(03-11-2015 09:34 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-11-2015 08:55 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  The times were much different back then, but Tulane decided to tear down the historic Sugar Bowl in favor of the Superdome. The Superdome wasn't ready in time for the Super Bowl, so they played in antiquated Tulane Stadium-Sugar Bowl before it went down. What a nice and unintended sendoff for old Tulane Stadium.

A couple of corrections:
- Tulane was not exactly a willing partner in the Superdome, and in fact Tulane resisted Tulane Stadium's forced condemnation. Tulane's football team practiced there, as did the baseball team when the baseball field was too wet, and many high school games were played there.
- The Superdome was originally projected to open in the fall of 1972, but didn't open until fall 1975. Tulane Stadium hosted Super Bowls in Jan 1970, Jan 1972 and Jan 1975. I don't think it's fair to say that it was an accidental host for the first two.

I stand corrected geargowebb. I trust that you are right

It should have not been that much of a burden to take the St. Charles streetcar to downtown. I guess what was missing was the campus atmosphere which why UH moved their games back on campus from the Astrodome.

(03-11-2015 04:40 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(03-11-2015 04:22 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  I love the fact that Rice decided to restore it's old, historic stadium, instead of building something new and small like Tulane's. Rice Stadium is a big-time venue. I'm glad we play in such a massive stadium, but get to sit so close to the field. We're lucky.

I know this isn't what you meant, but Tulane's stadium issue was a different beast. Sure, it was larger than it needed to be, but it was also the Superdome, which is a significant drive from campus, which meant students never, ever showed up. Moving the stadium on campus allows for a more collegiate feel for the entire game day experience, and making sure to not construct such a large stadium that it always felt empty was the way to go.

I wonder if there have been any schools that have demolished a larger, on-campus stadium in favor for a smaller one on campus?

But Stanford had a stadium built in the 1920s with bad sight lines. I do not know whether Princeton's new stadium was bigger or smaller than the old one.

(03-11-2015 08:26 PM)georgewebb Wrote:  

(03-11-2015 06:42 PM)Tiki Owl Wrote:  

(03-11-2015 04:40 PM)RiceLad15 Wrote:  

(03-11-2015 04:22 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  I love the fact that Rice decided to restore it's old, historic stadium, instead of building something new and small like Tulane's. Rice Stadium is a big-time venue. I'm glad we play in such a massive stadium, but get to sit so close to the field. We're lucky.

I know this isn't what you meant, but Tulane's stadium issue was a different beast. Sure, it was larger than it needed to be, but it was also the Superdome, which is a significant drive from campus, which meant students never, ever showed up. Moving the stadium on campus allows for a more collegiate feel for the entire game day experience, and making sure to not construct such a large stadium that it always felt empty was the way to go.

I wonder if there have been any schools that have demolished a larger, on-campus stadium in favor for a smaller one on campus?

Stanford...85K to 50K.

And if I'm not mistaken, Tulane, Rice and Stanford are the three universities that have hosted Super Bowls on campus.

(03-11-2015 08:55 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  The times were much different back then, but Tulane decided to tear down the historic Sugar Bowl in favor of the Superdome. The Superdome wasn't ready in time for the Super Bowl, so they played in antiquated Tulane Stadium-Sugar Bowl before it went down. What a nice and unintended sendoff for old Tulane Stadium. Rice Stadium is a treasure. Many P5 programs secretively wish they had such a historical venue in which to play, one that has both history and amazing sight lines. It's rare and it feels like the fun is just beginning.

No one gives a hoot.

If Rice spent as much effort running the football program over the last half century as coming up with random pats on the back, we wouldn't be halfway to the center of the earth in terms of a hole to dig out of. I like HRS, but it is a stadium. P5 programs care a whole lot more about what happens on the field.

(03-12-2015 03:29 PM)75src Wrote:  It should have not been that much of a burden to take the St. Charles streetcar to downtown. I guess what was missing was the campus atmosphere which why UH moved their games back on campus from the Astrodome.

The streetcar line is not close to where most of Tulane's on-campus housing is located. You have to walk across most of the campus to get from the dorms to St. Charles Ave. Moreover, the SuperDome is not all that close to the Carondolet (where the streetcar line is when it gets downtown). That is another ~8 block walk to the dome. Similar to walking from WRC to HRS to get to the streetcar, then walking the same distance again to get from the streetcar to the Dome, then doing it all over again after the game. Not to mention the 15+ minutes riding on the streetcar and the fact that on a saturday, the streetcars would sometimes be full and someone might spend a while waiting for one with open space.

(03-12-2015 04:16 PM)Antarius Wrote:  

(03-11-2015 08:55 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  The times were much different back then, but Tulane decided to tear down the historic Sugar Bowl in favor of the Superdome. The Superdome wasn't ready in time for the Super Bowl, so they played in antiquated Tulane Stadium-Sugar Bowl before it went down. What a nice and unintended sendoff for old Tulane Stadium. Rice Stadium is a treasure. Many P5 programs secretively wish they had such a historical venue in which to play, one that has both history and amazing sight lines. It's rare and it feels like the fun is just beginning.

No one gives a hoot.

If Rice spent as much effort running the football program over the last half century as coming up with random pats on the back, we wouldn't be halfway to the center of the earth in terms of a hole to dig out of. I like HRS, but it is a stadium. P5 programs care a whole lot more about what happens on the field.

Lighten up.

(03-12-2015 05:14 PM)mrbig Wrote:  

(03-12-2015 03:29 PM)75src Wrote:  It should have not been that much of a burden to take the St. Charles streetcar to downtown. I guess what was missing was the campus atmosphere which why UH moved their games back on campus from the Astrodome.

The streetcar line is not close to where most of Tulane's on-campus housing is located. You have to walk across most of the campus to get from the dorms to St. Charles Ave. Moreover, the SuperDome is not all that close to the Carondolet (where the streetcar line is when it gets downtown). That is another ~8 block walk to the dome. Similar to walking from WRC to HRS to get to the streetcar, then walking the same distance again to get from the streetcar to the Dome, then doing it all over again after the game. Not to mention the 15+ minutes riding on the streetcar and the fact that on a saturday, the streetcars would sometimes be full and someone might spend a while waiting for one with open space.

Indeed. Even during normal operating times, one would sensibly allow over an hour to get from the Tulane campus to the Superdome via streetcar. Of course it COULD take less, but that is what one would have needed to allow. And Saturday nights are not normal operating schedule.

(03-11-2015 04:15 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  My daughter attends SweetBriar who recently (to the shock of almost all) decided to close after 115 years... I wonder how the donors to the library that was just finished last year and the student center that was finished just a few years ago feel about things.

Wow! A shock, indeed!

There are couple of connections to Rice (sort of):

1) Many of Sweet Briar's early buildings were designed by Rice's architect, Ralph Adams Cram.

2) Unlike Rice's BOT, which in the early 1960s went to court to break WMRice's will to permit the charging of tuition and admission of non-white students, Sweet Briar's trustees have apparently chosen not to try to break the will of their founding donor in an attempt to grow by admitting men.

Donations that led to the expanded library and student commons complex are indeed issues, about which the college administration is saying little.

Here are some links to some interesting articles (most with long chains of passionate comments) about Sweet Briar's financial predicament and closing decision:

• Inside Higher Ed
• The Atlantic
• WDBJ-TV
• Washington Post
• Inside HigherEd (marketing perspective)
• Not-for-profit firm created to fight Sweet Briar's closing: Saving Sweet Briar. (BTW, the traffic between the SBC community and this site was so great that it looked like a hacking attack, and access from campus was temporarily suspended.)

I notice the concrete is now gone and a lot of the blacktop

(03-13-2015 01:35 PM)Almadenmike Wrote:  

(03-11-2015 04:15 PM)Hambone10 Wrote:  My daughter attends SweetBriar who recently (to the shock of almost all) decided to close after 115 years... I wonder how the donors to the library that was just finished last year and the student center that was finished just a few years ago feel about things.

Wow! A shock, indeed!

There are couple of connections to Rice (sort of):

1) Many of Sweet Briar's early buildings were designed by Rice's architect, Ralph Adams Cram.

2) Unlike Rice's BOT, which in the early 1960s went to court to break WMRice's will to permit the charging of tuition and admission of non-white students, Sweet Briar's trustees have apparently chosen not to try to break the will of their founding donor in an attempt to grow by admitting men.

Donations that led to the expanded library and student commons complex are indeed issues, about which the college administration is saying little.

Here are some links to some interesting articles (most with long chains of passionate comments) about Sweet Briar's financial predicament and closing decision:

• Inside Higher Ed
• The Atlantic
• WDBJ-TV
• Washington Post
• Inside HigherEd (marketing perspective)
• Not-for-profit firm created to fight Sweet Briar's closing: Saving Sweet Briar. (BTW, the traffic between the SBC community and this site was so great that it looked like a hacking attack, and access from campus was temporarily suspended.)

A cousin of my mom was a prior president of Sweet Briar - she even picked my brain on what Rice students did and didn't like about student life. I haven't had a chance to speak with her about what she might have heard about this.

It won't be easy to close the budget gap - I think I saw a report indicating it was around $10M, which if it was to be covered by an endowment would mean Sweet Briar's endowment would have to grow by about 350%. That's a tough fundraising goal. It's a shame, because it really is a beautiful campus.

(03-13-2015 02:03 PM)gsloth Wrote:  It won't be easy to close the budget gap - I think I saw a report indicating it was around $10M, which if it was to be covered by an endowment would mean Sweet Briar's endowment would have to grow by about 350%. That's a tough fundraising goal. It's a shame, because it really is a beautiful campus.

I'm not sure it's really that tough. You're talking about a 115 year old school with numerous ties to some very wealthy families. It is smaller than Rice, but Rice raised $1byn in 1 year just to stay competitive, much less open. We seem to raise 500mm or more every decade or so. To think that Sweet Briar Alums, properly motivated and informed couldn't raise 2-300mm over a few years would surprise me greatly. NOW they can't because nobody believes it will make any difference.

and like Rice challenging the will, Sweetbriar could have challenged theirs. The campus isn't just beautiful.... It's 3200 acres for about 600 students. By comparison Rice is about 300 acres for 6,000 students. I know it is rural Virgina, but I can't believe that they couldn't have raised some decent money (not to mention saved on maintenance) by selling off 2000 acres... and they'd STILL be 4 x our size for 1/10th the students. If the options are to break the will to make the campus smaller or break the will to stop being a college, the answer seems obvious to me. I don't know what 2,000 acres in rural VA is worth or what it costs to maintain it, but I'm confident it's not nothing. Or, they could have more simply pledged some of the land for a loan to work out their issues or to facilitate the students on campus. If the college is closing anyway, what difference does it make?

/rant. sorry... as you can tell it's a sensitive topic. They really screwed my daughter.

Yes, they did. I'm sorry for that. One of my sisters went to an all-women's school in NC that's over 200 years old.

I think the one clear thing in reading through things is that they didn't start really dealing with this in time, and it wound up being too late.

If I can go on a bit of my own rant, it's amazing to think what some of these donors out there that are giving to the schools that already have the huge endowments - $20M here, $50M or even more sometimes. Think about what that would mean to some of these under endowed schools to get part of that infusion. I'm not saying give it to just a school just because, but make sure it's got a plan to stay around. But they keep giving the haves (and yes, that probably includes Rice) with these ever bigger commitments. When the impact might be even better at these smaller institutions.

I guess not much (if any) Kennedy money got to Sweet Briar, then those Jackie Kennedy's mother graduated from there.

Well, I might be a bit biased, but I don't have a problem with people giving Rice lots of money.

The Sweetbriar situation seems complicated by choices between change and tradition. The money problems by themselves do not seem insurmountable.

(03-13-2015 09:49 PM)Frizzy Owl Wrote:  Well, I might be a bit biased, but I don't have a problem with people giving Rice lots of money.

The Sweetbriar situation seems complicated by choices between change and tradition. The money problems by themselves do not seem insurmountable.

Whatever caused it, it's a damn shame. Just a very sad story.

It looks like their starting to remove the dirt on top of the endzone.

(03-24-2015 12:29 PM)Afflicted Wrote:  It looks like they're starting to remove the dirt on top of the endzone.

FIFY

thanks

Sorry, late to the thread...

(02-09-2015 01:45 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I remember the first game against UH, I was spotting for JFred in those days and sat next to the scoreboard controls. The vendor had sent some tech rep who looked like he was about 19 to baby sit the first night. When time came to turn the board on, I thought he was going to have a heart attack. When it came on and worked, the look of relief on his face was priceless. Of course, those of us who were Rice regulars were so used to nothing working that we would have just accepted it as typical Rice, par for the course. But he didn't know that, and he was very obviously frightened nearly to death.

(02-09-2015 01:45 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  Because the party with whom we contracted went under (I think that's right, in any event they haven't performed on any maintenance contract), and we didn't have a contract with Daktronics, we have had some maintenance issues.

I remember that installer guy; I was up in the booth that day, too. Regarding the maintenance issues, of which there were many, with- or without a contract we didn't do ourselves any favors. For example, we pinched pennies to save on electricity costs, partly by shutting off all of the main breakers. Unfortunately, there were HVAC units up atop of that thing -- behind the owl screen that shielded the speaker array from view -- and that same first day I recall that tech saying that we shouldn't shut them off. I'm really amazed that most of the equipment still worked after so many months, each year, without working climate control in the Houston heat and humidity.

(03-03-2015 05:03 PM)Orange County Owl Wrote:  Will we just go with the older elevated board over the R Room or put something temporary around the construction project as well?

With the scoreboard gone, there's no more public address system, either. I would love to know what they currently plan to do for that. Lack of P.A. is going to make the facility a lot less appealing to whomever tends to use it on Friday nights, etc. (If that's even going to happen during the construction phase.) Are there NCAA/conference rules regarding public address requirements? Fire code for evac instructions in such a large facility?

If I had to guess, the solution is probably portable arrays set up at the corners and/or around the field -- in on game day and back out again. My concern with that approach would be the sound level exposre to those in close proximity (players, band members, or people sitting in the first rows near the corners).

(03-05-2015 08:42 AM)Viejobuho Wrote:  

(03-04-2015 08:17 AM)Viejobuho Wrote:  Seems that contractor could easily speed up demolition and excavation by adding another backhoe on the other side!

Oh! I am going to give myself lots of credit: today there is a second backhoe!! Go xxxxx contractor!

And now three backhoes-- shortens the critical path! Yeah!