Leatherneck Nation

RedNeck wrote:I understand that Tommy has reworked some/all of the architectural plans for the West Side. If we have a plan in place and Architectural Renderings or CG flyover video et cetera, it would seem like the celebration of 1000+ Leatherneck games would be a great opportunity to share with the public.

Furthermore it is my understanding that Rick Springfield is eager to find out information about the West Side.

Hanson Field at Rick Springfield Stadium. Roll out the red carpet, Tommy!

RedNeck wrote:Furthermore it is my understanding that Rick Springfield is eager to find out information about the West Side.

Yup, I'm sure he's real excited to be performing in McComb.

They hired a firm to, from my understanding, do a completely new design earlier this year in May I believe. Looks like they hired DLR Group, Inc. to do a new study of the staff and see what they desired for the new stands (hopefully a move in track to be planned in future) and then they had an option to enter a contract with them for design and construction administration services. I would imagine if they had anything it would be the initial drawings that basically had designed what it could look like and I am sure that they had a few options so hopefully it is impressive. My understanding was they were looking to do something around $16,000,000 for the stands which is unfortunately not a lot in athletic fields improvements, but we do have a few things going for us. The easy access to the area and being on a hill should require less structural steel which is a huge expense in this kind of construction and will help with costs. The bad thing is demolition of the old stands will have to be included. I still hope they, as I described it before, use a "WOW" factor with this addition as this will be big not only for football, but the entire school and recruiting. All prospective students walk right past this area and if they can have their jaw drop or at least bring out a "that is awesome" it will help with recruiting students. It definitely needs the same pop that the ISU stadium has, but that was approx. 9 million more. I would say this is an area that you want to spend extra money since it is a focal point of the quad.

Video of stadium this firm created.
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I'm not sure that they still use this format, but the University of Illinois had a weekly football coaches show on the radio that featured a rotating site. The show would originate on-campus by using a different dorm or fraternity/sorority each week as the location for the broadcast.

That would be one way to ensure student-participation.

WIU0812 wrote:They hired a firm to, from my understanding, do a completely new design earlier this year in May I believe. Looks like they hired DLR Group, Inc. to do a new study of the staff and see what they desired for the new stands (hopefully a move in track to be planned in future) and then they had an option to enter a contract with them for design and construction administration services. I would imagine if they had anything it would be the initial drawings that basically had designed what it could look like and I am sure that they had a few options so hopefully it is impressive. My understanding was they were looking to do something around $16,000,000 for the stands which is unfortunately not a lot in athletic fields improvements, but we do have a few things going for us. The easy access to the area and being on a hill should require less structural steel which is a huge expense in this kind of construction and will help with costs. The bad thing is demolition of the old stands will have to be included. I still hope they, as I described it before, use a "WOW" factor with this addition as this will be big not only for football, but the entire school and recruiting. All prospective students walk right past this area and if they can have their jaw drop or at least bring out a "that is awesome" it will help with recruiting students. It definitely needs the same pop that the ISU stadium has, but that was approx. 9 million more. I would say this is an area that you want to spend extra money since it is a focal point of the quad.

In reference to DLR Group, here's a few of the athletics projects that they've worked on. It's kinda hard to judge what they're capable of based on budget because most of their projects were "whole stadium" projects. For example, they did a new soccer venue for UMKC that was $7.3 mil, and included the stands, pressbox, field/pitch, 4-lane track around the field, lighting, support building, etc. The photos that I've seen do look pretty nice for the budget that they were working with (here's a shot from the outside of the stadium). Some other projects that are likely similar in scale:
Creighton University Soccer Complex
Southwest Minnesota State University Sports Complex

But again, it looks like both of those involved the entire complex. If we're looking at putting ~$16 mil into just the west side stands (since everything else is relatively new and looks pretty nice at this point), then I think they could really make something that looks pretty nice.

ST, great input with the examples! Definitely can see what they can do, but that last one makes me think we are going to need something like 20,000,000 to make something like what is needed for the West Side, but we shall definitely see some vast improvements! I hope they do an area like ISU's where it has a dinner and drink area and instead of just boxes (I think ISU still has 7 club boxes) they have a large area for a few hundred people to gather and can watch out a giant glass window with bar style seating along it. They also have tons of TV's in there and tables to relax around and watch that way to if you are busy getting a drink or eating something. This was a very neat indoor concept. Another thing to look at is the building going to be 16 Million and then the items that must go inside like chairs, tables, TV's, kitchen ware all going to be a separate expense? This is what happened to ISU as I think they originally estimated the addition at 20 million and then realized they had to increase budget due to all of the miscellaneous items they needed to buy which ended up after extra work and all the items being around 25 million.

Tommy Bell looks to be a master of "tempering expectations" and is the right man to be in charge of this job. I am not sure how soon he will tell us something and how much he will tell us when he does.

wiu712 wrote:When Mark Hendrickson was Head Coach, he did a weekly radio show on WIUS-FM. It ran for 30 minutes.

Perhaps this would be an option for a weekly radio show.

The student broadcasters used to run a weekly Coach's Corner show once a week in their usual sports talk time slot. In the past, the show was held at BWW's, and Coach Hendrickson would appear. Last year, due to Beau Spencer's new show, Coach Nielson did not want to do another show every week, and BWW's didn't feel the need to host another show. WIUS moved their show to Sportscorner, and featured a different WIU Coach each week (Coach Hall, Johnson, and Flogaites). Unfortunately, some problems arose between the show and the management at Sportscorner, and eventually Coach's Corner was moved back to the studio.

I do not know if they WIUS is continuing any such show this year, but both the Broadcasting staff and students were pretty disappointed in the lack of cooperation last year.

I do not know if they WIUS is continuing any such show this year, but both the Broadcasting staff and students were pretty disappointed in the lack of cooperation last year.

To my knowledge, there was great participation by WIU student athletes and coaches to appear on the WIUS sports show. Honestly, Sports Corner is not a good site to host a radio show. There's really not a good spot to set up, and you're making most of the patrons angry because the people wanting to listen to the coaches talk, can't hear because of the games on TV, or the amount of people talking. The people there are upset because they are distracted by the coaches show. I can attest from the days back when the WIU football postgame show was at Parkside (now Sports Corner). It's just not an ideal location for such a show.

The Southwest Minn State venue cost 16 million, 11 from the state legislature and 5 from private funds. How about if we saw off the top of the stands from the accessible porches up and slide a similar structure in with press box decorations like entranceway ala concession buildings. Off course the lower part that is left would he totally refurbished. I have not seen any plans so this is just a personal thought! jc