America's 100 most important sports venues

[A-Tex Devil]

Permian High School? Those are important?

Yes. It is. Above Cameron? eh, not sure about that. But a high school game there is just different than everywhere else. And they are good again this year which is awesome!!

[ugadevil]

Yes. It is. Above Cameron? eh, not sure about that. But a high school game there is just different than everywhere else. And they are good again this year which is awesome!!

I didn't think the people of Permian High School even liked the fact that they got so much attention from the Friday Night Lights story? The author of the book didn't exactly portray them in the best light. I'm surprised ESPN didn't give some love to the high school football in Valdosta, Georgia. After all, they were the ones that named it TITLETOWN, USA!

[BobbyFan]

I stopped reading upon seeing Camden Yards at #2.

[SharkD]

I'm not a NASCAR fan, but the mere fact that the list omits the Occoneechee Speedway, the only existing track from the inaugural 1949 season, in favor of modern superspeedways, ESPN HQ, Gold's Gym and high-school gyms is nuts.

Then there's the notion of the DAP (the one and only) ranking significantly ahead of Cameron. Whatever he's smoking, it's probably pretty good stuff.

[throatybeard]

I think something a lot of y'all are missing is that the list is "most important," not "most awesome and groovy." Now, you could still quibble with where things on the list, but I'll submit that Cameron isn't that "important," or not more than 58th.

--Cameron doesn't host postseason games.* The pro venues do, and college FB stadiums like OSU and Michigan host what might as well be given the one-n-done nature of November in college FB.

* - OK, a few WBB 1R and 2R games

--Cameron doesn't host neutral site games of any importance.

--Cameron isn't a paradigm-changer of any importance. Yes, it was big in 1941. But it didn't result in tons of arenas like it being built, Reynolds notwithstanding. This is why Camden Yards is so high. It changed how you build stadia.

--Cameron isn't a huge cultural touchstone outside sports, like several of the buildings listed, including old DAP. When Cameron appears in a great movie, call me. The article cites DAP as a touchstone in the revival of Minor league Baseball.

--The fans on this board have a distorted idea of the cachet of College BB in the American sportscape. At the absolute highest, MBB is 5th to NFL, MLB, NBA and college FB. There have actually been times in the last quarter century when women's figure skating was higher. Maybe the NHL during Gretzky and Lemieux. And more people watch the Winter and Summer Olympics than games in Cameron. Tiger Woods has made golf more relevant than Clemson at Duke.

--Basketball arenas have a smaller impact in terms of the number of attendees that baseball, football, and multipurpose venues. Arugably, you could use this to argue against Permian, but HS games in TX are better attended than 3/5 of Duke MBB games.

--Concerts, I guess. Cameron used to host a few important concerts, but it doesn't continue to, like say MSG.

Cameron is fantastic. But our fans have a really inflated notion of its "importance." To anyone outside this school, about two semi-important things a year happen at Cameron, the UNC MBB home game, and maybe one other.

[Inonehand]

Cameron got beat by the old DAP, at #35. All because Bull Durham was filmed there. Woopdie-doo...

That's not the reason he stated...because of the movie he said it kicked off the rapid growth of interest in minor league baseball...and he's right. The Durham Bulls franchise itslef went from being worth a couple hundred thousand bucks to well over a million a year after the movie. After that movie, many more minor league teams dropped their affiliate names (Red Sox, Angels, etc.) and started coming up with neat, regionally important nicknames and marketed more heavily. While I wish the stadium would be demolished instead of wasting Durham taxpayer money to keep it up and going, it was very important. Other than Duke being a great basketball program and it plays in Cameron, what makes it more important than the DAP?

[Devils Rock]

"At Duke, they haul you out of there if you don't stand up and cheer."

I think the students and band certainly buy into this, and it makes for great hyperbole, but if you've watched a game from the upper tier in Cameron then you can find plenty of folks who are like the people in Pauley.

Actually, Devilirium, you are right. My Cameron-colored glasses ommited the fact that the upper level of Cameron is pretty tame. However, what is scary about Pauley is that the entire place is like that. It's possible and maybe even probable that it's gotten much better since Howland took over, but I don't have any reason to go to the place so I don't know if it's improved or not.

[CameronBornAndBred]

Other than Duke being a great basketball program and it plays in Cameron, what makes it more important than the DAP?

I'd say it's more important if for no other reason it's one of the icons of college basketball. Between Rupp Arena, Cameron, Pauley Pavilion, and the Dean Dome, no other venues are so recognized for one sport. Each is synonymous with college basketball. Cameron is brought into the living rooms of millions of Americans every home game, and often during the broadcast you will see them run a little side story on it's history. If not on the building itself, then the fans inside. Name one other college sports team that the fans are recognized by the building they occupy. There probably are a few, but none I believe stand out so much as the Cameron Crazies. So until the old DAP reaches such icon status and is recognized for more than one past year's event, I'd say Cameron reigns king at least in Durham importance.

[DU82]

Baseball completely overrated as it usually is on these lists...

Baseball has the history, and for the older generations still around, was essentially the only game in town up until 1958 (Giants-Colts.) It is the game most "handed down" from father to son. (I'm not trying to be sexist here, just realistic, even though it's my mother with the picture of Ebbets Field in the den, not my father.) That's why there's so many baseball parks on the list, as they are more identified with their teams (even the new ones) than the latest brand new basketball arena (Time Warner Cable Arena, anyone?)

With many/most of the sportswriters in big cities, that reduces the interest in college sports in favor of pro sports as well.

I just returned from the last game in Yankee Stadium, and it was an event that touched a lot of people. It's not just the games, but the family connections and memories. (and 26 championships.) I know the article was written because the Stadium was closing, but it still ranks number one. It was not the first concrete/steel ballpark, but it was the first majestic huge (baseball) stadium (in the nation's largest city) and I would challenge anybody to come up with five that would top it. In baseball, the two older parks still standing, Fenway is a reminant of the older, smaller single deck ballparks and Wrigley wasn't even built for the Cubs, they moved in after the Federal League folded. For the purposes of the guy's list, Camden Yards, which created the new trend in more and more in stadiums (carried over to all other sports, including college) should rank up in the top ten, if not number two.