http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball...ll-stadium

I have to be honest- I think it is absolutely crazy for a school like Georgia State to spend $300 million on an athletic complex. I read the article to believe that the university won't have to come up with all of that money since part of it is retail and apartments. Still, $200 million or anything in that vicinity would be crazy.

(12-21-2015 09:35 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  I have to be honest- I think it is absolutely crazy for a school like Georgia State to spend $300 million on an athletic complex. I read the article to believe that the university won't have to come up with all of that money since part of it is retail and apartments. Still, $200 million or anything in that vicinity would be crazy.

Where they gonna get the coins? Taxpayers? Now, with the coming mergers, their student population could top 50,000 soon. But, GSU alumni and supporters just don't pony up those kind of donations. Besides, they could rent the Dome and that new Arthur Blank palace for years to come with that kind of money.

This is the best thing they could do. Build a small stadium that fits their needs that's right by their campus. If it's considered part of campus and it's mixed use, they'll get city and state funding to help with it. Plus, Ga. State doesn't really have their own facilities for anything outside of basketball, they're trying to grow and improve their athletic facilities to draw people to their campus. This is a great move for them, and shows a commitment to being successful at a higher level in Division I.

(12-22-2015 11:22 AM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  This is the best thing they could do. Build a small stadium that fits their needs that's right by their campus. If it's considered part of campus and it's mixed use, they'll get city and state funding to help with it. Plus, Ga. State doesn't really have their own facilities for anything outside of basketball, they're trying to grow and improve their athletic facilities to draw people to their campus. This is a great move for them, and shows a commitment to being successful at a higher level in Division I.

It is about a mile and half from campus to Turner Field but for a University in a large Metro area like Atlanta that is pretty much on campus. The big help will be moving those other sports in from 9 miles out. The Georgia Dome is as close or probably closer then Turner Field but just to big.

I thought the plan was to tear Turner down? It was designed to be temporary stadium to get them through the Olympics.

All of this reminds me of Idaho State. It's made a go of the Dome that ETSU seems to despise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holt_Arena

(12-22-2015 05:55 PM)Mister Jennings2 Wrote:  I thought the plan was to tear Turner down? It was designed to be temporary stadium to get them through the Olympics.

All of this reminds me of Idaho State. It's made a go of the Dome that ETSU seems to despise. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holt_Arena

No it was built for the Olympics but it was always going to be used by Braves afterwards.

There is a great deal of difference between Idaho States Dome and ETSU's Dome.

(12-23-2015 12:49 AM)buc73 Wrote:  There is a great deal of difference between Idaho States Dome and ETSU's Dome.

Pretty close, Holt Arena is a bit larger which is why they don't have as bad sight line issues as the Mini Dome but otherwise the Mini Dome is a carbon copy.
So what are the major differences?

There won't be much of Turner Field left when Ga. State starts playing football in it. I would expect a stadium that holds a max of 25 thousand with expansion ability to 45K.

(12-23-2015 11:44 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  There won't be much of Turner Field left when Ga. State starts playing football in it. I would expect a stadium that holds a max of 25 thousand with expansion ability to 45K.

Less expensive to tear down, haul off, and remodel than to build new?

Part of it from what I've understood will be from seats already there. Plus, it's multi use so it has to come down.

There is not a great deal of vacant real estate to build on in that part of Atlanta either.

(12-23-2015 11:44 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  There won't be much of Turner Field left when Ga. State starts playing football in it. I would expect a stadium that holds a max of 25 thousand with expansion ability to 45K.

I cannot imagine us paring down from 49k to then go back to 45k. The Southern game in a craptastic 1-11 season slid 28k plus tickets.i think we get this right one time.

(12-22-2015 09:38 AM)Buc66 Wrote:  

(12-21-2015 09:35 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  I have to be honest- I think it is absolutely crazy for a school like Georgia State to spend $300 million on an athletic complex. I read the article to believe that the university won't have to come up with all of that money since part of it is retail and apartments. Still, $200 million or anything in that vicinity would be crazy.

Where they gonna get the coins? Taxpayers? Now, with the coming mergers, their student population could top 50,000 soon. But, GSU alumni and supporters just don't pony up those kind of donations. Besides, they could rent the Dome and that new Arthur Blank palace for years to come with that kind of money.

(12-27-2015 10:02 PM)panama Wrote:  

(12-22-2015 09:38 AM)Buc66 Wrote:  

(12-21-2015 09:35 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  I have to be honest- I think it is absolutely crazy for a school like Georgia State to spend $300 million on an athletic complex. I read the article to believe that the university won't have to come up with all of that money since part of it is retail and apartments. Still, $200 million or anything in that vicinity would be crazy.

Where they gonna get the coins? Taxpayers? Now, with the coming mergers, their student population could top 50,000 soon. But, GSU alumni and supporters just don't pony up those kind of donations. Besides, they could rent the Dome and that new Arthur Blank palace for years to come with that kind of money.

We obviously will just have to agree to disagree if you think my concern is unwarranted. I always see everything through the lens of ETSU's situation. At ETSU, we have had significant problems coming up with the money for the $26 million football stadium (which reportedly is one reason why we are only building part of it for the 2017 season) and a $10 million match to state funds to build an arts center- which we still don't have the funding for this. To be fair, I think the university has done a pretty poor job in trying to raise the money for these projects.

I know that Atlanta is considerably more wealthy than the Tri-Cities and I know that Georgia State is over twice the size of ETSU and is playing in the Sun Belt. However, if at $300 million investment in athletics is what it takes to play in the Sun Belt, I hope ETSU never tries to move in that direction.

I am a huge supporter of ETSU athletics. However, even a portion of this expense could not be justified at ETSU when our alumni giving rate is so low, faculty are grossly underpaid compared to peer institutions (as highlighted in a WJHL story about two weeks ago) and the new funding models and move to free community colleges in TN are making things very difficult resulting in tuition increases which are unsustainable.

(12-28-2015 09:08 AM)etsubuc Wrote:  

(12-27-2015 10:02 PM)panama Wrote:  

(12-22-2015 09:38 AM)Buc66 Wrote:  

(12-21-2015 09:35 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  I have to be honest- I think it is absolutely crazy for a school like Georgia State to spend $300 million on an athletic complex. I read the article to believe that the university won't have to come up with all of that money since part of it is retail and apartments. Still, $200 million or anything in that vicinity would be crazy.

Where they gonna get the coins? Taxpayers? Now, with the coming mergers, their student population could top 50,000 soon. But, GSU alumni and supporters just don't pony up those kind of donations. Besides, they could rent the Dome and that new Arthur Blank palace for years to come with that kind of money.

We obviously will just have to agree to disagree if you think my concern is unwarranted. I always see everything through the lens of ETSU's situation. At ETSU, we have had significant problems coming up with the money for the $26 million football stadium (which reportedly is one reason why we are only building part of it for the 2017 season) and a $10 million match to state funds to build an arts center- which we still don't have the funding for this. To be fair, I think the university has done a pretty poor job in trying to raise the money for these projects.

I know that Atlanta is considerably more wealthy than the Tri-Cities and I know that Georgia State is over twice the size of ETSU and is playing in the Sun Belt. However, if at $300 million investment in athletics is what it takes to play in the Sun Belt, I hope ETSU never tries to move in that direction.

I am a huge supporter of ETSU athletics. However, even a portion of this expense could not be justified at ETSU when our alumni giving rate is so low, faculty are grossly underpaid compared to peer institutions (as highlighted in a WJHL story about two weeks ago) and the new funding models and move to free community colleges in TN are making things very difficult resulting in tuition increases which are unsustainable.

Not sure if you picked up on the fact it was a joint bid Georgia State and a local developer, not sure how it was split but there is the stadium and 67 acres to develop. I am sure they worked out a nice deal. I don't even think they know what direction they are going. They are looking at two plans, one convert Turner Field to football or two build a new football and baseball stadium and convert Turner into a housing. But with all that space it is going to include a lot more then just Georgia State facilities.

I did see that, and in fairness that might make it more reasonable. It is weird that no breakdown was given as to how much was going to be contributed by the developer and the university. It seems like they would have to have an agreement between the two parties in order to bid on the property in the first place.

It might play out very well for the university and my cautions might be unwarranted at the end of the day. Obviously, some amount of investment into athletic facilities is needed- and it needs to be as much as can be justified by the university.

However, my point about ETSU is an important one. We can't even dream of moving to a FBS level with the size stadium that we currently are building (even when it gets to 10,000 seats). Before we get to expanding the stadium, we need to fill 10,000 seats, which I think will be a very tall order. Before we get to that, we need to increase the size of the university student body. That is incredibly difficult given the current dynamics of higher education at the state level. At the same time, we have to increase our rate of alumni giving substantially and pay the faculty about 25-50% more than they are currently making. Lots of challenges ahead if we can even dream of funding athletics substantially more than it is currently.

So the reason we are not concerned is that GSU has pulled off these private/public partnerships before to build out 500k sq feet of space in the last 6 years. There will not be any tax dollars used. The more likely scenario is Carter and Oakwood are fronting the money and we finance what we need to pay back via naming rights sponsorships, private donations and bonds. We will entoll 56k students next fall and have a dorm waiting list a mile long. So the space is needed and the state BOR realizes this. There are two plans. One is to redo the Ted as a football stadium and build a baseball stadium on the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium footprint along with other athletic facilities, dorms, apartments, retail and single family housing. The other plan is exactly the same except that the Ted would be bulldozed and a new football stadium would be built on the north end of the property near the Capitol and GSU central campus. This is not our first rodeo and GSU has been appropriating and stewarding property downtown for 50 years plus and has never left the tax payer on the hook...ever.

The difference in enrollment makes a huge difference. I am sure GA State has a plan for financing but since student fees are a popular way to finance things of late, consider that a $100 annual student fee would generate $5.6 million. A $250 annual fee would generate $14 million. You can see how GA State can potentially generate a great deal of funds to pay for this in a timely manner.