Bishop McNamara vs Rochester
- Thread starter KingRich
- Start date
The visitors seating is pathetic. Old wooden boards - some terribly warped. Every board should be replaced.
Old school grass surface.
Decent concessions.
The positive is you can walk next door at halftime for a beer or two at the bowling alley lounge.
Old school grass surface.
Decent concessions.
The positive is you can walk next door at halftime for a beer or two at the bowling alley lounge.
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That’s disappointing but I like the halftime idea. The Taylorville seating was horrible yesterday. Nice turf field and video scoreboard but the visitor bleachers were not raised at all so about half of the rows couldn’t see over the players and they maybe sat 50-75.
Yikes! It’s not Taylorvile bad...
There is a decent amount of seating and pretty close to the field. Get there early so you can get a spot at the top of the bleachers.
Plenty of room to stand along the sidelines and end zone
Pretty close to the field is an understatement. Dads in the stands can essentially get onto the bench to hear the adjustments being made.
McNamara has some good qualities to its facilities, some not so good...
Parking...on site parking is often inadequate for the lazy who want to park right in front of the gate...There's kind of a triangular lot between the school building and Memorial Stadium, which is the school's main parking. There is also a smaller lot on the corner of Brookmont and Entrance on the other side of the school. That said, there is abundant parking adjacent to the school - on the east side of the stadium is the bowling alley, which has a large lot (from the 70's & 80's when bowling was big, and they had the biggest arcade in the Kankakee area)...South of the school is the Nazarene church, which has a large parking lot...West of Entrance is the Meadowview shopping center, with a huge parking lot and a lot of empty storefronts on that end of the shopping center...
Seating...the home stands are a cinder block structure of significant size, largely unchanged since the 70's. Visitors bleachers are inside the track, making them very close to the field...But they are ancient, rickety wooden board bleachers...First row is standing on the field, with a small capacity...They were perfectly adequate probably in the 70's, when their comparisons were Herscher's old stadium, Peotone with no visitors bleachers, etc...There were a lot of unhappy Catholic league foes when they first joined - a couple even trucked in some portable bleachers for their games...That said, there is plenty of sideline space for fans, and endzone space...
Never had any complaints about the concessions stand, lots of parents who have volunteer commitments working in it...Efficient whether for football or the Irish relays track meet with 20 schools back in the day...
Grass field, not as hallowed as it was before the all-weather track was installed and the Irish started playing soccer, but still nice...
Parking...on site parking is often inadequate for the lazy who want to park right in front of the gate...There's kind of a triangular lot between the school building and Memorial Stadium, which is the school's main parking. There is also a smaller lot on the corner of Brookmont and Entrance on the other side of the school. That said, there is abundant parking adjacent to the school - on the east side of the stadium is the bowling alley, which has a large lot (from the 70's & 80's when bowling was big, and they had the biggest arcade in the Kankakee area)...South of the school is the Nazarene church, which has a large parking lot...West of Entrance is the Meadowview shopping center, with a huge parking lot and a lot of empty storefronts on that end of the shopping center...
Seating...the home stands are a cinder block structure of significant size, largely unchanged since the 70's. Visitors bleachers are inside the track, making them very close to the field...But they are ancient, rickety wooden board bleachers...First row is standing on the field, with a small capacity...They were perfectly adequate probably in the 70's, when their comparisons were Herscher's old stadium, Peotone with no visitors bleachers, etc...There were a lot of unhappy Catholic league foes when they first joined - a couple even trucked in some portable bleachers for their games...That said, there is plenty of sideline space for fans, and endzone space...
Never had any complaints about the concessions stand, lots of parents who have volunteer commitments working in it...Efficient whether for football or the Irish relays track meet with 20 schools back in the day...
Grass field, not as hallowed as it was before the all-weather track was installed and the Irish started playing soccer, but still nice...
@KingRich - I just did a Google earth and zoomed in all the way. You can actually count the number of rows on the visitor's bench.
Here's the address: 550 West Brookmont, Kankakee, IL 60901
How to get to McNamara, and local dining ideas:
From the north: Exit I-57 at the Route 50 exit 315...Route 50 right there is the heart of the Bradley retail district - if you go north the mall is right there, Wal-Mart is about a mile & a half north, dominated by chain restaurants - the non-chain restaurant of note is Tucci's (an upscale pasta & dinner place next to Best Buy). Going south, there are probably three places of note: The Huddle, next to Denny's at the first light/Armour Road, which is a sports bar pushed for the Bears; Olivers, which is the bar/daily restaurant in the Quality Inn motel right off Rt. 50 (originally a Holiday Inn) - good food, kind of upscale; and the Hoppy Pig, a dive bar with a good menu and wide beer selection (east side of Rt. 50 just before the stoplight at Broadway). McNamara is on Brookmont Blvd about two miles south of the interchange...turn right on Brookmont (the main business at that corner is the Armstrong factory) through the light on Schuyler, under the railroad, and Mac is on the left.
From the south: Exit I-57 at Exit 308, which is Route 45-52 / Schuyler Ave.. Go north. The most direct route to McNamara is to stay on Schuyler - 45/52 goes left and Schuyler becomes Route 50 about 2 miles north of the interchange (Shapiro Developmental Center is on the right there; the former Homestead restaurant's parking lot is in the triangle where 50 curves a block to the right while you have to use the left turn lane to stay on 45-52). A couple blocks down Rt. 50 goes over the river and turns right just over the river - but you want to stay going straight on Schuyler through downtown. A couple of stoplights down you will cross Court Street/Rt. 17 and keep going straight to the stoplight at Brookmont. Turn left, go under the tracks and Mac will be on the left....
Local restaurants of note...Burgers 'n Beer is located on Jeffery Street west of 45/52 at the split with Route 50 (take the left turn lane to stay on 45/52, at stop sign turn left on Jeffery, cross tracks & about 4-5 blocks down on left - if you go too far you will get to Kankakee High - the building was previously the Kankakee VFW). Papi's Pizza, turn left at the stoplight at Merchant Street & Schuyler in downtown (first light after Rt 50 turns)- middle of block across from auto parts store. City Tavern - basically across the railroad tracks from Papi's, City's history includes a period as a brothel in the early days of Kankakee...No Dogs, a sports bar just past the intersection of Schuyler & Merchant...
From the west: Route 17 comes into the west side of Kankakee and swerves to the north to become Court Street (if you go straight it is Merchant Street)...Stay on 17 and go over the river...just over the river, turn left on Kennedy Drive (Rt. 45/52). Go about a mile and the Meadowview shopping center will be on the right....Stoplight at Brookmont, at the end of the shopping center, turn right...Mac is just past the shopping center.
Local restaurants: The second Olivers is before Rt. 17 turns north - this one is more of a sports bar & grill. Great Wall, just around the curve at the first light sharing the parking lot with Berkots grocery, is a good Chinese buffet for the starving...Just a couple doors down on Merchant St. is Eddies, a restaurant and bar (if the building looks familiar, it was originally a Pizza Hut)...
From the east: I assume anyone coming from the east is familiar with Kankakee and doesn't need directions or recommendations...
Two off the main route restaurants of note: In Bourbonnais, Brickstone Brewery, on Latham Drive...good food, award winning beers brewed there...Latham Drive on the west intersects Rt. 102 at Jewels, when it crosses 45/52 becomes Armour Road and runs to Rt. 50 a little more than a mile over. In Kankakee, Sammy's Pizza on 5th avenue - allegedly a Mac staple - 5th ave intersects 45/52 at a stoplight on an angle, with the YMCA across the street, Walgreens, and the meadowview shopping center...One last bar, corner of Rt. 102 and Rt. 45/52 in Bourbonnais - TJ Donlins, across from Olivet, Dairy Queen across 102...high school football themed, old local high school helmets, some Mac historical stuff...popular hangout during Bears camp...
From the north: Exit I-57 at the Route 50 exit 315...Route 50 right there is the heart of the Bradley retail district - if you go north the mall is right there, Wal-Mart is about a mile & a half north, dominated by chain restaurants - the non-chain restaurant of note is Tucci's (an upscale pasta & dinner place next to Best Buy). Going south, there are probably three places of note: The Huddle, next to Denny's at the first light/Armour Road, which is a sports bar pushed for the Bears; Olivers, which is the bar/daily restaurant in the Quality Inn motel right off Rt. 50 (originally a Holiday Inn) - good food, kind of upscale; and the Hoppy Pig, a dive bar with a good menu and wide beer selection (east side of Rt. 50 just before the stoplight at Broadway). McNamara is on Brookmont Blvd about two miles south of the interchange...turn right on Brookmont (the main business at that corner is the Armstrong factory) through the light on Schuyler, under the railroad, and Mac is on the left.
From the south: Exit I-57 at Exit 308, which is Route 45-52 / Schuyler Ave.. Go north. The most direct route to McNamara is to stay on Schuyler - 45/52 goes left and Schuyler becomes Route 50 about 2 miles north of the interchange (Shapiro Developmental Center is on the right there; the former Homestead restaurant's parking lot is in the triangle where 50 curves a block to the right while you have to use the left turn lane to stay on 45-52). A couple blocks down Rt. 50 goes over the river and turns right just over the river - but you want to stay going straight on Schuyler through downtown. A couple of stoplights down you will cross Court Street/Rt. 17 and keep going straight to the stoplight at Brookmont. Turn left, go under the tracks and Mac will be on the left....
Local restaurants of note...Burgers 'n Beer is located on Jeffery Street west of 45/52 at the split with Route 50 (take the left turn lane to stay on 45/52, at stop sign turn left on Jeffery, cross tracks & about 4-5 blocks down on left - if you go too far you will get to Kankakee High - the building was previously the Kankakee VFW). Papi's Pizza, turn left at the stoplight at Merchant Street & Schuyler in downtown (first light after Rt 50 turns)- middle of block across from auto parts store. City Tavern - basically across the railroad tracks from Papi's, City's history includes a period as a brothel in the early days of Kankakee...No Dogs, a sports bar just past the intersection of Schuyler & Merchant...
From the west: Route 17 comes into the west side of Kankakee and swerves to the north to become Court Street (if you go straight it is Merchant Street)...Stay on 17 and go over the river...just over the river, turn left on Kennedy Drive (Rt. 45/52). Go about a mile and the Meadowview shopping center will be on the right....Stoplight at Brookmont, at the end of the shopping center, turn right...Mac is just past the shopping center.
Local restaurants: The second Olivers is before Rt. 17 turns north - this one is more of a sports bar & grill. Great Wall, just around the curve at the first light sharing the parking lot with Berkots grocery, is a good Chinese buffet for the starving...Just a couple doors down on Merchant St. is Eddies, a restaurant and bar (if the building looks familiar, it was originally a Pizza Hut)...
From the east: I assume anyone coming from the east is familiar with Kankakee and doesn't need directions or recommendations...
Two off the main route restaurants of note: In Bourbonnais, Brickstone Brewery, on Latham Drive...good food, award winning beers brewed there...Latham Drive on the west intersects Rt. 102 at Jewels, when it crosses 45/52 becomes Armour Road and runs to Rt. 50 a little more than a mile over. In Kankakee, Sammy's Pizza on 5th avenue - allegedly a Mac staple - 5th ave intersects 45/52 at a stoplight on an angle, with the YMCA across the street, Walgreens, and the meadowview shopping center...One last bar, corner of Rt. 102 and Rt. 45/52 in Bourbonnais - TJ Donlins, across from Olivet, Dairy Queen across 102...high school football themed, old local high school helmets, some Mac historical stuff...popular hangout during Bears camp...
Brickstone is one of my personal favorites. Chicago dough is a great pizza joint not far from Mac. All the little bars in the area are fun too.