LOOKS LIKE THE FOOTBALL STADIUM WILL BE BUILT FIRS

[Dane96]

http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp...sdate=3/25/2004

 

100 mill is some coin!

[UAalum72]

100 mil for all projects.

 

Highlights from the Troy Record:

 

McElroy announced the RACC's basketball floor, a target for countless players' knee and foot injuries, will be replaced with a multi-treated surface in late summer after the New York Giants leave training camp.

 

On the Stadium:

"We will know more about that after the state budget passes," said McElroy, who estimated, "if everything falls into place, we could be playing in a new football stadium as soon as the 2005 season." Right. As long as it's before I die

[Ruler]

And everyone thought I was crazy when I mentioned this 4 months ago. My sources tell me the football stadium will be ready for Albany's jump into D1AA full scholarship football in I believe 2006.

 

This is what i am being told! So don't attck me fellow posters!

 

Either way full scholly football is just around the corner. The real question is will Ford still be here or will they promote Mike Simpson? Albany's version of Bob Ford Stadium.

 

It would be cool if they made the new stadium turf purple and the numbers white just like Boise state, except instead of a blue turf field, make it purple.

[Dane96]

AT tHat game...we must get a beer!!!!! See you in 2006. Hey wait, Danefan2k hasn't burst our bubble yet....where are you man? I am teasing (before you go nuts)!

 

This is great news for the entire UA community. This should also give a collective shiver down the spines of every SIENA fan. UA is poised to absolutely jump light years ahead of them....and that includes hoop (though a bit further out).

[Dane96]

BTW...to follow up on your post.....if UA goes outside of SIMPSON if Ford does retire....it will be the WORST...yes worse than BEETEN...decision ever made at UA. He is young (late 40's), loved by players and any one who has ever come in contact w/ him, knowledgable, and most important....DEDICATED TO THE ENTIRE UA COMMUNITY. He could make a lot more elswehere...but LOVES HIS SECOND HOME...ALBANY!

[GreatDanes06]

"We will know more about that after the state budget passes," said McElroy, who estimated, "if everything falls into place, we could be playing in a new football stadium as soon as the 2005 season."

 

OOO man, that would be great for my final year here as a senior.

[Ruler]

Dane 96 that beer sounds great and I am buying! I am also waiting for all the bashers to come out and say we are not going to be a football school. WELL GUESS WHAT,WE ARE!!!!

 

I think Ford will be around until he is 70 or 72. He is still in great shape and he can still obviously coach and more importantly recruit!!! He definatly wants to last untill he oversees a successful scholarship program! I believe Simpson has been made a promise for all his years of loyalty for the job when Fordie calls it a day!

Do you guys know how many jobs Mike has passed up? Hundreds over the years. He could be a D2 or D3 head coach tomorrow.

 

I personally love the guy and so does every ex player I have ever spoken to about him! I can't wait for him to get the head post when Ford is done! I am sure you feel the same way! I do not think I could stand to see Simpson cioach anywhere but at the Purple Kingdom!!!!

[alumni '92']

it is nice to hear that long-overdue athletic dept. projects are beginning to go forward ... i'm always a little nervous when large sums of public funding are part of the equation ... state politics, you never know ...

"We will know more about that after the state budget passes," said McElroy, who estimated, "if everything falls into place, we could be playing in a new football stadium as soon as the 2005 season."

hard to believe that it would be in place that quickly, but i like the optimism

[DaneFan2k3]

But to be completely fair, all of the previous posts said they were meeting with contractors and this was a "done deal".

 

So that is why people got "attacked" (although I don't think it was that vicious). It's still only in the consulting phase - they could come back and say the only places to put it are here and here, and it's going to cost $40 million, and the University administration as a whole might tell them (and athletics) to go piss in the wind, if you catch my drift. That company isn't a contractor, they are a consulting company. So this is still all initial, very initial planning.

 

Just getting that out there in the sake of fairness, since some people thought I was overzealous apparantly in shooting this all down a couple months ago. I never said there weren't plans, but I said that work wasn't underway, and it's still not (let alone 4 months ago).

 

PS, another kick in the groin, we have a dry campus up there in Albany, and so the beer - you can buy, and I'll smuggle it in.

Edited March 25, 2004 by DaneFan2k3

[Oldtimer]

Sasaki Associates, Inc is a little more than a consulting company. It is a large multi-faceted architectual and engineering firm. If they predict a price, it will be a cost that the contractors will be very close to depending on the construction projects out there. As for the $100 million, if each of the ex-football players write a check out for $1000 per year for the next 30 years, the State will cover the $10 million dollar balance. If you only want to fund a $40 million complex you can cut the time to 10 years. But, everything worthwhile has a price and Coach Ford deserves it.

[Patch]

"GREAT TO SEE FOOTBALL GET A STADIUM"

 

I figure it will be about 12,000 seats, which will make it a focal point of the athletic community especially for HS Football play offs and All Star Games.

 

With the building of a stadium we must be headed towards scholarship football which would be great.

 

It's also great that Lacrosse/Soccer and Track are being taken care of.

 

I'm sure something must be in the works for baseball too.

 

It is interesting how they are moving so rapidly in getting a new basketball floor. I for one thought that might never happen or at best be atleast three year's away. They must have the money earmarked already to consider doing it after the Giants leave.

 

Great time for UA Athletics!!!!

[UAalum72]

The Gazette finally reports on the facilities plan, but adds more interesting quotes from McElroy:

 

Step 1 – Sasaki master plan for football stadium, soccer/track complex, all-weather lax field, field hockey, and all-purpose indoor track venues is promised by the end of May.

 

Step 2 – which projects can we do, and in the shortest time, a decision for the new president (who knows when that will be?)

 

Step 3 – we have to do something about the football stadium, in phases or all at once. Stony Brook’s was supposed to cost $12 million but ran way over, ending at $21 mil. Ours could cost $20 - $40 mil, depending on : do we flip it to run north-south like most stadiums, or leave it east-west? How many box seats? All, none, or how many chairbacks?

 

Sasaki will give a real cost estimate on every phase and every facility

[Dane Pound]

We've lived with rumors of a new stadium for so long I'm having a hard time believing this is real. The fact that McElroy is talking about it publicly is encouraing not just for the stadium but for moving up in football in general. A combination lacrosse and football field would be awesome. I'm happy to see they understand going to Division I doesn't just mean sticking a roman numeral "I"after your name and leaving it at that. There is going to be some investment and it looks like that is happening.

If this gets built there are a ton of events you could hold there-Empire State Game events, High School football playoffs and concerts. I can't imagine they would pay Sasaki Associates $60,000 and they wouldn't turn the stadium so the home fans don't have to sit in the shade for the whole game. I'm looking forward to seeing what Sasaki comes up with and I hope the University is as open with the plans as they have been with the inital phases of the process. Talking about it is great but I want them to say it with concrete!

[UAalum72]

Has to be concrete, so the $iena weasels can continue to sneer at the 'concrete campus'.

 

BTW Dave Magarity has 'resigned' at Marist; a $iena poster says he hopes Steve Sauers doesn't get the head job so they don't have to see him any more. Yeah, it's a one-way rivalry.

[statefan]

This week's Capital District Business Review also has an article headlined "UAlbany plan calls for $100 million in athletic building projects" . The article re-hashes much of what has previously been posted. It says the master plan calls for a number of athletic construction projects over the next 10 to 15 years. AAD Rick Coe states in the article "the school hopes to have a football stadium completed by 2007 at a cost of between $20 million and $30 million"