The UI athletic department has a request for qualifications from architecture and engineering firms, with applicable experience, to propse a master plan and feasability study to the school, with an emphasis on a new university activity center to host basketball and performing arts (basketball arena), and either an upgrade to the Kibbie Dome (new turf, expanded seating, luxury boxes, jumbo tron, rennovated press box) or a new outdoor stadium. Here's a link to the PDF:

http://www.dfm.uidaho.edu/documents/Faci...9976&doc=1

This is pretty early in the process for facilities upgrades, but at least seems to represent that the university administration is looking to address our problems. It's rumored on VandalVenue that they'll announce the plan they choose at the first home football game of this next season. It's expected that the basketball arena will come first, removing two sports and performing arts from the dome, which will allow for football-specific dome upgrades. If that's cost prohibitive, we'll be looking at a new outdoor stadium.

And it's now in the local paper:

Idaho working on Kibbie Dome expansion

Jim Meehan
Staff writer
April 4, 2006

The University of Idaho is working on plans to expand the Kibbie Dome and build an events center, athletic director Rob Spear said.

Preliminary plans call for the west-end wall of the Kibbie Dome to be knocked out to make room for 6,000-7,000 new end zone seats. Adjacent to those new seats would be a 5,000-6,000-seat events center, which would house men's and women's basketball as well as campus events. The events center would be connected to the Dome, but would essentially be a stand-alone facility for basketball, Spear said. It would extend west toward the Dan O'Brien outdoor track and field complex.

Idaho basketball currently plays home games inside the Dome in the Cowan Spectrum, which has portable bleachers on three sides with long, black curtains serving as a backdrop to give it more of an arena feel. Idaho football has played in the 16,000-seat Kibbie Dome since 1975. The east and west walls of the Kibbie Dome currently prevent end zone seating.

"We're working on the plans and hope to be able to announce something soon," Spear said.

There was no cost estimate immediately available for the projects. Spear hopes to announce firm plans sometime before the Vandals spring football game, which is April 21.

In recent years, Idaho has added new locker rooms and team rooms, a speed and strength center and a SprinTurf practice football field with lights.

In an unrelated project, Idaho plans on installing a digital video replay screen on the east-end wall of the Dome. The 22-by-11 screen would hang next to the goal posts and be roughly the same size as the existing scoreboard on the other side of the goal posts.

"We knew we wanted to get it because we knew we were moving toward replay (in the WAC)," Dome manager Tom McGann said. "So if we're doing it, we might as well show (replays) to the fans."

The replay system will cost about $500,000, a considerable discount for the Daktronics state-of-the-art system, McGann said.

"Someone else ordered it and it fell through," McGann said. "And (Daktronics) came back and it fit our price structure."

So this is where we're going:

- New basketball arena, and venue for performing arts, graduation, etc. Looks like we're considering a seating capacity of 5,000 to 6,000; events requiring more seats or floor space can continue to use the Kibbie Dome.

- Kibbie Dome expanded to 23,000 seats with endzone seating, new replay board, and planned turf upgrade to portable field turf. It's also rumored that we're looking at building a luxury box complex over our north stand.

This will keep our main athletic facilities tied to the Vandal Athletic Center, which features new offices, locker rooms, training rooms, and weight room, and our new practice fields, and will continue to be expanded with an academic center and brick facade over the older concrete section of the structure:

Practice Fields:
http://idaho.scout.com/2/423680.html

Therapy Room:
http://idaho.scout.com/2/396138.html

Football Locker Room:
http://idaho.scout.com/2/316355.html

Weight Room:
http://www.uiathletics.com/default.asp?PageID=197

There's mixed reaction to this plan on VandalVenue. Some people are frustrated by the decision to expand the dome, which I understand. However, I also understand that starting from scratch on a large, modern, outdoor stadium is a little beyond our reach right now. This moves us in the right direction, particularly for basketball. Additionally, I don't anticipate this as a long-term limitation on football or stadium capacity. Personally, I'd like to see us eventually remove the dome's roof, convert in to an outdoor stadium, and build upper tiers of seating over the existing north and south bleachers. Moving more and more activities out of the dome (ex, basketball arena) makes this more of a possibility for the future. Until then, while playing football indoors isn't perfect, it can make for a great home field advantage.

Below is the campus' long range facilities plan, which for the past several years has represented the Kibbie Dome with a basketball arena on the west end and expanded endzone seating.
http://www.dfm.uidaho.edu/default.aspx?pid=81458

I'm glad to see Idaho taking these steps.

Can you post the plans or drawings?

Quote:can you post the plans or drawings?

None yet - the facilities request at the top of this thread is soliciting design proposals. When they're in and one is selected, I'll put it up here. From the paper, it looks like a more formal plan may be announced before the Spring Game, but I wouldn't expect any plans or designs for a while after that.

Thanks 9570.

Will field turf be the upgrade?

Quote:Will field turf be the upgrade?

The athletic department has discussed the turf situation, and made it clear that once palletized field turf is developed to a point where it's better than what we currently have (this does not seem to be the case right now), we'll buy it. Looks like it may be a year or two away; but the dome turf should be upgraded within the next few seasons to field turf, or a similar, newer synthetic playing surface.

IMO Idaho is making the smart move to address the BB facility first and leave their options open for Kibbie Dome improvements/renovations/replacement later. Moving BB out of Kibbie into it's own building will open up a lot of options, plus give Idaho a great BB venue.

Great to see!

Finally proposing, and soliciting plans, for a basketball facility is a really big deal. The dome is far from ideal for the sport. When recruits visit, half the time our coaches don't even have a basketball court to show them - the Kibbie Dome is set up for football, or indoor track, or a concert. Scheduling is a nightmare, particularly for practices. Building an arena represents a real commitment to the sport, and should allow us to attract better coaches, players, and hopefully more fans in the future.

The only point of debate on VandalVenue is the arena's size. Our athletic director put 5,000-6,000 out in the news paper article; many fans would like to see 8,000 as a minumum, preferably 10,000+. It breaks out into two camps:

The 'Gonzaga' Plan:
Build a 6,000 seat arena; it won't be an empty warehouse in your bad years, and when you're winning tickets will be a hot commodity and season tickets will sell out.

The 'Land Grant' Plan:
We're not Gonzaga; we're a public, land grant university supported by the state of Idaho. Should we be limiting fans and potentially turning students away at the door for sports (that their fees help pay for)? Additionally, in good seasons, we've played before crowds of 12,000+ in the Kibbie Dome for basketball - with the potential for future growth in the region, should we be pulling another short-sighted "Kibbie Dome" situation in which we aren't building for the future?

Regardless of which direction the department ultimately goes, getting a true basketball facility is a big deal, and it puts us in position to be much more flexible with the Kibbie Dome (potential for roof removal).

The following is a post from Pack57, a long-time poster on VandalVenue who claims to have seen an early, rough draft of the facilities plan from a visit with the athletic department:

Quote:I was lucky enough to get a look at the new stadium concept and I really like it. Keep in mind, nothing is set in stone, but they have a general idea of what they want. The field will slide to the west 20-30 yards and the west will be horseshoed, seating will also be added to the east. Kibbie capacity would be 24-28k. Luxury suites would be added on the north side. Field turf will be put in and instead of removing it, a portable banked track will be put above the field. I guess a disadvantage of our track is it is not banked and many of the indoor tracks are. Our track team is not accustomed to the banking. The basketball facility would be a 6k multi use stand alone facility. The common area between the two arenas will have additional seating which could be used on either facility. If more attendance was necessary for bball the court could be set up in the west endzone and would be somewhat similar to the Cowan, however the horsehoe allow for more people to be on top of the action.

The facility will also have an educational capacity and some other features. I believe they mentioned some stuff associated with the arts or music programs. They have been considering putting some additions to the campus, but will incorparate them into the new facility. The project would probably cost in the 35-40 range, but is merely an educated guess. It appears the goal is to make the structure something that is used all the time and not just for a few sporting events. This helps make the project much more palatable to other parties, departments, etc. If all goes well, dirt will fly in 2 years.

Whether or not you like the plan. Rob Spear has been working deligently for the past 2 years trying to get a plan in place. I have heard only a few of the behind the scene things that had to be resolved, but the man has been working his tail off. If you think the cupboard was bare for the football team before Holt arrived, the Athletic Dept had an entire kitchen to rebuild.

Hopefully everyone will get to see it soon, but keep in mind, nothing and I repeat nothing is set in stone.

They will also acquire whatever land is needed for an outdoor stadium. So if the time comes, we will all know where it is going.

Great news! I hope Erickson turns your football program around. If you guys start winning in football, it will only speed up the process for getting a new stadium or expanding the Kibbie Dome.

I agree that Basketball should be a priority first. It's a lot easier to turn around a basketball program faster than it is a football one. The WAC has some of the best b-ball facilities in the nation and in order to be competitive recruiting wise, it's important to try and match up.