A Sea Of Red

I'm not sure this topic has been discussed in the forum, but a retractable dome/roof over Williams Stadium seems like a cool idea to me. I expect we lost 5-7 thousand fans to the game on Saturday night due to the weather. Although it was a great crowd in spite of the weather, why not a retractable dome to keep the weather from being an issue? This would also eliminate the weather as an obstacle at graduation. I've heard these roofs are expensive but I'm not sure just how much something like this would cost. What are your thoughts?

Come on, man. This is not where we should be spending money.

I suspect cost and further expansion are huge hinderances to converting the Bill into a Dome, otherwise it'd be a great idea to me. I agree with you that we lost a significant amount of attendees on Saturday due to the weather. As we did back in 2018 (I believe) as well. But it is what it is.

Are we getting that soft as a society that we need protection from weather for everything? This is football! C'mon Man!

Yup, because nothing says college football like this:
c'mon man

No!

The Bill is wonderful as is. Buy rain gear.

Some of my best college football memories were in horrible weather. Some of my worst too.

Adding a retractable roof is about a $100-150 million renovation. The juice definitely wouldn't be worth the squeeze for the one game a year it's needed.

Old timers like Sly may remember that years ago Jerry, Sr. and his AD went down to ETSU to see their mini-domed stadium.



I'm with the rest of you: man up and buy some rain gear. The students can wear a trash bag, like we did in college!

If only someone would invent a portable dome.....

Sly Fox wrote: ↑September 12th, 2022, 9:29 am Come on, man. This is not where we should be spending money.

Well keep losing it then bro!

The maybe few thousand extra tickets sold every year or so ain't adding up to $100 million anytime soon. You also have to factor in that a lot of those empty seats were sold tickets, so maybe not as much lost revenue as you think.

My main beef is with the insistence on the 6pm start time. That rain would feel great at noon or 3:30. Then again, I'd be ok with 6pm on a 90 degree day. Does anyone know if CUSA will make us schedule more typical start times (12, 3:30, 7)?

It did get me curious about domes in CFB. As far as I can tell, there's 3 currently in use in all of FBS: Kibbe Dome, the (formerly) Carrier Dome, and the Alamodome. Interestingly, FCS has more domes than FBS.

Start times are typically TV-driven first followed by athletic department decision second. So a great deal will be determined by what type of media package we will have entered by the time we arrive in CUSA. Right now that is completely unknown.

I'd love a Dome, more so for baseball with those winter and early spring games though.

Cider Jim wrote: ↑September 12th, 2022, 10:01 am Old timers like Sly may remember that years ago Jerry, Sr. and his AD went down to ETSU to see their mini-domed stadium.



I'm with the rest of you: man up and buy some rain gear. The students can wear a trash bag, like we did in college!

I went to the game where we played ETSU in that dome. It was nice, but football in VA is supposed to be played outside. A roof would be like watching NASCAR from a suite. It is much more fun outside, smelling the gas and dodging chicken bones.

Tnobes wrote: ↑September 12th, 2022, 9:49 am Yup, because nothing says college football like this:
c'mon man

That’s a basketball arena in that picture, not a football stadium. Just ask LUOrange.

I grew up watching the Vikings, Twins and the Gophers in that stadium as well as Christian Laettner versus the fab 5 in the final 4.

My mistake. Looks like Carrier. Cheap laughs.

JK37 wrote: ↑September 12th, 2022, 11:03 pm

Tnobes wrote: ↑September 12th, 2022, 9:49 am Yup, because nothing says college football like this:
c'mon man

That’s a basketball arena in that picture, not a football stadium. Just ask LUOrange.

Actually, the Carrier Dome is a football arena that they play basketball in a little better than they play football in.

If its Christian it ought to be better!!

LUOrange wrote: ↑September 13th, 2022, 9:12 am

JK37 wrote: ↑September 12th, 2022, 11:03 pm

Tnobes wrote: ↑September 12th, 2022, 9:49 am Yup, because nothing says college football like this:
c'mon man

That’s a basketball arena in that picture, not a football stadium. Just ask LUOrange.

Actually, the Carrier Dome is a football arena that they play basketball in a little better than they play football in.

Right. So just call it a basketball arena and be done with it.

JK37 wrote: ↑September 13th, 2022, 5:22 pm

LUOrange wrote: ↑September 13th, 2022, 9:12 am

JK37 wrote: ↑September 12th, 2022, 11:03 pm

That’s a basketball arena in that picture, not a football stadium. Just ask LUOrange.

Actually, the Carrier Dome is a football arena that they play basketball in a little better than they play football in.

Right. So just call it a basketball arena and be done with it.

But they put the court in the end zone and pull bleachers from the other end zone.

The picture is the Metrodome in Minnesota, which was torn down for US bank Stadium

Why?

I would think permanent awnings that cover part of the upper decks would cost much less and might actually help LU sell some season tickets up there. (the ends of the upper deck always seem like those are the last tickets to go...but if there was an awning that covered the top 20 rows...some people would get their season tickets there...I'm talking about awnings like these from Exploria Stadium where we played our first bowl game.

[https://images.app.goo.gl/Y6HQomUu5QpG5veEA]