Personally, I think we need to dig out and build down to the field. We have to have more sideline space than any stadium I've ever been to. I just got back from a high school football camp at Troy State and I would absolutely love to have stands as close as they do. Every stadium I've been to in the SEC was twice as close. I think it would improve the atmosphere tremendously.
Regarding expansion at DWS, what is the thing you'd like to see first?
- Thread starter mstatefanatic
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Personally, I think we need to dig out and build down to the field. We have to have more sideline space than any stadium I've ever been to. I just got back from a high school football camp at Troy State and I would absolutely love to have stands as close as they do. Every stadium I've been to in the SEC was twice as close. I think it would improve the atmosphere tremendously.
Personally, I think we need to dig out and build down to the field. We have to have more sideline space than any stadium I've ever been to. I just got back from a high school football camp at Troy State and I would absolutely love to have stands as close as they do. Every stadium I've been to in the SEC was twice as close. I think it would improve the atmosphere tremendously.
I think we should renovate the entire West side before expanding or anything else. That is going to be a major undertaking.
It'll never match exactly but try to modernize it and bring the amenities up to the level of the east side. Take out the 200 level and convert it to luxury boxes. Redo the press box.
Then build up the North EZ.
Then wrap the entire thing to tie it all together.</p>
Then build up the North EZ.
Then wrap the entire thing to tie it all together.</p>
per ninja. they were in preliminary talks with architects during last football season. bidding probably isn't far away. i don't know about renovating the entire west side, but i know they are wanting to completely redo the 200s and press box to have press space and suites, and make the 100s into club seats, i believe. i would anticipate that such a project would include a facelift for the ground level bathrooms and other areas as well.
Alabama's sideline seating is a good ways from the field. Or so it seems. But yes. Sit on the east side....then on the west of DWS. There is a noticable difference in the distance from the field.
I know it would be a major undertaking. However, the west side needs to be completely rebuilt. Like you say, it is to far from the field. There is no room to expand the press box and add sky boxes. Hell, the lower portion was built in 1914. </p>
I know it would be a major undertaking. However, the west side needs to be completely rebuilt. Like you say, it is to far from the field. There is no room to expand the press box and add sky boxes. Hell, the lower portion was built in 1914. </p>
The last football game I attended at Auburn I was on the 40 about 1/4 ways up and It seemed to be a far way from the field of play as well. If memory serves there was a hedge roll about 15 feet from the stands seperating it from the players. It has been several years since so I could be mistaking but the field seemed far off.
its like walking through a cramped, wet crawlspace down there and the bathrooms seem to have no AC (that works most of the time) which makes for a great smelling combo of BO, Piss/****, and alchohol. The could also stand to modernize the sales booths down there...bid it out to the lodge and campus book mart to pay for the building of an enclosed and cooled MSU merchandise area that would actually create revenue.
And wtf, why did they ever decided to get rid of the chicken on a stick??? that was my saturday evening meal (or fourth meal) when I was there.
And wtf, why did they ever decided to get rid of the chicken on a stick??? that was my saturday evening meal (or fourth meal) when I was there.
for the band to sit on the staging area in front of the west side. All that has since changed. It will cost (IMO) no less than 5-10 mill to redo the west side. Why spend that change to put a dress on an ugly woman? If we get 50 mill, we could probably tear down and rebuild the whole side. Only set back with that is we would have to play one season in Jax (******, but I think a decent option) or totally on the road until completed. I think the ath dept needs to do a building drive aimed at updating all facilities. Something like 200 mill by 2012. Yes, that is a high number but MSU needs to stop setting the bar so low. Set it high and get or fan base to rise up and meet it for once. Put the plans out for a new West side, north endzone, Dudy Noble and renovated up and challange us to meet it. Also, why not have Bulldog Hostesses at gates with buckets every game for building donations (yes, not the best option, but a change for change idea). Announce the total 4th quarter of every game and challange fans to break it every week. My $.02.
Edit for clarification: The reason to implode the West Side would be to move the stands closer to the field. This can't be done with a renovation. I would like to see a lower deck, north endzone bowl, and press box built in a year (if so we wouldn't miss a home season), but don't see it feasible. Thus the cause of us having to play home games in Jax.
Edit for clarification: The reason to implode the West Side would be to move the stands closer to the field. This can't be done with a renovation. I would like to see a lower deck, north endzone bowl, and press box built in a year (if so we wouldn't miss a home season), but don't see it feasible. Thus the cause of us having to play home games in Jax.
What if we built the North endzone section, and then played a season with just the East side and north endzone? We can set it up so that most of our nonconference games are on the road that year, and then get return trips back once the new West side is completed?TheBigDA said:
Not an optimal solution, but better than playing a full season in Jackson...
No way in hell that gets done at State. Maybe they could get the lower section completed. Which wouldn't be bad if they were building a first class press box, club level, and suites. But hell, it took nearly two years to built the east side upper and west side upper.
I would be all for traveling to Jackson for one year if it meant a first class facility on the west side.
I would be all for traveling to Jackson for one year if it meant a first class facility on the west side.
Not even an option in my book. Imagine how terrible that would be for our football program. Has any team in the SEC played an entire season away from their home stadium in the past 20 years?TheBigDA said:
C
coco
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we need more of the elevators similar to the ones the D-II schools incorporate. centralized vending locations, i like the way the surrounding tailgating area has recently developed and is getting as good as The Grove, and what does Jackie Wayne Sherrill have to do with any of this?
I don't give a **** about the west side bathrooms, or being too far away from the field, or any of that. I want to not be the smallest stadium in the SEC anymore. I want a stadium that recruits will be impressed by (in a good way) when they're standing on the field, and will look good on TV. The rest is window dressing to me.
....to walk up to the West Side concession stand above Section B, and for ONCE see that the game on the TV above it is the same game occurring on the field behind me, and not the local Northland Cable game-of-the-week.
We absolutely are the only SEC school that shows other people's games on the tv's at the concession stands.
We absolutely are the only SEC school that shows other people's games on the tv's at the concession stands.
coco said:
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
/<font size="5">T</font>he <font size="5">G</font>rove
//I need to go take my morning <font size="5">M</font>assive <font size="5">D</font>ump
and frankly, I don't know that any plan to bowl will leap our capacity over anyone in front of us. Maybe ole miss but that would require about 6K additional seats. Any North end zone plan is going to set us back about 1,500 seats initially by getting rid of Starkville High's stadium in the end zone so we'd have to add about 7,500 in seating. I don't see that happening. I see a minimal bowl like Clemson that will provide the opportunity for more luxury seating.
Ok, so Vanderbilt's stadium is smaller than ours, but what do you expect from a university who's football program is a part of the intramural sports department. However, if we built two levels of seating, with club level/luxury boxes in the middle, in the north EZ and a single level of seats in the south EZ (all done in stages), it would substantially increase our capacity. I think that increasing capacity is much more important that all the other proposed improvements because it's the only improvement that will generate more $ to pay for all the other things that people want changed.
Dammit, how many times do I have to say this. Does nobody remember what it was like before the Sherrill-era DWS expansion? We weren't selling out Scott Field every game either. But we expanded the stadium and what happened - we consistently brought in number far greater than what the pre-DWS expansion would have held. And that's saying a lot considering how ugly football got the next 6 years.8Dog said:
I guaran-damn-tee you if we put up a signifigant stadium expansion, we'd continue to bring in big crowds - bigger than what we currently get at DWS.
and on top of that, we have one of the smallest fanbases in the SEC, so it stands to reason we would have a smaller stadium. What's more impressive to a recruit? an 80k seat stadium with 20k empty seats? or a jam-packed 60k seat stadium that's loud because everyone is right on top of the action?
Exactly. This is why the #1 priority at DWS is to significantly upgrade the west side chair backs to transform that area into a club level. People with seats there now with either pay the additional money or those on the club level waiting list with be give the opportunity.
eventually the crowds simply aren't going to get larger.
We cannot sell out the stadium we have now unless we are good and we play an opponent that travels well.
And if it becomes a real problem, we can just add general seating to the south endzone.
But there is no reason to have a bunch of general seating that is going to be empty far more often than its filled.
We cannot sell out the stadium we have now unless we are good and we play an opponent that travels well.
And if it becomes a real problem, we can just add general seating to the south endzone.
But there is no reason to have a bunch of general seating that is going to be empty far more often than its filled.
I don't care about the the specifics of general seating vs. club level seating. It's long been shown that increasing capacity results in increased attendance. With a higher capacity, you get a lot more options for affordable ticket packages that bring in more people. A secondary benefit of a bowl is that it traps more on the sound that the crowd makes inside the stadium instead of allowing it to escape through the open endzones. Imagine what it would sound like with even 65-70k fans screaming and ringing cowbells in an enclosed bowl. I'd be impressed.
and sell cheaper season tickets? That's not a recipe for success as far as an athletic budget is concerned.