Any News?

[ATL_DANE]

All the football over the holidays and the impending BCS game tonight has me wondering if anyone has heard anything about the stadium. Is there any significant dates I should be waiting for? A vote, budget, decision anything? Just curious... I'm sure like everyone else.

 

I know we were transitioning in scholarships up to 30. What are we up to next year? Have we started to give some full rides or our we still splitting them?

 

I need some football news... I live in the south after all.

 

 

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Go Ohio State! The only team between us and complete SEC domination.

[alum73]

I know the development people are working hard on fund raising. I don't have any dates though.

[haggyland]

I still do not understand why they do not expand on the current site. The track could be moved to another location, and the history and centrality of the current location could be maintained.

I was walking aroung that area the other day, and it seems that there is enough room on the current site for a 100,000+ seat stadium, let alone 16,000.

[alum73]

I suppose they could have, but they hired a firm to do a plan for the specifications required, so I'll assume the plan devised is better. They definitely want the field to be N-S not E-W as it currently is. The plan is fine, we just need the $ to get it done.

[haggyland]

Ah, yes....the geographical lay-out of the field. That does make sense, and I am sure that the administration has a good idea on what it would like to accomplish, but it seems the current area is ripe for development.

 

At one of the games a fellow poster mentioned that the current location would have been Ford's first choice.

 

Anyways, it would be nice to see some PUBLIC movement on this one...

[UAalum72]

I've heard that the Environmental Impact Statement, which should have been done by about now, was only preliminary, and the main one probably won't be out until after the students leave in May.

 

Besides the E-W orientation, the current location doesn't work because even if you have the BEST parking spot you still have to walk around the CU and thru or around the gym to get to the stadium. And most of the master-plan concepts (done by over 20 companies before Sasaki was chosen) argued University Field divides the campus and is just an obstacle to traffic flow if we ever develop any of the other facilities in the plan.

 

OTOH it might be cheaper to put the stadium next to the RACC parking lot and rebuild the track stadium (with a real 8-lane track) where it is, instead of on the rugby field.

[B9j2j6s]

Money is going to be the main issue Est suggest that it will cost 50 million for the project. I know this from contacts I have in the bussiness school program apparently their was a class that had to present as a final for the fall semester a proposel to the higher ups about how to put together funds for the stadium project. My contacts told me that 20 million needs to be raised in private donations in order get the state to give the remaining 30 million. I'm not sure how far a long the AD are right now with private donations, or what the higher ups will do with the proposel but it does give insight as to what might need to be done.

[DaneFan2k3]

The plan was to have the current football field location become a "center" of campus where it would be flattened to one level (instead of the bowl it is now), where students could play frisbee, cook out, etc. A prime time tailgating area. ;-)

 

Also, with the football field going into the RACC parking lot, you can then connect that to the RACC, and have some offices where the current RACC parking lot doors are now. This would allow for expansion of office and locker room facilities into that space, right next to the stadium.

 

The stadium will also be the jewel of that part of campus, visible as soon as you enter campus, whereas right now you would not know that the current "stadium" even exists behind the PE building. That was also the big knock against the Harriman campus location, it would not be visible on campus, instead tucked away out of place.

 

Because of the topography, you can't really rebuild the track in its current location, because it needs 8 lanes and you'd have to wipe out the hill or expand toward the PE building. It's easier I think to just start over on the old field hockey location.

[purplehaze]

The plan was to have the current football field location become a "center" of campus where it would be flattened to one level (instead of the bowl it is now), where students could play frisbee, cook out, etc. A prime time tailgating area. ;-)

 

Also, with the football field going into the RACC parking lot, you can then connect that to the RACC, and have some offices where the current RACC parking lot doors are now. This would allow for expansion of office and locker room facilities into that space, right next to the stadium.

 

The stadium will also be the jewel of that part of campus, visible as soon as you enter campus, whereas right now you would not know that the current "stadium" even exists behind the PE building. That was also the big knock against the Harriman campus location, it would not be visible on campus, instead tucked away out of place.

 

Because of the topography, you can't really rebuild the track in its current location, because it needs 8 lanes and you'd have to wipe out the hill or expand toward the PE building. It's easier I think to just start over on the old field hockey location.

if you build it..............