest and the sharply pitched stands give an excellent view of the game. The location of Louisville, to the northwest border of Kentucky, is a nice geographic fit for any of the sub-D1 games. Historical weather data shows an average high in December of around 47F with lows near freezing. Unfortunately the Bermuda and ryegrass blend for the field would preclude it from NAIA consideration, which looks like a massive oversight by the standards laid out by the organization.
Assuming it has the capability to host a football game, I can’t see a reason why this wouldn’t be a great venue for a college football event.
Children’s Mercy Park - Kansas City, Kansas
As mentioned above, this stadium has already been used for the Division 2 Championship Game from 2014-2017. Attendance was quite strong with the participation of nearby Northwest Missouri State, though December weather in Kansas City could keep people away.
Kansas City is also the home of NAIA headquarters, and between that and a high level stadium, I think it would be a perfect home for the NAIA Championship.
It also has great proximity to the likely source of NAIA Championship teams. Over the past 10 seasons, the 20 participating teams have been from Iowa (7), Indiana (5), Kentucky (2), Kansas (2), Oregon (2), Georgia (1), and Florida (1).
I would love to see NAIA Championship Game attendance rise towards 10,000. Keeping the game in the Midwest would help drive attendance in my opinion. If you wanted to push the game towards the East, you could consider…
CITYPARK - St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis has the advantage of being on the eastern border of Missouri which brings it closer to more of the general population. It also may actually be a better location as an intersection of travel for likely championship game participants.
I really can’t get over how great all these newer MLS stadiums look and having the opportunity to play a game in a top-tier modern stadium would be a special opportunity for the players involved.
You may be asking about potential scheduling conflicts. Well, the 2023 MLS regular season is running from February 24 - October 21, and the playoffs from October 25 - December 9. That’s perfect timing to not interfere with any of the football championship games. And any concerns about football cleats chewing up the turf can be alleviated by the ample time before the season restarts to repair the field.
Lower.com Field - Columbus, Ohio
TQL Stadium - Cincinnati, Ohio
I’m grouping these two Ohio stadiums together because they represent an option to Canton for the Division 3 game. I really feel like Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium is the perfect venue for the D3 game from a historical and proximity standpoint, it was just very unfortunate that attendance to the 2021 game was so poor.
But if one was wanting to move the game to the southwest of Canton, both stadiums offer a somewhat flashier alternative.
I do like the clear delineation between lower and upper bowls, especially where the lower bowl is below grade, and it would be simple to reduce capacity to keep the fans closer together for the sake of better viewing and atmosphere.
Q2 Stadium - Austin, Texas
Perhaps it’s just tied into my personal preferences, but whenever I find a favorite stadium at any level of football (and now soccer) it tends to be one in Texas. The mix of open air sightlines under the roof and the committed branding of striking green and team graphics while also looking professional without excessive suites. The reasonable sizing of these stadiums also makes me feel like you wouldn’t have a bad seat in the house.
I don’t think I’ve talked about the roof situation across these facilities yet.
For whatever reason, North American stadium design has somewhat eschewed the inclusion of roofs over the spectator areas compared to popular designs from across the pond. They don’t accomplish all that much against precipitation, but they’re mostly there for creating shade and protecting fans from the sun. They also reflect sound and make the crowds of 20,000-30,000 feel much larger and more raucous.
Unfortunately, the truth of the matter is that a lot of this ramble is likely pointless. With how Championship venues are chosen through a bidding process, and given historical attendance numbers, the interest is likely just not there in a lot of situations.
I’m not sure this process is in the best interest of fans, if I had my way all of these games would have a more permanent home at a modern and high quality stadium.
I’ll admit I know very little about MLS, but it’s clear that it is growing rapidly, up to 29 teams, and with a huge amount of money being invested in these stadiums. At this time there are 22 soccer-specific stadiums and only 7 from the NFL/CFL world. They’re quite different than the standard North American stadium, taking most of their inspiration from European venues, but it seems like they’re fairly easy to convert to football use temporarily, even if the fit is a little awkward.
The ‘soccer-specific’ branding seems a little bit misleading, as it seems to imply that it can’t be used for other sports, but of that class, we’ve already seen Toyota Stadium (Frisco, TX), Children’s Mercy Park (Kansas City, KS), DRV PNK Stadium (Fort Lauderdale, FL), Shell Energy Stadium (Houston, TX) and Audi Field (Washington, DC) used for football.
I’m hoping that moving forward we may see some FBS bowl games move to these stadiums as a better fit for the sort of attendance many of these games end up with, as well as highlighting the fact that MLS is positioning themselves in the same professional tier as the big 4 leagues.
I think it’s time to look at football and soccer as coexisting and not opposing. Even at the college level, I believe the future of small stadiums is a shared use football/soccer setup with track and field facilities existing separately. The field dimensions work well for fan proximity, and it’s clear to me that the steeper seating that is more common in Europe is a better design for viewing the game and lends itself to a smaller (<25,000) capacity facility.
Speaking of shared use, 2025 will see the birth of a football program at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley in the southern tip of Texas in the city of Edinburg. At this time, it appears they will play their home games at H-E-B Park, a United States League (USL) venue with a capacity of 9,735. The design has grown on me and I’m excited to see it in action when UTRGV hits the field.
Unfortunately, stadiums that were designed solely for football tend to be slightly too narrow with a bowed shape that tapers towards the endzones. Soccer stadiums are rigidly rectangular and more flexible in their usage due to their larger playing surface.
There’s nothing wrong with the current on-campus stadiums of lower level football. Those programs are operating in a reasonable and logical way to maximize usage of a facility without getting themselves into financial trouble over-investing in their athletics program. I do enjoy seeing programs building fine new stadiums through financial donations and minimized debt, but the main thing is that the playing surface is in good condition and safe for the athletes, everything else is a bonus.
I love the explosion in streaming across these levels and I hope to see some continued investment there.
This was really about wanting championship games to be a real celebration for fans that are able to travel and a tangible reward for the players who fought to make it to the game. It just doesn’t feel right to me to have these games in older, small, and dreary stadiums that just feel like another Fall road game.
Even at the FCS and D2 levels, Toyota Stadium has been a fine venue, but it’s also somewhat boring compared to some of the other options out there and overall I don’t really like the look of the stage end of the stadium. As for McKinney ISD, with Ferris State getting in trouble for their championship celebrations the last 2 seasons, it’s clear that the facility rules for a high school stadium don’t quite align with collegiate athletes. But it is a fine football stadium and I hope that future teams don’t cause problems in the coming years.
I don’t expect anything to change for some time, but I felt that more people should know about what’s out there and be open to the future of soccer in North America and how it can co-exist with football and support each other.