1977 Conrad Stadium

[JTApps1]

From what I understand the money was in place to complete the project. Some people of influence killed the project right as we were gaining ground. That was right around the same time ECU wanted us to go Independent with them which was much more practical in those days with half the East Coast being independent then. Who knows, we might have 40,000 seats with years of big games under our belts by now? Of course it could have gone poorly, but there's no way to know either way.

[AtlAppMan]

From what I understand the money was in place to complete the project. Some people of influence killed the project right as we were gaining ground. That was right around the same time ECU wanted us to go Independent with them which was much more practical in those days with half the East Coast being independent then. Who knows, we might have 40,000 seats with years of big games under our belts by now? Of course it could have gone poorly, but there's no way to know either way.

That is what I "understood" from others that were more in the know. I didn't show up at App until '81. At that time I was of the belief that the east side was to be built out with the upper section (not really an upper deck) like the west side. My understanding was it was planned and essentially a formality. However, it never happened and that usually means someone changed/cancelled the plans. It was not that budget had not been in place but someone "changed" the plan and took the money and used it for something else.

Can anyone confirm this as fact? And if so, who were the folks that are responsible for this decision? Regardless of who were the responsible parties, we are where we are now based on our path in history. I think we are on a good path regardless of past decisions but at least it would be good to know the truth.

[NewApp]

What was the real reason Conrad was never expanded to 25k as was promised in the newspaper article?

Probably the same reason we don't expand to 45k now.

Because it would have been half-empty for most games?

Could be.

[Bootsy]

From what I can remember, Coach Brakefield was very vocal about his opposition to us "moving on up" with ECU.

[Yosef84]

I think the first time I ever set foot in Conrad Stadium was in 1979. I attended a game with a gentleman from our church in Elkin who was a big supporter. My HS band also competed in a competition there. I honestly had no idea that the upper section of the West side was apparent brand new (1978).

I don't know what would have happened if App had gone independent and remained I-A rather than moving to I-AA with the SoCon but I didn't get the feel that we were ready in terms of finances or fan support. The team had shown the ability to compete but I'm not sure if all the pieces were there. I had zero knowledge of the behind the scenes issues, so I seriously have no idea. We will never know what would have been.

At the beginning of the I-AA experiment, it was a very good concept and had a ton of advantages. Once the deal changed in terms of conferences negotiating their own TV contracts (Thanks Georgia) it totally changed the landscape.

[huskie3]

App had already had an independent period when we moved from NAIA to NCAA in 1967/68. I think football and basketball would have been fine. The other sports would have been able to make alignments as some have done now. Some decision makers just felt we were moving too fast.