Visiting Akron last weekend, I was very impressed with their facilities. I believe they had their IPF in 2005 (100 yards I believe), but their new stadium opened last year and I am sure their MAC Championship in 2005 had something to do with getting the stadium built. It would be great to have a similar stadium at NIU, but with some renovation I think that Huskie Stadium would be brought up to speed.
I just wonder where our program and facilities would be had we won the MACC in 2005. I feel like it would be very possible if we would have had our IPF by now. That being said, lets get this done this year and get the IPF built!!!
BEAT TEMPLE!!! WIN THE WEST!!! WIN THE MAC!!!
I don't think that had any effect on anything being built.
I don't know a lot about the business side of college athetics, but I wouldn't think that a MAC title would have that big of an impact on donations, would it? An increase, sure, but the entire difference between no changes and a remodeled stadium and an IPF?
(10-05-2010 10:16 PM)clcfball11 Wrote: [ -> ]I don't know a lot about the business side of college athetics, but I wouldn't think that a MAC title would have that big of an impact on donations, would it? An increase, sure, but the entire difference between no changes and a remodeled stadium and an IPF?
doubt it didn't CMU win 3 in the last four years or something? and you don't see anything going on up there in terms of renovations or additions.
It would certainly be a great start. 10+ wins in one season is always a big deal. A bowl win would help as well!
How the heck did UA get $61 mil for a new stadium? They have a few sponsors, but I can't believe sponsors ponied up that much and I can't see it being funded by a special student fee or tax increase. That's a big chunk of change for a down area like Akron. Any know how they paid for that thing (which looks nice BTW)?
Found some info...
$10M from Infocision for stadium naming rights
$5M from Summa for field naming rights
$1M from FirstMerit Foundation for club level
$100k from Towpath Credit Union for press box
Quote:The stadium will be financed over 30 years, with pledges due on major gifts along the way and other money - such as payments from rentals for wedding receptions and meetings, plus concessions and ticket sales - filling in.
The major naming rights have been sold, with Gary and Karen Taylor giving $10 million to christen the facility for their company, InfoCision. Summa Health System is giving $5 million for the field. The FirstMerit Foundation is paying $1 million for the club level.
The newest gift was announced last month: $100,000 over five years from the Towpath Credit Union for the press box, with an option for another five years.
In addition, 34 of the 38 loges are gone at a cost of $5,000 a year, as are all 13 luxury suites at $20,000 a year for three-, five- or seven-year contracts.
Potential donors are evaluating two of the biggest naming options now: one for the press tower and another for the end zone. Those would be "seven-figure gifts" of possibly $2.5 million each, Yurachek said.
More modest naming rights are available for the coaches' box on the seventh floor for about $50,000 and the radio play-by-play room for about $25,000, he said.
http://football.ballparks.com/NCAA/MidAm...windex.htm
Quote:Associate Athletics Director Paul Hammond said the final year's attendance at the aging Rubber Bowl was about 71,700 compared to 104,000 for the inaugural season at InfoCision Stadium.
At the same time, revenue from UA games rose from $400,000 at the Rubber Bowl to about $2 million at InfoCision - and had the potential to be greater, save for the disappointing 3-9 season.
While the $61.6 million stadium might not hit all the marks, "I think in Year One, you go with the flow," Hammond said. "Operations were done very well. If our success would have stayed up, it would have helped."
Attendance at the new stadium was well below the 20,000 UA hoped for at each game, or 120,000 for the six-game home season, yet concession sales rose from $18,500 to $75,000.
Since the university also was able to host more outside events at a higher rate at InfoCision than it could at the aging Rubber Bowl, some seven miles from campus, that revenue grew as well. Hammond said nine high school games generated $12,000 in fees this year, up from seven games and $6,000 at the Rubber Bowl the previous year. Concessions sold at those events hiked total revenue from $24,400 to $114,300, a figure that includes the hot dogs and pop sold at the UA games.
Hey concessions sold at a sporting event...there's a novel concept. Although the way those numbers work out, each person in attendance spent an average of $0.75 on concessions...seems ridiculously low to me.
(10-06-2010 09:26 AM)armour248 Wrote: [ -> ]Quote:Associate Athletics Director Paul Hammond said the final year's attendance at the aging Rubber Bowl was about 71,700 compared to 104,000 for the inaugural season at InfoCision Stadium.
At the same time, revenue from UA games rose from $400,000 at the Rubber Bowl to about $2 million at InfoCision - and had the potential to be greater, save for the disappointing 3-9 season.
While the $61.6 million stadium might not hit all the marks, "I think in Year One, you go with the flow," Hammond said. "Operations were done very well. If our success would have stayed up, it would have helped."
Attendance at the new stadium was well below the 20,000 UA hoped for at each game, or 120,000 for the six-game home season, yet concession sales rose from $18,500 to $75,000.
Since the university also was able to host more outside events at a higher rate at InfoCision than it could at the aging Rubber Bowl, some seven miles from campus, that revenue grew as well. Hammond said nine high school games generated $12,000 in fees this year, up from seven games and $6,000 at the Rubber Bowl the previous year. Concessions sold at those events hiked total revenue from $24,400 to $114,300, a figure that includes the hot dogs and pop sold at the UA games.
Hey concessions sold at a sporting event...there's a novel concept. Although the way those numbers work out, each person in attendance spent an average of $0.75 on concessions...seems ridiculously low to me.
Be careful what you wish for. One way to increase concession sales is to limit tailgating
Not that we are anywhere near this stage so it doesn't really matter, but does anyone know, if we ever did expand our stadium, would we put a horseshoe on the southside, have to build a whole new stadium or what?
I would think stadium work at this point would have to start with a massive overhaul if not complete teardown of the west side.
Between pressbox/suite needs and the need to overall modernize you pretty much have to start there before tacking anything new on.
easy solution- just play every home game for a season or two at soldier field so a huge renovation can be done. :)
Sure doesnt take much for us, me included, to get way ahead of ourselves and dream big.
20 yr master plan:
MACC or not - it will take some creative firm to design a makeover to Huskie Stadium. I foresee no teardowns in our lifetime.
STAGE I. yrs 1-10
>Add a press box and luxury boxes to a second tier above and behind EAST grandstands.
>IPF
>Move newer bigger scoreboard to N end Zone above Yordon entry to the field.
STAGE II. yrs 11-20
>Gut much of the interior to West stands adding restrooms and concession stands in dead spaces.
>Build a semicircle South end zone half as tall as E & W stands for visitors and youth group outings similar to new student seating in end zone at UI. Have top row an extra wide aisle for umbrella tables and picnic areas. May need to use some of the street behind existing scoreboard and allow vehicles to pass underneath like L Tracks in Loop.
>What to do with limited older press box and enclosed seating remains an unknown in my fantasy vision.
I agree the west stands do not need to be torn down but the interior needs a major overhaul for concessions and restrooms, and maybe a Huskie "tribute" kind of room. Also the enclosed seating area and press box needs to be torn down and rebuilt into much larger spaces. Anyone who has been in these areas knows they are way too small and congested. The ticket holders who populate these areas have to walk up a flight of stairs and worm their way past the media people who are crammed into a narrow hallway in order to find a tiny restroom. The facility screams "small time college football".
I would hope this and the south end zone stands could be at least under construction in 10 years rather than 20. But the IPF is also a priority so there is only so much money to go around.
I imagine the conference reshuffling that doesn't seem to be done will have a large say in what happens in regards to anything beyond 5 years.
Sort of off topic, but did anyone else get annoyed by the radio broadcast against Akron when they kept referring to the red zone as the green zone (I think Waste Management green zone). I can imagine what that could lead to.
Harnish takes the General Electric snap, rolls out behind the Duracell line of scrimmage, looks downfield, throws to Cox in the Subway end zone! TD!
(10-06-2010 03:23 PM)NIU007 Wrote: [ -> ]Sort of off topic, but did anyone else get annoyed by the radio broadcast against Akron when they kept referring to the red zone as the green zone (I think Waste Management green zone). I can imagine what that could lead to.
Harnish takes the General Electric snap, rolls out behind the Duracell line of scrimmage, looks downfield, throws to Cox in the Subway end zone! TD!
No joke that is almost what its like to listen to a Blackhawks game on the radio these days.
"There is 4 mins left in the 5/3rd Bank 3rd period and 2 mins left on the Citro Petroleum power play"
(10-06-2010 11:05 AM)HuskieFan84 Wrote: [ -> ]Not that we are anywhere near this stage so it doesn't really matter, but does anyone know, if we ever did expand our stadium, would we put a horseshoe on the southside, have to build a whole new stadium or what?
I've heard that the East side can be expanded. Maybe add a second deck behind the grandstand sort of like what they did at Toledo's Glass Bowl.
(10-06-2010 10:56 AM)Huskie_Jon Wrote: [ -> ] (10-06-2010 09:26 AM)armour248 Wrote: [ -> ]Quote:Associate Athletics Director Paul Hammond said the final year's attendance at the aging Rubber Bowl was about 71,700 compared to 104,000 for the inaugural season at InfoCision Stadium.
At the same time, revenue from UA games rose from $400,000 at the Rubber Bowl to about $2 million at InfoCision - and had the potential to be greater, save for the disappointing 3-9 season.
While the $61.6 million stadium might not hit all the marks, "I think in Year One, you go with the flow," Hammond said. "Operations were done very well. If our success would have stayed up, it would have helped."
Attendance at the new stadium was well below the 20,000 UA hoped for at each game, or 120,000 for the six-game home season, yet concession sales rose from $18,500 to $75,000.
Since the university also was able to host more outside events at a higher rate at InfoCision than it could at the aging Rubber Bowl, some seven miles from campus, that revenue grew as well. Hammond said nine high school games generated $12,000 in fees this year, up from seven games and $6,000 at the Rubber Bowl the previous year. Concessions sold at those events hiked total revenue from $24,400 to $114,300, a figure that includes the hot dogs and pop sold at the UA games.
Hey concessions sold at a sporting event...there's a novel concept. Although the way those numbers work out, each person in attendance spent an average of $0.75 on concessions...seems ridiculously low to me.
Be careful what you wish for. One way to increase concession sales is to limit tailgating
That's not true. They could actually have people SELLING food/drink to people in their seats, instead of just taking orders at the concession stands. For example, on a cold day they'd sell a TON of hot chocolate - yet people have to leave their seats to get it, and then it's usually sold out by halftime. Selling hot dogs and pop with roving vendors is a no brainer, yet for some reason we don't do it.
(10-07-2010 08:24 AM)Rock Bottom Wrote: [ -> ] (10-06-2010 10:56 AM)Huskie_Jon Wrote: [ -> ] (10-06-2010 09:26 AM)armour248 Wrote: [ -> ]Quote:Associate Athletics Director Paul Hammond said the final year's attendance at the aging Rubber Bowl was about 71,700 compared to 104,000 for the inaugural season at InfoCision Stadium.
At the same time, revenue from UA games rose from $400,000 at the Rubber Bowl to about $2 million at InfoCision - and had the potential to be greater, save for the disappointing 3-9 season.
While the $61.6 million stadium might not hit all the marks, "I think in Year One, you go with the flow," Hammond said. "Operations were done very well. If our success would have stayed up, it would have helped."
Attendance at the new stadium was well below the 20,000 UA hoped for at each game, or 120,000 for the six-game home season, yet concession sales rose from $18,500 to $75,000.
Since the university also was able to host more outside events at a higher rate at InfoCision than it could at the aging Rubber Bowl, some seven miles from campus, that revenue grew as well. Hammond said nine high school games generated $12,000 in fees this year, up from seven games and $6,000 at the Rubber Bowl the previous year. Concessions sold at those events hiked total revenue from $24,400 to $114,300, a figure that includes the hot dogs and pop sold at the UA games.
Hey concessions sold at a sporting event...there's a novel concept. Although the way those numbers work out, each person in attendance spent an average of $0.75 on concessions...seems ridiculously low to me.
Be careful what you wish for. One way to increase concession sales is to limit tailgating
That's not true. They could actually have people SELLING food/drink to people in their seats, instead of just taking orders at the concession stands. For example, on a cold day they'd sell a TON of hot chocolate - yet people have to leave their seats to get it, and then it's usually sold out by halftime. Selling hot dogs and pop with roving vendors is a no brainer, yet for some reason we don't do it.
We did do it about three years ago for fans in the chairbacks. There were menus of food available, and you would order from students who went through the chairback section. I thought this was wonderful. Then it stopped.