Name: Julie Cross Hometown: Belfast Sent: 7.05 PM - 3/18 I am a young "westerner", but I have become an addict to your fathers songs. What a beautiful, beautiful. The Hollywood Reporter is your source for breaking news about Hollywood and entertainment, including movies, TV, reviews and industry blogs. Get the latest breaking news across the U.S. on ABCNews.com. The 4. 9ers' Stadium Is As Empty As It Deserves To Be. In the last few seasons the 4. Candlestick Park, I got into the gate for roughly $5. The swarms of ushers and ticket- checkers customary at modern professional sports games were conspicuously absent at the old concrete bowl, and so by the end of the 2. I’d found a permanent place in the lower level on the 4. I was welcomed in without a real seat by some older white men from Berkeley who’d inherited their season tickets from their father, whom they told me had held season tickets for the 4. Stick, and a wild, often- drunk man in his mid- 3. Fresno and wore things like Batman masks with a 4. The two parties clashed, but that wasn’t my problem. All I knew was that I’d been fortunate to find hospitable hosts in such an incredible section and that the men from Berkeley were kind enough to regale me with stories of their memories at Candlestick from before I was born, when the 4. The seats faced the big hill that made up the western border of the property; when the sun began to set in usually the third quarter or so, the sky would often turn bright, vibrant colors that made the whole aesthetic more than was deserved by what was really a comically antiquated stadium that somehow smelled stale no matter what time you were there. From those seats, I watched the peak of the Jim Harbaugh years, the ones that now seem like they’ll ultimately be but a blip on the long, extended timeline of shitty 4. Eddie De. Bartolo had to give the team to his sister, Denise, who then gave it to her son, Jed York. But the Niners couldn’t have asked for better moment with which to move the team down to Santa Clara; the last 4. Stick was the one saved by Na. Vorro Bowman’s miraculous pick- six, which seemed to play out in slow motion (though that was really just because he was slow as hell running across the field). The Niners won, fireworks were shot off, and “Hello, Goodbye” blasted from the PA, an allusion to the Beatles playing their final U. S. show at the stadium back in 1. Less than four years later, the team finds itself amid a perfect storm of waning fan interest at its new, hyper- modern stadium 4. San Francisco. The 4. East side of the stadium during day games, especially early in the NFL season. Photos of the empty home side of the new- ish 4. Unfortunately for the Niners, their big, glass- paneled press box faces directly into the stands hit with the most glaring rays. The view from the opposite side of the stadium is not quite as bleak as the one offered to sportswriters.) It’s not a pretty sight, and it’s exactly what Jed York should see from his owner’s box while the team he wrested away from its only competent coach since Bill Walsh continues to not just disappoint but enrage those of us who are emotionally attached to this dumbass team. What you are seeing in that empty- stadium porn is the result of distance from San Francisco, early- season heat, and a team that is seemingly getting more anonymous by the snap; in all, it’s schadenfreude incarnate. It’s more than that, though—corny as it is to say, it can’t be understated how much the move to a new stadium cleaved any remaining bridge between the dynasty 4. The move did away with the shared experiences of the franchise’s best years, even if each passing year proved Candlestick to be more dilapidated and outdated. The move severed relationships among longtime ticket holders and priced out the old guard of fans who haven’t yet accepted that watching an NFL game on the couch is much more enjoyable than it is in person and, in conjunction with the proximity to the new- monied Silicon Valley oligarchy, it drove home who NFL games are for now. This isn’t to gloss over Candlestick’s many, many issues. Candlestick, in many ways, sucked. But it had been around forever, hosting everything from that Beatles concert to the 1. World Series as well as anything 4. The traffic sucked (as it does at the new stadium, anyway), and it was usually windy and cold, but it was a legacy site instead of a modern marvel headlined by Michael Mina’s tailgate with appearances by Ayesha Curry. In Santa Clara, fans get more amenities (and, thankfully, wider concourses), but without character or any real indication that the football is the main event—though, really, why should it be? Realistically, the focus on more amenities has fucked the 4. Most of this was fully within the 4. Those stands are not just empty of bored fans who don’t want to sit in traffic to get roasted in the sun all Sunday watching a terrible team. Though, for most reasonable people, that should be enough.) What people across the country may not see is how at the beginning of the fourth season in Santa Clara, the stadium has failed to be any more broken in than it was when it opened. Candlestick was a shitty home. But it was a home. The stands at Candlestick spoke loudly for the changing Bay Area; the lifelong season ticket–holders like my white pals from Berkeley blended with younger, Hispanic fans from more blended towns reaching down into San Joaquin valley. When the team moved to Santa Clara, large swaths of those fans were cut out of the equation. Season ticket prices were reasonable—working- class friends of mine had been able to afford packages during the Alex Smith years, even—and suddenly, the privilege of watching the Niners required $4,0. And more generally, for fans in San Francisco, the stadium might as well be on Mars. The team has attempted to provide reasonable access to Santa Clara, be it through Amtrak or Caltrain, but it’s still at the tip of a peninsula becoming more and more crowded due to booming development from the second Silicon Valley bubble. This isn’t an accident. Teams across the four major sports have realized it is much more lucrative to cater to wealthy, mildly interested customers and corporate clientele than to the old rowdy fools in Ronnie Lott jerseys. Take the Michael Mina tailgate thing: It’s cosplay, a version of a traditional football enthusiast’s pastime laid out for the rich and snobby. It’s fine, I suppose, but inherently ridiculous. If I want to do some version of fine dining, the last place I want to be is at a football game, and if I’m at a football game, the last thing I care about is the best meal of my life. The Niners experience, I suppose, is now pitched at people who think differently. Is this working out? I’ve been to Levi’s Stadium twice; I happened to move cross- country just weeks after the Niners lost in that wild NFC Championship against the Seahawks. I flew home for the first regular season home game against the Bears. It was a somewhat unremarkable game, other than Colin Kaepernick pissing away the lead throughout the fourth quarter. I bought a standing- room ticket for $1. But wildly enough, as I posted up at a railing somewhere near the 5. Candlestick friend Adam, Batman mask and all. Later, again, strangely, I ran into my older friends from Berkeley while waiting for the Amtrak back up to the City. They’d spent 4. 2 years on the 5. Sundays in corner endzone seats a couple levels into the sky. My second trip to Santa Clara was different; I was covering Super Bowl 5. Cam Newton crap his pants on the field and go totally silent after the game. Neither experience was representative of the regular season ins and outs of 4. Bay Area, but when we talk about empty seats and the distance from San Francisco to Santa Clara, a lot of the immeasurable things like relationships and tradition get lost. All of it indexes in ways you can measure. Tickets on the secondary market are cheap as hell for this season already. A Seahawks- 4. 9ers game the Sunday after Thanksgiving will cost you a whole $6. Considering the cheapest season tickets run $8. And who can blame them? When it comes to photos of the stands in Santa Clara, the joke is clearly not on the fans, but on the team ownership. It’s the 4. 9ers, and Jed York, who look like assholes—which they are. When you see the empty home- side stands throughout the season, ask yourself what York is thinking as he sits in an air- conditioned box, taking in the same view. It seems like the concerns over the stadium are growing within the 4. In a statement, the 4. We empathize with our fans whose experience at Levi’s Stadium Sunday may have been negatively impacted by the unseasonably warm weather the Bay Area has recently experienced. We proactively communicated the anticipated conditions to ticket holders prior to game day so that they could make the appropriate preparations. The Pieces Are Slowly Coming Together For Maryland. Welcome to the Deadspin 2. Leading up to the college football season kickoff, we will give you previews of the 2. Now, No. 1. 0 Maryland. Maryland hasn’t given anyone outside the Big Ten much reason to think about them since the early Ralph Friedgen years; D. J. Durkin may not have his team headed back to the Peach Bowl, but as the folks at Texas will tell you, the time to start seriously thinking about the football team coming out of College Park might be here sooner than anticipated. The Terrapins finished 6- 7 in Durkin’s first season at the helm; the record largely matched up with the on- field product, as neither the offense or defense were particularly impressive and often fluctuated wildly in performance week- to- week. A vicious three- game stretch of Michigan, Ohio State, and Nebraska—one they mercifully avoid this season—was always going to doom Maryland’s record and the end of its season. The Terrapins saved themselves briefly by not losing to Rutgers in the regular season finale, but then dashed that by allowing an awful Boston College to drop 3. This season, there’s no Perry Hills under center and youth at nearly every position on the depth chart, but thanks to a more merciful schedule and some pleasantly surprising young talent, that might not matter all that much. Quarterback Caleb Henderson, a transfer from North Carolina, was expected by many to be the starter come opening weekend despite the fact that he had just one pass attempt to his name as a Tar Heel. But then, the injury bug took a big bite into Henderson’s foot, leaving him in a boot and spurring a battle for the starting spot. Tyrrell Pigrome was the first one to get the nod, starting the Terrapins’ season- opener on the road at Texas. After his first series ended in a pick- six on a slightly overthrown ball, Pigrome rallied to go 9- of- 1. But—there’s always a but with Maryland—Pigrome wouldn’t get to see the dispirited look on Tom Herman’s face when the clock hit triple zeroes thanks to a torn right ACL that thrust freshman Kasim Hill into his first collegiate game. The rookie responded with a 5. Terrapins up by 1. Maryland downed the Longhorns 5. Austin city limits who bothered paying attention to the Texas depth chart and spring work—and Hill did plenty of impressing in a Week 2 cakewalk victory over Towson. In the 6. 3- 1. 7 creaming, Hill completed 1. Hailing from the nation’s capital, Hill’s a polished pro- style quarterback, and by most accounts, he’s supposed to be the future (at max, four years) of this program. There’s not much to go off of so far—he only threw, and completed, three throws against the Longhorns, and Towson ain’t much of a barometer—but so far, all signs seem promising. It’ll also help that he’ll be aided in his first year by a group of skill players who constitute one of the most explosive units the Terrapins have been able to bring together in years. Running back Ty Johnson had a nice little coming out season last year, logging 1,0. Johnson will be joined by Lorenzo Harrison, who etched his name in the record books for his efficient running as well, with his 7. Maryland freshman in school history. Together, with a year of playing together under their belt, this duo packs a very real, and very entertaining 1- 2 punch. The offensive line gets three starters back, including studs Damian Prince and Terrance Davis, while the remaining two slots will be filled by players with starting and playing experience. If Maryland’s running game is ass, in any way, it’s on the coaches, because this is a group that can and should get the job done. Freeing up the middle of the field for them will be D. J. Moore, the team’s leading receiver a year ago; he’ll be joined by Taivon Jacobs, a speedster that can take the top off a defense, and Jacquille Veii, a slot receiver. Moore is the big- play guy—1. Hill having a shot at a successful rookie season; if the young’n is smart, he’ll keep leaning all the way on Moore—the junior’s already turned in 2. On the other side, the Terrapins seem to be on track for a similar season as they had in 2. They typically allow good teams to drop at least 3. Having allowed 2. Texas, I wouldn’t count on Maryland marching to the Big Ten title behind a defense that rarely lets opponents cross midfield, but it should be juuuust good enough to keep them in ballgames and above . Senior Jesse Aniebonam is back as the go- to edge rusher for the Terrapins line a year after leading the team with nine sacks and 1. He’s joined by tackles Kingsley Opara and Cavon Walker; the other end spot belongs to Chandler Burkett. Jermaine Carter Jr. He led the Terrapins in tackles the past two years and was the defensive star of the Longhorns win, wreaking havoc to the tune of seven tackles and two sacks. Behind him, the two corner slots will be filled by JC Jackson and Tino Ellis. Out of this entire defense, Aniebonam and Carter are really the only two you need to know, as they’re the only ones you can count on the show up regardless of the jersey being worn by the opposing team. For the rest of them, expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised when they face Rutgers and Northwestern. A Guy To Know. Ty Johnson is a modern college football running back—he’s strong, lean, fast as hell, has great hands and route- running abilities, and uses enough sudden- stop moves to make you think you’re watching that One Holy Reggie Bush Cut on repeat. Johnson’s already on pace to surpass last year’s totals—he accounted for 2. Texas, and managed 1. Towson. Harrison is still coming into his own, but he’s a proven talent that will consistently relieve Johnson, keeping the junior’s legs fresh. Last season, he struggled mightily against actual defensive competition—he posted five 1. Big Ten’s best. He partially made up for this by roasting Boston College’s wall of a defense to the tune of 1. Maryland’s postseason defeat. If Maryland wants a shot at ruining one of Big Ten big boys’ playoff hopes, Johnson and his offensive line obviously have to show up for those games. For now, they’re doing exactly what they need to to keep the Terrapins moving forward. Can They Make The Playoff? Maryland clearly isn’t a playoff team, but the Terrapins don’t have the toughest schedule around the Power Five. Games against Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Wisconsin are all losses, barring an unexpected upset; outside of that, the Terrapins have a real shot to notch seven or eight (if they’re absolutely perfect) wins by the end of the regular season. If they can take another step forward, finish over . Maryland will be an perennial nine- win team in no time—it’s not a glass football, but that’s the downfall of playing in this version of the Big Ten East division. Is The Coach A Dick? I haven’t found anything on Durkin to indicate he’s a dick since last year; unless one of you can convince me otherwise, he’s good for now. Schedule. Sept. 2: @ Texas Sept. Towson Sept. 2. 3: UCF Sept. Minnesota Oct. 7: @ Ohio State Oct. Northwestern Oct. Wisconsin Oct. 2. Indiana Nov. 4: Rutgers Nov. Michigan Nov. 1. 8: @ Michigan State Nov.
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