The unofficial online home for fans of the UAB Blazers. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/...iver_index

Glad to see some official steps starting to unfold. 55,000 seats may be a tad high though IMO. I'd like to see 40-45k. I do like how they're planning a comprehensive update to the whole complex though.

(11-17-2015 03:30 PM)hooverblazer Wrote:  Glad to see some official steps starting to unfold. 55,000 seats may be a tad high though IMO. I'd like to see 40-45k. I do like how they're planning a comprehensive update to the whole complex though.

It may not be 55k to start. It could start at 40-45 range with future expansion capability

It will be 45 unless something has changed in the last couple of days.

So we really think it's going to be April 2016 before a design can even be approved and any dirt can begin to be moved? If so, definitely do not see how a 2017 start in the new stadium would be feasible at all.

(11-17-2015 03:46 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  It will be 45 unless something has changed in the last couple of days.

There is a lot of talk about designs being ready to go but they're talking about hiring a firm and just getting a design by April of next year. Sounds like there is a disconnect somewhere.

If Tuesday/Thursday nights to dodge Bama/Auburn home games is the goal, Legion Field won't work in 2017.

April 2016 IS early enough to break ground for a 2017 completion in this day and age, but just barely.

It really needs to be 2-3 months before, and we're 5 months out from April 2016 as it is.

Now I don't really think EVERY home game needs to be a weeknight, but if Bama's playing an SEC opponent in Tuscaloosa, that game needs to be "weeknighted." Auburn's effect is less certain. Hopefully we'll schedule smart enough that will be the exception rather than the rule and most home games can still be on Saturdays while both Bama and Auburn are either away or idle. It seems to me that we should be able to get at least 3 scheduled that way, as well as the "First Game of 2017" idea one week before Labor Day.

There is more to the plan than the stadium.

(11-17-2015 04:45 PM)bladhmadh Wrote:  There is more to the plan than the stadium.

Good point. And besides, it's not like we can't play half the season at Legion and half at the new facility, is it? In fact, that's the way I see it playing out in 2017 at the rate we're going.

August 26, Labor Day Weekend (Bama plays at a neutral site and Sunday and Monday could be options), and sometime in mid-to-late September or early October could be our first 3 home games at Legion, and then later in the season in the new facility would be our last 3, perhaps beginning with Homecoming during one of Bama's off-or-away weekends.

The disconnect is people think that schematic designs are your contract drawings. They are not. They have schematic designs and a simple scope of work or plan per say. They are simlle in nature and do not have any dimensions in them. In other words you could not even attempt to build anything with them much less put a project out to bid. A design team will be hired to develope contract drawings. Depending on project the design phase can take from five months to a year. A lot of factors go in to that time frame. A design build project would make it quicker but can be more expensive.

Same for the facilities on campus. We have no drawings just schematics. We have no design team for them as well. A lot of times the final product will look nothing like the schematic drawings.

BBJ
http://www.bizjournals.com/birmingham/bl...tball.html

Kansas City Populous

http://populous.com/

http://populous.com/projects/type/stadia/

http://populous.com/projects/type/football-american/

Yeah $165,000 buys you some cartoons. The real design fees will be in the millions I would think.

(11-17-2015 04:24 PM)Blazer85 Wrote:  So we really think it's going to be April 2016 before a design can even be approved and any dirt can begin to be moved? If so, definitely do not see how a 2017 start in the new stadium would be feasible at all.

I was under the impression that it would take three years to build, so it would 2019 at the earliest. Three years does sound like a ling time though.

Anyone have a good time line?

From what I've seen online it seems that 18 months from 1st shovel to opening is typical. I guess AB would be the person to ask, though...

Looks like the failed FRW Administration has been out-strategic planned.

We can get in it by 2018 season. They need to select an architect quick though.

(11-17-2015 09:41 PM)ATTALLABLAZE Wrote:  We can get in it by 2018 season. They need to select an architect quick though.

this is the same company that is building the Colorado state stadium.

With all those stadiums we have seen built around the nation in just the last decade or so, why does it seem we have to "reinvent the wheel" to build one in B'ham? What new &/or different elements could we expect that would be so different from what has been built elsewhere -- especially on what is probably going to be a "bare bones" budget?

(11-17-2015 10:20 PM)BAMANBLAZERFAN Wrote:  With all those stadiums we have seen built around the nation in just the last decade or so, why does it seem we have to "reinvent the wheel" to build one in B'ham? What new &/or different elements could we expect that would be so different from what has been built elsewhere -- especially on what is probably going to be a "bare bones" budget?

They will definitely be bringing in elements they've used before. That's part of the point of hiring a company that specializes in a given type of facility. They will have to pick out the elements right for the project and fit it into the available land, tie it into the BJCC, etc. You can't just go to Costco and buy a football stadium.