This photo has been floating around the Internet tonight, showing what is apparently a new field / end zone design for Bryant-Denny. The photo itself is probably legitimate, and I imagine this is the design we will see for the A-Day game. The photo has none of the obvious photoshop giveaways, and clearly it is a very recent picture given the work being done on the South end zone.
The real question is whether or not this design will stick for the 2009 season. We had some interesting grass designs for the A-Day game in 2007 and 2008, but those designs weren't around when the season kicked off.
Either way, I actually hope the "new" design sticks. And I say "new" because it's really not new. If you look closely at the font, that is the same font that we used for a long time while spelling out "ALABAMA" in the end zone. The only difference was that back then, "ALABAMA" was just written with white letters and no background color. I'm still a tad bit up in the air one this one, but I think I like it. Can't go wrong with crimson, in my book anyway. On the other hand, if you zoom in close enough on the South end zone, you can see that it actually spells out "CRIMSON TIDE," and maybe I'm just being way too nitpicky and I have no justification for feeling this way, but I think I would like "ALABAMA" in both end zones.
Also, one final point, if you look closely at the field itself, you will not see a blade of yellow / brown grass, and I mean absolutely none whatsoever. This may be wrong, and we'll see come Saturday, but it almost looks like we have installed the Field Turf system. It was rumored for a while that we had done that, but there was never any confirmation to my knowledge. Either way, we'll find out on Saturday. All the more incentive to show up, eh?
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"New" font...
As I said, the font is not really new. If you look at this photo taken from the 1998 season opener against BYU — where the west side upper deck was first unveiled — the font used then was almost the exact same as it is in the recent design. There are some very, very minor modifications, but it is basically the same, except now it is on a crimson background.
And, of course, the South end then also had “ALABAMA,” and not “CRIMSON TIDE.”
by outsidethesidelines on Apr 16, 2009 9:30 PM CDT up reply actions
Definitely
reminds me of the slanted font we had in the 90’s.
Is it August yet?
by Bens4vcobra on Apr 17, 2009 11:58 AM CDT up reply actions
I like it...
but it doesn’t look like turf because, if you notice, there are no sidelines painted or white outlines around the endzones. Personally, I hope we keep the natural grass, gives it a deep South football kind of feel.
Having seen Field Turf from afar and up close at the Georgia Dome
I can definitely say that it’s Field Turf.
The cool thing about Field Turf is that it honest-to-goodness looks and feels like grass with out all that messy staining and growing hassles of real grass. It’s nothing like that slippery crap that passes as turf at most stadiums.
"If the Falcons ever manage to win a Super Bowl in my lifetime, I'll french kiss a toilet." - a friend.
by Adam Schultz on Apr 16, 2009 9:41 PM CDT up reply actions
I don't know...
I know the sidelines aren’t painted and all of that sort of stuff, but I would imagine that could be added later.
I don’t know, I might be all wrong, but it just doesn’t look right to me. It looks way too green, and a bit too shiny, especially considering the photo was presumably taken sometime in early April.
We’ll see.
by outsidethesidelines on Apr 16, 2009 10:46 PM CDT up reply actions
I don't think that's turf
Just the sheen of green springtime grass. It looks different than the worn patchy and gray look of the field in the fall. Then again, I’m no agrarian.
Looks good man!
I’m really liking the redesigned throwback endzone font with the crimson background.
36-0
Would be nice to see a checkerboard with Crimson & White
by capstonereport on Apr 16, 2009 10:38 PM CDT reply actions
NO!!!
We don’t need to copy one damn thing that UcheaT does. WE are the leaders, the innovators.
"I hate everything orange"
It's all about Crimson - ROLL TIDE!!!
Actually...
We wouldn’t be copying that from Tennessee. We had the checkerboard end zone design long before UT starting screwing it up with the puke orange.
I’d personally love to see the checkerboard in crimson and white, and I think it would look fabulous. I highly doubt we’d ever do it because it would be viewed by most fans as us ripping off UT — though that’s obviously not true — but I’d still love to see it.
by outsidethesidelines on Apr 16, 2009 10:54 PM CDT up reply actions
And actually...
The checkerboard end zone design with Tennessee is actually a pretty new thing. That started with Doug Dickey in 1964, but only lasted a few years. I want to say its last year was like 1967 or so, and after that Tennessee went to artificial turf and did not have the checkerboard design. They didn’t actually bring back the checkerboard design until either 1989 or 1990, so it’s actually a pretty new thing even for the Vols. People seem to think that the checkerboard end zone is a piece of Tennessee tradition that has been around forever, but it has really only been prominent the past two decades.
At any rate, we started having crimson and white checkerboard end zones at Legion Field as early as 1962. It was a staple there throughout the 1960’s, and you can find many videos of it online. Stabler’s run in the mud, for example, was when we had the checkerboard end zone. If you look in the UA media guide, they actually even have an old aerial photo of Legion Field from the early 1960’s with the checkerboard end zone, too. We had it there until 1970 when artificial turf came along.
by outsidethesidelines on Apr 16, 2009 11:30 PM CDT up reply actions
One more note...
One more note, and then I’ll shut up about checkerboard end zones, lol…
Actually UA did experiment with bringing it back in 2004. If you recall correctly, we unveiled the “new” field design — the one we’ve had up until now — for the 2004 Alabama v. Mississippi State game. We had actually decided to spice things up that April, and after Spring practice ended we started to experiment with a few designs to see how they looked. One of the designs we tried out that summer was a crimson and white checkerboard design for the end zones. There was a couple of pictures of it on the Tuscaloosa News’ website, and it looked damn sharp. I don’t know if you can still find those pictures now, but if you anyone can please post.
by outsidethesidelines on Apr 16, 2009 11:52 PM CDT up reply actions
Great stuff on the history of the checkerboard.
I love the old films and the look of football’s golden years. It never hurts to try new things and maybe even some old things.
by capstonereport on Apr 17, 2009 1:09 PM CDT up reply actions
The Legion Field checkerboard end zones...
…were in Forrest Gump. Interesting story here about his creator, Winston Groom, a 1965 Alabama graduate, and how Forrest came to play for Bear. I love this quote: “If he could make it at Alabama and play for Bear Bryant, he could do anything in world.”
It’s just been too long without the checkerboards and too associated now with that puke pumpkin orange for us to go back to it.
"I hate everything orange"
It's all about Crimson - ROLL TIDE!!!
i dont know
the forrest gump bit has pretty much sold me. i say we treat UcheaT like the punks they are and straight up take that ish back. jailhouse style. whats kiffin gonna do?
welcome to the SEC kiffykins...
by tempebamafan on Apr 17, 2009 3:26 PM CDT up reply actions
Interesting...
I can’t wait to rub some opposition hides into the new endzone. Hopefully it stains the seats of their uniforms so you can see how many times we caught them sitting down for a TD.
If you really zoom in
(and i know this is a stretch) you can see a bit of worn down field on the left sideline. Right next to the out of bounds line..
‘When you build a house and you make it hurricane-proof by putting certain kinds of windows in it, and use cement instead of stick construction and all that kind of stuff, you’re getting prepared for what? A hurricane that may or may never every come." ’We’re going to have 12 hurricanes next year, we know they’re coming.’
- Coach Nick Saban
I like it alot...
the end zones look good and I am digging the “Crimson Tide” in the opposite zone. Its good to have a little change and fresh feel w/o getting into messing with the “traditional” looks too much. The field is one place you can do that. I hope it STAYS!!! …and this looks much better than freaking checkerboard ever would. Everytime I see the UT checkerboard, it reminds me of the pair of Vans I sported in 3rd grade.
You guys are serious business over here
18 comments about the end zone. That is what I call super serial. BTW what is the ETA on closing (i mean seating) Bryant Denny?
"Jay Jacobs can't go to the bathroom without Bobby Lowder's permission" - Paul Finebaum
Should be open for the 2010
Home Opener against Penn St
"The game demonstrated the superiority of the Southern teams over any aggregation that the damn yankees could send across the Mason and Dixon Line." Sports writer Charles Israel of the Philadelphia Bulletin after the Tide's 61-6 win over Syracuse in the 1953 Orange Bowl.
That's it...
The completion date will be prior to the 2010 season, and it will raise capacity to 101,000 and some change.
I don’t think the home opener will be versus Penn State, though. We have them scheduled for September 11th, so unless we decide to take an off-week in week one or go play another neutral site game against a good team (both of which are highly unlikely), we’ll start off with a cupcake on September 4th in the opener, and then PSU comes in the following week for the first “big” game.
by outsidethesidelines on Apr 17, 2009 11:17 AM CDT up reply actions
Awww shucks
I wanted PSU for the opening
Anyways, whats the odds JoePa makes the trip or does he coach from his office in Happy Valley while watching on TV, I swear I think thats what they are going to do when he dies, just don’t tell anyone, and say that he is coaching from home, and on a conference call with his staff’s headsets
"The game demonstrated the superiority of the Southern teams over any aggregation that the damn yankees could send across the Mason and Dixon Line." Sports writer Charles Israel of the Philadelphia Bulletin after the Tide's 61-6 win over Syracuse in the 1953 Orange Bowl.
BRAINS!!!
welcome to the SEC kiffykins...
by tempebamafan on Apr 17, 2009 3:28 PM CDT up reply actions
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