Revisiting Track Removal/Renovation

[bigCasu]

We have a lot of good plans...But who is going to pay for it? Where will the money come from?

That money comes from people buying season tickets and investing into the program. When entities borrow money, the lender wants to know that the loan can be paid back. We prove that with season tickets sales.

I've never run an athletic dept., and obviously the more tickets and YC memberships sold the better, but I suspect we need to attract some major corporate sponsors besides just relying on rank-and-file donors and fans. (Unless we can locate that one super-wealthy sugar-daddy booster like some places have.)

In the meantime, I think that's why it's important to find those cost-effective improvements. Bowling in the North end zone would obviously be expensive, never mind the fact that the demand doesn't currently exist for that many extra seats when the opponent isn't named Miami. Adding patio/cafe table seating around the top of the hill, OTOH, shouldn't be too pricey and would provide more premium seats that I bet would get snatched up quickly.

Doug Gillin has said repeatedly, we can't build more permanent stands until we fill up what we have. Miami helps, but that's the first domino. Wake Forest will help too, but we cant depend on home P5 games to build stands, and I don't want us building stands for one game a year.

[EastHallApp]

Doug Gillin has said repeatedly, we can't build more permanent stands until we fill up what we have. Miami helps, but that's the first domino. Wake Forest will help too, but we cant depend on home P5 games to build stands, and I don't want us building stands for one game a year.

He must not have taken the same business and econ classes as some of our fans. Or perhaps he was out the day they explained how, when demand isn't meeting supply, you just produce more supply in order to increase demand!

[asu66]

Takeaways...North end zone, weight training facility, premium seating and video board, plus KBS dress-ups. Also new track & field facility and new soccer facility. Several optional sites under consideration. Remember the millennial campus concept...this is the new kid on the block.

[MtnDevil95]

When I say tents, I mean something similar to what you would see at a PGA event. Think hospitality tent, I'm not talking about some tailgate pop-up, but something semi-permanent. Perhaps with alternating black and gold canopies, flags from the peaks, sides, and even heating/cooling, the whole nine yards.

[APPdiesel]

Want to affect change? Email Doug Gillan with your concerns. Do so in a rational, thoughtful, clear, and concise way (especially with things like moving the extra equipment on game day). He replied to many many emails about the white out, so he does read them.

Hate being that guy and not singling you out as many still do it. But I think we should at least at this point get our AD's name correct, it's Doug Gillin.

My bad. I combined Doug Gillin with 'Breaking Bad' producer and visionary Vince Gilligan.

[tigersef]

Takeaways...North end zone, weight training facility, premium seating and video board, plus KBS dress-ups. Also new track & field facility and new soccer facility. Several optional sites under consideration. Remember the millennial campus concept...this is the new kid on the block.

This is the kind of facility that should be placed in the north end zone. However, it should be done right. By this I mean it should be designed to have stands facing the field side and the concourse should be extended around from the east side to the west side as what would essentially be the roof of the facility. The premium seating should be added above the concourse level. The side of the structure facing stadium lot should include the same facade materials used for the athletics center which would provide a uniform stadium look and wonderful entry feature. This would all assume the track is removed, the field is lowered and Miller Hill is regraded and moved closer to the south side of the field. If the debt capacity isn't available now to do it right, what's the rush? It should be done right, not piecemeal. I can only hope our athletics administration shares this point of view.

[JTApps1]

I took the image the school created, removed the dorm, the current boxes on the east side, connected the end zone seats, and moved the hill closer to the action. I left the sideline in place due to the cost of lowering the field, but I think this would look very good!

[boonetown1]

I do like the rendering above. I think it would be cool if the connecting sides were raised to allow vehicles/players from home/away to come in under the fans.

I do think it would be cool to build a platform/walkway thats raised under the home side down to the tunnel mentioned above (kind of like a Clemson entrance). The could show the players walking on the video board and building anticipation until they come out. People would be yelling as they come in seeing the team walk above them. IMO, it would not be a significant cost. But the logistics may pose an issue.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

I took the image the school created, removed the dorm, the current boxes on the east side, connected the end zone seats, and moved the hill closer to the action. I left the sideline in place due to the cost of lowering the field, but I think this would look very good!

Crowd that size would look very very very good. Time to make 421 and 321 eight lanes.

[boonetown1]

Also, obviously add in more suites in the middle as that is what we have high demand for. I think i heard DG mention that he liked ODUs expansion; i wouldnt be surprised to have end zone seating with a lot of suites above and student general sections below.

[AtlAppMan]

As a temp solution why not add 4-6 rows of temp bleachers along both sidelines on track backed up against current wall in front of first row of student section. Students would be happy to fill these seats.

[Yosef10]

I took the image the school created, removed the dorm, the current boxes on the east side, connected the end zone seats, and moved the hill closer to the action. I left the sideline in place due to the cost of lowering the field, but I think this would look very good!

Crowd that size would look very very very good. Time to make 421 and 321 eight lanes.

Speaking of, has the 4 lane in Blowing Rock been fully completed yet?

[appgrouch]

As a temp solution why not add 4-6 rows of temp bleachers along both sidelines on track backed up against current wall in front of first row of student section. Students would be happy to fill these seats.

There is only about 11' of room between the wall and the back of the bench area.

Plus need to plan space for a barrier between fans and teams and get a few more red shirts.

[Saint3333]

The cost of narrower the distance between the stands on the side to the field is way too much for the small benefit IMO.

[appgrouch]

How about this for addition, over the restrooms on the hill build a deck that extends over them and the walkway that could be the YC party deck and create a score/video/stat board that would span the width of the deck.

[bcoach]

I just hope we can fill what we have this year.

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

I just hope we can fill what we have this year.

We will probably until conference play.

[AppAlum1]

He must not have taken the same business and econ classes as some of our fans. Or perhaps he was out the day they explained how, when demand isn't meeting supply, you just produce more supply in order to increase demand!

East Hall:
I know you were being sarcastic here, but your post reminded me of an event that occurred in Econ. class back in 1984-ish in the College of Business. Anyone recall Prof. Larry McRae, Economics? This class was both grad students and undergrads; grad students sat in back of the room & undergrads sat in front. I was working on my MBA at the time. The grad students were getting really tired of undergrad students who had not read the assignment wasting their time with stupid questions. It seemed to us grad students that professors were entirely too lenient and patient with such behavior.

We were studying the classic supply & demand curve graph. The prior night's assignment had explained how a change in price would not change demand (the curve), but it would change the quantity demanded (movement along the curve). (What happened next made me remember this to this day.) The already ornery Prof. McRae (with his long grey beard & very sharp tongue), had just stated that a price change would not change demand. Then, some poor undergrad, who was sitting on the front row exclaimed, "Well, it seems to me that a change of price WOULD change demand." It was obvious that said student had not bothered to familiarize himself with the assignment.

Oh, my goodness, the good Prof. McRae proceeded to berate this student as a complete dolt, called his mother all sorts of bad names, threw in a few good curse words (some of which I was unfamiliar with) and generally criticized the undergrad's lineage and intelligence. We never saw him again.

BTW, while this "lesson" was continuing (and it took a while), the grad students in the back of the room were giving each other high fives, and making notes that this was one class it was necessary to always be prepared.

[AtlAppMan]

I just hope we can fill what we have this year.

Let's take a look back in time just to see what our chances are of "filling what we have".

Year Avg Games
2015 21,459 6
2014 23,166 6
2013 24,894 6
2012 26,358 7 *
2011 26,211 7 *
2010 25,715 8 *
2009 24,004 7
2008 25,161 8 *
2007 24,218 9 *
2006 20,546 9

* - Led all FCS attendance per game
It is also fair to acknowledge that during the transition to FBS there was quite a bit of unfamiliarity with our new SBC opponents which contributed to a small drop off in attendance. Last year we also experienced an unusually bad weather season. I expect that based on our historical performance coupled with a good schedule we should expect many butts in the seats this year.

[EastHallApp]

I just hope we can fill what we have this year.

Let's take a look back in time just to see what our chances are of "filling what we have".

Year Avg Games
2015 21,459 6
2014 23,166 6
2013 24,894 6
2012 26,358 7 *
2011 26,211 7 *
2010 25,715 8 *
2009 24,004 7
2008 25,161 8 *
2007 24,218 9 *
2006 20,546 9

* - Led all FCS attendance per game
It is also fair to acknowledge that during the transition to FBS there was quite a bit of unfamiliarity with our new SBC opponents which contributed to a small drop off in attendance. Last year we also experienced an unusually bad weather season. I expect that based on our historical performance coupled with a good schedule we should expect many butts in the seats this year.

Lots o' seats available for the non-Miami portion of the schedule. If we upset them or UT I expect we'll see a surge in sales. Otherwise we're probably looking at another year with lots of empty seats.