Ahh, parking at Autzen. Remember when you could actually do that?
by benzduck on Jan 30, 2010 12:35 AM PST
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This photo, dating from 1985, will certainly cause some AtQers to reminisce wistfully for the old days, when you could drive to Autzen, pretty much park wherever the heck you wanted for $3 (or $10 if you had a motorhome), and watch your team lose 54-0. Or 5-0. (OK, that was '75, but the parking situation was about the same.)
Note what's missing here from the present-day configuration. No Cas Center, no Mos Center, no PK Park, no expansion of the stadium, no practice fields on the stadium side of Centennial MLK Blvd, and *still* a line of buses out front. (That practice field on the north side of the road was brand-new.)
Back then, attendance averaged under 30,000 fans per game, despite all that parking.
Oregon now manages to get almost twice the attendance, from presumably healthier attendees, because there has to be a *lot* more walking involved now than 25 years back.
(Oh, see that big brown area in the background above the stadium? There was supposed to be a city-owned golf course there, but golf was deemed too elitist to waste dry brown acreage on; that area of the picture hasn't really changed a bit.)
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Any commentary on getting to Autzen must include discussion of the pilgrimage from campus.
That is seriously one of those memories that just glows in the brain, that beautiful walk from campus, across the footbridge, through the running trail area, and then around that slight bend where you see Mecca develop before your eyes. You spend each step thinking about the opponent, the team, and who is going to step up huge today. It starts in the streets around campus, you and your friends, with other groups sort slowly forming, then you filter into a larger mob around the physical plant and art studios across the street, then all join together into a faithful throng around the footbridge which actually moves up and down with your weight. The masses create a camaraderie, you might have a conversation with someone you don’t know, you might laugh at some joke someone yelled out 20 feet ahead, you might just hear battle cries. The gathering, the natural surround, the destination are all magical, building anticipation to the boiling point.
It’s just a flat perfect progression.
For me, parking at the stadium itself is just a pure non-issue, it’s just not even relevant. The pilgrimage from campus is not just pleasant, it’s a necessity.
Parking structure for 65K replacing the SAE house would do the trick.
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."-Pablo Picasso
by Bill Musgrave on Jan 30, 2010 8:40 AM PST reply actions 4 recs
Rec'd
I love it when the old guys get together and tell all us kiddies story from yesteryear. Tell me another one, pleeeeeeeeaassee.
I support the calls to fire Matt Daddy
Addicted to Quack
I'm guessing you voted "I ride with Matt Daddy"
I would have prefered “I roll with Matt Daddy”, since that can be interpreted as driving, walking, supporting his detailed sports analyses, getting in a gang fight, etc. etc., but I like it nonetheless.
Yes, stories of yesteryear are nice, but that walk is still a required part of the true Duck curriculum today. I understand one guy’s gotta drive the Winnebago over for the tailgaiter, but by JuJu the rest have to walk over to it.
For me it used to start at 19th and Mill after about a fifth of vodka or a half rack of beer amongst friends. When I make it to games anymore (like, not in the last two years I guess, sniff) it starts at Rennies where we consume, hmmm, yes, yes, if my dead brain cells serve me right, it seems like we still consume about a fifth of (better) vodka or a half rack of (better) beer. Maybe not, I don’t know. Honey, where’s my medicine? I can’t remember where I left my pants and what my name is. Ok, where was I. Yes, this:
You still have to do it. Required. All you young people, stay off my lawn, but stay ON the path to Mecca.
The above remarks are non-religious in nature, unless you consider devotion to LaMichael James to be of that genre.
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."-Pablo Picasso
by Bill Musgrave on Jan 30, 2010 9:53 AM PST up reply actions
Especially for a night game in October.
Sun just going down, maybe there’s one of those cosmic moonrises over the Coburg Hills, leaves turning color and falling all around.
everything is history, eventually.
Absofreakinlutely. Magical.
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."-Pablo Picasso
by Bill Musgrave on Jan 30, 2010 9:55 AM PST up reply actions
Agree on the footbridge walk. I did it every game this past year and seeing the giant O peeking through the trees is just magical. Once you’ve come out of the trees, you spend the next 2 minutes walking, looking up at the stadium thinking to yourself…“I’m going to witness magic today” and in every game this past season, I did.
--Dominic, Addicted to Quack
Autzen Stadium is where great teams go to die." - J. Brady McCullough, The Michigan Daily.
Parking structure for 65K replacing the SAE house would do the trick./blockquote>
Rec’d.
everything is history, eventually.
PS Benz: Great write up as usual.
I’ll shut my big mouth now, that walk is just one of my favorite things UO.
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers."-Pablo Picasso
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