08-21-2008, 09:29 AM
This is good news, but it's a pity that ordinary fans are knocked out of consideration by the chase for the almighty dollar...
The Charleston Daily Mail Wrote:WVU considers adding suites to Puskar Stadium
By Jack Bogaczyk
Daily Mail Sports Editor
August 21, 2008
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- With support and interest high for a football program that has had three consecutive Top 10 poll seasons and bowl victories to go with a 33-5 record, West Virginia University is considering adding more suites to Puskar Stadium.
The Mountaineers have played to Mountaineer Field's 60,000-seat capacity in recent seasons, and there have been suggestions from more than a few supporters that WVU should expand the 29-year-old stadium.
"We're having discussions with regards to building additional suites, but not additional stadium seats," WVU Athletic Director Ed Pastilong said Wednesday in his WVU Coliseum office. "We've had excellent success with the suites we previously built, the projects on the west side (pressbox level) and at the north end zone."
"It's allowed more corporate sponsors to get involved, we're sold out there and it's greatly enhanced our scholarship funding. If we expand, going in the direction of suites is how we'll go."
Pastilong called WVU at "the exploratory stage" on building additional suites, and he said the cost of such a project must be weighed versus the benefits. He said there is "a good deal of interest" from WVU supporters, expressed through the Mountaineer Athletic Club.
Pastilong, in his 20th year as the West Virginia AD, said it's "way too soon" to put any kind of price tag on such a project. The design and construction of 20 north end zone suites (which opened in 2004) was a $13 million-plus project and also included 648 club seats.
Those 20 suites vary in size, but the average number of "stadium seats" in each is about 24.
WVU has passed 37,800 in season ticket sales for 2008, with the season opening a week from Saturday when Villanova visits for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff. The school's full season-ticket sales record of 38,037 was set last season.
Mountaineer Field is the largest on-campus stadium in the Big East Conference. Pitt and USF play in stadiums they share with NFL teams, and Heinz Field and Raymond James Stadium have capacities in the 65,000 range.
The West Virginia AD said the MAC contributions that accompany suite rental rights "are important because that goes a long way in the athletic department paying our scholarship bill (for athletics) to the university."
That bill was in excess of $6.12 million for 2007-08 - double what it was eight years ago.
"The early discussions have included two possibilities," Pastilong said of the location of potential suite expansion. "The number we would build would depend on the interest we have, and dealing the engineering concerns for such a project."
"There are the southeast and southwest corners of the stadium (above the corners of the Puskar Center football facility), or the possibility of building additional suites on the west side, leaving the pressbox where it is and expanding out from the end of that with new construction."
Two of WVU's Big East Conference brethren, Louisville and Rutgers, are into stadium expansion projects that include additional suites. Longtime West Virginia neighboring rival Maryland also is enhancing Byrd Stadium's seating with a project that includes suites.
Pastilong said if WVU were to add individual stadium seating to Mountaineer Field, "it would be down the road, and only after we built more suites. That's not to say down the line we wouldn't expand further, but the suites would be the priority now."
Contact Sports Editor Jack Bogaczyk at jackb@dailymail.com (304) 348-7949.