Not at all hwgill, I just dropped your name in, because we are pretty much saying the samething...
One year doesn't mean much, you have to look at a few years to see if there are really some trends. But one thing I'd like to see are the posts moved to the back of the end-zone with a 15 yard end-zone. This will make more teams go for it on 3rd and about 1 or 2 rather than just trying for a field goal I think and would be great. Also allow for the qb to see the whole end zone when passing rather than a blocked view from the posts.
I would just like to see the endzones be 15 yards purely for the esthetic values in stadiums. This would allow endzone seats to be that much closer to the action. That way you could enclose most stadiums with seats rather than leaving them open in the endzones. Think of the camera angles showing occupied seats everywhere. Would make it look more “big league”.
I'm not sold on what you say "big league" though East. I personally don't have a problem with open end zones as a rule. But I do think that with this and putting some bleacher type seats as close as possible to the end of the end zone (and get rid of the ones used now in stadiums like Ivor Wynne and the one in Winnipeg), that it would create more of the being close thing we see in American stadiums where the fans are almost able to reach out and touch the players when they get a touchdown. That is what we need here rather than the fans feeling like they are out in Pluto land. Not a big league thing, just a common sense type thing to bring the fans closer to the action.
What I meant by "big league" is exactly what you just posted Earl. The fan will feel like he/she is a bigger part of the game if the players are that much closer. Also, with the stands closing in around the fields of play the noise factor would go up because there is no place for the noise to escape. This would also be heard in the telecasts making it sound like a bigger event.
I hear ya. But maybe stadiums like Notre Dame’s and Michigan’s have more of this than some of the newer NFL stadium’s that have shorter stands on one end, Pittsburgh’s is like this also. I like one end more open than another in some respects though. The key factor is to have some stands very close to the end zone. I think Molson Stadium does this about as good as is possible with a 20 yard deep end zone.