(Yesterday 07:43 AM)Deez Nuts Wrote:  

(05-01-2024 06:48 PM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  Let’s go. The clock is ticking.

Only for you. JMU has always been methodical in decision making, and Interim Prez King is probably least likely to be the vote in favor of rushing change. They can start making plans but I doubt you'll see an announcement on expansion before a new president is selected. I'm not saying a new Prez needs to approve it, but it would shock me if there's an announcement within a year of the new AD taking over. Roan will do his due diligence, identify what plans are in place, meet with stake holders and people with the money to put behind it, apply his vision with it, and that's going to take <ducks> 18-24 months

18-24 months minimum.

New Prez announced in the Spring of 2025 (12 months roughly), then another 12 months for the new Prez to get his stamp on anything as major as a $75-100 mil football expansion.

I won’t be surprised if the $40 mil renovation of Godwin gets involved in this project too.

Has JMU initiated any significant sports-related infrastructure projects since the Cox bill became law? Does anyone know offhand how many years are left on the bonds for the Bridgeforth expansion?

I'd be very surprised if JMU didn't do preparation to know would need to happen for expansion (money/construction/utilities/etc). Hopefully that would speed up the time frame a bit when the decision would be made to build.
This is purely a guess, but I am going to base this on the same level of interest and winning.
Talk of potential expansion in 18 months with money raising campaign.
Official announcement in 2 years.
Start building in 3 years. 2 phases. Phase one- tear down old side and build lower part to bowl out. Phase two upper deck and suites.

(Yesterday 11:17 AM)POTUS#4 Wrote:  Has JMU initiated any significant sports-related infrastructure projects since the Cox bill became law? Does anyone know offhand how many years are left on the bonds for the Bridgeforth expansion?

Define “significant”…

The renovation of the Convo would qualify as significant to me, but perhaps not to others.

Also, the addition of permanent seating to the Softball park is a fairly big deal, as was the addition of locker rooms to the Sentara Park fields. My memory tells me the locker rooms at Sentara Park were paid via a donation, and I don’t know the cost of the softball seating.

The timing of the Cox Bill and the AUBC somewhat overlapped, but I believe the AUBC was approved prior to the Cox legislation taking effect.

$40M for godwin still blows my mind....i know it was 10+ years ago, but wasn't BFS expansion $65m?

Now Longhorn...."gets involved in this project" is quite the crumb to drop on us....spill those beans!

(Yesterday 11:39 AM)JMad03 Wrote:  I'd be very surprised if JMU didn't do preparation to know would need to happen for expansion (money/construction/utilities/etc). Hopefully that would speed up the time frame a bit when the decision would be made to build.
This is purely a guess, but I am going to base this on the same level of interest and winning.
Talk of potential expansion in 18 months with money raising campaign.
Official announcement in 2 years.
Start building in 3 years. 2 phases. Phase one- tear down old side and build lower part to bowl out. Phase two upper deck and suites.

sounds about right. I dont see this being completed until 2030. nearly 20 years after the first expansion.

6 years is a long time. By the time this gets completed, it will be overdue. Demand will be at an all time high. 1,000 accounts (2k seats) on the waiting list now? 5 more seasons of winning and 5 more graduating classes we may have 5,000 (10k seats) or more on the waiting list. We will have 10k students wanting to attend, not 5k.

Won't be in 2 years, but it won't be in 5 either. Students deserve better seats for the funding they provide.

(Yesterday 01:38 PM)PGJMU Wrote:  

(Yesterday 11:39 AM)JMad03 Wrote:  I'd be very surprised if JMU didn't do preparation to know would need to happen for expansion (money/construction/utilities/etc). Hopefully that would speed up the time frame a bit when the decision would be made to build.
This is purely a guess, but I am going to base this on the same level of interest and winning.
Talk of potential expansion in 18 months with money raising campaign.
Official announcement in 2 years.
Start building in 3 years. 2 phases. Phase one- tear down old side and build lower part to bowl out. Phase two upper deck and suites.

sounds about right. I dont see this being completed until 2030. nearly 20 years after the first expansion.

6 years is a long time. By the time this gets completed, it will be overdue. Demand will be at an all time high. 1,000 accounts (2k seats) on the waiting list now? 5 more seasons of winning and 5 more graduating classes we may have 5,000 (10k seats) or more on the waiting list. We will have 10k students wanting to attend, not 5k.

You may be right, but that seems like a bit too long. Last year they capped season tickets, which is already revenue lost. Due to last year's success, there's no doubt that the waiting list is significantly larger than last year. And if they are even at a similar stage this year, that list is going to be unreal.
Turning away season ticket holders for what would be close to 10 years with the 6 year timeline seems like way too long.
There's a fine line between creating demand and turning people away.
While we need to be able to fill the new side, I also think it should be something we can grow into.
The new era of FBS football has already created more interest in the students which will immediately lead to perhaps a more engaged alumnus.
We were already talking about expansion as a potential before we went FBS and how going FBS would probably speed up that timetable... depending on attendance.
It's already been said by Bourne that we were exceeding expectations. That could (and probably should) speed up that timetable.
That's why I think 6 years seems a bit too late.

if we start building in 3 years, which seems aggressive. this will be a 2 year build. That is 5 right there. that gets us to 2029

2030 might be optimistic

(Yesterday 02:33 PM)PGJMU Wrote:  if we start building in 3 years, which seems aggressive. this will be a 2 year build. That is 5 right there. that gets us to 2029

2030 might be optimistic

My comment was related to breaking ground. I agree 5 years minimum to completion.

(Yesterday 12:27 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(Yesterday 11:17 AM)POTUS#4 Wrote:  Has JMU initiated any significant sports-related infrastructure projects since the Cox bill became law? Does anyone know offhand how many years are left on the bonds for the Bridgeforth expansion?

Define “significant”…

The renovation of the Convo would qualify as significant to me, but perhaps not to others.

Also, the addition of permanent seating to the Softball park is a fairly big deal, as was the addition of locker rooms to the Sentara Park fields. My memory tells me the locker rooms at Sentara Park were paid via a donation, and I don’t know the cost of the softball seating.

The timing of the Cox Bill and the AUBC somewhat overlapped, but I believe the AUBC was approved prior to the Cox legislation taking effect.

"significant" - I was trying to think of anything that required the issuance of bonds.

The Bridgeforth expansion and the AUBC bonds were definitely grandfathered under the Cox bill so do not count against the cap, thankfully. But the Bridgeforth expansion part II will obviously count and will presumably be paid for primarily with student fees.

I did some searching and I believe that the part I bonds are paid off in 2030. It's pure speculation on my part, but this seems relevant for the timing of part II.

And yes I am aware that there will be more revenue from being a full member of the Sunbelt and that there will be more revenue from an extra 10-15,000 seats, but I have a feeling that the extra revenue will be little more than a few drops in the bucket compared to the cost of repaying the bonds.

(Yesterday 03:17 PM)POTUS#4 Wrote:  

(Yesterday 12:27 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(Yesterday 11:17 AM)POTUS#4 Wrote:  Has JMU initiated any significant sports-related infrastructure projects since the Cox bill became law? Does anyone know offhand how many years are left on the bonds for the Bridgeforth expansion?

Define “significant”…

The renovation of the Convo would qualify as significant to me, but perhaps not to others.

Also, the addition of permanent seating to the Softball park is a fairly big deal, as was the addition of locker rooms to the Sentara Park fields. My memory tells me the locker rooms at Sentara Park were paid via a donation, and I don’t know the cost of the softball seating.

The timing of the Cox Bill and the AUBC somewhat overlapped, but I believe the AUBC was approved prior to the Cox legislation taking effect.

"significant" - I was trying to think of anything that required the issuance of bonds.

The Bridgeforth expansion and the AUBC bonds were definitely grandfathered under the Cox bill so do not count against the cap, thankfully. But the Bridgeforth expansion part II will obviously count and will presumably be paid for primarily with student fees.

I did some searching and I believe that the part I bonds are paid off in 2030. It's pure speculation on my part, but this seems relevant for the timing of part II.

And yes I am aware that there will be more revenue from being a full member of the Sunbelt and that there will be more revenue from an extra 10-15,000 seats, but I have a feeling that the extra revenue will be little more than a few drops in the bucket compared to the cost of repaying the bonds.

This is very good post. I highly doubt we issue new bonds until we have paid the current bonds off as we don’t have the funds to pay both and not violate cox bill. Even with that we will not be able to use student fees to pay the debt as this debt will count against the numbers for cox bill. In reality we need to raise more money going into the build and we need to bring in the 6-10 million or so of debt payments each year with new revenue and donations. The other thing that is important to note beyond construction costs probably doubling since the first phase are interest rates. Not sure what the rate was in 2010 but it will almost certainly be lower than what we will pay this time.

I think the next phase happens but there are lots of things making it difficult financially.

This would be a great pool for wagering with a range of opinion.
1- what date will JMU officially announce a football stadium expansion ?
2- what date will the start demo and construction ?

There are a few things in place now that are not like the previous JMU regime and I think that helps.
Remember when Bourne publicly said we would be FBS in 18-24 months and it took more than a decade? He had some barriers fighting against him instead of with him.

Roan is young and hangs his hat on fundraising so let’s see what he can do with JMU coming off of a season living in the top 25 for half of the year. There can’t be a better time to reel in the affluent who ignored JMU when they were FCS.
Besides being in the top 25 in Oct/Nov,
They beat UVA.
They won the Sun Belt East for the 2nd straight year.
They have a good looking charismatic head coach.
Uncle Mo is definitely on Roan’s side.

I have to believe King still has every detail memorized of the expansion plan and JMU just needs to hit a very specific number in donations to get the project started.

Are there any people that would be barriers to the project? Anyone on the Board of Visitors?

If a historically crap program like Texas State can get $24mil for naming rights, we could certainly do better. Can we somehow find a way to squeeze say Carmax into the name of Bridgeforth Stadium/Zane Showker Field for $30mil to get this fundraiser kicked off?

https://www.texasfootball.com/article/20...-with-ufcu