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I've heard that Whitehurst might eventually be turned into a hotel to accommodate out of town guests and/or teams.

(10-09-2013 10:51 PM)Sithlord Wrote:  I've heard that Whitehurst might eventually be turned into a hotel to accommodate out of town guests and/or teams.

I was beginning to wonder what would become of Whitehurst. I could definitely see it; slap a Marriott sign on the front and spruce the place up a bit, and it could fill the need.

(10-09-2013 09:46 PM)workingodu Wrote:  Bw said in a presser he had heard the spot for the stadium will be about 28k and up to 32k. That's all the spot can hold. I wonder if one fiigure is seats the other is seats and standing room only figure.

If 30K or 32K will be the max, I think it will limited our potential and future with recruiting in 7 or 8 years. I hope that this will not be a problem and they are able to figure out a solution to eventually up the stadium capacity to 50K or more. 10 years will pass very quickly. They have to look at the long term.

ODU, we are counting on you to Aim High for our future.

(10-09-2013 10:42 PM)nakas12 Wrote:  

(10-09-2013 09:46 PM)workingodu Wrote:  Bw said in a presser he had heard the spot for the stadium will be about 28k and up to 32k. That's all the spot can hold. I wonder if one fiigure is seats the other is seats and standing room only figure.

Really? I could have sworn he said something about the space at minimum can hold 35K seats. I may be wrong and misheard something else cause he said this as I was leaving

Blue Trombone, can you ask tomorrow how much space there is in Powhatan for the stadium?

Harnage seemed to be in a hurry tonight. I think he may be getting tired of getting stadium questions haha.

I attended the meeting as well and I also heard it was a MINIMUM of 35,000 seats.

(10-09-2013 11:54 PM)ODU Oldtimer Wrote:  

(10-09-2013 09:46 PM)workingodu Wrote:  Bw said in a presser he had heard the spot for the stadium will be about 28k and up to 32k. That's all the spot can hold. I wonder if one fiigure is seats the other is seats and standing room only figure.

If 30K or 32K will be the max, I think it will limited our potential and future with recruiting in 7 or 8 years. I hope that this will not be a problem and they are able to figure out a solution to eventually up the stadium capacity to 50K or more. 10 years will pass very quickly. They have to look at the long term.


ODU, we are counting on you to Aim High for our future.

I'm just not of the belief that the Powatan site will be able to accomodate a stadium of more than 45K. There is no other land available on campus which is large enough for a stadium. I love ODU football, and I think we are all interested in it growing to it's fullest potential; I'm just not sure what the upper reaches of that potential is. While I do hope that ODU considers and plans for future growth of our football program, and stadium, they are very constrained by the geographic footprint of the urban setting. I definitely want our stadium to remain on campus as that is very important to generating a high level of involvement with students (future alumni,) and alumni.

Further, I really don't know the ceiling of ODU football regarding conference affiliation. Tulane recently accepted an invitation to the AAC (viewed by many as the top non-AQ conference,) and their future stadium has a capacity of 30K. Not that I wouldn't love it, but I have my doubts that ODU football will ever be affiliated with a BCS conference. As far as stadium size, I don't think 45K is too small even if that unlikely scenario were to happen.

I'll throw my 2 cents in the pot. I was just talking to someone at ODU the other day about the stadium project and based on their information, the school really has no idea how big to build or even the best location to build the Stadium. Because the school wants to keep the new stadium on campus, the only location "on campus" that fits into the master plan is the Powhatan location. Based on what I have heard about the desired footprint of the new stadium, the Powhatan location is no where close to big enough and the school already knows it. It would require almost total redevelopment of the river side of campus to support a 30k+ capacity stadium.

Immediately close the bowl on Foreman as cheaply as possible (should get us close to 30k) and start acquiring the land bound by Hampton, Colley, 41st, and 38th in the meantime. I am 100% convinced, due to the space, traffic access, proximity to University Village, and crime prevention (provides a nice buffer), this is the place to build the blockbuster stadium.

I believe we will need to get to 50,000 capacity for this football program to self actualize and i agree that if we only go 30,000 we will hit the wall in about 5 years.

(10-10-2013 09:09 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  Immediately close the bowl on Foreman as cheaply as possible (should get us close to 30k) and start acquiring the land bound by Hampton, Colley, 41st, and 38th in the meantime. I am 100% convinced, due to the space, traffic access, proximity to University Village, and crime prevention (provides a nice buffer), this is the place to build the blockbuster stadium.

It might be, but ODU has stated that they are finished with land aquisition as a means of growth. I suppose they could revisit that conversation.

Getting land the old way is done. Let's go get that land, isn't happening anymore. It doesn't matter how blighted the area is, you'll never see in Norfolk whole areas taken out again. We been trying to get the property along Hampton Blvd for 12yrs and it isn't done yet.

We may be stuck with 35K, and I'm ok cause I'll have a ticket.

(10-10-2013 09:50 AM)odu83alumni Wrote:  I believe we will need to get to 50,000 capacity for this football program to self actualize and i agree that if we only go 30,000 we will hit the wall in about 5 years.

There is no way we can support 50k. And I'm not just talking about fanbase, I'm talking surrounding infrastructure.

30k is good for now, 35k will be good a few years later, and 40k is probably a decent ceiling. 10k empty seats is an eyesore, and I think that's what we'd have too frequently if we had a 50k stadium. Ten years from now? Who knows, but that's way too far in the future to speculate. If we ever reach the point where we can support that, I'm 100% for it, but there's no way we are even close to that right now.

(10-10-2013 11:54 AM)Monarch Maniac 10 Wrote:  

(10-10-2013 09:50 AM)odu83alumni Wrote:  I believe we will need to get to 50,000 capacity for this football program to self actualize and i agree that if we only go 30,000 we will hit the wall in about 5 years.

There is no way we can support 50k. And I'm not just talking about fanbase, I'm talking surrounding infrastructure.

30k is good for now, 35k will be good a few years later, and 40k is probably a decent ceiling. 10k empty seats is an eyesore, and I think that's what we'd have too frequently if we had a 50k stadium. Ten years from now? Who knows, but that's way too far in the future to speculate. If we ever reach the point where we can support that, I'm 100% for it, but there's no way we are even close to that right now.

At the Coaches Caravan in Richmond the head knockers and i don't mean any of us said they wanted the stadium to start at 30,000 and expandable to 50,000. That is what makes sense to me. If we can only build a 30,000 seat stadium maximun for ODU then we will certainly hit a wall with the program and our growth will stop then. We will have a limited program. This is what i was saying.

If we can support 30k without any marketing effort whatsoever, I have bet we can support 50k with a little work. None of us have any idea what we can support.

(10-10-2013 01:14 PM)odu83alumni Wrote:  

(10-10-2013 11:54 AM)Monarch Maniac 10 Wrote:  

(10-10-2013 09:50 AM)odu83alumni Wrote:  I believe we will need to get to 50,000 capacity for this football program to self actualize and i agree that if we only go 30,000 we will hit the wall in about 5 years.

There is no way we can support 50k. And I'm not just talking about fanbase, I'm talking surrounding infrastructure.

30k is good for now, 35k will be good a few years later, and 40k is probably a decent ceiling. 10k empty seats is an eyesore, and I think that's what we'd have too frequently if we had a 50k stadium. Ten years from now? Who knows, but that's way too far in the future to speculate. If we ever reach the point where we can support that, I'm 100% for it, but there's no way we are even close to that right now.

At the Coaches Caravan in Richmond the head knockers and i don't mean any of us said they wanted the stadium to start at 30,000 and expandable to 50,000. That is what makes sense to me. If we can only build a 30,000 seat stadium maximun for ODU then we will certainly hit a wall with the program and our growth will stop then. We will have a limited program. This is what i was saying.

I was there as well, and that was indeed the conversation.

(10-10-2013 01:14 PM)odu83alumni Wrote:  

(10-10-2013 11:54 AM)Monarch Maniac 10 Wrote:  

(10-10-2013 09:50 AM)odu83alumni Wrote:  I believe we will need to get to 50,000 capacity for this football program to self actualize and i agree that if we only go 30,000 we will hit the wall in about 5 years.

There is no way we can support 50k. And I'm not just talking about fanbase, I'm talking surrounding infrastructure.

30k is good for now, 35k will be good a few years later, and 40k is probably a decent ceiling. 10k empty seats is an eyesore, and I think that's what we'd have too frequently if we had a 50k stadium. Ten years from now? Who knows, but that's way too far in the future to speculate. If we ever reach the point where we can support that, I'm 100% for it, but there's no way we are even close to that right now.

At the Coaches Caravan in Richmond the head knockers and i don't mean any of us said they wanted the stadium to start at 30,000 and expandable to 50,000. That is what makes sense to me. If we can only build a 30,000 seat stadium maximun for ODU then we will certainly hit a wall with the program and our growth will stop then. We will have a limited program. This is what i was saying.

That really depends on what you mean by growth. I do not think a 30,000 seat stadium would preclude ODU from eventually moving "up" to the AAC (see Tulane.) I hope ODU has enough on campus land (Powhatan site) for possible future expansion to 45K seats, but I don't believe a 35,000 seat stadium means ODU football will "hit a wall." If you are thinking ODU's stadium seating cacacity could someday keep them from a move to a BCS conference I believe there are higher and more stout walls in the way.

(10-10-2013 01:31 PM)paintedblue Wrote:  

(10-10-2013 01:14 PM)odu83alumni Wrote:  

(10-10-2013 11:54 AM)Monarch Maniac 10 Wrote:  

(10-10-2013 09:50 AM)odu83alumni Wrote:  I believe we will need to get to 50,000 capacity for this football program to self actualize and i agree that if we only go 30,000 we will hit the wall in about 5 years.

There is no way we can support 50k. And I'm not just talking about fanbase, I'm talking surrounding infrastructure.

30k is good for now, 35k will be good a few years later, and 40k is probably a decent ceiling. 10k empty seats is an eyesore, and I think that's what we'd have too frequently if we had a 50k stadium. Ten years from now? Who knows, but that's way too far in the future to speculate. If we ever reach the point where we can support that, I'm 100% for it, but there's no way we are even close to that right now.

At the Coaches Caravan in Richmond the head knockers and i don't mean any of us said they wanted the stadium to start at 30,000 and expandable to 50,000. That is what makes sense to me. If we can only build a 30,000 seat stadium maximun for ODU then we will certainly hit a wall with the program and our growth will stop then. We will have a limited program. This is what i was saying.

That really depends on what you mean by growth. I do not think a 30,000 seat stadium would preclude ODU from eventually moving "up" to the AAC (see Tulane.) I hope ODU has enough on campus land (Powhatan site) for possible future expansion to 45K seats, but I don't believe a 35,000 seat stadium means ODU football will "hit a wall." If you are thinking ODU's stadium seating cacacity could someday keep them from a move to a BCS conference I believe there are higher and more stout walls in the way.

I definately believe it will hurt with recruiting when recruits see we will hit a major wall with growth in the program thus keep a ceiling on our moving up. Tulane is definately the exception.

Tulane also has the Super Dome if necessary.

(10-10-2013 01:43 PM)odu83alumni Wrote:  

(10-10-2013 01:31 PM)paintedblue Wrote:  

(10-10-2013 01:14 PM)odu83alumni Wrote:  

(10-10-2013 11:54 AM)Monarch Maniac 10 Wrote:  

(10-10-2013 09:50 AM)odu83alumni Wrote:  I believe we will need to get to 50,000 capacity for this football program to self actualize and i agree that if we only go 30,000 we will hit the wall in about 5 years.

There is no way we can support 50k. And I'm not just talking about fanbase, I'm talking surrounding infrastructure.

30k is good for now, 35k will be good a few years later, and 40k is probably a decent ceiling. 10k empty seats is an eyesore, and I think that's what we'd have too frequently if we had a 50k stadium. Ten years from now? Who knows, but that's way too far in the future to speculate. If we ever reach the point where we can support that, I'm 100% for it, but there's no way we are even close to that right now.

At the Coaches Caravan in Richmond the head knockers and i don't mean any of us said they wanted the stadium to start at 30,000 and expandable to 50,000. That is what makes sense to me. If we can only build a 30,000 seat stadium maximun for ODU then we will certainly hit a wall with the program and our growth will stop then. We will have a limited program. This is what i was saying.

That really depends on what you mean by growth. I do not think a 30,000 seat stadium would preclude ODU from eventually moving "up" to the AAC (see Tulane.) I hope ODU has enough on campus land (Powhatan site) for possible future expansion to 45K seats, but I don't believe a 35,000 seat stadium means ODU football will "hit a wall." If you are thinking ODU's stadium seating cacacity could someday keep them from a move to a BCS conference I believe there are higher and more stout walls in the way.

I definately believe it will hurt with recruiting when recruits see we will hit a major wall with growth in the program thus keep a ceiling on our moving up. Tulane is definately the exception.

If our new stadium is expandable to say 38,000 it should not keep us from gaining an AAC invitation, if that is something we desire in the future. Tulane is the exception at 30K, however with SMU at 32K, UConn and Houston at 40K, and UC getting ready to build a new stadium which will take them frok 35K to 40K I just do not see a relatively new 38K stadium keeping us out of the AAC.

(10-09-2013 10:51 PM)Sithlord Wrote:  I've heard that Whitehurst might eventually be turned into a hotel to accommodate out of town guests and/or teams.

I can totally see this, especially if they construct a conference center next to Whitehurst. Out of town conferences could keep it busy year round and it would not just be dependent on the football season for bookings.

Just to jump back a little. A clock tower should not replace the seal. Most people up here know that before commencement everyone walks across the seal, and you're not supposed to walk across it until you have enough credits to graduate or something like that. I'm not sure when that tradition started, but I like it and it's easy to keep it going. Why would they want to get rid of it and put up a clock tower? Unless the clock tower is going to have a walkway underneath that preserves the seal?