http://hamptonroads.com/2013/08/odu-envi...ll-stadium

Surprised this hasn't been posted yet.

Love the comment that says that the stadium needs to be expandable to 75,000-100,000 seats.

good for them.

the Great Clamshell will never cut it in FBS. they would have to completely re-do that, or build a new one. Looks like they have chosen option B.

looking forward to our first visit to it.

What amazes me is the lightning speed at which the ODU administration is moving at.

(08-20-2013 07:11 AM)bridgeforthduke Wrote:  Love the comment that says that the stadium needs to be expandable to 75,000-100,000 seats.

ODU math:

Quote:The current stadium is clearly too small, but let's not go overboard. 30,000 seats (I've heard it will actually be closer to 32,000) would represent a 50% increase over the current seating capacity. I think a stadium of that size that is consistently full makes more sense than a 50,000 seat stadium that would probably be 1/3 empty.

Someone please explain to me why I should care and why this isn't OT?

30,000-35,000 is perfect. Make it easily expandable, but keep it small enough where tickets are still hard to come by.

ODU fans need to face the reality (as do JMU fans, me included) that they will take some lumps in FBS at first. That can hurt attendance, and you don't want 20,000 fans in a 50,000 seat stadium.

(08-20-2013 07:25 AM)JMad03 Wrote:  Someone please explain to me why I should care and why this isn't OT?

you shouldn't care. but this also isn't your personal message board to pick and choose what people discuss.

the thread title is pretty obvious. if you aren't interested, dont read.

sorry to come off like a j'ass, but too many comments such as this are making their way on the boards. no one is obligated to read every post or every thread. it's not hard to filter out the stuff you aren't interested in. example: i'm not really interested in the Albany coach...so I haven't read that thread at all. but if others are, so be it. Albany is in the CAA now, if people want to discuss that, i see no reason why they can't on a JMU board.

How much money did they spend on Foreman Field to get it ready for football? This will be their fifth year in that stadium. That means they will have played nine years of football at Foreman once the new stadium is open.

They spent millions getting Foreman ready for football and will only use it nine years. Great use of donors money there. Just pissed millions away for what will be an abandoned stadium. Good planning on the front end. If their ambitions were to go FBS, they should have built at the Powhattan Apartments from the get go or another site that was expandable.

Sometimes being "fast" isn't being smart unless you are okay with people wasting millions of dollars on a stadium they will tear down in only nine years.

(08-20-2013 08:07 AM)JMUNation Wrote:  How much money did they spend on Foreman Field to get it ready for football? This will be their fifth year in that stadium. That means they will have played nine years of football at Foreman once the new stadium is open.

They spent millions getting Foreman ready for football and will only use it nine years. Great use of donors money there. Just pissed millions away for what will be an abandoned stadium. Good planning on the front end. If their ambitions were to go FBS, they should have built at the Powhattan Apartments from the get go or another site that was expandable.

Sometimes being "fast" isn't being smart unless you are okay with people wasting millions of dollars on a stadium they will tear down in only nine years.

$25 millions was spent, with the majority being the endzone complex. That will be turned into a conference center. The turf field will be re-purposed and everything that can be salvaged, will be.

I don't have a problem with it. They're making the right choice by not trying to dump money into a decaying/old stadium. I hate that the history will be lost....but oh well!

(08-20-2013 08:07 AM)JMUNation Wrote:  How much money did they spend on Foreman Field to get it ready for football? This will be their fifth year in that stadium. That means they will have played nine years of football at Foreman once the new stadium is open.

They spent millions getting Foreman ready for football and will only use it nine years. Great use of donors money there. Just pissed millions away for what will be an abandoned stadium. Good planning on the front end. If their ambitions were to go FBS, they should have built at the Powhattan Apartments from the get go or another site that was expandable.

Sometimes being "fast" isn't being smart unless you are okay with people wasting millions of dollars on a stadium they will tear down in only nine years.

The building at the end zone will be converted for other University uses and the field will remain for other uses, intramurals, etc. They only spent $24 million and in the big scheme of things that is not much when you consider they will still get utility out of a major portion of it.

(08-20-2013 07:25 AM)JMad03 Wrote:  Someone please explain to me why I should care and why this isn't OT?

Let's see. 1) We are considering moving up to FBS. 2) We recently completed a stadium expansion. 3) There's the possibility of further expansion. 4) The article states they are building 30k initially, within reasonable comparison of our current capacity. 5) It's interesting to note how quickly they are moving. 6) They are a very comparable (at least on football terms) in-state program. 7) It's related to football, Virginia football, former conference opponent football

All things considered, we may be no more than 2 years behind in a move up if we announce this year. I think this decision by ODU, and subsequently this article, is extremely relevant to a 75% of the discussion (complaining) that occurs on this board daily.

If you don't like it, I'm sorry Mr. Elitist.

From the newspaper report...

"Although the stadium would not be on the Elizabeth River, many seats would have a water view, a rarity for a college football stadium."

Now, that's not exactly true...and JMU has Newman Lake on the other side too.

(08-20-2013 08:07 AM)JMUNation Wrote:  How much money did they spend on Foreman Field to get it ready for football? This will be their fifth year in that stadium. That means they will have played nine years of football at Foreman once the new stadium is open.

They spent millions getting Foreman ready for football and will only use it nine years. Great use of donors money there. Just pissed millions away for what will be an abandoned stadium. Good planning on the front end. If their ambitions were to go FBS, they should have built at the Powhattan Apartments from the get go or another site that was expandable.

Sometimes being "fast" isn't being smart unless you are okay with people wasting millions of dollars on a stadium they will tear down in only nine years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_costs

Have to admit, I much prefer this water view of BFS...

Hopefully for their sake, the helmet designer plays no part in this. They are however aiming high!

(08-20-2013 08:21 AM)Mad victory Wrote:  Hopefully for their sake, the helmet designer plays no part in this. They are however aiming high!

Yes, "aiming high"...or perhaps "high when aiming".

Anybody catch the part of the reported story where nobody at ODU knows what it will cost? Or how it will be funded, or any of that nitty-gritty kind of stuff that's sorta important when planning these kinds of projects?

(08-20-2013 08:24 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(08-20-2013 08:21 AM)Mad victory Wrote:  Hopefully for their sake, the helmet designer plays no part in this. They are however aiming high!

Yes, "aiming high"...or perhaps "high when aiming".

Anybody catch the part of the reported story where nobody at ODU knows what it will cost? Or how it will be funded, or any of that nitty-gritty kind of stuff that's sorta important when planning these kinds of projects?

Not too hard for an admin to move "lightning fast" while omitting these details.

(08-20-2013 08:32 AM)Mad victory Wrote:  

(08-20-2013 08:24 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(08-20-2013 08:21 AM)Mad victory Wrote:  Hopefully for their sake, the helmet designer plays no part in this. They are however aiming high!

Yes, "aiming high"...or perhaps "high when aiming".

Anybody catch the part of the reported story where nobody at ODU knows what it will cost? Or how it will be funded, or any of that nitty-gritty kind of stuff that's sorta important when planning these kinds of projects?

Not too hard for an admin to move "lightning fast" while omitting these details.

I still can't blame them. Releasing positive, hopeful news is a good thing for building your fan base. Perhaps JMU's leaders can learn about this thing called communication once every four years.

(08-20-2013 08:24 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(08-20-2013 08:21 AM)Mad victory Wrote:  Hopefully for their sake, the helmet designer plays no part in this. They are however aiming high!

Yes, "aiming high"...or perhaps "high when aiming".

Anybody catch the part of the reported story where nobody at ODU knows what it will cost? Or how it will be funded, or any of that nitty-gritty kind of stuff that's sorta important when planning these kinds of projects?

I think they first had to figure out WHERE to build. However, I also would like to see the financials....because we'll likely need to spend another 30 million+ to finish Bridgeforth