SC Soccer Forums SCSoccer.com Forums Boys Varsity Soccer What do you think of Memorial Stadium now?

ummm gosh darn i need to get a gps to see which ones closer, but stone is just down heyward for me so it is a straight shot and closer i guess

It was ok but not stone!. I think if the upstate is home team they should play at clemson or Furman. If low state is home that year they should play at stone or charleston.

What are the field dimensions of both Stone field and Memorial? Memorial seemed a bit on the small side in width when i played on it.

So then how about the teams that have to travel to Columbia? You dont think any of the local midlands schools get an advantage by playing ALL the championships in columbia?

Im open to a change in the location. Columbia gets old seeing it year after year for the same event.

What do you really see of Columbia? You are there to watch soccer so what are you missing? At least you can drive back and forth and not have to dole out bucks for a place to stay. Of course we could rotate the site and some will be forced to pay additional travel money to stay. I really don't think the so called home field advantage has any serious impact. Fans tend to travel for State championships and there is more than one game on the way to the championship. I believe the Columbia solution is the most reasonable. If you were to rotate that site then we might as well have neutral sites for all of the playoffs. Not very reasonable.

Memorial's field is rather small but the atmosphere was hard to beat. I am sure there would have been a lot of excitement no matter where the games had been played though.

what size is the field?

why so much crown in it?

I'd like to see it rotate upstate (Furman), midstate (USC) and Lower state (Blackbaud)

Memorial is better than i remember it. The last time i took a team there, it was just this side of a goat farm. The dimensions were around 116 x 65ish which makes it closer to what most high schools have for home fields. I like that fact so that you do not distort a high school game on a college field. However, Kevin makes a BIG point with the accomodations... i like that parking is adjacent to the stadium, the concession stand (or canteen if you will) is much more visible and could get more traffic, i like being on opposite sides from the opposing team and having our fans on opposite sides. However, you can never discount the excitement a high school kid has for playing on a college field.

Back in the day the State Finals would rotate between the up-state winner and the lower-state winner. In 1995, everything moved to Stone in Columbia. I think the move helped to raise more money, coordinate volunteers, refereeing, etc... however, with USC being able to dump and reacquire the game at their will, I have to side with The Rail on the rotation concept.

USC left us scrambling for a field to host our State Finals on so why should we go running back to them? What was Plan B if we could not get Memorial? If Stone cannot offer similar accomdations to Memorial AND give us a guarantee they will not leave us hanging again AND since Memorial will not be getting a college team anytime soon, why not investigate rotating the site with Columbia possibly getting it every other year?!?

2010- Memorial/Stone; 2011- Blackbaud; 2012- Stone (Columbia); 2013- Riggs Field (Clemson)/Stone (Furman); 2014- Stone (Columbia)... etc.

I like voice of reason's idea. Get columbia in every other year and rotate between the 3 portions of the state.

You guys arn't paying the bills are ya? As mentioned above coordinating the event each and every year requires effeciency in order to complete at a reasonable cost. Rotating the event does not allow for consistent coordination. That will cost $$ and attendance will go down also costing $$. Please don't use the arguement that it is all about the kids. IMHO-Public schools provide way too many sports for their populations.

Did USC really leave us hanging? Is the relationship between USC and the SCHSL really that contentious? I think there is probably some more detailed insight needed before that arguement is used as reasoning for rotating the sites.