http://www.mwcconnection.com/2011/12/6/2615654/new-csu-ad-envisions-an-on-campus-stadium
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New Sheep AD wants an on-campus stadium
- Thread starter MrTitleist
- Start date
McPeachy
Well-known member
Talk about biting off more than you can chew. Reminds me of that new young executive...gonna change the world, all in one day. Reality will set in, probably in about a year, and CSewe will have failed with another banker as their AD. You think they would have learned their lesson already. Broke assed Colorado isn't doing anything.
COS Cowboy
Well-known member
Good luck finding the money for that.
bladerunnr
Well-known member
We do have the town billionaire, Pat Stryker, who gave 20 million for the last set of stadium improvements. Rumor has it that she was very angry when Sonny Lubick was fired and has had it in for this AD ever since. There is no possible way they come up with the money without a massive donation from her.
calpoke25
Well-known member
#1 is obviously money, where does that come from?
#2 what about all that money that they have dropped into Hughes in the last decade? They're just going to bulldoze all of it?
#3 how much room on campus in the middle of Fort Collins is there to build a brand new stadium? And how remote is Hughes really? It's not like we're talking about UCLA playing 25 miles away in the Rose Bowl.
#4 do you know how many political players you would have to satisfy to get a project of that magnitude done?
#5 if any facility needs to be bulldozed, its Moby Gymnasium.
I could go on, but it just doesn't seem likely to pass the many hurdles that it would have to. I foresee Hughes Stadium remaining our home-away-from-home every two years for a long time.
#2 what about all that money that they have dropped into Hughes in the last decade? They're just going to bulldoze all of it?
#3 how much room on campus in the middle of Fort Collins is there to build a brand new stadium? And how remote is Hughes really? It's not like we're talking about UCLA playing 25 miles away in the Rose Bowl.
#4 do you know how many political players you would have to satisfy to get a project of that magnitude done?
#5 if any facility needs to be bulldozed, its Moby Gymnasium.
I could go on, but it just doesn't seem likely to pass the many hurdles that it would have to. I foresee Hughes Stadium remaining our home-away-from-home every two years for a long time.
Now they say they want it done by 2014. Pretty ambitious..
http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012201060344
http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012201060344
fromolwyoming
Well-known member
Reckless is more like it. From what some sheep fans have been saying, it could hold up to 50,000 people (they need to fill up the stadium they have now first), and I have to question the quality of a 50,000 seat stadium built in a year in half in the middle of Fort Collins.
Asmodeanreborn
Well-known member
J-Rod said:
Maybe it's Cowboys fans they're trying to accomodate? If we have a few more winning seasons, maybe there'll be 25,000 Pokes fans at the Border War when it's played in Fort Collins...
Bryoming
Well-known member
The attendance at the New Mexico and TCU games this year was atrocious! I can't wrap my head around people's reasoning to stay home when we were in the middle of an 8-4 season. That game vs. TCU had long-shot conference championship implications!J-Rod said:Well, of course the same could be applied to Wyoming, especially after the attedance at that UNM game.Asmodeanreborn said:But CSU takes their issues to a whole new level. At least UW comes close to a few sellouts every year. CSU didn't even come close.
This whole thing is laughable to me. I work in Fort Fudd and live close, so I've been following this. There's only one argument that makes any sense to me, and that's the economic impact of the stadium. Building it will provide jobs (though granted short-term), and the foot traffic relatively near downtown would be helpful to local businesses. But other than that, none of the arguments I've read make sense. Here are the ones that seem the most popular:
1 - The team will improve. Because, you know, putting on a new pair of shoes makes you faster, right? Building a new facility won't automatically make the team better, but most of the comments I'm reading from supporters seem to think so. A new coach may be able to bring in better players (and new facilities may help that somewhat) but that should be the first step, not the stadium.
2 - They'll get into a better conference. Really?? I'm pretty sure that whoever decides to make invitations to a conference don't sit on high and say, "let's invite x school, they just built a new stadium, and they are now worthy." Perhaps winning games is a more important step to getting an invite from the Big-12, Big-10, pac-12 etc. And honestly, would CSU ever be invited to one of those conferences? Those chances are about as great as Wyoming being invited. Seriously...
3 - Hughes sucks. Ok, I know we all say that it does, but in reality it isn't that bad. They just spent around $20 million on improvements to Hughes, including a new field. The damn thing is NEVER full, and it's adequate. Were it full to capacity and there was a need to add 25,000 seats, I could see the argument, but that dog won't hunt now.
4 - More people will attend games. Why? Because it's closer? Laramie is a perfect example here. The stadium is close to just about everybody in town, parking is relatively convenient, and the team is actually pretty good. But do we sell out every week? Nope. Why? Because the team isn't there yet. Attendance is on the upswing, and it's right in line with the success of the team (barring weather). CSU is in the exact same boat. This "build it and they will come" mentality is wrong. Build the program and people will come, just like DC is doing in Laramie.
5 - It will bring the community together. Wrong. From what I can see, it's actually driving a $200 million wedge in the populace. Lots of folks don't want this thing, and it could end up driving a lot of people away while creating more bad blood between the town and the university. But the new AD is set on it come hell or high-water.
The bottom line to me is this. CSU made it's bed 50 years ago or so when Hughes was built. It seems as though the administration at the time kowtowed to the city and cost concerns and the stadium was built where it is. Seems to me CSU needs to keep laying in the bed it made until the awful day that the team turns things around and actually starts winning consistently. When that happens, a new stadium would be a much easier sell, and I'd be happy to watch the Cowboys pound the ewes in some new digs.
Until then, maybe consider throwing some money at the basketball program (a program on the rise that has earned it) so I don't have to squeeze into the high-school gym that is Moby to watch Shyatt and the boys take on the lammies.
GO POKES!
1 - The team will improve. Because, you know, putting on a new pair of shoes makes you faster, right? Building a new facility won't automatically make the team better, but most of the comments I'm reading from supporters seem to think so. A new coach may be able to bring in better players (and new facilities may help that somewhat) but that should be the first step, not the stadium.
2 - They'll get into a better conference. Really?? I'm pretty sure that whoever decides to make invitations to a conference don't sit on high and say, "let's invite x school, they just built a new stadium, and they are now worthy." Perhaps winning games is a more important step to getting an invite from the Big-12, Big-10, pac-12 etc. And honestly, would CSU ever be invited to one of those conferences? Those chances are about as great as Wyoming being invited. Seriously...
3 - Hughes sucks. Ok, I know we all say that it does, but in reality it isn't that bad. They just spent around $20 million on improvements to Hughes, including a new field. The damn thing is NEVER full, and it's adequate. Were it full to capacity and there was a need to add 25,000 seats, I could see the argument, but that dog won't hunt now.
4 - More people will attend games. Why? Because it's closer? Laramie is a perfect example here. The stadium is close to just about everybody in town, parking is relatively convenient, and the team is actually pretty good. But do we sell out every week? Nope. Why? Because the team isn't there yet. Attendance is on the upswing, and it's right in line with the success of the team (barring weather). CSU is in the exact same boat. This "build it and they will come" mentality is wrong. Build the program and people will come, just like DC is doing in Laramie.
5 - It will bring the community together. Wrong. From what I can see, it's actually driving a $200 million wedge in the populace. Lots of folks don't want this thing, and it could end up driving a lot of people away while creating more bad blood between the town and the university. But the new AD is set on it come hell or high-water.
The bottom line to me is this. CSU made it's bed 50 years ago or so when Hughes was built. It seems as though the administration at the time kowtowed to the city and cost concerns and the stadium was built where it is. Seems to me CSU needs to keep laying in the bed it made until the awful day that the team turns things around and actually starts winning consistently. When that happens, a new stadium would be a much easier sell, and I'd be happy to watch the Cowboys pound the ewes in some new digs.
Until then, maybe consider throwing some money at the basketball program (a program on the rise that has earned it) so I don't have to squeeze into the high-school gym that is Moby to watch Shyatt and the boys take on the lammies.
GO POKES!
They may get this done. Frankly, it would not surprise me. On this schedule. Probably not. But whether they do or don't...this is a HUUUUGGGEEE gamble. Between $1.5 million for a coach that looks good on paper, more hundreds of thousands for an OC that is not exactly beloved in Logan and $150 million for a stadium...they had better hope the machine comes up 7's across the board. If it doesn't, and this Boise State model for success through the football team doesn't pan - it will take them decades to recover. I could see rolling something like this after a bowl or a conference championship - AFTER the $1.5 million investment has paid some dividend...but now?
Perhaps the recent history of CSU could provide some guidance. They have a fancy new addition that they chortle from hither and yon about - that with the hiring of Steve Fairchild, a proven NFL coach, they will now be the modern day George and Weasey and kick us around. They go to a bowl in year one (one iteration of the past not present today) and are surely the next coming of Alabama. Then...sucker punch to the groin. The stadium empties like a Budweiser in Laramie on gameday. They are bleeding cash from every orifice. Now, they get to continue to bleed Fairchild's salary, they pay goatcheese from Alabama a boatload more cash...and now they announce they are going all in...emptying the savings account (even more), taking out a $200 million mortgage and taking their money to Vegas to the roulette wheel....all with a guy named "Cap'n Jack." And if they win, they get the hippy liberal crowd who despises athletics in a town that truly does not support CSU that could at very least slow the deal. This, of course, makes no mention of the hemmorage of faculty who leaves after they take another pay cut, while Cap'n Jack is down the street (out their windows now), building the equivalent of the barracks in Jeffrey City with the hope that the next boom will come. And we in Wyoming know how that usually goes...
If it all works out though, our conference is stronger and we get to spend even more money on our Pokes to keep up...which we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future...and will actually have the cash to pay for without renting the credibility and academics of our University like a ten cent hooker that has to make a hundred dollars a day.
I am OK with that.
Perhaps the recent history of CSU could provide some guidance. They have a fancy new addition that they chortle from hither and yon about - that with the hiring of Steve Fairchild, a proven NFL coach, they will now be the modern day George and Weasey and kick us around. They go to a bowl in year one (one iteration of the past not present today) and are surely the next coming of Alabama. Then...sucker punch to the groin. The stadium empties like a Budweiser in Laramie on gameday. They are bleeding cash from every orifice. Now, they get to continue to bleed Fairchild's salary, they pay goatcheese from Alabama a boatload more cash...and now they announce they are going all in...emptying the savings account (even more), taking out a $200 million mortgage and taking their money to Vegas to the roulette wheel....all with a guy named "Cap'n Jack." And if they win, they get the hippy liberal crowd who despises athletics in a town that truly does not support CSU that could at very least slow the deal. This, of course, makes no mention of the hemmorage of faculty who leaves after they take another pay cut, while Cap'n Jack is down the street (out their windows now), building the equivalent of the barracks in Jeffrey City with the hope that the next boom will come. And we in Wyoming know how that usually goes...
If it all works out though, our conference is stronger and we get to spend even more money on our Pokes to keep up...which we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future...and will actually have the cash to pay for without renting the credibility and academics of our University like a ten cent hooker that has to make a hundred dollars a day.
I am OK with that.
Apparently it's being met with a fair amount of opposition.
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20120126/NEWS01/201260337
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20120126/NEWS01/201260337
MrTitleist said:
Yeah, it's just about all anybody can talk about around here. Most of the people I'm talking to seem to think it's unnecessary and don't really want it, but that it's going to happen. When they get to public meetings about this, those are going to get really interesting.
GO POKES!
I must be in the minority, but I actually think that the idea makes long-term sense from a design standpoint. I am also someone who really believes that these university-based events need to be within a reasonable walk from the dormatories and other types of student housing near campus. If it were me, I would put more weight on proximity to campus than on convenient parking. I do not know exactly how the location will be selected and that process is full of potential problems. In the end, I do think they probably need to have their stadium on the edge of campus someplace. Ultimately, they will not ever be CU or Wyoming, so it will not cure their essential ailment which is that they are always going to play second-fiddle.
I also think that part of stepping up to the next level is breaking the 50,000 seat barrier at football stadiums. Filling that capacity is another question entirely.
I do not know about the timeline proposed for the replacement of Hughs but I think that the ceiling for what can be accomplished in non-football terms with Hughs is lower than what can be accomplished with an on-campus site.
I like to have a good game against the Rams, but I am not entirely bothered if this whole process causes them to take their eye off of the proverbial ball. In the end, it is about the fact that the Boot belongs in Laramie.
I also think that part of stepping up to the next level is breaking the 50,000 seat barrier at football stadiums. Filling that capacity is another question entirely.
I do not know about the timeline proposed for the replacement of Hughs but I think that the ceiling for what can be accomplished in non-football terms with Hughs is lower than what can be accomplished with an on-campus site.
I like to have a good game against the Rams, but I am not entirely bothered if this whole process causes them to take their eye off of the proverbial ball. In the end, it is about the fact that the Boot belongs in Laramie.
