UAlbany to build Football Stadium

[madDOG]

Have you guys seen this story? Apparently we're #13.

 

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http://bleacherreport.com/articles/858807-college-football-26-stadiums-you-wouldnt-be-caught-dead-in#/articles/858807-college-football-26-stadiums-you-wouldnt-be-caught-dead-in/page/13

 

College Football: 35 Stadiums You Wouldn't Be Caught Dead In

 

"There are bad stadiums, and then there's this little jewel at the University at Albany.

 

Just one look at this stadium brings flashbacks of high school.

 

Actually, for most of us, it probably brings back memories of that other high school our high school played.

 

You know the one. The crosstown private school that had a lot of nice things, except when it came to sports.

 

A good deal many of us attended high schools with bigger stadiums.

 

Seriously, there are a good number of Division III programs with nicer stadiums than SUNY Albany's University Field."

 

I want to write the author and thank him for not putting us #1...compared to the rest he very well could have (except for Jacksonville- wow, their "stadium" looks way worse than ours)

 

Buffalo is #28 BTW

[Clickclack]

I didn't think it was possible to find a worse stadium then the dump we have....LOL @ Jacksonville... seriously?

[UAalum72]

Old picture, Jax put in artificial turf in 2010, seating still isn't much

 

[Dane96]

They are building 5,000 seats from my understanding.

[UAalum72]

A poster on the CCSU board thinks their visitor-side bleachers may open this week. They're adding about 2,400 to bring capacity of Arute Field to somewhere between 5,400 - 7,000.

[Michigan_Dane]

Not sure if you saw this but a High School in Texas is building a $60M, 18,000 seat stadium.

 

http://iowapreps.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1274704

[MRSGDG]

Not sure if the previous home game had this.. but figured I'd post the picture:

 

[UAalum72]

I assume the cushy leatherette chair will be used in the luxury boxes; a hard plastic yellow chair (with cupholders) was there for the rest of us.

 

Attendance of 3223 wasn't bad for a day with the campus basically closed for the weekend. Let's hope the weather holds thru homecoming.

[Michigan_Dane]

Any comments, information etc at the game today on the ground breaking?

[Clickclack]

Any comments, information etc at the game today on the ground breaking?

Shouldn't be much longer now....

[danefan]

There is a University Council meeting this Thursday. The minutes and audio will be posted here:

 

http://www.albany.edu/council/meetings.shtml

 

There is stadium discussion in the May 11th meeting. All positive.

[APA73]

I thought this might be a good location to test a marketing/strategic idea I have for the new stadium. Clearly UA needs to market itself and it's football program more and the stadium is one way to accomplish it. What if the facility included a purple turf surface on the field. It could be an eastern, purple version of Boise State. Moreover word could leak out around the league that when the Danes wear their all purple uniforms, the other teams find it difficult to see the players on the field since they will blend in like camouflage. While this will probably not be true at all, the speculation might overtake common sense and give us a real home field advantage. Comments?

[Dane96]

No...No...NO.

 

Please. We are not on TV enough to do that. EWU's red turf is a disaster, as is Central Arks Purple/Grey stripes...and the NCAA will be banning colors like this (likely) in new legislation.

 

There is an easier way to bring in revenue and market the program: NEW LEADERSHIP THAT UNDERSTANDS TOP NOTCH MARKETING. There, I said it...time again for my monthly, we need new Athletic leadership.

[madDOG]

No...No...NO.

 

Please. We are not on TV enough to do that. EWU's red turf is a disaster, as is Central Arks Purple/Grey stripes...and the NCAA will be banning colors like this (likely) in new legislation.

 

There is an easier way to bring in revenue and market the program: NEW LEADERSHIP THAT UNDERSTANDS TOP NOTCH MARKETING. There, I said it...time again for my monthly, we need new Athletic leadership.

 

2nd

[APA73]

Thanks for the good comments. I knew someone would already know exactly what schools have tried this. A red field does seem over the top. Also would agree with the need for topnotch leadership and marketing. But all of these things, including the stadium, are part of a greater problem with UA in that it continues to have too little relationship to the community. The gap between "town and gown" is enormous. It may relate to the geographic isolation or the need for independent governance or a link to a med or law school plus many other factors. Moreover the loss of Bob Ford will mean a lot more than football. He singlehandedly made more community connections through his players and coaches than the rest of the administration, faculty, students and alumni combined. Ironically the stadium proposal not only comes at a bad time because of economic problems but because the world of college football is in transition. The field is an embarrassment, there is a real opportunity to move up in conference and take the program to the next level and make money in the process. I also believe NYC fans and media are longing for a college football team to get behind. Hofstra is done, Columbia is a joke, Fordham is too little and Wagner is mired like us. Syracuse is largely televised already but the move out of the Big East won't help. Rutgers and Connecticut may have the largest NYC rooting interest.

 

Of course these are the kinds of issues that are of little interest to the casual fans (including students) who will be needed to put fannies in the seats and make the program work. The Purple Growl and other marketing devices may need to be all improved as part of the move forward but a purple field and other things that may seem frivolous to the intense inhabitants of the blogoshphere may just work. By the way, in terms of the NCAA, this is one of those things where you're better off asking for forgiveness than permission.