Michigan State Football: Pros and cons of move to Ford Field

On Wednesday, the Big Ten announced that the Penn State at Michigan State football regular season finale would be played at Ford Field on Black Friday. This decision seems to have divided the fanbase with good points for and against this decision.

Here’s a few of the points that I think deserve attention.

Pro: Closer drive for most of us

Obviously, there’s more Michigan State alumni than there are current MSU students and those who have already graduated and stayed in-state most likely have stayed in the tri-county area. It’s closer to drive to Detroit than it is to East Lansing and that makes for a much easier drive (depending on construction) which also means you can get back to your own bed at a better hour.

There are also multiple exits out of Detroit instead of 80 percent of game attendees trying to get back to 96 East to get home.

Easier drive means more people are able to go to the game. If we lose the actual home game crowd of 75,000, it’s important to get an indoor stadium of 60,000 seats to be 75 percent MSU fans in order to make for the fact that it’s not in East Lansing (where PSU is historically bad no matter the team records) and make this feel like a home crowd for the Spartans and a tough road game for the Nittany Lions.

While Ford Field has not seen a playoff game (yet), if there’s something on the line for this game, the environment could get loud with the indoor acoustics.