CSU football stadium update from the Fort Collins rag.

[McPeachy]

So, growing by 20,000 people in 10 years? It took 10 years to grow by 3,000 people, according to the census that was taken in the last year or two.

Question for you - what really is the population of Laramie? With students & without.

I hear (and read) so much about that topic...I have no clue.

Well, thats according to the official census, with Laramie's population being just slightly over 30,000. If its counting students or not though, I don't know. Everything I've come across doesn't say that one way or the other.

Same here. I really wonder, with and without students what the actual number is!

 

[Cowboy Junky]

That brings up a good question though. When this athletics plan is finished(AA, golf IPF, and Corbett Pool) where do we go next. A horseshoe isn't necessary yet, although I would love to see it. The west side of the War needs the restroom/concessions love that the east side got.

If I had a huge chunk of change, I would build more luxury boxes/press box/club seating on the west side. I think to do that you have to tear down the field house. So it would be a combo project: new press box/luxury box/club seating and a new 4000 seat multi purpose gym for women's hoops, volleyball, wrestling, indoor track and field to replace the field house.

Scratch off that golf thing - that was completely funded by private donors. Yes, I agree it is a waste of money, but WTF.



You pointed out one of my biggest whine's - the (lack of) forward thinking within UW athletics - the "what next". Honestly, shouldn't UW already have that penciled in somewhere, shouldn't UW already have it's wish list? Are they all sitting around that large conference table in the UniWyo, looking at eachother, and saying after Corbett & the AA, "we good"? Gary Barta (and Lee Moon laughingly) had all the current renovation penciled in 5-15 years ago. And we can even go back further than that...

They do have it penciled in. First phase of the AA is next. Second phase is after that. Corbett Pool is in the hole.

Aside from building 20,000 die hard Wyoming football fans that live in Laramie, I don't know what we can do with War Memorial aside from renovating the west side of the stadium.

 

[McPeachy]

They do have it penciled in. First phase of the AA is next. Second phase is after that. Corbett Pool is in the hole.

Aside from building 20,000 die hard Wyoming football fans that live in Laramie, I don't know what we can do with War Memorial aside from renovating the west side of the stadium.

"They" - loose term, don't have anything on the drawing board (penciled in) after the AA and Corbett. There is nothing in the future works - as of right now - for 5 years, 10 years, 15 years down the road. And when we wait that amount of time to get our shit together and figure it out, it will be the stagnant days of UW athletics all over again.

 

[Cowboy Junky]

I could see that point, but it seems like we come up with a plan, at least recently. Since they built the RAC Wyoming has been extremely aggressive in upgrading athletics facilities. The original athletics plan created structural repairs to the War, new turf, an IPF, eastside restroom and concessions renovations, the tennis complex, the track and field complex, the wildcatter, and all the minor renovations on the smaller facilities. The current athletics plan addresses the golf IPF, Corbett Pool, and the AA. I feel pretty confident that when we finish that we'll have a new athletics facilities plan.

The transformation of our athletics complex in the last 10 years has been pretty impressive and I don't have any reason to believe it's going to stop.

I just don't know how much we have left to renovate before we have to build something major and we need more fans in the football stadium to require us to enclose the end zone.

 

[WyoBrandX]

I'm trying to find the article now, but not having much luck. In the last week or so, LEDC published that they had agreed upon growing Laramie to 50k in the next decade. They felt anything larger than that and the town loses its small time feel, but would bring in better economics to the area. The town should be pretty self supported at that size.

I think if they hold true to their word, you really have to start thinking about things like a dome. A good product on the field, no reason to complain about the cold (they really should run busess all over town for the game day), and enough residents to fill the thing whether the roads are good or bad, you might have found a sucessful formula.

So, growing by 20,000 people in 10 years? It took 10 years to grow by 3,000 people, according to the census that was taken in the last year or two.

That would be the math. It's not far fetched to do it. The question is, will we?

 

[WyoBrandX]

So, growing by 20,000 people in 10 years? It took 10 years to grow by 3,000 people, according to the census that was taken in the last year or two.

Question for you - what really is the population of Laramie? With students & without.

I hear (and read) so much about that topic...I have no clue.

Well, thats according to the official census, with Laramie's population being just slightly over 30,000. If its counting students or not though, I don't know. Everything I've come across doesn't say that one way or the other.

Same here. I really wonder, with and without students what the actual number is!

It is who was in Laramie during the census. Since school was in, they are counted. Wyotech is counted. Person's in jail (local or foreign) were counted as part of the Laramie Population.

Probably 14,000 students on campus. Another 2k students between wyotech and lccc. It wouldn't suprise me to see the summer time population is between 12k and 20k. Some of the students are from here, others stay year round. Some go to school here and never leave.

Its really tough to tell.

 

[WyoBrandX]

Here we go:

Does the Laramie population include students?
http://laramielive.com/does-the-laramie-population-include-students-ask-the-city/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

City Growth
http://www.laramieboomerang.com/articles/2013/10/06/news/doc5250d69eb3b3a796609893.txt" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[BJC]

This has been debated before in Laramie. I think the saying goes, "If you're going to build a dome in Laramie, you're going to have to build a dome over the interstates that go to Laramie."

By the time CSU does build this we should be finishing the AA and Corbett Pool, which will cost us about 40 million. Where do we go after that, because a dome isn't going to happen, and even if it did, we're not going to put more then 25,000 in it, even during our best seasons. The only thing it might push us to do is to renovate the west side. Would new concessions on the west side of the stadium give us an advantage over CSU's brand new stadium?

I tossed the dome out there - as something very forward thinking. I don't agree with the saying (above), but I do think it is WAY out of the box for anything Wyoming at this time. I imagine having a facility like that, the infrastructure to support it would need to be there first (hotel rooms, etc) - and that isn't going to happen. At least not in my lifetime.

That said, I would like to see UW build for the future a bit more, instead of the dummied-down version we have seen the last 10 years. Horseshoe the south side, with luxury boxes and 10K additional seats.

i've always thought they should just horseshoe the upper stands on the south end.....you would be able to keep the trees and it would be a really unique stadium feature

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :agree:

 

[Cowboy Junky]

I know Laramie is heavily recruiting data centers, technology businesses, and gun manufacturers. Hopefully, we can bring some Wyoming grads back to Laramie.

That's exciting though. 20000 new residents in Laramie would make a big difference to the university especially if Casper and Cheyenne continue to grow.

 

[stymeman]

what a joke

 

[calpoke25]

I agree with CJ on the point that until we find an additional 20K fans to come to games, War Memorial as is is about as good as it will get. Sure the west side could use concessions and a new press box, but those things aren't going to be program changing. However McPeach is also correct in that we have to be more forward thinking otherwise......

I think you are both right, but what can we do about it?

I had a radical idea once that if UW football received a big time donation, you could create a kind of "ticket subsidy fund." Essentially say the cost of a ticket now is $40 a game. Now in the realm of big time college football $40 is still a bargain, despite the bitching and moaning of some Wyo fans. You could use those funds to subsidize tickets in some manner. I haven't thought through the details of how such a plan would work, but basically the idea is to address the #1 shortcoming Wyoming faces, the # of committed fans who are willing to pack the stadium regardless by getting more people to come to the games and build up the fan base for future generations.

Another idea would be to create an "elite coaches fund." Basically create something to attract the best and brightest coaches out there and pay them top dollar. Create a reputation of attracting top coaching candidates and paying them.

Both of those ideas may be stupid, but Wyoming has to find a way to think outside the box and I am just throwing stuff out there.

 

[Cowboy Junky]

I don't it would take long for Wyoming to raise the money to enclose an end zone, at least not before the population and attendance demand it.

The coaching salary deal, I'm with you on that. It would be great if we had a little nest egg tucked away or some kind of trust that we could draw interest off of to help with that.

 

[BeaverPoke]

How about....when BeaverPoke gets real rich, I "buy" my way into becoming the AD then hire Pete Carroll or Harbough (SF not Bal) to come be the head coach here. Get Chip Kelly to be the OC, and Jack Del Rio to be the DC.

 

[J-Rod]

How about....when BeaverPoke gets real rich, I "buy" my way into becoming the AD then hire Pete Carroll or Harbough (SF not Bal) to come be the head coach here. Get Chip Kelly to be the OC, and Jack Del Rio to be the DC.

Sounds like you'd have enough money to change Oregon State's hamster logo as well.

 

[BeaverPoke]

Sounds like you'd have enough money to change Oregon State's hamster logo as well.

Hahaha I really want to put this on the Beaver board and see them freak out. lol....

But seriously, isn't that logo just hideous?

 

[Wyokie]

But seriously, isn't that logo just hideous?

I've seen worse.