@LATechSports Announces North Endzone Facility Plan

Louisiana Tech VP and Director of Athletics Eric Wood announced plans for a multi-phase project that will encompass the north endzone at Joe Aillet Stadium and include a student-athlete success center, two new video scoreboards, a new ribbon board, and the Sarah and A.L. Williams Champions Plaza.

Announces North Endzone Facility Plan - LA Tech Athletics (latechsports.com)

Phase 1 > Daktronics 10-millimeter LED ribbon board along the facade of the Davison Athletics Complex (DAC) > Fall 22
Phase 2 > construction of the Sarah and A.L. Williams Champions Plaza adjacent to Stadium Drive that will be the entry way into the new student-athlete success center. > Fall 23
Phase 3 > A pair of new Daktronics video scoreboards will be installed by Fall 2024, one on the northwest corner and one on the northeast corner of the endzone. The new boards will measure 30-feet tall by 49-feet-6-inches wide (will be about five feet larger in each direction than the existing video scoreboard at the Stadium).'
Phase 4 > construction of a new student-athlete success center. The two-story facility will house the academic arm of Louisiana Tech's Athletics Department. Plans are for the first floor to be designed to be a multi-functional space for personal-growth and career-development programming. It will also include a food-prep station and a large open multi-purpose area. The second floor will hold office space and state-of-the-art study environments including a computer lab.

Wow. Did not see that coming.

This all sounds and looks good. And all should have been started as soon as the new press box was opened. But our former boy wonder AD sat on his laurels until the tornado hit and then the CCP virus hit to sidetrack him.

Hope they have done or will do all of the needed engineering studies with regard to the underground creek.

And while doing this, please find a place to park the ambulances out of sight at the top of that concrete ramp instead of parking them too close to the endzone.

What an obscence, absurd WASTE of time, effort, and resources. And it's ugly to boot ...

This garbage is our Athletic Dept's priority ?! THIS?!

Mini Iowa St looking pagoda-ish

Overkill on the two jumbotrons

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Originally Posted by Champ967

What an obscene, absurd WASTE of time, effort, and resources. And it's ugly to boot ...

This garbage is our Athletic Dept's priority ?! THIS?!

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What else is there to do? Their jobs?

Have to have more stuff to keep pace in recruiting.

And this will get rid of the ugly camera lift beyond the north endzone with camera positions available on the top level of the new building.

Not the best design, but it looks to be designed to match the DAC as closely as possible.

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Originally Posted by Dwayne From Minden

Mini Iowa St looking pagoda-ish

Overkill on the two jumbotrons

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Have to wonder if putting the new building and a giant jumbotron in the center might exceed limits to account for the underground creek.

https://latechsports.com/images/2021...h_End_Zone.jpg

Hopefully we'll be able to walk around the stadium now > I don't know of any other DI college stadiums that you don't have access to both sides.

Next phase needs to be the East Side restrooms > talk about a disaster.

This would be a good time to remove the remaining wings.

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Originally Posted by sportdawg

Hopefully we'll be able to walk around the stadium now > I don't know of any other DI college stadiums that you don't have access to both sides.

Next phase needs to be the East Side restrooms > talk about a disaster.

This would be a good time to remove the remaining wings.

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If the jumbotron positions are accurate, there would be limited view of the north endzone from at least some of those seats from the 30+ year-old "temporary" wings.

The upper portion of the concrete stadium needs to be extended to be even with the lower portion in all four corners.

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Originally Posted by FriscoDawg

This all sounds and looks good. And all should have been started as soon as the new press box was opened. But our former boy wonder AD sat on his laurels until the tornado hit and then the CCP virus hit to sidetrack him.

Hope they have done or will do all of the needed engineering studies with regard to the underground creek.

And while doing this, please find a place to park the ambulances out of sight at the top of that concrete ramp instead of parking them too close to the endzone.

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I personally would prefer to connect the 2 sides of the Joe with seating, officially bowling it in.

With free standing buildings in both North and South end zones, this says a Joe-Bowl ain't gonna happen. Ever.

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Originally Posted by ChuckK3

I personally would prefer to connect the 2 sides of the Joe with seating, officially bowling it in.

With free standing buildings in both North and South end zones, this says a Joe-Bowl ain't gonna happen. Ever.

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My understanding from way back (1970s) was that seating was never going to happen in the north endzone because of engineering issues around the underground creek.

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Originally Posted by FriscoDawg

Have to have more stuff to keep pace in recruiting.

And this will get rid of the ugly camera lift beyond the north endzone with camera positions available on the top level of the new building.

Not the best design, but it looks to be designed to match the DAC as closely as possible.

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Yeah, but stuff just to have stuff isn't the best use of time or money.

Yeah the underground creek explains alot of how that endzone has been used over the years. What they could do is extend the gating in the north endzone plaza to let people in the stadium walk around to the other side of the stadium without leaving the "facility." You could also maybe add additional vendor stations and restrooms behind the new building in the plaza