Football

mquast53000 · Post by **mquast53000** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 11:08 am

I was wondering if there has been any talk about possible expansion or improvements to Bobcat Stadium in the near future. Has anyone heard anything lately?

BOBCAT · Post by **BOBCAT** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 11:33 am

Thats not going to happen until the athletic department gets out of the red, or we get a huge contribution from a very wealthy alum. The original plans for the stadium remodel had the south endzone bowled in and the visitoor side as a double decker. But we did not have the mmoney to do that, and we don't have it now. So it is my opinion that there may not be any more expansion for about 10 years.

CelticCat · Post by **CelticCat** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 11:41 am

Plus we have to start selling out some games.

TXCat · Post by **TXCat** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 1:41 pm

Just curious. Does anyone have an architectural drawing of what the stadium will eventually look like?

mquast53000 · Post by **mquast53000** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 2:14 pm

TXCat wrote:Just curious. Does anyone have an architectural drawing of what the stadium will eventually look like?

I know that the Athletics Dept. had plans made when they did the last expansion (I saw those plans years ago). I believe they have the plans for increasing the size to 20k and 40k. Both are very impressive.

gtapp · Post by **gtapp** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 3:00 pm

I have a copy of those expansion plans but not an electronic copy. There was an article in the Chronicle where Peter was quoted as wanting to at least close off the end zone in the near future but only if the funds can be raised from sources not yet identified. It would have to be done via a fundraising effort or a couple of large donations.

Cat-theotherwhitemeat · Post by **Cat-theotherwhitemeat** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 3:25 pm

Question for my Cat brethren...

Since they don't sell out the games yet, would you rather have them fill in the south endzone first, or make a nice big paved parking lot right next to it?

gtapp · Post by **gtapp** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 3:35 pm

Cat-theotherwhitemeat wrote:Question for my Cat brethren...

Since they don't sell out the games yet, would you rather have them fill in the south endzone first, or make a nice big paved parking lot right next to it?

YES! Both would be nice. They should sell out at least two home games this year (Homecoming and Cat/griz). Probably could use 2000 extra seats for Homecoming and AMAP for Cat/griz.

Post by **SonomaCat** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 3:43 pm

Cat-theotherwhitemeat wrote:Question for my Cat brethren...

Since they don't sell out the games yet, would you rather have them fill in the south endzone first, or make a nice big paved parking lot right next to it?

I'd rather have the seating first. I don't think pavement is really needed at all -- when you see too much of it, places like MSU and CSU that have grass parking lots are actually a nice change. Grass is good (on so many levels).

mquast53000 · Post by **mquast53000** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 4:39 pm

I agree with Bay Area Cat. The grass works well, and it looks much better then pavement. I think that closing in the south end zone would make the whole stadium look much nicer. It would also help make a more hostlie enviroment for opposing teams

!

iaafan · Post by **iaafan** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 4:49 pm

A lot of people point out that Wash-Griz is so loud because half of it is down in the ground. I think by closing off the south end zone in a wrap around style and then putting sky boxes on top of the student side would create a louder environment. Then put some trees or something around the locker rooms on the north end to seal that off a bit.

Seems like the place just needs some tightening up to keep the sound in and that the more the sides are built up, the louder it should get?????

BHauck's nose · Post by **BHauck's nose** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 5:09 pm

[quote="BOBCAT"]Thats not going to happen until the athletic department gets out of the red, or we get a huge contribution from a very wealthy alum. The original plans for the stadium remodel had the south endzone bowled in and the visitoor side as a double decker. But we did not have the mmoney to do that, and we don't have it now. So it is my opinion that there may not be any more expansion for about 10 years.[/quote]

I want to know what kind of alum is willing to donate his/her millions of dollars to a deficit. If somebody wants to give money, they want to see something for it. If we are going to sit back and expect somebody to pay off the debt, then we are idiots. We need to look at this problem from another direction. We have the money from outside donations to horseshoe the south endzone right now, but we refuse to use it until the debt is paid off. There would be no cost to the athletic program. If we make these stadium upgrades, we are going to create a better game atmosphere, we are going to fill more seats per game, and will have that many more for cat/griz and homecoming and hopefully future playoff games. We can do all this, with very little cost to the athletic department. Or...we can wait for that gracious donor to spend millions, and have nothing to show for it.

Helcat72 · Post by **Helcat72** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 5:29 pm

I'll give them the money for the debt as soon as I win the $!00 million powerball lottery! If everyone in the booster club buys me about 100 tickets for every lotto the next 5 or 10 years, I'm sure I will hit it and I'll write the check!

raincat · Post by **raincat** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 5:32 pm

I guess I don't fully understand the "debt" thing. Does it mean the school or the athletic department got it built before the financing was in place? Were bogus numbers presented to and approved by the legislature? Was the contractor paid? By who? From what? Were we supposed to pay cash? Can't we get a refi at current interest rates? How about the fieldhouse? Is repo man on his way there too? It isn't like we built a new 25,000 seat luxury stadium. We built 1/2 of a 12,500 seat stadium and rehabbed much (but not all) of the rest.

PDXKat · Post by **PDXKat** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 5:44 pm

Oregon State had substantial debt prior to taking on their "raising Reser" project. The first phase, which may be the only one they do, included adding an additional 8,000 seats, some new skyboxes, and eliminating the debt. It's actually a great project and will really enhance the stadium. But notice that they got rid of the arguement that "we can't do it because of the debt". Well, get people excited by winning some football games and just go for it. People, and companies, will contribute if they feel they are getting something in return. So bundle the debt with the cost of the expansion, build a sense of urgency, and go out and sell it. We need Coach Kramer to stick around, his sales skills could really be used. I really don't understand why we haven't done this yet, it feels like we should have started selling this project about 2 years ago. We already have a waiting list for skyboxes. Let's go Mr. Fields!

gtapp · Post by **gtapp** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 5:47 pm

I have heard that the stadium project was about $8M (just what I heard) and that a loan was secured to pay for it with the idea that the increased revenue from the sky boxes would pay the loan. I don't believe it worked out that way. I believe the cost of the south end zone (simple expansion: only about half of the height of the current student section) is about $1M. Even if the athletic dept had the money they would really piss off the legislature if they spent the money for expansion with the current dept.

gtapp · Post by **gtapp** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 5:52 pm

It would have been hard to raise the funds the last ten years becuase of the performance of the football team. Now that the team is more consistant, has beat the Griz twice and the crowds are back; it would be a good time to try and raise the funds. At the Northern Iowa game in 2003 Kevin Donovan and Ron Muri were trying to get some momentum going for the end zone expansion. I don't know what ever happened with that effort.

PDXKat · Post by **PDXKat** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 6:08 pm

gtapp wrote:I have heard that the stadium project was about $8M (just what I heard) and that a loan was secured to pay for it with the idea that the increased revenue from the sky boxes would pay the loan. I don't believe it worked out that way. I believe the cost of the south end zone (simple expansion: only about half of the height of the current student section) is about $1M. Even if the athletic dept had the money they would really piss off the legislature if they spent the money for expansion with the current dept.

I know we're not in the Pac 10, but if OSU can raise $80 mill for the first phase, we darn sure can raise as much as we need to eliminate the debt and pay for expansion with private funding and legislature be damned.

raincat · Post by **raincat** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 6:30 pm

Regarding OSU, I heard Gary Payton chucked in somewhere between $4 and $6 million. We need a few superstars.

BelgradeBobcat · Post by **BelgradeBobcat** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 6:47 pm

As far as parking lots go-the entire Fieldhouse lot needs paving-it's a real muddy mess for late season basketball games when the surface isn't frozen-but keep the grass lots around the stadium-they work well for tailgating.

In my opinion MSU would be money ahead upgrading the endzone-that is unless they have a real good insurance policy against lawsuit. Those bleachers are dangerous.

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