[Cider Jim]

But going where? Does anybody know?

[Purple Haize]

But going where? Does anybody know?

You know who the leading candidate is don't you.... ha

[JK37]

Dana gon' git 'im!

[Cider Jim]

Good luck with that!

[Purple Haize]

Yeah. He's got an inside track with The Turd

[phoenix]

New Mexico isn't your average FBS team. It's a long way from Lynchburg to New Mexico. Heck if NM was playing VT in Blacksburg, they would not bring many fans.
Let's say LU played Marshall in Lynchburg, then the Herd would bring a lot of fans. LU will need to play some ACC and SEC schools, along with AAC schools.

I'm trying to think what ACC or SEC schools would come to LU. Wake? Vandy? Kentucky? Duke?

I'd love for Kentucky to play LU, either at home or on the road. I pastor a church full of Wildcat fans, so it would make for a fun week.

[LUGrad2000]

http://ocean.otr.usm.edu/~w302011/addition.jpg


http://www.jhharchitects.com/images/wor ... 00x800.jpg

This is exactly what I believe we should emulate for our end zone. With a visitors locker room under it.

[Purple Haize]

New Mexico isn't your average FBS team. It's a long way from Lynchburg to New Mexico. Heck if NM was playing VT in Blacksburg, they would not bring many fans.
Let's say LU played Marshall in Lynchburg, then the Herd would bring a lot of fans. LU will need to play some ACC and SEC schools, along with AAC schools.

I'm trying to think what ACC or SEC schools would come to LU. Wake? Vandy? Kentucky? Duke?

I'd love for Kentucky to play LU, either at home or on the road. I pastor a church full of Wildcat fans, so it would make for a fun week.

Obviously not a Christian congregation

[cruzan_flame13]

http://ocean.otr.usm.edu/~w302011/addition.jpg


http://www.jhharchitects.com/images/wor ... 00x800.jpg

This is exactly what I believe we should emulate for our end zone. With a visitors locker room under it.

Don't think that it would be like this. The facility will be the visitor's locker room plus offices and other rooms for club sports.

[Class of 20Something]

Whatever keeps the fans on top of the field in the endzone. Top row endzone seats feel a mile away at most stadiums.

[Kricket]

Bump.

I'm curious if anyone's opinion has changed on stadium expansion based on upcoming games scheduled.

Army, Wake, Virginia, BYU, and the home schedule still needs two more games in 19.

[Purple Haize]

Bump.

I'm curious if anyone's opinion has changed on stadium expansion based on upcoming games scheduled.

Army, Wake, Virginia, BYU, and the home schedule still needs two more games in 19.

Sell out the sell outs. UVA is still 10 years away. Army and BYU will be big games but I can't see them much bigger attendance wise than the last time JMU came to town. Plus, they are a few years out as well. Obviously, ODU will be huge because it will be the first game of the FBS era basically.
Best to have 30,000 people in a 30,000 seat stadium than 40,000 in a 50,000 seat stadium.

[willflop]

Bump.

I'm curious if anyone's opinion has changed on stadium expansion based on upcoming games scheduled.

Army, Wake, Virginia, BYU, and the home schedule still needs two more games in 19.

Arguments can be made both ways, but I choose to follow the "fake it till you make it", "if you build it, they will come", "dress for the job you want, not the one you have", "the salesman with the BMW, Rolex, suit, and gold pen, always wins" philosophy. Makes it more exciting.

Fiscally, we have the money for it to fall flatter than we'd like. We've already gone "all in" in our speech, so let's not be inconsistent with our actions (just embrace the sunk cost fallacy with enthusiasm). And, if IM can pull off the "at least one prominent game a year" approach, starting in 2019 with a P5, then the 4-10 year wait may not be as bad.

Secondly, maybe excitement about the program as a whole can counter balance that our home games aren't as sexy as the road (NMSU, Troy, et al). VT didn't have a problem drawing 60k fans when they played lowly FCS LU, and that's because people are excited about the program as a whole.

Didn't the previous stadium expansion create the fish bowl effect (the gold fish grows to fit the size of the bowl you give it), even though it wasn't sell out city, and the on field success wasn't any or much better?

Like others have mentioned, even though the next phases seem big, they won't up the seats to a ridiculous level, so it's probably reasonable. To me, the magic number is 40k (in vain, to stick it to the majority of other G5s that hover around 30k, why not), but I think the proposed 35k seats mentioned by Falwell is reasonable for the shoe and second tower.

Hopefully we can design it in such a way that the atmosphere feels even bigger than it is. I judge other schools by their stadium, I'm sure they'll return the favor

Now, if we could just win.

[Sly Fox]

Under Ian's direction, Baylor in the Big XII only built a 40-thousand seat stadium where we'll open up the 2017 season. I suspect we will not overbuild in the next few years. Building the tower on the student side would help us get up to around 25k which should be great for awhile. But they could push to 30k with some other enhancements. Ian's track record indicates that he'll prefer the tightness of tickets to help build a quality product.

[olldflame]

Under Ian's direction, Baylor in the Big XII only built a 40-thousand seat stadium where we'll open up the 2017 season. I suspect we will not overbuild in the next few years. Building the tower on the student side would help us get up to around 25k which should be great for awhile. But they could push to 30k with some other enhancements. Ian's track record indicates that he'll prefer the tightness of tickets to help build a quality product.

I realize it's a different sport but IMHO it's not totally "apples and oranges" so I'm gunna say it. We know from the Vine's Center that having a venue much larger than necessary is not conducive to providing the best fan experience possible.

[willflop]

Yes, I think it is 45K but expandable to 50k. I think the tower will have a large effect, regardless of not adding many seats, so that's a plus.

Is there any savings in adding the shoe seats at the same time as rebuilding the visitors locker?

[LUGrad2000]

Under Ian's direction, Baylor in the Big XII only built a 40-thousand seat stadium where we'll open up the 2017 season. I suspect we will not overbuild in the next few years. Building the tower on the student side would help us get up to around 25k which should be great for awhile. But they could push to 30k with some other enhancements. Ian's track record indicates that he'll prefer the tightness of tickets to help build a quality product.

Baylor's stadium is one of the most beautiful stadiums I have seen. It has a small capacity, but it looks like it holds 70k. I was surprised by the capacity when I found out. I would be interested to know how loud it is compared to similar size stadiums. I for one am very happy to have IM at the helm. I fall into the smaller capacity, but super nice amenities crowd. Regardless of who we schedule, it will always be difficult for me to make it to more than a couple games a year.

[Purple Haize]

Under Ian's direction, Baylor in the Big XII only built a 40-thousand seat stadium where we'll open up the 2017 season. I suspect we will not overbuild in the next few years. Building the tower on the student side would help us get up to around 25k which should be great for awhile. But they could push to 30k with some other enhancements. Ian's track record indicates that he'll prefer the tightness of tickets to help build a quality product.

Which is a total departure from the paradigm of years past

[Class of 20Something]

Under Ian's direction, Baylor in the Big XII only built a 40-thousand seat stadium where we'll open up the 2017 season. I suspect we will not overbuild in the next few years. Building the tower on the student side would help us get up to around 25k which should be great for awhile. But they could push to 30k with some other enhancements. Ian's track record indicates that he'll prefer the tightness of tickets to help build a quality product.

Which is a total departure from the paradigm of years past

But not an unwelcome one. IM seems the type to drive the ticket revenue up with rarity and quality, rather than sheer quantity.

[flameshaw]

Under Ian's direction, Baylor in the Big XII only built a 40-thousand seat stadium where we'll open up the 2017 season. I suspect we will not overbuild in the next few years. Building the tower on the student side would help us get up to around 25k which should be great for awhile. But they could push to 30k with some other enhancements. Ian's track record indicates that he'll prefer the tightness of tickets to help build a quality product.

I realize it's a different sport but IMHO it's not totally "apples and oranges" so I'm gunna say it. We know from the Vine's Center that having a venue much larger than necessary is not conducive to providing the best fan experience possible.

The Vines Center was not always "much larger than necessary". Our teams were much too poor to support the reasonable space. The Aluma years, we would virtually fill up almost every game, with a great/electric atmosphere. If we get a good program going, which we will, we will need to expand there too.
Back on topic. I like the smaller football stadium. We are going to have a few rough years ahead. Until we start winning some of these big games, and have some consistent FBS talent on the field, there is no reason play in front of a half-filled stadium. Our fans suck when it comes to making noise and getting excited anyway. It may be a result of "waiting for us to lay the egg" that we seem to have a history of doing. We have lost some games that were impossible to lose. CCU at home and ODU on the road and VMI (the first time we played them, come to mind immediately. Hopefully we can get on the other side of that soon.

[Purple Haize]

Under Ian's direction, Baylor in the Big XII only built a 40-thousand seat stadium where we'll open up the 2017 season. I suspect we will not overbuild in the next few years. Building the tower on the student side would help us get up to around 25k which should be great for awhile. But they could push to 30k with some other enhancements. Ian's track record indicates that he'll prefer the tightness of tickets to help build a quality product.

Which is a total departure from the paradigm of years past

But not an unwelcome one. IM seems the type to drive the ticket revenue up with rarity and quality, rather than sheer quantity.

Never said it was unwelcome. It's very smart and astute. I wouldn't expect anything less from him

[Sly Fox]

For better or worse, there are very few apparent similarities between our last AD and our current one. I have heard that directly from several folks in Athletic Department. There is no question that they are polar opposites stylistically.

[R i]

JB's style was exactly what we needed at the time he was hired. IM's style appears to be exactly what we need going forward. I agree they are completely different, but I would say both are necessary.

[VAGolf]

I am going to be in "wait and see" mode with IM until the Baylor situation is resolved. If he comes out clean, I will be his biggest fan. If he doesn't come out clean, there needs to be some sort of action taken...regardless of the results produced.

With that said, he has done incredible job thus far. The schedule for 2018 looks fantastic, 2019 is coming along together nicely as well. I suspect that in the coming years, the schedule will only improve. I would prefer to be in C-USA instead of being an independent, but I am starting to see A LOT of positives to our current status. Looking back, it's funny that we were ever frustrated with not being invited by the Sun Belt. We would not have the schedule we have for next year, if had been invited to the SBC.

The one "negative" that I've heard thrown around lately is that we have no bowl tie-ins. To which I say, "Who cares?" A good majority of these bowl games are unwatchable and most of them struggle to garner 50% attendance. Last year, we saw a number of high-profile NFL draft prospects simply skip bowl games. Regardless of your position on that issue, it's not going away and you will only see an increase this year. Outside of boosters, and college football purists, very few care about the bowl games. And IF bowl games are so important, you've seen what IM has done with our schedule. Is it really all that crazy to believe he could negotiate a bowl tie-in with our school specifically?

[ballcoach15]

With some of the "hard to believe" current bowl tie-ins, it possible that IM can work a deal.