Is Autzen Stadium a must-visit Football Mecca for any fan’s Bucket List before the Grim Reaper comes a callin’?
Thirty-five years ago, Almost DailyBrett bought his season tickets at Autzen Stadium and made the first of just as many annual contributions to the Duck Athletic Fund.
Considering there were only 12,000 season tickets sold in 1990 for a then-41,000-seat stadium, some questioned why a Portland resident would drive two hours on I-5 and then another two hours north to watch a team that most thought was heading south.
Today, Autzen Stadium’s listed capacity is 54,000 after a major overhaul of the south side of the stadium. Last season, the average attendance was 56,341.
For 2024, 95 percent of season ticket holders renewed and another 10,000 new season tickets were sold for Oregon’s first year in the Big 10.
Is Eugene becoming a town divided by those who possess Oregon Duck season tickets, and those who do not?
The same is true with another medium size football town, Green Bay, Wisconsin. Coincidentally, the Ducks and the Packers sport similar emerald green and lemon yellow uniforms.
Autzen Stadium is the venue in which “It never rains.” Lambeau Field in Green Bay is affectionately known for its “Frozen Tundra.”
Don’t get Almost DailyBrett wrong. Your author is not comparing sports venues with the Vatican or the American Normandy Cemetery, when it comes to must visits before one buys the ranch.
Yours truly is not suggesting that Autzen Stadium and/or Lambeau Field are the only sports stadiums/arenas worth visiting — better yet attending a game –that should be considered for inclusion on a fan’s bucket list (i.e., Monaco Grand Prix, Wimbledon, Augusta Golf Club, Rose Bowl, Churchill Downs, Fenway Park …).
Den Of Intensity
This place has everything I could ever want. There’s a little bit of a problem in society for people looking for what’s next and where there’s an opportunity. The reality is the grass is not always greener. In fact, the grass is damn green in Eugene.” — Oregon Head Coach Dan Lanning
The Autzen Stadium field turf too.
Only those who have experienced Autzen know for sure.
Or is it, the Autzen Experience?
There are the historic wins, including “Kenny Wheaton is going to score” against the Dawgs. The legendary quarterbacks. The 127 decibels recorded against USC. The Duck sporting a rose on the back of a Harley. “Coming Home.”
And let’s not forget Troy Dye dancing to the Oregon special rendition of Otis Day and the Knights’ “Shout” from Animal House.
When one walks across the bridge over the Willamette River and through the forest, you instinctively know — you can fill the chills through your body — Autzen is a pilgrimage to Football Mecca.
Has Autzen already become Lambeau West without the Frozen Tundra?
Maybe Lambeau has already become Autzen East in which it never rains?
https://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/2024/04/oregon-ducks-football-season-tickets-sold-out-for-2024.html
Never Acknowledge, Admit Or Concede
“The man who does nothing cuts the same sordid figure in the pages of history, whether he be cynic, or fop, or voluptuary. There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of the great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder.” — President Teddy Roosevelt, ‘The Man in the Arena,’ The Sorbonne, April 23, 1910
There are no critics on Mt. Rushmore.
Every time a tepid soul journalist would ask Almost DailyBrett to acknowledge, admit or concede, the answer was an automatic, ‘no.’
The reason is simple: There was and still is a 99 percent chance that anything and everything acknowledged, admitted or conceded will be immediately seized by a carnivorous partisan reporter, correspondent, editor or anchor.
It’s the beastly nature of the nattering nabobs of negativism.
Ever wonder why Donald Trump refuses to apologize, and never will? Acknowledging, admitting or conceding — let alone apologizing — demonstrates sniveling weakness to be immediately devoured by predatory cat-nip journalists.
Would you rather be seen in the vain of Teddy Roosevelt’s “Man in the Arena” or appeasing Neville Chamberlain?
What about the truth? A Man or a Woman in the Arena should always tell the truth. That does not mean allowing reporters with prescribed political agendas to put incendiary words into your mouth. Part of the 1st Amendment Rights to Free Speech is the prerogative to disagree and to actually displease the Fourth Estate.
As Almost DailyBrett has repeatedly lamented about political reporters taking sides. They will advance stories that work against you, and ignore those that advance your cause. If they can put words in your mouth that coincide with their litmus-test, they will happily do so.
As a former Republican press secretary for eight years, your author knows the vast majority of journalists wanted us to fail big time. The undeniable fact that California is now a one-party basket case is partially attributable to the loss of objectivity in the Sacramento Press Corps. That has not always been the case, but it’s true right now.
Almost DailyBrett pointed out the journalists of yesteryear (e.g., 1980s and earlier) were better, fairer and open to both sides. They gathered the facts and reported the news.
Analysis, Commentary and Interpretation
“I’m certain that the truth exists for you and probably for the person sitting next to you. But this may not be the same truth. This is because the truth of the matter is very often, for many people, what happens when we merge facts about the world with our beliefs about the world. So we all have different truths.” — NPR chief executive officer Katherine Maher
Different truths?
Is Ms. Maher saying that all truths are not created the same or that some are more equal than others? Are elite media beliefs and infallible truths the same? At least they don’t cause a distraction to getting things done.
Isn’t the job of fair, objective, both sides, professional journalists to separate truths from beliefs and report on the real truths whatever they may be? It’s used to be called, fact-based Journalism.
Ever heard of editorials in drag? They’re all around you, particularly in this age of digital/social media.
Who decides? Increasing it’s those who arrogantly craft analysis, prepare commentaries and offer interpretations as in their own analysis, their own commentary and their own interpretations. Who elected these journalists? Where are their statues?
At their best they are Devil’s advocates posing questions to elicit quotable responses. That’s fair game.
When they are trying to infuse incendiary language on to the lips of message developers/spokesperson to advance their self-serving analysis, commentary and interpretation that practice is further contributing to the record loss of American trust in today’s so-called journalists.
https://www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org/Learn-About-TR/TR-Encyclopedia/Culture-and-Society/Man-in-the-Arena.aspx
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/npr-ceo-calls-first-amendment-the-number-one-challenge-in-america/ar-BB1lOi3s
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