Not a fan of this, sure it will bring in more revenue but dang it's all concrete and asphalt now, little green area left around there. Which will sit empty most the year.
Stadium construction ...
- Thread starter surly
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It'll fill up A LOT more once the hotel and Cy-Town are finished. It's also going to be assigned for people at basketball games who have access to the Johnny's lite version or whatever they call the meeting place at Scheman before basketball games that Jamie has described.
My source on Cy-Town has gone quiet on me.. Anyone got anything
My guess is this is what will happen IF/WHEN we do replace our skybox.
It will be something like we will:
change the current suites over to club section/premium seating.
Move all suites to a new sky box.
Possibly add an additional club section in lower part of skybox.
Club sections are where the demand is, and overall money is. Suites are great but there is only so much demand for them, as has been discussed, they are leased out long term, usually to corporations etc. You have to have enough large corps that want them. And building more than needed is just a waste
But building club/premium sections with additional perks is in huge demand. So if they were to find ways to add more of those sections, they do pay for themselves, very quickly.
When the time comes that we build a new Skybox it will be the demand for this type of seating that will ultimately drive us to build one so we can add more, not because we need more suites. It will be to add the club sections in the skybox, and or to move suites there to free up the current suite location for more club sections.
But again this will be $100s of millions to do.
Wasnt there a couple "future athletic buildings" on the original plan for the CyTown Pollard and light district. To the west side of the lots. North and south of Alumni. That were rumored to be for this?
edit: found OG plan:
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Well Money for one. My guess it will cost $200M+ to do, so unless those on here that are begging for it so bad and saying how great TOEs stadium is compared to the Jack because of a Skybox, start donating a couple hundred million dollars for it, my guess is it will be a long time from now.
You seem to be upset that everyone is not on your side. Sure we all would love the idea of what you want. But we all are realistic and we all have common sense. Maybe we all live in the real world where we have budgets and have to pay for things and you dont. Where money and cool stuff doesnt just grow on trees, I dont know.
But the reality is, you keep saying things like we dont have what others have. When that is not the truth. other P5 stadiums have 40-50 suites, We have 40-50 suites. Other stadiums have club seating we have 2 club sections currently. Our stadium is currently the 3rd largest in the big 12 and I believe soon to be 2nd largest, just behind BYU.
Every stadium around the country is different. some stadiums have more seats, some have more decks, some have less. We are not going to rebuild our stadium like Ohio States just because it looks cooler. We will renovate or rebuild something when the need is there when it is cost effective and the money is available.
But to just do it to look like someone else makes no sense.
To say we are being left behind because we dont have suites or a skybox is a lie, because we have both. That would be like saying we are being left behind because our stadium doesnt seat 115K like the Big house at Michigan, so we need to add 40K seats to look more big time.
You can dumb this all you want, but the reality is, until the demand is there, the money is there, or someone donates a large amount specifically for that project, it is not a priority. So if you really want it done, Open your checkbook and donate $50M+ directly for it and the make sure you sign up for a lifetime lease on one of those suites you covet so much.
Not upset at all, we just want different things. I think we should be pumping money into football, while others want to redo Hilton and other stuff.
This entire thing is over the money to be made from football, basketball doesn't matter, if it did, Kansas would have been gone a long time ago.
You do not wait for the demand to be there to build, you build now and create the demand.
So now you can dumb this all you want, it's still OK to disagree with a point of view and not take it personal, like you seem to be doing.
I know I jumped in late, but tried to make my sarcasm as plain as possible.
So all the money they have been putting in the area of the stadium over the last decade and plan to in the coming decade.....is not pumping money into football?
Again you keep talking like we dont have something we do. Its not about demand for something we dont have. Its about demand to REPLACE something we already have.
And many of the projects people are talking about are at a cost of 1/10th of what a new skybox and west side renovation would cost.
After the stadium was built, we did nothing to it for 30 years, they then put up the temp. bleachers in the South Endzone, widen the area under the stands, and finally put in the new south endzone, along with new locker rooms and the performance building.
Have we done enough, no in my opinion, the next phase should be building a new press box with more suites and private seating. The money is in football, not basketball, so the money should be going into football.
You want a first class facility, then you have to pump money into it, ISU did nothing for years, and we are still playing catchup to a lot of other teams in the league. I saw last week where TT is putting $200 million into their stadium, KSU has been building like crazy. Is there demand for it in Lubick and Manhattan or are they building to bring in more dollars in the long run?
Texas Tech has been fund raising for the South end zone since 2014!!!!! 8 years, and a former player donated $25M for it last year to get it started and it will cost $200M+.
Most of KState's plans have to do with expanding practice facilities, adding performance centers, replacing turf and other team facilities...sound familiar? NOT actually EXPANDING or ADDING to their stadium that is much smaller than the Jack.
ISU has had almost non stop construction in Football facilities and around the Jack for 2 decades. I don't know where or what you are missing.
We are doing what everyone else is doing, and more. Football and football stadiums are not just big skyboxes. Tell me how many football stadiums in P5 have been expanding Capacity in the last 20 years? I guarantee the list is small.
Its easy to say others are doing more because when you look at an entire conference+ you see multiple things happening every year. But when you compare to one other place we are now building and renovating at the same rate of faster than our peers. Apples to Apples, not Apples to a basket of Oranges.
You talk like we have dumped $200M into Hilton recently. Last I checked the plan was for a $25M renovation, way less than what you are talking for a Skybox/West Side reno, and that project has been put on hold multiple times and is indefinitely, while projects for football and the stadium have continued. I don't even remember when the last time there was a major project beyond regular upkeep/upgrades done to the Hilton.
The last non Football major Athletic project was probably the Track/Soccer/Softball facility. But I guess we can let every other sport just dwindle into the ground because none of those are important. Just because they are not revenue generating (although Basketball is) doesn't mean we don't have to have proper facilities for them.
This definitely did not warrant a 'dumb'. However, I think your focus on 'expansion/improvement' should be more 'updated'. I think the plaza idea is current thinking. Look at the new NFL stadiums. They're much more than that. While not competing with the NFL our plans are similar in nature. THIS is where the 'improvements' will separate the elite from the antiquated. Pollard, in my opinion, is right on track. In a few more years, more and more of the collegiate world will be trying to duplicate ours. Of course, like virtually everyone else, this is my opinion.
The money to be made is not in basketball, but football, that is what is driving this whole conference expansion now going on. It makes no sense putting money into Hilton if it jeopardizes the money maker program which is football.
Think of it as "dressing for success", you enlarge the press box area with selective seating just like the Suckup section, charge more and make more money off of it. When ESPN or FX1 or who ever is broadcasting the game that day, the stadium turns peoples heads. Currently it looks cheap, like nothing has been done to the press box for 50 years, which is basically true.
You spend the money, where the money can be made, that is in football, not basketball, softball, but football. If you cannot see that, its on you. But those talking heads sure do, as well as anyone that watches us on TV that knows nothing about ISU. They see the small press box area and think "ISU must really be poor, if that is all they can afford."
You should let Jamie know he's missing out on this huge financial opportunity. Apparently he's never considered it in the nearly 20 years he's been here!
While I agree that a majority of funds should go into FB (and has), you absolutely cannot allow Hilton to degrade into a 2nd class facility. That place is the pride of many ISU fans. And it's showing its age. Hilton needs a facelift and IMO that should be priority #1 right now since we've been investing pretty heavily in FB for 10+ years now.
Admittedly, I usually don't watch our home games on TV as I have season tickets, however, I don't believe they ever show the press box on a broadcast. When I am at the game the cameras are located on the same side as the press box and are pointed at the field. I have never walked into our fantastic stadium in the nearly 40 years I have attended games there and thought about the press box in any way shape or form. Guests that I have taken to games likewise have NEVER made comments about the press box. They do comment on how awesome our turf looks and do not believe it is real grass. They do comment on how much space we seem to have in our seats even when the stadium is full and numerous other things that are all surprisingly complimentary.