The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(04-30-2019 10:16 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  It sounds great, but you still cannot force people into the stadium. There are 1.7 million residents, but due to the transient nature of this area, less people care about consistently attending sporting events. Add to that the national trend of lower attendance, and the urban nature of our school (plenty of other things to do), we are working with one arm tied behind our back.

This is why the feasibility study was so important. Having 20k in a 30k stadium does not benefit anyone.

I'd rather have 20k fans in a 30k stadium than 20k fans in a 20k stadium. There's room for more people to come and with the amount of ACC games coming to town in the near (and hopefully far) future, there's no reason we can't realistically have a 30k seat stadium.

ODU is in a weird limbo where we got our football program and succeeded immediately at a time where TV broadcasts and HD boomed as well as the P5 separation began. ODU will never be in a P5 conference and will never compete for National Championships in football, unless a major major change happens in college football. We don't need a stadium the size of VT's which is at 66k, but 22k is just way too small in my opinion. Maybe the AD decided that where we are at is the best and only place we can be, but I think that is selling the program very very short. Those that think that a 30k seat stadium is reaching too far have little faith in this program imo.

With that being said, I understand the roadblocks ODU has had to overcome just to build what is currently being built, but spending all this money to have a stadium that at its complete capacity is smaller than JMU's Bridgeforth which is screaming for it's East side completion which would far surpass anything we can have in the future unless a complete redesign of the historic part of campus happens. Sometimes I wish our admin had a little bit more gusto and vision of the future of the program

(04-30-2019 10:46 AM)MonGNARch Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 10:16 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  It sounds great, but you still cannot force people into the stadium. There are 1.7 million residents, but due to the transient nature of this area, less people care about consistently attending sporting events. Add to that the national trend of lower attendance, and the urban nature of our school (plenty of other things to do), we are working with one arm tied behind our back.

This is why the feasibility study was so important. Having 20k in a 30k stadium does not benefit anyone.

I'd rather have 20k fans in a 30k stadium than 20k fans in a 20k stadium. There's room for more people to come and with the amount of ACC games coming to town in the near (and hopefully far) future, there's no reason we can't realistically have a 30k seat stadium.

ODU is in a weird limbo where we got our football program and succeeded immediately at a time where TV broadcasts and HD boomed as well as the P5 separation began. ODU will never be in a P5 conference and will never compete for National Championships in football, unless a major major change happens in college football. We don't need a stadium the size of VT's which is at 66k, but 22k is just way too small in my opinion. Maybe the AD decided that where we are at is the best and only place we can be, but I think that is selling the program very very short. Those that think that a 30k seat stadium is reaching too far have little faith in this program imo.

With that being said, I understand the roadblocks ODU has had to overcome just to build what is currently being built, but spending all this money to have a stadium that at its complete capacity is smaller than JMU's Bridgeforth which is screaming for it's East side completion which would far surpass anything we can have in the future unless a complete redesign of the historic part of campus happens. Sometimes I wish our admin had a little bit more gusto and vision of the future of the program

Yep. ODU needs to focus more on traditional on-campus students who graduate and stay in the area for a while. They need to get those students to have school pride and support the teams while in school. They need to increase academic rep and marketing to get the type of students that will do that. And then it will snowball. We may never be a VT type program, but if we get stuck in CUSA forever, then the FBS move was a mistake. I enjoyed the FCS playoffs as much as the Bahamas Bowl. But, if we can grow our program to ECU, UCF, Houston type proportions I'll be happy.

Here is the deal...we will likely be 18K fans in a 25K stadium especially if our football trajectory does not change. I would rather ODU and ODAF focus over the next couple of years on Basketball. I think we have a better chance of more consistently making the NCAA tournament in basketball than getting conference championships and decent bowls games in Football. That is just how I feel.

(04-30-2019 11:59 AM)Mr.BigBlue Wrote:  Here is the deal...we will likely be 18K fans in a 25K stadium especially if our football trajectory does not change. I would rather ODU and ODAF focus over the next couple of years on Basketball. I think we have a better chance of more consistently making the NCAA tournament in basketball than getting conference championships and decent bowls games in Football. That is just how I feel.

You keep saying 25k and it's not. Its a little over 22k according to harrys latest piece.

(04-30-2019 02:44 PM)benny_t Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 11:59 AM)Mr.BigBlue Wrote:  Here is the deal...we will likely be 18K fans in a 25K stadium especially if our football trajectory does not change. I would rather ODU and ODAF focus over the next couple of years on Basketball. I think we have a better chance of more consistently making the NCAA tournament in basketball than getting conference championships and decent bowls games in Football. That is just how I feel.

You keep saying 25k and it's not. Its a little over 22k according to harrys latest piece.

He's talking about the endzone project that must be done in the near future. That will likely bring us to 25k.

(04-30-2019 02:44 PM)benny_t Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 11:59 AM)Mr.BigBlue Wrote:  Here is the deal...we will likely be 18K fans in a 25K stadium especially if our football trajectory does not change. I would rather ODU and ODAF focus over the next couple of years on Basketball. I think we have a better chance of more consistently making the NCAA tournament in basketball than getting conference championships and decent bowls games in Football. That is just how I feel.

You keep saying 25k and it's not. Its a little over 22k according to harrys latest piece.

ECU averages 36,000+. I would hope within another 25 years we could be averaging that many too. But you need a 40,000 seat stadium to do that. For the next decade, if we sold out the stadium for every game I'll be happy, but It still doesnt make sense that we built a new stadium that has no room to grow the fan base if we have any success to speak of. We could have sold out 22k seats at FCS for another decade. When ODU wins, people will come out in droves.

(04-30-2019 03:10 PM)monarx Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 02:44 PM)benny_t Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 11:59 AM)Mr.BigBlue Wrote:  Here is the deal...we will likely be 18K fans in a 25K stadium especially if our football trajectory does not change. I would rather ODU and ODAF focus over the next couple of years on Basketball. I think we have a better chance of more consistently making the NCAA tournament in basketball than getting conference championships and decent bowls games in Football. That is just how I feel.

You keep saying 25k and it's not. Its a little over 22k according to harrys latest piece.

ECU averages 36,000+. I would hope within another 25 years we could be averaging that many too. But you need a 40,000 seat stadium to do that. For the next decade, if we sold out the stadium for every game I'll be happy, but It still doesnt make sense that we built a new stadium that has no room to grow the fan base if we have any success to speak of. We could have sold out 22k seats at FCS for another decade. When ODU wins, people will come out in droves.

There is room to improve. Down the road the south endzone building will be at the end of its life and removing that parking deck could provide plenty of room. Not to mention tearing down Koch hall would give space for and upper east deck. We have plenty of room for large expansion in the future. 30k should be the minimum, anything over that is a bonus.

I agree that I would rather have some games with 20k in an a 30k stadium and sell out the big ones vs having 20k in a 20k stadium. Everyone seems to be forgetting that FF was 126 out of 130 for FBS stadium capacity. Even when adding 2k more seats we only moved up 1 spot over WKU to 125. That is the bottom 3% of college football. That is small time. The Ted is not the bottom 3% for college basketball so we should not be in the bottom 3% for college football. ODUs goal should be better than being ok with being one of the smallest stadiums in college football.

(04-30-2019 03:49 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 03:10 PM)monarx Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 02:44 PM)benny_t Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 11:59 AM)Mr.BigBlue Wrote:  Here is the deal...we will likely be 18K fans in a 25K stadium especially if our football trajectory does not change. I would rather ODU and ODAF focus over the next couple of years on Basketball. I think we have a better chance of more consistently making the NCAA tournament in basketball than getting conference championships and decent bowls games in Football. That is just how I feel.

You keep saying 25k and it's not. Its a little over 22k according to harrys latest piece.

ECU averages 36,000+. I would hope within another 25 years we could be averaging that many too. But you need a 40,000 seat stadium to do that. For the next decade, if we sold out the stadium for every game I'll be happy, but It still doesnt make sense that we built a new stadium that has no room to grow the fan base if we have any success to speak of. We could have sold out 22k seats at FCS for another decade. When ODU wins, people will come out in droves.

There is room to improve. Down the road the south endzone building will be at the end of its life and removing that parking deck could provide plenty of room. Not to mention tearing down Koch hall would give space for and upper east deck. We have plenty of room for large expansion in the future. 30k should be the minimum, anything over that is a bonus.

I agree that I would rather have some games with 20k in an a 30k stadium and sell out the big ones vs having 20k in a 20k stadium. Everyone seems to be forgetting that FF was 126 out of 130 for FBS stadium capacity. Even when adding 2k more seats we only moved up 1 spot over WKU to 125. That is the bottom 3% of college football. That is small time. The Ted is not the bottom 3% for college basketball so we should not be in the bottom 3% for college football. ODUs goal should be better than being ok with being one of the smallest stadiums in college football.

Interesting stat. Wonder where we landed in terms of attendance.

(04-30-2019 02:44 PM)benny_t Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 11:59 AM)Mr.BigBlue Wrote:  Here is the deal...we will likely be 18K fans in a 25K stadium especially if our football trajectory does not change. I would rather ODU and ODAF focus over the next couple of years on Basketball. I think we have a better chance of more consistently making the NCAA tournament in basketball than getting conference championships and decent bowls games in Football. That is just how I feel.

You keep saying 25k and it's not. Its a little over 22k according to harrys latest piece.

You are not including the north zone end zone. I am including the extra seats from that Reno. Please read my posts. The 25K seats will be the next small addition that we will be getting by 2022/2023.

(04-30-2019 10:40 AM)Monarchblue Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 10:31 AM)Mr.BigBlue Wrote:  Totally different scenario...one is 10's of $ for a customer base the other is 100-1000 for customer base. Customer acquisition costs are substantially higher.

Its like $25 a ticket. We don't have to only focus on season ticket sales. We need a robust pool of folks who come to games occasionally. We currently have almost none of those because we don't market to them and often haven't had inventory for them. If the Admin had their way, we would have no inventory for them. Right now they are selling about 3500 or so season tickets for basketball. So if they built a new basketball stadium should it only seat 4000?

The whole thing was a waste of money. Never should have overpromised and never should have pulled the trigger on this. I'm sure it will be nice for an FCS stadium and I'm sure it will generate some extra demand for a couple of years, but it is going to lose massive money after that. Hiring Nick Saban for 5 years would have been a better long-term investment.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Like the Ted, this stadium won't have cheap seats.
The east stands can be expanded without moving the lights back

No need for a 30k stadium when,

there's no waiting list
fans don't come in less than perfect weather
fans don't come when it's on TV
TV games aren't blacked out when there's no sellout
fans don't come when the F_U's come to town.

The stadium will look great. The east/west seats will be comfy, the concessions will be easily accessible and you'll be able to empty your bowels in state of the art restrooms.

I wonder if the team will come out in a newly designed helmet logo and uniform combination. I think it's fitting for this new chapter in ODU football history.

(04-30-2019 07:22 PM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  Like the Ted, this stadium won't have cheap seats.
The east stands can be expanded without moving the lights back

No need for a 30k stadium when,

there's no waiting list
fans don't come in less than perfect weather
fans don't come when it's on TV
TV games aren't blacked out when there's no sellout
fans don't come when the F_U's come to town.

The stadium will look great. The east/west seats will be comfy, the concessions will be easily accessible and you'll be able to empty your bowels in state of the art restrooms.

I wonder if the team will come out in a newly designed helmet logo and uniform combination. I think it's fitting for this new chapter in ODU football history.

We recently ended a 60 game sellout streak. You talk as if ODU has never come close to selling out a game. Who ever came up with the rule that you need to have a waiting list to expand, that is just made up BS. The lowest attendance game we have ever had was still roughly 90% full. Everyone that says fans don’t show up have no creditability. We have one of if not the best fan bases in C-USA. Our ticket sales blow everyone else out of the water. We need to expand to 30k. Besides 30k is not 60k or 80k. It’s really not hard to get to that.

(04-30-2019 08:30 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 07:22 PM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  Like the Ted, this stadium won't have cheap seats.
The east stands can be expanded without moving the lights back

No need for a 30k stadium when,

there's no waiting list
fans don't come in less than perfect weather
fans don't come when it's on TV
TV games aren't blacked out when there's no sellout
fans don't come when the F_U's come to town.

The stadium will look great. The east/west seats will be comfy, the concessions will be easily accessible and you'll be able to empty your bowels in state of the art restrooms.

I wonder if the team will come out in a newly designed helmet logo and uniform combination. I think it's fitting for this new chapter in ODU football history.

We recently ended a 60 game sellout streak. You talk as if ODU has never come close to selling out a game. Who ever came up with the rule that you need to have a waiting list to expand, that is just made up BS. The lowest attendance game we have ever had was still roughly 90% full. Everyone that says fans don’t show up have no creditability. We have one of if not the best fan bases in C-USA. Our ticket sales blow everyone else out of the water. We need to expand to 30k. Besides 30k is not 60k or 80k. It’s really not hard to get to that.

Most of the last 20 were fake sell outs with the game sponsor buying the 200 to 1200 unpurchased game tickets Noticed your 35K seats is now 30K. Also...waiting list is reflective of demand. That demand vaporized and there is NO increased demand for ODU football seats in the current environment. I am ESTIMATING anywhere from 4500 to 6000 seats available as of today. To come close to selling out this year in the 3-4 months remaining will require a miracle. For CUSA we have a top 4 fan base but even with that there is NO justification for a 30-35K seat stadium. I would rather have that $30M go towards other academic and athletic needs.

(04-30-2019 08:44 PM)Mr.BigBlue Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 08:30 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 07:22 PM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  Like the Ted, this stadium won't have cheap seats.
The east stands can be expanded without moving the lights back

No need for a 30k stadium when,

there's no waiting list
fans don't come in less than perfect weather
fans don't come when it's on TV
TV games aren't blacked out when there's no sellout
fans don't come when the F_U's come to town.

The stadium will look great. The east/west seats will be comfy, the concessions will be easily accessible and you'll be able to empty your bowels in state of the art restrooms.

I wonder if the team will come out in a newly designed helmet logo and uniform combination. I think it's fitting for this new chapter in ODU football history.

We recently ended a 60 game sellout streak. You talk as if ODU has never come close to selling out a game. Who ever came up with the rule that you need to have a waiting list to expand, that is just made up BS. The lowest attendance game we have ever had was still roughly 90% full. Everyone that says fans don’t show up have no creditability. We have one of if not the best fan bases in C-USA. Our ticket sales blow everyone else out of the water. We need to expand to 30k. Besides 30k is not 60k or 80k. It’s really not hard to get to that.

Most of the last 20 were fake sell outs with the game sponsor buying the 200 to 1200 unpurchased game tickets Noticed your 35K seats is now 30K. Also...waiting list is reflective of demand. That demand vaporized and there is NO increased demand for ODU football seats in the current environment. I am ESTIMATING anywhere from 4500 to 6000 seats available as of today. To come close to selling out this year in the 3-4 months remaining will require a miracle. For CUSA we have a top 4 fan base but even with that there is NO justification for a 30-35K seat stadium. I would rather have that $30M go towards other academic and athletic needs.

How about you just go worry about buying up a bunch of those single game tickets pal....

To me any future stadium expansion is as simple as this...

ODU probably fills in the NEZ to bring it up to 25K within the next few years. That will be just fine as long as we remain in CUSA. At that point should ODU seek to become a member of the AAC it would be a relatively easy expansion to the capacity needed for that compared to what is ongoing as we speak.

(04-30-2019 09:16 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 08:44 PM)Mr.BigBlue Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 08:30 PM)cmett003 Wrote:  

(04-30-2019 07:22 PM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  Like the Ted, this stadium won't have cheap seats.
The east stands can be expanded without moving the lights back

No need for a 30k stadium when,

there's no waiting list
fans don't come in less than perfect weather
fans don't come when it's on TV
TV games aren't blacked out when there's no sellout
fans don't come when the F_U's come to town.

The stadium will look great. The east/west seats will be comfy, the concessions will be easily accessible and you'll be able to empty your bowels in state of the art restrooms.

I wonder if the team will come out in a newly designed helmet logo and uniform combination. I think it's fitting for this new chapter in ODU football history.

We recently ended a 60 game sellout streak. You talk as if ODU has never come close to selling out a game. Who ever came up with the rule that you need to have a waiting list to expand, that is just made up BS. The lowest attendance game we have ever had was still roughly 90% full. Everyone that says fans don’t show up have no creditability. We have one of if not the best fan bases in C-USA. Our ticket sales blow everyone else out of the water. We need to expand to 30k. Besides 30k is not 60k or 80k. It’s really not hard to get to that.

Most of the last 20 were fake sell outs with the game sponsor buying the 200 to 1200 unpurchased game tickets Noticed your 35K seats is now 30K. Also...waiting list is reflective of demand. That demand vaporized and there is NO increased demand for ODU football seats in the current environment. I am ESTIMATING anywhere from 4500 to 6000 seats available as of today. To come close to selling out this year in the 3-4 months remaining will require a miracle. For CUSA we have a top 4 fan base but even with that there is NO justification for a 30-35K seat stadium. I would rather have that $30M go towards other academic and athletic needs.

How about you just go worry about buying up a bunch of those single game tickets pal....

Pal...Since you want the larger stadium you should by them up. Step up. I cannot step up any more. I am very happy with a 25K stadium until something demands a larger one like dramatically increased demand or potential move to a better conference, etc. ODU did the right thing. I have been critical of the timing and length of time it took to make this happen. I think those delays cost us $10-15M.

(04-30-2019 09:35 PM)paintedblue2 Wrote:  To me any future stadium expansion is as simple as this...

ODU probably fills in the NEZ to bring it up to 25K within the next few years. That will be just fine as long as we remain in CUSA. At that point should ODU seek to become a member of the AAC it would be a relatively easy expansion to the capacity needed for that compared to what is ongoing as we speak.

Pretty much. I always thought 25-27k was a sweet spot but 30-32k is the goal. That's just my opinion tho. No science or data to suggest that.

People have families... kids to pay for and spouses with budget priorities to compromise. ODU needs to find new sources of revenue. My sense from reading these comments is the existing sources are tapped out. They either need to figure out a way to expand the base in the general public or they need to get lucky and have someone like Verlander get a sense of debt and duty and write a historic check to the AD. Not sure how to do it... maybe look at buying a local celebrity like Pharrell Williams endorsement or something. Pay him to attend a couple of games and wear an ODU hat at his events. I don't know.

I don't disagree with that. We don't want a Delaware fan base. All you do is tap alumni and you get lots of families that can go for a little while then disappear for 10 years plus while we're doing stuff for our kids on weekends. Then come back when kids are out of the house. I've got one foot in that boat right now. In about 3 years I'll have 2 kids that will override going to a football game on a Saturday.

(05-01-2019 07:56 AM)bit_9 Wrote:  I don't disagree with that. We don't want a Delaware fan base. All you do is tap alumni and you get lots of families that can go for a little while then disappear for 10 years plus while we're doing stuff for our kids on weekends. Then come back when kids are out of the house. I've got one foot in that boat right now. In about 3 years I'll have 2 kids that will override going to a football game on a Saturday.

I'm already there... travel soccer. Can usually make the night games when it isn't a tournament weekend, but afternoon games are usually a showstopper.