The ICCU stadium at the University of Idaho has (US football) goalposts with no uprights. They are bolted to the wall and ceiling of the covered venue. The Famous Kibbie Dome : r/Idaho
Moved to the game room.
I like the design, but I don’t like the uncomfortable amount of space between the backline of the end zone and the cement wall of the stadium. If some guy catches a TD pass at full speed just inside the backline, he could end up impacting that wall headfirst.
Just checked the picture again, and the wall isn’t even padded and there’s a TV camera platform just behind the backline. Not cool.
I question the designation of this design as “the 8th wonder of the world”. Bolting a piece of metal to a nearby wall is an interesting idea but I wouldn’t call it amazing.
This is in Idaho, where they think potatoes are interesting. So forgive them their excitement.
Yes, especially when you consider the fact that their “amazing idea” wouldn’t even be possible unless the wall of the stadium was so uncomfortably close to the back of the endzone.
C’mon. French fries, chips, vodka. It’s like the other vegetables aren’t even trying.
Huh? There’s two uprights in the photo in your link. The uprights are what the ball has to be kicked through to get a field goal, which makes them a required element of the field.
Perhaps you mean the uprights have no posts?
From a safety standpoint, this design is probably best. There’ve been a non-zero number of incidents of wide receivers running into the end zone to catch a pass and running smack into the goal post.
Maybe I should have said “support post(s)”.
At the Yale-Harvard game at the Yale Bowl in 1983, after a victory by the visiting Harvard team, the crowd ran onto the field. During the melee, the goal posts were pulled down and a Harvard freshman was severely injured. That article, written on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary, mentions similar incidents in 2002 in Clemson, South Carolina, Raleigh, North Carolina and Berkeley, California, although Yale and Harvard put police on horseback around the goal posts after the 1983 incident.
All hail the uber tuber!
Yeah, before I clicked on the link I was picturing something like a capital “T” where officials would have to figure out if the ball passed over the bar properly. Which is already something you sometimes have to determine with a traditional goalpost for a kick high enough to go over the uprights (which will still count as long as it goes over the bar and between the uprights). The only downside is that you eliminate the possibility of a satisfying “doink”.
I actually do like this design in general if you take care to sufficiently pad the wall behind it in case of collisions. (Not only does there seem to be no padding, the picture shows equipment behind the goalpost, though maybe it’s only temporarily stored there when there is no game in progress.)
So it’s the old-style H-shaped goalpost design, but with the bottom half rotated 90 degrees.
In the picture, it does look like there is padding along the back wall (the grayish-blue panels). Just don’t run into the camera equipment!
This article states that there are five yards between the backline and the wall.
I’m pretty sure there are closer dimensions in a few other college stadiums. If you’ve ever watched a game played at Boone Pickens Stadium at Oklahoma State, you would agree with me.
If some receiver who can run the 40 in 4.4 seconds catches a ball at the back of the end zone while he is running full speed, 5 yards in nothing. I understand what you are saying, though.
It’s hard to tell. It doesn’t look thick at all, but it could just be inset in the wall and be of any thickness.
Though that in itself would be a potential issue if a player happens to hit the wall high up; they could be hitting their head on a hard surface while the rest of their body continues moving into a potentially deep soft surface. I also can’t tell quite how tall that padded area is either, it could be 10’ or more in which case that would be very unlikely.
I guess a picture can’t tell you everything.
Couldn’t you do without the wall attachments entirely, and just hang the goal from the ceiling?
But yeah, you could just have a single support post at the same distance behind the end zone as the wall is. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s how normal goal posts already work.
I like that idea. Just make it more of a trapeze. Then the goalposts go all the way up.
I think that’s kind of genius, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. You could even retract it up into the ceiling when not in use.
You’d need to keep it from swinging, of course. Maybe anchor it below somehow. Or make it really heavy? That sounds like an interesting project. And even if it swings a little, that’s okay. Even traditional goalposts can have a bit of sway (a tiny bit at least) in bad weather.
My idea is to have a ‘top’ crossbar on the goalposts. Kick attempts have to land between the goalposts and between the upper and lower crossbars. Sort of like a soccer goal turned 90 degrees. If the ball lands in the net, it’s good.