Has anyone heard anything about a possible KBS expansion in the near future. I haven't heard much in a while and am wondering.

I don't think there are any set plans or blueprints. Even the last expansion went through multiple ideas before the final decision.

There are plenty of great things happening in the athletic department these days. One of those things is the eventual expansion of KBS along with a whole host of other capital improvements. As you might imagine, there is much planning that happens before anything formal is made public.

I'm sure we'll hear specifics on KBS expansion along with other planned improvements once there are plans to present. I'd also imagine we'll hear more then on the ultimate cost of everything ... and the fundraising needed to make things happen.

There was a post on here just 2 weeks ago with multiple artist renderings of potential upgrades to KBS and other areas of campus to include a new track area. Go back and find the post, not sure anything has been voted on yet or there are any deadlines but plans are being made.

Deano wrote:There was a post on here just 2 weeks ago with multiple artist renderings of potential upgrades to KBS and other areas of campus to include a new track area. Go back and find the post, not sure anything has been voted on yet or there are any deadlines but plans are being made.

Ok. Thanks, I'll check it out

Thread is here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10361

I'm not sure how accurate the rendering is of the stadium, but if it is, there is an obvious plan in place to remove the track, encapsulate the field with seating and add something big where the field house is.

It would be dumb to spend millions to expand a stadium we don't even fill as is. That's not a knock or anything on our fanbase, for our caliber program all things considered we have a good fanbase. There's just no need in expanding right now. Now if removing the track is feasible I'm all ears....

diehardapp18 wrote:It would be dumb to spend millions to expand a stadium we don't even fill as is.

We literally sold every seat just this past Saturday

diehardapp18 wrote:It would be dumb to spend millions to expand a stadium we don't even fill as is. That's not a knock or anything on our fanbase, for our caliber program all things considered we have a good fanbase. There's just no need in expanding right now. Now if removing the track is feasible I'm all ears....

Expanding seating is as much about types of seating as about numbers of seats.

Also, expect track removal as part of the conversation. The big question then becomes where to put a track.

Then there are other crucial items that many of us wouldn't necessarily think about like some sort of locker room / bathroom facilities at the field hockey field. Football, while certainly the largest sport within the athletics department is just one of twenty teams at App. There's much more to consider than "simple" expansion of KBS.

I think that the Wake game will really be a barometer for realistic expansion talk. If we top out about 33k to 35k in my mind that is about where we can expect to be for a "huge" regional game- and there isn't anything wrong with that. I shared on another thread average attendance numbers for some other bigger G5's like Houston and Boise. If memory serves those guys average in the mid 30k range. We are just not going to hit 50k even if we become a top 20 program and had the aluminum to accommodate it. A 33k seating with awesome amenities would be great.

From what I know stadium lot will end up basically turning into a parking deck. A closed secret group of possible bidders for it have gone out few weeks ago.

Also the new Owens will look nothing like the first picture will be closer to the other drawing.

This year we've sold out 2 of the 5 home games so far. If we beat Troy and the weather is good, I'd expect a great crowd, if not a sell-out for the ULM game also. With continued exposure and continued winning...we're going to need more seats. Standing or sitting in the grass on the hill, may be perfect for some people, but gets old for many. We're going to need more seats down the road so that planning has to start now which looks like they are.

smokeshow wrote:From what I know stadium lot will end up basically turning into a parking deck. A closed secret group of possible bidders for it have gone out few weeks ago.

Will a deck include more or less parking spaces as now?

Bottom line is that we have sold out twice this year. One was Miami. I think we need to do much better than that to need expansion.

huskie3 wrote:

smokeshow wrote:From what I know stadium lot will end up basically turning into a parking deck. A closed secret group of possible bidders for it have gone out few weeks ago.

Will a deck include more or less parking spaces as now?

I certainly hope and I believe our AD will be all over it but increasing the seating and number of people attending will grow would mean a nightmare with no additional parking. Maybe I'm just thinking way out there.

huskie3 wrote:

smokeshow wrote:From what I know stadium lot will end up basically turning into a parking deck. A closed secret group of possible bidders for it have gone out few weeks ago.

Will a deck include more or less parking spaces as now?

I would certainly hope that we wouldn't spend the money to build a parking deck to wind up with fewer parking spaces.

bcoach wrote:Bottom line is that we have sold out twice this year. One was Miami. I think we need to do much better than that to need expansion.

Exactly, plus "sold" doesn't equal "filled." Not sure what the East side looked like, but there were a decent number of empty seats on the west side. When we don't have Miami to coerce people into buying season tickets, those unused tickets will likely go back to being unsold tickets.

But Daphne made the key point - just because we don't need stadium expansion doesn't mean we shouldn't make stadium improvements.

Only two sell-outs? The permanent seating capacity at KBS is 24,050. By that metric, 4 out of the 5 homes games so far have been sell-outs:

Miami - 34,658
Ga State - 24,782
Idaho - 26,931
Tx State - 28,472

I don't believe we need much of an expansion (more of a reconfiguration), but to say that we've only had two sell-outs is wrong.

It will be an expansion I'm sure that makes for more premium seating and about the same overall number of seats. We need to improve the stadium without question.

For example, Tennessee has expanded twice in the last decade and both times the capacity went down.