http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/col...story.html

http://www.huskiewire.com/articles/2014/.../index.xml

http://northernstar.info/sports/article_...f6878.html

It looks very nice and is long overdo!
NIU is heading in the right direction.

Please send all of your donations here - http://huskieathleticfund.com/index-main.html

It goes to a great cause.

Nice...pretty ambitious (cost ans scope wise). I think going with suites and premium seating is much more important than expanding the stadium capacity by much.....around 30K or so is probably about right.

(10-30-2014 05:26 PM)exCincy Kid1 Wrote:  Nice...pretty ambitious (cost ans scope wise). I think going with suites and premium seating is much more important than expanding the stadium capacity by much.....around 30K or so is probably about right.

Agree with the suites and premium seating.

They produce the big bucks in terms of ticket prices (e.g., 150 / ticket) and donations.

Does anyone think this stuff will ever happen?? I just wonder where the heck the $$$ will come from. The quotes make it sound like they're just going to wish for it and $100M will fall out of the sky.

Also, I struggle with any rationale to expand the football stadium when it's not remotely full right now. Even with Ohio averaging 22K, I don't want to expand our 24K stadium. Until there's 5 years of sellout demand at every game, there's no point. Demand is a beautiful thing that allows you to push price and create a "hot ticket". NIU will be looking at 12,000 empty seats every game, just seems bizarre to me.

(10-30-2014 05:40 PM)ohiobobcats11 Wrote:  Does anyone think this stuff will ever happen?? I just wonder where the heck the $$$ will come from. The quotes make it sound like they're just going to wish for it and $100M will fall out of the sky.

Also, I struggle with any rationale to expand the football stadium when it's not remotely full right now. Even with Ohio averaging 22K, I don't want to expand our 24K stadium. Until there's 5 years of sellout demand at every game, there's no point. Demand is a beautiful thing that allows you to push price and create a "hot ticket". NIU will be looking at 12,000 empty seats every game, just seems bizarre to me.

IMHO Ohio needs to expand their stadium. Averaging close to capacity does not make good business sense. A sellout is just a missed opportunity for the university to make more money. Why not add 6-8 thousand seats to allow for the occasional game in the 30k range?

Miami will be releasing a similar athletics facilities plan soon. $80-$100 million not including the $30 million already spent of the new IPF, hockey improvements, and baseball facility.

(10-30-2014 06:26 PM)Ubish Wrote:  

(10-30-2014 05:40 PM)ohiobobcats11 Wrote:  Does anyone think this stuff will ever happen?? I just wonder where the heck the $$$ will come from. The quotes make it sound like they're just going to wish for it and $100M will fall out of the sky.

Also, I struggle with any rationale to expand the football stadium when it's not remotely full right now. Even with Ohio averaging 22K, I don't want to expand our 24K stadium. Until there's 5 years of sellout demand at every game, there's no point. Demand is a beautiful thing that allows you to push price and create a "hot ticket". NIU will be looking at 12,000 empty seats every game, just seems bizarre to me.

IMHO Ohio needs to expand their stadium. Averaging close to capacity does not make good business sense. A sellout is just a missed opportunity for the university to make more money. Why not add 6-8 thousand seats to allow for the occasional game in the 30k range?

Ohio needs to tear down Peden one side at a time and expand capacity to 35K with an option to add another 10K to the east side stands at a later date.

(10-30-2014 05:40 PM)ohiobobcats11 Wrote:  Does anyone think this stuff will ever happen?? I just wonder where the heck the $$$ will come from. The quotes make it sound like they're just going to wish for it and $100M will fall out of the sky.

Also, I struggle with any rationale to expand the football stadium when it's not remotely full right now. Even with Ohio averaging 22K, I don't want to expand our 24K stadium. Until there's 5 years of sellout demand at every game, there's no point. Demand is a beautiful thing that allows you to push price and create a "hot ticket". NIU will be looking at 12,000 empty seats every game, just seems bizarre to me.

I think it will happen. Bigger names playing in Dekalb and better, newer amenities will bring bodies. Not sure about the rest of MAC country but population is increasing rapidly in N. Illinois.

(10-30-2014 07:54 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  

(10-30-2014 06:26 PM)Ubish Wrote:  

(10-30-2014 05:40 PM)ohiobobcats11 Wrote:  Does anyone think this stuff will ever happen?? I just wonder where the heck the $$$ will come from. The quotes make it sound like they're just going to wish for it and $100M will fall out of the sky.

Also, I struggle with any rationale to expand the football stadium when it's not remotely full right now. Even with Ohio averaging 22K, I don't want to expand our 24K stadium. Until there's 5 years of sellout demand at every game, there's no point. Demand is a beautiful thing that allows you to push price and create a "hot ticket". NIU will be looking at 12,000 empty seats every game, just seems bizarre to me.

IMHO Ohio needs to expand their stadium. Averaging close to capacity does not make good business sense. A sellout is just a missed opportunity for the university to make more money. Why not add 6-8 thousand seats to allow for the occasional game in the 30k range?

Ohio needs to tear down Peden one side at a time and expand capacity to 35K with an option to add another 10K to the east side stands at a later date.

That's just laughable.

(10-30-2014 11:57 PM)inductchuck16 Wrote:  

(10-30-2014 07:54 PM)perimeterpost Wrote:  

(10-30-2014 06:26 PM)Ubish Wrote:  

(10-30-2014 05:40 PM)ohiobobcats11 Wrote:  Does anyone think this stuff will ever happen?? I just wonder where the heck the $$$ will come from. The quotes make it sound like they're just going to wish for it and $100M will fall out of the sky.

Also, I struggle with any rationale to expand the football stadium when it's not remotely full right now. Even with Ohio averaging 22K, I don't want to expand our 24K stadium. Until there's 5 years of sellout demand at every game, there's no point. Demand is a beautiful thing that allows you to push price and create a "hot ticket". NIU will be looking at 12,000 empty seats every game, just seems bizarre to me.

IMHO Ohio needs to expand their stadium. Averaging close to capacity does not make good business sense. A sellout is just a missed opportunity for the university to make more money. Why not add 6-8 thousand seats to allow for the occasional game in the 30k range?

Ohio needs to tear down Peden one side at a time and expand capacity to 35K with an option to add another 10K to the east side stands at a later date.

That's just laughable.

poor little Toledo fans, even jealous of hypothetical suggestions.

(10-30-2014 05:40 PM)ohiobobcats11 Wrote:  Does anyone think this stuff will ever happen?? I just wonder where the heck the $$$ will come from. The quotes make it sound like they're just going to wish for it and $100M will fall out of the sky.

Also, I struggle with any rationale to expand the football stadium when it's not remotely full right now. Even with Ohio averaging 22K, I don't want to expand our 24K stadium. Until there's 5 years of sellout demand at every game, there's no point. Demand is a beautiful thing that allows you to push price and create a "hot ticket". NIU will be looking at 12,000 empty seats every game, just seems bizarre to me.

Except there is a point. Did you see all the BCS teams NIU scheduled in the last few months? It was with the promise of having a larger stadium. Better scheduling will bring in more fans as well as a larger season ticket base.

NIU played 5 home games this year. They were against Presbyterian, Kent State, CMU, Miami, and Toledo. Only three were on Saturdays, and all three of those were in consecutive weeks. It's hard to sell seats with that kind of schedule.

It's also not $100 million for the football stadium. It's $138 million for the entire project, which goes well beyond the football stadium. I've seen the football stadium cost at 40-50 million. If they can get $20-25 million for the naming rights (not a crazy number), you've paid off half of it right there. So you're looking at having to raise $20-25 million for the stadium. Some of that will pay for itself in the form of suites. It's not an impossible number to reach.

(10-31-2014 08:30 AM)7 Wrote:  

(10-30-2014 05:40 PM)ohiobobcats11 Wrote:  Does anyone think this stuff will ever happen?? I just wonder where the heck the $$$ will come from. The quotes make it sound like they're just going to wish for it and $100M will fall out of the sky.

Also, I struggle with any rationale to expand the football stadium when it's not remotely full right now. Even with Ohio averaging 22K, I don't want to expand our 24K stadium. Until there's 5 years of sellout demand at every game, there's no point. Demand is a beautiful thing that allows you to push price and create a "hot ticket". NIU will be looking at 12,000 empty seats every game, just seems bizarre to me.

Except there is a point. Did you see all the BCS teams NIU scheduled in the last few months? It was with the promise of having a larger stadium. Better scheduling will bring in more fans as well as a larger season ticket base.

NIU played 5 home games this year. They were against Presbyterian, Kent State, CMU, Miami, and Toledo. Only three were on Saturdays, and all three of those were in consecutive weeks. It's hard to sell seats with that kind of schedule.

It's also not $100 million for the football stadium. It's $138 million for the entire project, which goes well beyond the football stadium. I've seen the football stadium cost at 40-50 million. If they can get $20-25 million for the naming rights (not a crazy number), you've paid off half of it right there. So you're looking at having to raise $20-25 million for the stadium. Some of that will pay for itself in the form of suites. It's not an impossible number to reach.

Yeah most of that $138 million number is coming from building brand new facilities for the olympic sports teams which might become far fetched since they will not be at the top of the list for things to get done. Like you said on the dog pound, the east/south side of the football stadium and the new baseball and softball fields will be the first projects to be completed. Those can be realistically done within the next few years.

Miami Oh Yeah wrote:Miami will be releasing a similar athletics facilities plan soon. $80-$100 million not including the $30 million already spent of the new IPF, hockey improvements, and baseball facility.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
eCK: the first $30MM supposedly already has private donation pledges lined up behind it....as you saw Big Ben "kicked in" a cool million for the IPF and in gratitude Miami is going to name the indoor practice field "Ben Roethlisberger" field. May be tough to find another $80MM, though!

(10-31-2014 08:30 AM)7 Wrote:  It's also not $100 million for the football stadium. It's $138 million for the entire project, which goes well beyond the football stadium. I've seen the football stadium cost at 40-50 million. If they can get $20-25 million for the naming rights (not a crazy number), you've paid off half of it right there. So you're looking at having to raise $20-25 million for the stadium. Some of that will pay for itself in the form of suites. It's not an impossible number to reach.

But don't the Olympic facilities need to be built first so they can gut the underside of HS?

(10-31-2014 08:30 AM)7 Wrote:  It's also not $100 million for the football stadium. It's $138 million for the entire project, which goes well beyond the football stadium. I've seen the football stadium cost at 40-50 million. If they can get $20-25 million for the naming rights (not a crazy number), you've paid off half of it right there. So you're looking at having to raise $20-25 million for the stadium. Some of that will pay for itself in the form of suites. It's not an impossible number to reach.

But don't the Olympic facilities need to be built first so they can gut the underside of HS?

(10-31-2014 11:20 AM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 08:30 AM)7 Wrote:  It's also not $100 million for the football stadium. It's $138 million for the entire project, which goes well beyond the football stadium. I've seen the football stadium cost at 40-50 million. If they can get $20-25 million for the naming rights (not a crazy number), you've paid off half of it right there. So you're looking at having to raise $20-25 million for the stadium. Some of that will pay for itself in the form of suites. It's not an impossible number to reach.

But don't the Olympic facilities need to be built first so they can gut the underside of HS?

Thats on the west side. The new suites are going on the east side.

(10-31-2014 11:20 AM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 08:30 AM)7 Wrote:  It's also not $100 million for the football stadium. It's $138 million for the entire project, which goes well beyond the football stadium. I've seen the football stadium cost at 40-50 million. If they can get $20-25 million for the naming rights (not a crazy number), you've paid off half of it right there. So you're looking at having to raise $20-25 million for the stadium. Some of that will pay for itself in the form of suites. It's not an impossible number to reach.

But don't the Olympic facilities need to be built first so they can gut the underside of HS?

The west side renovations are low priority. The east and south renovations will be one of the first.

(10-31-2014 11:20 AM)MidnightBlueGold Wrote:  

(10-31-2014 08:30 AM)7 Wrote:  It's also not $100 million for the football stadium. It's $138 million for the entire project, which goes well beyond the football stadium. I've seen the football stadium cost at 40-50 million. If they can get $20-25 million for the naming rights (not a crazy number), you've paid off half of it right there. So you're looking at having to raise $20-25 million for the stadium. Some of that will pay for itself in the form of suites. It's not an impossible number to reach.

But don't the Olympic facilities need to be built first so they can gut the underside of HS?

To 100% finish the stadium renovation? Yes. To do the vast majority of it? No.

Pretty much what Frazier determined was that the West side was beyond repair for lack of a better term. The way it's structured, it's hard to do a complete remodel because of how it was built. The vast majority of the work is going to come on the East side and South Side. That's where they're adding skyboxes, adding suites, adding charibacks, and adding more bleachers in the south endzone. As you mentioned, what they're doing on the west side is taking out the wrestling and gymnastics rooms to create more space as well as removing some ramps. A lot of that is cosmestic, and probably not very high on the priority list. I would imagine most/all the season ticket holders will move to the East side, and we'll stick those bastard Toledo fans and such on the West side .

I also believe there's two phases to the West side renovation. Part I can be done without the Olympic building being built, IIRC.