Albany to tha CAA??

[UAalum72]

I understand the need for a new stadium but what is the purpose of building a 10,000+ seat stadium when we only draw maybe 4500 on avg to the games?

We get over 6,000 for homecoming, and 4,500 means it's a virtual sellout of all the seats even though from half of them you can't see very well. (I tried counting it once, and I don't think we've really got more than about 3,700 seats marked off). Are you saying don't build a 10,000 seat stadium until we average 9,999 at the craphole we have now?

 

When the Knick/Pepsi/TU Arena was being designed, a lot of people (me included, I admit) thought 15K was way too big. Does anyone think that now?

[UA'08]

I understand the need for a new stadium but what is the purpose of building a 10,000+ seat stadium when we only draw maybe 4500 on avg to the games?

We get over 6,000 for homecoming, and 4,500 means it's a virtual sellout of all the seats even though from half of them you can't see very well. (I tried counting it once, and I don't think we've really got more than about 3,700 seats marked off). Are you saying don't build a 10,000 seat stadium until we average 9,999 at the craphole we have now?

 

When the Knick/Pepsi/TU Arena was being designed, a lot of people (me included, I admit) thought 15K was way too big. Does anyone think that now?

 

Well I hope I'm wrong. maybe something like what Richmond built would be perfect.

 

3921 was the avg for this past season.

[UAalum72]

Well, Richmond only has 2,700 undergrads and is building a new stadium for 8,700, so why is 10,000 for us so exotic?....

 

We're not going to have any FEWER fans with a new stadium than we do now, and you've got to allow for expansion - there's got to be some possibility that it will be successful, and how long do you think it would take to fund another build?

[danes05]

I understand the need for a new stadium but what is the purpose of building a 10,000+ seat stadium when we only draw maybe 4500 on avg to the games?

 

Don't you think one of the reasons we get the crowds we have is because we play in a pop warner facility ? I'm sure that if you build a nice stadium, the crowds will increase big time.

[uofalbany]

Bottom line is we need a new football facility and we need it now.

It's a joke to call what we have now a facility.

 

We don't pack the house because our facility is disgusting.

No seats are good seats. It's an embarassment. It's been neglected for decades and decades.

 

It's the small time thinkers who get small time results. If you can't think BIG, then you really don't deserve to get it. It looks like we've got some people in charge that have the BALLS to do so. Thank God. Small thinkers need not apply.

 

We build 7000 seats this spring and we will be filling it this coming fall. As we continue building and adding on, our attendance we increase as well - every step of the way.

 

I'm a huge football fan but I HATE going to home games just because the seating is a complete joke. There will be thousands who start going, just to sit in a quality stadium and see some top notch college football. No one wants to go sit on what we have noe. We have a 'porsche' quality football team, but have to park it in this:

 

 

Merry Christams everyone.

[WCDBvoiceofUA]

The RACC is a pretty nice basketball facility for the America East why isnt that been sold out every night? I dont go to Bruins games because I like the TD Garden. I go to see hockey and Bruins. People who like football and like Albany will go regardless of what kind of stadium it is. Just because you build a 10,000 seat stadium doesnt mean 10,000 will show up. 5000 max will be plenty and if by some miracle we start selling out, expansions can always be made.

[UAalum72]

No, if we're already getting over 6,000 for homecoming then you've got to start with 7,500, especially if the location doesn't have any hillside for overflow. You want everyone there to have a good view and experience so they might return. Some people have posted on here that they went to one game and wouldn't be back because they couldn't see anything.

 

If you wait for the 'miracle' of selling out, next somebody will want to make sure that's not a fluke, how many sellouts in a row will satisfy you, then you'll have a planning/financing process again, and meanwhile potential fans are being turned away.

 

10,000 is not some enormous palace, nobody's building a dome with a 200-foot video screen and luxury boxes catered by Angelo's Prime 677.

[danefan]

Smalbany mentality is readily apparent in this thread.

 

 

Maybe we should just rent RPI's stadium. Nobody's coming anyway, right?

 

[Michigan_Dane]

Smalbany mentality is readily apparent in this thread.

 

 

Maybe we should just rent RPI's stadium. Nobody's coming anyway, right?

 

 

 

I agree Smallbany thinking has got to go.

 

It just ticks me off that people think that New York's state university should be playing on a high school football field. We're talking about a lousy 10,000 person stadium. 1/10 that of Michigan. 1/3 that of most D1 programs (which is nearly every state university). Only New York, Alaska and the Dakotas can't muster up a normal program.

 

I'm in Wisconsin for Christmas. I think everyone in my fiance's family got a UW (Wisconsin) sweatshirt or coat. From Boise ID to Michigan to UConn to UCLA it just doesn't F'ing matter. Everywhere I go the locals love their state university and support it, except New York. I've lived in or worked in half the states in the country and I know this to be a fact.

 

Why are people in Albany so anti-athletics? Why do they not support their state university? I'm wearing a freaking Wisconsin Badger shirt because my fiance's family are so proud of the university everyone got a shirt. I'm not even from Wisconsin! I live in California and I attended SUNY a decade ago.

 

My father retired to NY from the military. That is the only reason I attended college there. If I would have attended the university of another state (any state) I could proudly wear their sweatshirt, instead of my obscure Albany shirt.

 

If someone refers to a lousy 10k stadium as big time, I'm going to fly to New York and put my boot in their butt.

 

Don't freaking build anything. Think small. Add 'CC' after Albany. Done

[Clickclack]

Smalbany mentality is readily apparent in this thread.

 

 

Maybe we should just rent RPI's stadium. Nobody's coming anyway, right?

 

 

 

I agree Smallbany thinking has got to go.

 

It just ticks me off that people think that New York's state university should be playing on a high school football field. We're talking about a lousy 10,000 person stadium. 1/10 that of Michigan. 1/3 that of most D1 programs (which is nearly every state university). Only New York, Alaska and the Dakotas can't muster up a normal program.

 

I'm in Wisconsin for Christmas. I think everyone in my fiance's family got a UW (Wisconsin) sweatshirt or coat. From Boise ID to Michigan to UConn to UCLA it just doesn't F'ing matter. Everywhere I go the locals love their state university and support it, except New York. I've lived in or worked in half the states in the country and I know this to be a fact.

 

Why are people in Albany so anti-athletics? Why do they not support their state university? I'm wearing a freaking Wisconsin Badger shirt because my fiance's family are so proud of the university everyone got a shirt. I'm not even from Wisconsin! I live in California and I attended SUNY a decade ago.

 

My father retired to NY from the military. That is the only reason I attended college there. If I would have attended the university of another state (any state) I could proudly wear their sweatshirt, instead of my obscure Albany shirt.

 

If someone refers to a lousy 10k stadium as big time, I'm going to fly to New York and put my boot in their butt.

 

Don't freaking build anything. Think small. Add 'CC' after Albany. Done

 

 

LOL....I tend to think that if we start with 10K seats...we'll get 7500 to show up for games.

 

I have two season tickets and will up it to three next year but my seats are such a disgrace that I've made the choice a couple of times to simply watch the game on TW3 because my seats are in the second row and I have to see past the cheerleaders, access road, football team, as you can imagine I don't see a game...I see everything but the game.

 

The last couple of games I had the bright idea to pace back and forth behind the seats/bleachers following the action on foot.

[Dane96]

The RACC is a pretty nice basketball facility for the America East why isnt that been sold out every night? I dont go to Bruins games because I like the TD Garden. I go to see hockey and Bruins. People who like football and like Albany will go regardless of what kind of stadium it is. Just because you build a 10,000 seat stadium doesnt mean 10,000 will show up. 5000 max will be plenty and if by some miracle we start selling out, expansions can always be made.

 

You are seriously deluded as to A) what a stadium does for fandom; and how construction costs escalate.

[bob87]

 

 

LOL....I tend to think that if we start with 10K seats...we'll get 7500 to show up for games.

 

I have two season tickets and will up it to three next year but my seats are such a disgrace that I've made the choice a couple of times to simply watch the game on TW3 because my seats are in the second row and I have to see past the cheerleaders, access road, football team, as you can imagine I don't see a game...I see everything but the game.

 

The last couple of games I had the bright idea to pace back and forth behind the seats/bleachers following the action on foot.

 

I have no idea how many people will come if a stadium is built. But, I know it won't be less than we currently have.

I would not go to the football games if I had to sit in the first couple of rows where you can't see at all. I would either move to a different seat/area or if that was not possible I would stop going.

[danefan]

Is there any reason that the demographics of Albany are any less in favor of college football than the demographics of Amherst, MA?

 

If we end up in the same league as UMass and play the teams they do, there is no reason to believe we wouldn't average 10,000 plus, just like UMass.

 

If we have the facilitiy to support it.

 

I talk to people all the time that say they went to a game and wouldn't go back until a new stadium was built because it just wasn't fun to sit at a game and not be able to see the game. These are locals too.

 

If Siena didn't have a DI basketball team, what do you think our BBall attendance would be? That's how you have to think about football. We're the only show in NY within a 2 hour drive. People are starting to realize how much higher a level of football is played at UA then is played at Union and RPI. When we start playing in a DI facility it will solidify it even more.

 

 

 

 

[UAalum72]

Every time somebody says 'this isn't a college football area' I want to scream 'When has anyone tried?" How could anyone really know? Just because the private schools around here never could pull it off.

 

Then there's the problem (and here the T-U's and video media's attitude may be crucial) of people who say they won't care about small-college football, and wouldn't come out until we join the Big Ten. Because after all we wouldn't be playing for a 'real divison 1 championship'. The game against cincy might be huge, but more likely will just confirm their prejudice.

[mainejeff]

If we can ever get an all-sports league together that consists of the following schools:

 

Maine (football)

UNH (football)

Vermont (lacrosse)

UMass (football & lacrosse)

URI (football)

Central Connecticut (football)

 

Albany (football & lacrosse)

Stony Brook (football & lacrosse)

Binghamton (lacrosse)

Delware (football & lacrosse)

Towson (football & lacrosse)

UMBC (lacrosse)

 

......it could be a pretty good hoops, football, and lacrosse conference. All public state schools that sponsor football or lacrosse or both. Also keeps some pretty good rivalries intact.

 

8 league games in football.

7 league games in lacrosse.

16 league games in basketball (same as the current AE)

27 league games in baseball (Nine 3 game weekend series)