Kennesaw State to announce partnership with Atlanta Beat
By Mary Lou Pickel


The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

6:42 p.m. Monday, November 23, 2009

Kennesaw State University will announce details next week of a newpartnership with the Atlanta Beat women’s professional soccer team, according to a university press release Monday.

A KSU spokeswoman would not offer details on the Dec. 1 announcement; previously, however, officials confirmed the KSU foundation is in the process of building an 8,500-seat stadium that could house the soccer franchise.

The stadium could be expanded to up to 22,000 seats, said Norman Radow, chairman of the KSU Foundation. "We would need it to be bigger for football," Radow said Monday. "That's later," he added.

The stadium is on the corner of Busbee Drive and George Busbee Parkway.

"The stadium is drop-dead gorgeous. It's going to be a bowl," Radow said. "You'll enter from the top of the stadium," he said.

"The topography is lower, so you walk into a plaza, and from the plaza you enter the top of the stadium instead of coming in from the bottom. It's very dramatic," Radow said.

KSU has an NCAA women's soccer team and a men's club team

Thats awesome. It was no secret it was being designed with football in mind for later.

Good news! Sounds like it is going to be really nice.

Here's a link to the press release of the announcement, and a nice looking render of the proposed field:

Atlanta Beat and KSU Partnership

thats a nice looking football stadium....i mean futball:)

i think this may be the first constructive plan we have for football. it may not be in the official plans yet, but you can definitely tell that football is on the minds of the KSU foundation. This is going to bring a lot of revenue to the area. It should be, if it ends up being as good as the artist's renditions, an awesome venue not only for sports but also for concerts. can't wait! one last thing....says they are finishing spring 2010...sounds like they're trying to construct it quickly.

I can't wait to see it in person!

a couple of different artist renditions

http://www.womensprosoccer.com/atlanta/p...ement.aspx

Thats awesome Nick.

Papp discusses stadium and ability to become a football stadium in the AJC

While university and foundation officials stressed that the stadium is being built with the intention of being a women's soccer-specific facility, it also can accommodate outdoor concerts, as well as high school sports such as football and lacrosse.

In addition, there is potential for the stadium's construction to present a key piece toward the adoption of football as a varsity sport in the future. Papp said it will be possible to expand the stadium's seating to 22,000 if the school decides to pursue football, and KSU will announce the formation of a football exploratory committee next week.

"Having this stadium and having this partnership with the Atlanta Beat opened up possibilities for Kennesaw State that were not here previously," Papp said. "Ever since I was nominated as president, I've been asked, ‘What's the story on football?' Well, now we're going to have, conceivably, a place to play."

I could have sworn they've done the exploratory committee thing before...

However, having the facility there in place already should certainly make football more viable.

We still will have a lot of financial hurdles to jump before football becomes a reality, but when the stadium is in place, that will be a major one.

They're going to do football when they're good and ready. To think otherwise is a farse. Explore, vote, petition... do whatever makes you sleep at night but in the end, it's the university and foundation pulling the trigger. I just wish football was a little higher on the pecking order but so be it. It's going to come to fruition one day in the next 10 years, or so I've been told.

You are right Nick. I think it is very high on the pecking order to be honest, it just takes a LOT of money, and they aren't going to jeopardize our current athletics to rush football. It will arrive at some point ,and when it does - hopefully we will have the finances to keep our entire athletic department stable.

I think getting Dooley to consult shows that they are moving forward. GSU got Reeves and then a year later they were announcing football. I'm not saying that timetable is going to happen at KSU, but I do think we'll see it earlier than 10 years.

Jeremo, you're absolutely right. I think this is a huge step in the direction for football and gives me a lot more hope than any feasibility or vote ever did.

Yep. Having a big name attached to the program just gives us that much more visibility and credibility - and makes it look as though we're finally serious about getting this thing of the ground.