LocalYokelFan wrote:ST_Lawson wrote: Local, just curious...do you mean that the $10M goal isn't very impressive, or that the designs/renderings aren't impressive?
Both. The design/renderings appear to be a DII stadium to me. If $10M donors / $25M total is what it takes to get that, it's not enough to keep us sustainable at the FCS level. I'd echo that sentiment for UNH's improvements as well. Football fans with the pockets to sustain FCS/FBS level programs want a premium gameday experience. Premium sight-lines, premium food, premium multimedia, opportunities to advertise... I don't think WIU's or UNH's deliver that. So $10M/$25M becomes a band-aid and a slow decline to DII. Just my opinion.
Are there more things that we'd like to have?....sure. I think that it's just going to take time and money. This isn't the "ultimate goal" either, it just happens to be the next big project. There's more upgrades planned down the road to continually upgrade the facilities for the football program and athletics in general.
Also, UNH is no slouch, they have a string of 13 straight years of making it into the playoffs. Year-to-year, they are always one of the most competitive teams in the CAA (a very good conference). If you look at the overall landscape of facilities at the FCS level, we might not be on the level of NDSU or Montana, but we're better than a lot of schools that are out there. Just a few examples:
Eastern Washington (probably the second best team in the FCS right now) - other than their signature red turf, their stadium only holds ~8.6k people and our new pressbox will be roughly on par with their current one, if not a little better. Also,
they have a track around the field.
Northern Colorado - same deal...built in 1995, seats ~8.5k fans, pressbox not as nice as our new one will be, also still has a track around the field:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CIxKlfdUMAAXuR6.jpg
Southern Utah - built in '97, holds ~8.5k, same deal with pressbox and track
Here's Tennessee Tech -
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... tadium.jpg
Furman (no track though) -
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... adium3.jpg
Dartmouth -
http://fightmusic.com/wallpapers/ivy/Iv ... 0x1200.jpg
Sam Houston State -
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... x_2014.jpg
I guess what I'm saying is that, once the new west side stands are built, outside of maybe the top 10-15 of the "big boys" of FCS football, we'll be doing pretty well...even if we still have the track.
Another thing to consider is how much more impressive it will look from the middle of campus. Every student touring the campus with their parents will walk right through the "mall" area behind Stipes and the library, and instead of seeing the row of pine trees and some of the backside of a nasty looking old stadium (not that I don't love our stadium, it's just very worn down)....they see this:
https://i.imgur.com/oqma7yA.jpg
I think it'll not only help football and recruiting, but also just general student recruiting...essentially removing one of the big eyesores from the middle of campus.
Sure, if you're comparing our facilities to schools at the FBS level....there's going to be a big difference there...always will be. But compared to a lot of the other FCS schools out there, we're doing pretty well, even compared to teams that are pretty good...SHSU and EWU for example.