Stadium Expansion starting to smell like Templeton is back

[gdogg]

calling the shots. I have spoken with Greg Byrne at length about this last year and I can tell you TONS of planning and discussing and more planning have been undertaken over the last two years. WTF are they waiting on? Word I am getting is 2012 construction start, are you kidding me? Stricklin is gonna let this season ticket momentum just linger and not move dirt until 2012?! Very Templetonish, Scott.
Fire away pricks...

 

[gdogg]

calling the shots. I have spoken with Greg Byrne at length about this last year and I can tell you TONS of planning and discussing and more planning have been undertaken over the last two years. WTF are they waiting on? Word I am getting is 2012 construction start, are you kidding me? Stricklin is gonna let this season ticket momentum just linger and not move dirt until 2012?! Very Templetonish, Scott.
Fire away pricks...

 

[8dog]

in a matter fo 6 months. Long range planning is anything but Templetonish.

Its good to see the university actually thinking things through. Its cost us so badly in the past.

 

[The Fatboy]

You announce the stadium expansion at the end of this season or in the summer and the expansion starts at the end of next season and would probably be completed, depending out what they decide by 2013 or 14. Another thing to think about is maybe Strickland decided to expand the expansion? West side and endzone instead of just one or the other?

Edit: I always got the feeling from listening to The Ninja that they were only going to do either the West Side sky boxes or the endzone. Never both at once. Did I understand this correctly?

 

[thatsbaseball]

we would be finishing an expansion up right about now if he had hiredus a football coach instead of a publicity stunt. Now we are dangerously behind the curve in the SEC and had better get off our asses.</p>

 

[Todd4State]

and there is a tangible plan that is a good quality plan, I'm OK with whenever they decide to build it.

You have to think about this to- our 2011 schedule is a lot more favorable than it is this year. So, odds are we could have a REALLY good year in 2011, which means that we probably will have a really high demand for those seats, and really good odds of paying off the whole project.

 

[57stratdawg]

We've set season ticket sales records last 2 years. I'd have a target date to start in early 2011. What're you going to do if we go 5-7 again?

I talked to two guys on campus this summer from "A Boston architecture firm" that "were in town working on a proposal". They didn't specifically say it was for the stadium, but they didn't say it wasn't either.

It doesn't need to be a 5 year plan to expand a stadium.

 

[ScoobaDawg]

Letting it linger for a year is the right thing to do...
All the people buying the skydeck cheap season packets and all the people buying season tickets without being in the BC are going to have to pony up when this team goes to a bowl or two in a row and the demand keeps increasing.

 

[MSUCosmo]

Season ticket sales don't pay for an expansion. Do you have a money man in mind to foot the bill in this economy?

 

[ScoobaDawg]

If you want templeton ******** look at the west upperdeck that is shorter than the lower bowl and will never be fully finished.
Look at the east upperdeck that is shorter than the bowl because dumbass didnt move the lighting to the upper deck AS WAS SHOWN in the MODEL built...

Templeton half assed every damn thing he did and now it is coming back to bite us in the ***...its nice to see someone meet with the best firm in the US for building this kind of stuff
and plan something out.

 

[uptowndawg]

or at least thats what Stricklin said today at the annual Bulldog Club Meeting before fan day. Seems to me like we should be getting close to that point if you look at how we have grown in the last 4 years even with 3 losing seasons. A bowl at the end of this season would probably be necessary to get us to that point where we sell out season tickets and create a waiting list. They hit the issue pretty head on at the meeting and even showed some artist rendered drawings on the projector. The timeline for when the project would start was said to all depend upon supply and demand - no sense building all those extra seats if they will be empty; although I don't think there would be many empty judging from last seasons attendance. Students are also in dire need for more seating - when I was a student a few years ago it seemed like we had 2 people per 1 seat and I've only heard that its gotten worse. Also discussed plans for a football 'complex' to house coaches offices and locker space behind the palmero center.

 

[57stratdawg]

Lets say we win 6 in 2010, then we win 9 (+ the Peach Bowl) in 2011 (easier schedule), then Dan Mullen leaves for Florida.

Good luck with a stadium expansion in 2012 if Mullen leaves.

 

[FlabLoser]

A while back VZ posted up a chart showing attendance numbers through the years. The conclusion is: build it and they will come.

We put up the last expansion and attendance boomed. It boomed despite Croom's Gulf Coast Offense. It boomed despite not having a waiting line for season tickets.

Obviously we can't build for 300,000 and expect 300,000 to show up. But to think we're near our practical limit at 55,000 because we don't have a waiting list for season tickets is preposterous. BTW, we do have a waiting list for most profitable customers of all - suites and club seating.

 

[gdogg]

next year. It would have been built by the best firm, with an appropriate amount of sky-boxes and with all the appointments. It would have been part of a master plan to unfold in its entirety over the next 5-7 years. People, we are dragging our *** right now, and money is not the 17n' issue.
Flame on flamers.

</p>

 

[TBonewannabe]

That is amazing to me since I went when we were winning in the late 90s and there were only a few games a year that the student section was really elbow to elbow.

 

[SnakePlissken]

and all of it was decided and completed in about 36 months. No way it should take us 5-7 years to get an expansion of Scott Field!! If it does...Strickland and Keenum will have have drug their asses on it!

 

[catvet]

if they plan to reach 75,000 seats in two separate phases. First phase goes to 65-67,000 with the next phase hitting 75,000. This is something that Stricklin hinted about when he was named AD.

 

[FlabLoser]

Just MAYBE having a new AD meant he needed to take some time to make sure for himself that everything is lined up properly. Can't just jump in feet first and assume the previous guy had everything lined up correctly. While that's a "safe" assumption, I wouldn't trust any unaccountable previous guy with millions of dollars even if his name is Greg Byrne.

 

[msdawg00]

Stricklin was in Jacksonalmost two months ago speaking at the Jackson Rotary Club. Stadium expansion came up when people got the chance to ask questions and he got real excited and started talking about the company they hired to design the project. He said that the main hold up right now is that there is a lot of work going on for an actual master plan for the entire university.He said this should be complete by the end of this year and then they could begin to move forward onwhich design andconstruction.

Apparently Keenum has hired some company to show what needs to be built where and what needs to be torn down and what needs to be remodeled. This goes for everything on campus. I think it is pretty awesome that we actually have people in place that are not only lookingto addressour needs now but are also looking ahead tobegin addressing the obviousproblemsthatface our university in the future.

 

[TUSK.sixpack]

why don't yall bowl that effer in? wouldnt that add 10k, net? that could be done in an off season.

 

[catvet]

along with redoing the west side of the stadium, possibly bricking the entire structure, and remodeling Dudy Noble as well.

 

[uptowndawg]

just repeating the thoughts that I heard both Stricklin and Mullen iterate earlier today. It may be baloney, but the leaders of are program are saying it...

 

[uptowndawg]

that says he sat in the nosebleeds for 4 games last year despite the fact that he went in an hour and a half in advance in attempt to get decent seats. A few years ago when I was there I would walk in about 30 min before and got to sit against the fence on the 35 yard line (Crooms era tho).... <div>
</div><div>Growing student body + more excitement around our football team = need for more student seating... these student could help fill some of the expansion surely; but not enough to justify doing it for students alone. Student tickets are selling out, general season tickets are not.</div>

 

[thatsbaseball]

nm

 

[gdogg]

at that pathetic north endzone for 5 more years because some "hired expert" is deciding whether or not to raze or restore Bowen Hall.

 

[gdogg]

nm

 

[Seinfeld]

but where did it come from? I'd have to think that this would be the largest athletic project to take place since the last Davis-Wade expansion nearly 10 years ago, and considering that it took years to gather the funds for Stansbury's practice facility, it seems odd that we got money together for this expansion so quickly. Maybe the ESPN contract money?

I think the thing you have to remember about this particular expansion is that it's going to be Step 1 of a list of improvements and renovations throughout the stadium. Once it's completed, I believe it was stated that the West side will be receiving a major overhaul and a few other things are in line. I'm not saying that this should take 7 years, but there's a lot more to this project than just 20,000 new seats. Also, I don't know how many of you filed out the seating questionnaire that the athletic department sent out last year, but it was pretty lengthy and it's obvious that they're looking at a very wide range of options and amenities. Just like with any other project run by a competent organization, however, I'm sure they have set deadlines to make a decision.

 

[thatsbaseball]

of fine tuning our car in the shop after the race has started. WE ARE WAY BEHIND !

1. We don`t need to attempt to add 20,000 seats now. We need 10,000.

2. Pratice facilitiesdon`t bring in direct income ;stadium additions do.

3. Face lifts should be perpetual not every seven year projects

4. If we don`t have enough damn sense to figure out how to simply bowl-in an endzone we need to ask our friends at %$**, they seemed to have figured it out.

 

[TX Mud Dawg]

If bowl the northside in and create a nice luxury area you're going to bring in more fans that don't come to games right now because they don't want to sit up top in the sky decks.

There is no reason it should take 5 years it get to 75,000. I understand it takes time to good job but that is absolutely ridiculous.

 

[uptowndawg]

I dont think were too far away from doing it. From the meeting yesterday it was obvious that Stricklin hasn't invested a whole heap of money into the planing phase so far. They had a few sketches and ideas but noting earth shattering. I think its huge that the AD would openly address it and say they're planing on doing it.<div>
</div><div>I'm not trying to say that its not going to happen. I'm just saying that they want to see season tickets sell out before they move forward. And that is the exact point that both Mullen and Stircklin made in their speeches yesterday so I'm not just making this up. We came close to selling out season tickets this year and pending a decent season this year we should have no problem selling out next year - so with that, I would expect to see some serious progress with the planning and design phases about this time next year. Ridiculous?</div>

 

[nsvltndog]

When we show improvement this season, season ticketswill sell outin 2011 with Bama, LSU, Mississippi, and I think South Carolina on the home schedule. In addition, we will probably be able to limitthe number of tickets used forthe upper deck discount packagesand sell more full priced season tickets.

Frankly this is our "off-cycle" schedule year with the games that typically draw the most fans all on the road and we are almost sold out.It is not out of the question that we could reach sellout status on season tickets before the season kicks off. I think we areless than 1500 tickets away.

 

[lazlow]

that began < 3 weeks before season.

 

[8dog]

we also have the campus master plan to deal with.

When you simply send an email to Foil Wyatt saying "hey, I think we need to build x so use your creative license and design whatever you want and lets get dirt moving in the next few weeks", you get the Holliman Center and Palmeiro Center. A lack of long term planning also leads to the nonsensical fashion in which the athletic facilities are placed. Mullen does not like where Bryan is in relationship to the HC or the PC. We have been haphazard University forever. This is incredibly refreshing.

 

[gdogg]

Quick Google on the subject:
2002 Money:
"in 2002, Slive became commissioner of the <font color="#027fb5">SEC</font>, replacing Roy Kramer. At the time, the SEC was bringing in $27.7 million in revenue, a little over $2 million from television and bowl revenues were redistributed to each team."

now 2010 Money:
"ESPN will pay $150 million to the SEC each year to be split equally among all 12 teams, and $100 million to the Big Ten. The Big 12 gets $60 million per year, ACC gets $37 million a year, Big East $33 million and the Pac-10 $25 million. Thanks to ESPN, SEC teams now have significantly more money to spend on recruiting, upgrading facilities and luring top-notch coaches."

That is a 30+% increase in the Athletic Budget revenue without adding a dollar more to the expense column! Again, there is no excuse for not having a first class North Endzone to kickoff next season. </p>