What will future generations think of Alabama’s ‘modern’ venues?

“MOBILE HAS A FOOTBALL STADIUM to be proud of,” Montgomery Advertiser columnist Max Moseley wrote in his Oct. 6, 1948 column, “The Grandstand.” “A sellout crowd of 36,000 fans saw the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Vanderbilt University football teams battle to a 14 to 14 tie in the dedication game last Saturday.

“Seating 36,000 and costing $850,000, it incorporates the last word in stadium construction — even has an express elevator to the press box. But the things that make the stadium distinctive are the ways in which it was built and is being operated.”

Moseley goes on to tout how Ernest F. Ladd Memorial Stadium, what is now known as Ladd-Peebles Stadium, renamed in 1997 to honor both Ladd and E.B. Peebles, was built as a memorial to Ernest F. Ladd, who had served as the president of Merchants National Bank of Mobile.

What Moseley said was remarkable about the structure was how the stadium was built without public tax money and public solicitation of funds. The lone government contribution came from the city of Mobile, which had donated the land for the venue, valued at $135,000.

Moseley noted that the stadium’s profits were to be used for stadium improvements and the development of parks and playgrounds in Mobile County.

The stadium served Mobile well over those years. The second Senior Bowl was played there in 1951, where it remained until 2020. In 1955, Elvis Presley played as one of the headliners of the Hank Snow All-Star Jamboree there. In 1958, Paul “Bear” Bryant coached his first game as Alabama’s head football coach at the stadium.

More recently, in 2015, then-unlikely GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump staged the first major rally of his victorious 2016 presidential campaign.

This is not meant to be another sentimental plea for the appreciation of Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

That decision has already been made. It’s thanks for the memories. The collective wisdom of Mobilians has decided West Mobile near the University of South Alabama campus is a far better place for the city’s prime venue, which, for better or for worse, is now Hancock Whitney Stadium.

You can learn a lot about a society in a given era by the architecture and construction of the day. How have the buildings of the period stood the test of time? Were there any considerations for aesthetics? If so, was there a clear statement the design was trying to convey?

The stadiums of Alabama built and renovated during the last century attempted to project the splendor and dignity of the greatest generation, which survived the Great Depression and World War II, among those being Legion Field in Birmingham, the Cramton Bowl in Montgomery and much later, Ladd Memorial Stadium.

Time eventually caught up with all of those venues. The disrepair of the physical structures and the deterioration of the neighborhoods surrounding these venues have led to the construction of Mobile’s Hancock Whitney Stadium and Birmingham’s Protective Stadium, both of which opened earlier this year.

To be fair, all of these new venues operate in the shadow of the University of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium and Auburn University’s Jordan-Hare Stadium.

At first glance, there does seem to be a copy-cat theme at Hancock Whitney and Protective stadiums, which is the combination of the professional sports-grade conveniences one might see at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Dallas’ AT&T Stadium, and a minor-league ballpark, where the actual sports product on the field may play second fiddle to the entertainment and amenities offered at the stadium venue.

What will Mobile’s and Birmingham’s efforts at the modern age of sports entertainment venues tell architectural historians about the people of this era?

It seems as if we are living through the Xbox/PlayStation-ification of spectator sports — big screens, flashing signs, promotional gimmicks.

Oh, yes, and dare we forget [insert beer brand name here] terrace or concourse, where White Claw and Michelob Ultra flow like a river over a cliff, as long as you’re willing to fork over $7 for a can.

That is a very progressive distinction from the teetotaler era of yesteryear.

One other significant difference is the seeming detachment from a rooting interest in the community.

Indeed, most of those in attendance would like to see the University of South Alabama do well. They are not rooting against the Jaguars. But are they going to root on Mobile’s team the same way Packers fans root on Green Bay’s team or Saints fans cheer for New Orleans’ team?

We’re not quite there yet for the University of South Alabama. Can our part of Alabama ever have a hometown team, the likes of which being USA, with the outsized allegiance to nearby SEC schools?

Whatever they say, 50 years from now, there will be one takeaway. If you want to know where the real architectural renaissance was taking place in Mobile in the early part of the 21st century, it won’t be downtown. It will not even be in Baldwin County.

It is at the main campus of the University of South Alabama. What conclusions will our descendants take from that?