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