So which facility is correctly sized? Halton or Richardson

[Mr_Bojangles]

[quote=“Wingate49erFan, post:19, topic:29418”][quote=“919R, post:18, topic:29418”]JRS needs to be expanded NOW. You don’t have to sell out every game in order to NEED a larger stadium. You want a stadium that will hold your largest crowd. For an FBS football program, that needs to be 20,000 seats minimum.
Not sure that some of our fans realize how much having such a tiny stadium is hurting our program in both perception and recruiting.[/quote]
I agree. I don’t see the point in waiting. It will be more expensive to expand the longer you wait. The AD is just afraid of empty seats, instead of using it as an opportunity to sell and fill those seats.[/quote]

Our AD referred to selling extra football tickets as a burden.

[Ruckus42]

Halton is the perfect size. I wish there wasn’t the track between the two levels but it is the proper size. We all know that if we win we will fill it up again. The Rich is simply too small to expect us to be a bigtime FBS team. It needs more bleachers and more suites,however, it remains to be seen whether or not we will fill up a 35,000 seat stadium which is what I think it should be.

[system]

It is nearly impossible to schedule a bigger name opponent with JRS at its present size. You need the extra capacity for the ticket allotment they will want plus their own walk ups. Of course, if our AD doesnt sell the 3500 tix they just re-allocated, then maybe they see those as opponent seating capacity. The very thought of that is depressing.

JRS needs to be >= 20k. Lambert constantly makes jokes about expansion, needling Judy, so it’s obvious one of the forefront topics in the department.

We need it to be able to schedule ECU, and NCSU and the like. And yes, NCSU is playing @ ODU in their 20k clamshell.

From an aesthetic standpoint, just adding the middle tier deck from the original 40k design (with some minor mods) would make a huge difference - with the biggest change being adding a deck to the student side. That’s what TV will see. It doesn’t even have to be big to make a very positive change in the way the stadium looks on TV. As someone pointed out, look at what Ga Southern’s additional 6,300 seat deck did for their stadium. Or the biggest mistake ever - how JMU’s pro style side of the stadium looks (unfortunately, that’s not where the cameras are aimed) vs their vistor side.

Paulson Stadium (Ga Southern) before (notice the big concrete concourse):

and with the new deck (and fieldhouse/scoreboard - luckily we already have that):

Just my opinion but that makes a dramatic difference in the appearance.

[system]

I do wonder if they couldnt add some more higher revenue seating options (additional boxes, etc) on the student side to try to increase income. Add another small building of suites, plus about 4-5k seats on the student side.

[919R]

[quote=“NA, post:23, topic:29418”]It is nearly impossible to schedule a bigger name opponent with JRS at its present size. You need the extra capacity for the ticket allotment they will want plus their own walk ups. Of course, if our AD doesnt sell the 3500 tix they just re-allocated, then maybe they see those as opponent seating capacity. The very thought of that is depressing.

JRS needs to be >= 20k. Lambert constantly makes jokes about expansion, needling Judy, so it’s obvious one of the forefront topics in the department.

We need it to be able to schedule ECU, and NCSU and the like. And yes, NCSU is playing @ ODU in their 20k clamshell.

From an aesthetic standpoint, just adding the middle tier deck from the original 40k design (with some minor mods) would make a huge difference - with the biggest change being adding a deck to the student side. That’s what TV will see. It doesn’t even have to be big to make a very positive change in the way the stadium looks on TV. As someone pointed out, look at what Ga Southern’s additional 6,300 seat deck did for their stadium. Or the biggest mistake ever - how JMU’s pro style side of the stadium looks (unfortunately, that’s not where the cameras are aimed) vs their vistor side.

Paulson Stadium (Ga Southern) before (notice the big concrete concourse):

and with the new deck:

Just my opinion but that makes a dramatic difference in the appearance.[/quote]
Agree completely.

[NinerWupAss]

I agree that we need to have 20k capacity or more. I also shudder to think how poor some of the crowds the past year would have looked in a 20K+ facility, but then if we had had that many seats available perhaps the AD would have changed their approach in selling tickets. Basically it’s the wrong size for future aspirations but it’s the right size given our current crowd sizes and the failure of our AD.

[49RFootballNow]

20K doesn’t cut it either. We need to be at 25k+. We need to have the ability to host the “big” games in order to offset the “little” games. We need 25k+ to get the recruits in the door.

That “middle” deck should be added WITH luxury boxes on the away side to match the press box on the home side.

I HOPE we’re just thinking of how to fund it at this point.

[919R]

[quote=“49RFootballNow, post:27, topic:29418”]20K doesn’t cut it either. We need to be at 25k+. We need to have the ability to host the “big” games in order to offset the “little” games. We need 25k+ to get the recruits in the door.

That “middle” deck should be added WITH luxury boxes on the away side to match the press box on the home side.

I HOPE we’re just thinking of how to fund it at this point.[/quote]
That would be great, but compared to the 15,300 actual seats we have now-----20,000 permanent seats would satisfy me in the short term. Remember, this would still allow room for several thousand (5,000+) temporary seats to be brought in for “big games”.

[49RFootballNow]

[quote=“919R, post:28, topic:29418”][quote=“49RFootballNow, post:27, topic:29418”]20K doesn’t cut it either. We need to be at 25k+. We need to have the ability to host the “big” games in order to offset the “little” games. We need 25k+ to get the recruits in the door.

That “middle” deck should be added WITH luxury boxes on the away side to match the press box on the home side.

I HOPE we’re just thinking of how to fund it at this point.[/quote]
That would be great, but compared to the 15,300 actual seats we have now-----20,000 permanent seats would satisfy me in the short term. Remember, this would still allow room for several thousand (5,000+) temporary seats to be brought in for “big games”.[/quote]

Judy has turned her nose up at the idea of temp seats before… :

[NinerWupAss]

[quote=“49RFootballNow, post:29, topic:29418”][quote=“919R, post:28, topic:29418”][quote=“49RFootballNow, post:27, topic:29418”]20K doesn’t cut it either. We need to be at 25k+. We need to have the ability to host the “big” games in order to offset the “little” games. We need 25k+ to get the recruits in the door.

That “middle” deck should be added WITH luxury boxes on the away side to match the press box on the home side.

I HOPE we’re just thinking of how to fund it at this point.[/quote]
That would be great, but compared to the 15,300 actual seats we have now-----20,000 permanent seats would satisfy me in the short term. Remember, this would still allow room for several thousand (5,000+) temporary seats to be brought in for “big games”.[/quote]

Judy has turned her nose up at the idea of temp seats before… ::)[/quote]

Her main issue isn’t temp seats it’s temp bathroom facilities.

[49RFootballNow]

[quote=“NinerSuckAss, post:30, topic:29418”][quote=“49RFootballNow, post:29, topic:29418”][quote=“919R, post:28, topic:29418”][quote=“49RFootballNow, post:27, topic:29418”]20K doesn’t cut it either. We need to be at 25k+. We need to have the ability to host the “big” games in order to offset the “little” games. We need 25k+ to get the recruits in the door.

That “middle” deck should be added WITH luxury boxes on the away side to match the press box on the home side.

I HOPE we’re just thinking of how to fund it at this point.[/quote]
That would be great, but compared to the 15,300 actual seats we have now-----20,000 permanent seats would satisfy me in the short term. Remember, this would still allow room for several thousand (5,000+) temporary seats to be brought in for “big games”.[/quote]

Judy has turned her nose up at the idea of temp seats before… ::)[/quote]

Her main issue isn’t temp seats it’s temp bathroom facilities.[/quote]

Well we’re building a $1M bathroom just for the tailgate tent area. Adding bathrooms to Richardson could be a multi-million dollar expense by itself.

[919R]

[quote=“49RFootballNow, post:29, topic:29418”][quote=“919R, post:28, topic:29418”][quote=“49RFootballNow, post:27, topic:29418”]20K doesn’t cut it either. We need to be at 25k+. We need to have the ability to host the “big” games in order to offset the “little” games. We need 25k+ to get the recruits in the door.

That “middle” deck should be added WITH luxury boxes on the away side to match the press box on the home side.

I HOPE we’re just thinking of how to fund it at this point.[/quote]
That would be great, but compared to the 15,300 actual seats we have now-----20,000 permanent seats would satisfy me in the short term. Remember, this would still allow room for several thousand (5,000+) temporary seats to be brought in for “big games”.[/quote]

Judy has turned her nose up at the idea of temp seats before… ::)[/quote]
Additional bathrooms could already be part of the expansion to 20,000 (ie; add enough to cover 25,000 people).

[49RFootballNow]

[quote=“919R, post:32, topic:29418”][quote=“49RFootballNow, post:29, topic:29418”][quote=“919R, post:28, topic:29418”][quote=“49RFootballNow, post:27, topic:29418”]20K doesn’t cut it either. We need to be at 25k+. We need to have the ability to host the “big” games in order to offset the “little” games. We need 25k+ to get the recruits in the door.

That “middle” deck should be added WITH luxury boxes on the away side to match the press box on the home side.

I HOPE we’re just thinking of how to fund it at this point.[/quote]
That would be great, but compared to the 15,300 actual seats we have now-----20,000 permanent seats would satisfy me in the short term. Remember, this would still allow room for several thousand (5,000+) temporary seats to be brought in for “big games”.[/quote]

Judy has turned her nose up at the idea of temp seats before… ::)[/quote]
Additional bathrooms could already be part of the expansion to 20,000 (ie; add enough to cover 25,000 people).[/quote]

I have to question the whole “not enough bathrooms” thing in the first place. No where in any renderings did they show any additional bathrooms other than what is already in place; or anything shown under the deck that could constitute a bathroom or concession stand on the second level. Now they could have just left such out of any renderings, but that would seem odd if you already have the designs for a 40K stadium already done.

[NinerWupAss]

[quote=“49RFootballNow, post:33, topic:29418”][quote=“919R, post:32, topic:29418”][quote=“49RFootballNow, post:29, topic:29418”][quote=“919R, post:28, topic:29418”][quote=“49RFootballNow, post:27, topic:29418”]20K doesn’t cut it either. We need to be at 25k+. We need to have the ability to host the “big” games in order to offset the “little” games. We need 25k+ to get the recruits in the door.

That “middle” deck should be added WITH luxury boxes on the away side to match the press box on the home side.

I HOPE we’re just thinking of how to fund it at this point.[/quote]
That would be great, but compared to the 15,300 actual seats we have now-----20,000 permanent seats would satisfy me in the short term. Remember, this would still allow room for several thousand (5,000+) temporary seats to be brought in for “big games”.[/quote]

Judy has turned her nose up at the idea of temp seats before… ::)[/quote]
Additional bathrooms could already be part of the expansion to 20,000 (ie; add enough to cover 25,000 people).[/quote]

I have to question the whole “not enough bathrooms” thing in the first place. No where in any renderings did they show any additional bathrooms other than what is already in place; or anything shown under the deck that could constitute a bathroom or concession stand on the second level. Now they could have just left such out of any renderings, but that would seem odd if you already have the designs for a 40K stadium already done.[/quote]

I have found that odd as well. I just assumed the additional facilities are UNDER the upper deck. I don’t think there are enough bathrooms currently in place given the back up I have seen with our current crowds.

[Gassman]

Great discussion guys. I was actually going to start things off by saying that I thought Halton was too big and JRS too small (slightly) but didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot.

I’m glad we have Halton, it’s a great building, but it’s too big right now in my opinion. All that extra seating sucks some of the life out of it. And honestly I see nothing on the horizon that’s going to bring sellouts. We were not packing it consistently in CUSA 1.0, no way it happens now.

And I am with the previous poster that questioned the number of sellouts. I have had season tix since it opened and I remember very few sellouts. The upper decks always seemed to be sparsely populated.

Anybody have any statistics on the sellouts?

[Charlotte2002]

[quote=“Gassman, post:35, topic:29418”]Great discussion guys. I was actually going to start things off by saying that I thought Halton was too big and JRS too small (slightly) but didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot.

I’m glad we have Halton, it’s a great building, but it’s too big right now in my opinion. All that extra seating sucks some of the life out of it. And honestly I see nothing on the horizon that’s going to bring sellouts. We were not packing it consistently in CUSA 1.0, no way it happens now.

And I am with the previous poster that questioned the number of sellouts. I have had season tix since it opened and I remember very few sellouts. The upper decks always seemed to be sparsely populated.

Anybody have any statistics on the sellouts?[/quote]

7k in Halton and its a very good environment, 9k and its excellent. I would be more concerned about the football stadium being too big given the attendance in year 2. Perhaps it improves when we are not playing D2 schools, but if we are getting destroyed it won’t matter who we play.

[ninerID]

Halton is a good size. It was built with growth in mind, then “the lost decade” happened. I don’t think it’s too big, but I don’t think it’s well planned out either. the track is unfortunate and there are no boxes. The upper level - behind the goal seating seems disconnected as well.

JRS is great for what we had, but it’s undersized. It needs something more. I don’t know what that looks like, but needs more. We aren’t going to go 6 games of noon starts again. We’ve played our last D2 and D3 teams at home ever, and most likely last Pioneer league teams at home ever. Our reactionary AD has had time to react to a horrible decision to give students 7500 seats. Would like to see us get up around 24-25 and stop.

[Gassman]

In defense of Halton it is more than just the basketball stadium. So there’s that.

[NinerWupAss]

[quote=“Gassman, post:35, topic:29418”]Great discussion guys. I was actually going to start things off by saying that I thought Halton was too big and JRS too small (slightly) but didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot.

I’m glad we have Halton, it’s a great building, but it’s too big right now in my opinion. All that extra seating sucks some of the life out of it. And honestly I see nothing on the horizon that’s going to bring sellouts. We were not packing it consistently in CUSA 1.0, no way it happens now.

And I am with the previous poster that questioned the number of sellouts. I have had season tix since it opened and I remember very few sellouts. The upper decks always seemed to be sparsely populated.

Anybody have any statistics on the sellouts?[/quote]

I don’t have any statistics but we have had several sell outs, Sincy, Looserville and others. Then we have had a large number of games where the upper deck was near full, but not a sell out. I have always had season tickets in the upper deck and there were plenty of games with a crowd about me. Curry Davidson game and Indiana game also come to mind. [size=1em] [font=verdana]Is Halton too big right now? Yes. Given our crowds and performance right now the Mine Shaft could be too big for us. Unless we throw in the towel on basketball though I see us returning to a historical average of 6-7K. I think that is a healthy number and provides capacity for any potential big games. As many have said we have to win. Look at our average back in the Sunbelt days or the METRO days - many of those game happening off campus and in front of some large crowds. Sure opponents can matter but being a good product means more. Our current problem is we are too far removed from our good years to ride those coattails any longer. If this program wants a crowd at the game they have to earn their way back into people’s heart. That means playing smart, playing hard, winning more than you lose and making the games fun. [/font][/size]

[size=1em][font=verdana]Just because we play in a lower conference doesn’t mean anything except that if we lose a lot people will quit coming. I have attended 3 games this year. I have 4 season tickets. I am not not coming because of who we play. I am not coming because I have too much else going on right now to make time to go watch the garbage we have on the floor. It doesn’t mean I don’t care and it doesn’t mean I am still not in tune with what is happening. It just means that other responsibilities currently trump making a 35 minute drive out to campus and the time spent watching the game and back home - especially with a 3 year old. Make the games worth my time investment and I am there as I have been for many years prior. I am betting there are a fair number of people like me. Everyone has a limit, a point at which it just isn’t worth it.[/font][/size]

[49RFootballNow]

[quote=“NinerSuckAss, post:34, topic:29418”][quote=“49RFootballNow, post:33, topic:29418”][quote=“919R, post:32, topic:29418”][quote=“49RFootballNow, post:29, topic:29418”][quote=“919R, post:28, topic:29418”][quote=“49RFootballNow, post:27, topic:29418”]20K doesn’t cut it either. We need to be at 25k+. We need to have the ability to host the “big” games in order to offset the “little” games. We need 25k+ to get the recruits in the door.

That “middle” deck should be added WITH luxury boxes on the away side to match the press box on the home side.

I HOPE we’re just thinking of how to fund it at this point.[/quote]
That would be great, but compared to the 15,300 actual seats we have now-----20,000 permanent seats would satisfy me in the short term. Remember, this would still allow room for several thousand (5,000+) temporary seats to be brought in for “big games”.[/quote]

Judy has turned her nose up at the idea of temp seats before… ::)[/quote]
Additional bathrooms could already be part of the expansion to 20,000 (ie; add enough to cover 25,000 people).[/quote]

I have to question the whole “not enough bathrooms” thing in the first place. No where in any renderings did they show any additional bathrooms other than what is already in place; or anything shown under the deck that could constitute a bathroom or concession stand on the second level. Now they could have just left such out of any renderings, but that would seem odd if you already have the designs for a 40K stadium already done.[/quote]

I have found that odd as well. I just assumed the additional facilities are UNDER the upper deck. I don’t think there are enough bathrooms currently in place given the back up I have seen with our current crowds.[/quote]

I was going to say the opposite. The only time I’ve ever seen a line was during exiting after the game ended.