SMU Football Stadium

I had an opportunity to be given tour of press box, suites, coaches offices, training facility as part of stadium earlier Saturday.

Trust me, the money was spent on the luxury and club box seats, offices, training rooms, weight rooms, etc. that are part of stadium structure. Awesome!

Other than looking new, actual stadium structure underneath and seats was very average. While looking new and desing entering stadium, the materials were mostly cinder blocks, etc. I've seen 3 5A stadiums in Metroplex very similar, but for 15,000-20,000 seating.

The SMU host stated that with field already there, actual seating stadium structure was less than 30% of the total cost of the complete athletic facility. Stated they get a lot of commercial donations in Dallas area market. Actual alumni giving to Athletics alone is has grown from just over $1MM few years ago to about $2 MM now. I couldn't help but go WOW.....we get about $450,000 from alumni and supporters of athletics annually.

If we just updated a lot of our stadiums on outside on campus and purchased a Jumbo Tron (sp?) similar to SMUs we have as good of actual stadium. Although you could not hear the ads on SMUs board very well in stadium. I also like Tech's stadium with more upward slope that you can see over person in front of you better than SMU lower sections.

All I could think the entire game was....You spent all this money on a nice stadium and I can't hear one word that is said.

I visited Harvard's Stadium in Cambridge, MA last Wednesday. It's an old cement stadium with a traditional "horshoe style" design (like SMU's & Boise State's), only they had real grass. I loved it. It probably seats about 30K, but the seating was the "steepest" I've ever seen in any stadium. Trust me, you DON'T want to be drinking heavily while walking in and out of that stadium.

But I really liked the "curves" on the "horsehoe" end of Harvard Stadium.

Like you, I was at SMU's Ford Stadium on Saturday. It was quite a contrast from the Harvard Stadium I visited only 3 days earlier. Ford Stadium is very high tech, with the latest Jumbotron technology and lots of advertising. But again, just like with Harvard, I loved the closed in "horshoe" on one end.

Here's what I'm leading to. Louisiana Tech only needs to do TWO (2) things to make Joe Aillet Stadium APPEAR to be a big time state of the art stadium:

1) Close in the north end of JAS with end zone seating. This will remove the "high school" feeling that exists today and give JAS more of a "bowl" feeling. It will also allow Tech to add enough seats to host some BCS schools (e.g., Okla St, Texas A&M, etc...) in the future without having to necessarily go to Shreveport. Having an extra 8,000 seats should also give Tech some "negotiating" leverage when dealing with the City of Shreveport regarding the rental of Indy Bowl Stadium. But clearly, the "horseshoe" design is popular in college circles, and it can be added easily and inexpensively to JAS.

2) Add a state of the art Jumbotron, JUST LIKE SMU's. Yes, this is old news, but SMU's Jumbotron is beautiful, and they are making allot of money off of it. Did anybody notice that the "replays" were sponsored by "Le Madeliene Restaurants"??? All night we saw corporate sponsors advertising their products and services on SMU's big screen. No matter what it cost, Tech simply MUST invest in a BIGTIME Jumbotron as soon as possible. And I'm not talking about going cheap here. If we need to spend $2 million for a big time Jumbotron with a brick mortar base, then so be it.

Yes, there's much more we could do. But if we concentrate on doing JUST THESE TWO THINGS, I guarantee you Tech Athletics will earn more corporate advertising revenue, see larger game day crowds, realize larger donations from Tech alumni, see vastly improved visiting opponents (both BCS & non BCS, such as Tulane & USM), and get better recruits than we do today.

And who knows, it just might get us into CUSA.

HD

I agree 1000%! Our stadium was a big joke on the CUSA board when we thought we were in the running for conference membership. We MUST close in the north end of the stadium to get rid of the high schoolish impression if we don't do anything else. It doesn't even have to be seating. It could be "real" ticket booths and concessions. And I had mentioned before about putting up a brick wall at the base of the hill to add a feeling of completion to the south end of the stadium. Having seen SMU's stadium, that is exactly what I was talking about. That just could not be that expensive.

You guys are dreaming. Reneau and Oakes are interested in one thing - drawing their paycheck, period!

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Originally Posted by HogDawg

I visited Harvard's Stadium in Cambridge, MA last Wednesday. It's an old cement stadium with a traditional "horshoe style" design (like SMU's & Boise State's), only they had real grass. I loved it. It probably seats about 30K, but the seating was the "steepest" I've ever seen in any stadium. Trust me, you DON'T want to be drinking heavily while walking in and out of that stadium.

But I really liked the "curves" on the "horsehoe" end of Harvard Stadium.

Like you, I was at SMU's Ford Stadium on Saturday. It was quite a contrast from the Harvard Stadium I visited only 3 days earlier. Ford Stadium is very high tech, with the latest Jumbotron technology and lots of advertising. But again, just like with Harvard, I loved the closed in "horshoe" on one end.

Here's what I'm leading to. Louisiana Tech only needs to do TWO (2) things to make Joe Aillet Stadium APPEAR to be a big time state of the art stadium:

1) Close in the north end of JAS with end zone seating. This will remove the "high school" feeling that exists today and give JAS more of a "bowl" feeling. It will also allow Tech to add enough seats to host some BCS schools (e.g., Okla St, Texas A&M, etc...) in the future without having to necessarily go to Shreveport. Having an extra 8,000 seats should also give Tech some "negotiating" leverage when dealing with the City of Shreveport regarding the rental of Indy Bowl Stadium. But clearly, the "horseshoe" design is popular in college circles, and it can be added easily and inexpensively to JAS.

2) Add a state of the art Jumbotron, JUST LIKE SMU's. Yes, this is old news, but SMU's Jumbotron is beautiful, and they are making allot of money off of it. Did anybody notice that the "replays" were sponsored by "Le Madeliene Restaurants"??? All night we saw corporate sponsors advertising their products and services on SMU's big screen. No matter what it cost, Tech simply MUST invest in a BIGTIME Jumbotron as soon as possible. And I'm not talking about going cheap here. If we need to spend $2 million for a big time Jumbotron with a brick mortar base, then so be it.

Yes, there's much more we could do. But if we concentrate on doing JUST THESE TWO THINGS, I guarantee you Tech Athletics will earn more corporate advertising revenue, see larger game day crowds, realize larger donations from Tech alumni, see vastly improved visiting opponents (both BCS & non BCS, such as Tulane & USM), and get better recruits than we do today.

And who knows, it just might get us into CUSA.

HD

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You're wanting to add more seats to JAS but tell me this............Just who in the hell is going to sit in them?? And don't tell me a jumbotron and more seats are going to draw more fans from Shreveport or Monroe. That's assine. YOu want more seats in JAS then get up off your ass and do something to get more fans to the games we are having now. Give the administration justification for spending that kind of money. If you can't do that then shut your hole. :rolleyes:

You couldn't hear the speakers over in the visitor's section. I started the game in the corner of the pressbox endzone and the sound system sounded marvelous, but once I moved over to where you all were, I couldn't hear squat.

Absolutely right, HD. Completing the "horse shoe" look at Aillet has been a desire of mine for years. In point of fact, that possibility was a spoken factor in building the stadium back in 1967. (Man, if they had only done it then when it was cheaper. However, because much of the endzone structure would be an earthworks foundation, that would still save greatly on concrete and steel.) However, part of the reason for doing this would be for the purpose of taking down those metal stands that were supposed to be temporary. I know the original stadium had a capacity of 24,000. So obviously, the endzone would have to have seating for 6,000 in order to get rid of the metal stands. BTW, the endzone section could be used as a section for special deals on tickets. This is what TCU does very effectively (I know, because I bought endzone tickets at TCU when I lived in Fort Worth.) Moreover, with a jumbotron in the north endzone, those fans will have a front and center view of the screen.

Next, as you suggested, we need a jumbotron in the north endzone - but moved back far enough to be able to add portable seating if we were able to get a name BCS team to come in (yes, I know that is a stretch right now, but we have got to start thinking AHEAD about our plans).

Also, could we please take down that sheet metal trim at the top of Aillet (very "high schoolish"). Think about it, with the new iron and brick fencing (which is already on the way), better looking ticket booths, a horse shoe endzone, a jumbotron, no metal stands, and a nicer looking concrete or brick stadium trim, we would have a very nice facility that would make us much more marketable, and would inspire more pride in our home stadium. This is not shooting for the moon, it can be done.

Yes, the horseshoe would be great. Since we're spending dollars on this thread, I like the idea of a covered concourse all the way around. THAT would make it a true horseshoe.

I also like bricking up the north endline.

The Jumbotron MUST be in the north endzone to shade from the sun (like SMU's).

And, again, since we're spending money, I'd love to have the lighting arrangement at South Carolina. Not on poles, but a complete arc along the sideline (but of course, that's after we add the second deck on the west stands.

Oh, heck, let's just bulldoze JAS down and rebuild with SMU's $34 million (You mean it just $34 millon?) layout with our own modifications.

Let's see, Bradshaw could be in for $1 million; Rattay, $1 million; Karl, $1 million; PJ Brown, $1 million; Luke McCown ($1 million pledge); the Wyly brothers, $5 million each; the Davisons ($15 million); and BB&Bers ($500,000 . . . for naming rights). BB&B Stadium!

Man, I got a headache now, and I haven't even tapped the Marburys, Drs. Jarrell and Bundrick, the Insider, and all my other fellow kind alums.

I guess I better get back to my regular mindset this week:
Bury the Miners!

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Originally Posted by DelhiDog

Also, could we please take down that sheet metal trim at the top of Aillet (very "high schoolish").

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I'm glad someone else is notices this - I thought it was stupid when they "capped" that in 88 or 89...

BTW - I think SMU has one of the "clearest" jumbo trons I've ever seen...

Is there any way to take down the seats that are covered by the tarps and move them to the end zone? Those are terrible seats anyway.

-We also need to add to the field house so that it wraps around the south endzone. It can be storage for all I care, just something that will wrap around.

-Have someone landscape the south endzone to say LA Tech, or Go Dawgs, or something besides a hill of green grass.

-If seats can not be added to the north endzone, then we need to raise the ground level and add a brick wall. Much like the south endzone at Ford Stadium. This would give more of a "bowl" appearance. Actually, a brick wall surrounding the field would be nice. The north endzone is what makes our stadium look high schoolish. We need something to wrap around that end of the stadium. On TV it look likes we are playing in a big open field.

**We could probably get someone to donate the landscape work and many of the needed supplies. Get some students out there to do some of it.

I think that if you're going to close the endzonr with seats, you have to take down the 4 metal corners we have now, people don't really sit in them now, so it wouldn't be that much of a loss, and it would look very cool,


Also I agree, don't go cheap on the jumbotron, it's got to be good and that will cost more.

But I don't see us buidling stadium enhancements when we don't fill the seats we have now.

I don't know that endzone seating means we really have to raise that much seating capacity. That's the worst thing we could do right now.

I have friends who go to McNeese St. games who swear to me that there are more people there than at Aillet. They don't believe me when I say that their stadium only seats 15K. We need to create an artificial shortage, like they have at Fenway and Wrigley, or even the ballpark at Arlington for that matter.

If we added seats on the endzone, that means we could bulldoze those metal extensions on the north end that make such great advertizing space. How much do each of those seat? I think we could stay close to 30K. We don't need more seating than that, we just need it all to be closer together.

T-mo -

I have contractor friends who say that you could Horseshoe the south endzone with a plaza on the Southwest corner for less than $2 million (now if your talking about the north endzone - costs quadruple)...

Add in the Jumbotron for another $1 million and complete with south endzone scoreboard and tv's under the east & west side concourses...

Add in another $500,000 for removal of "aluminum wings" and relocation & reconstruction on track field site...

Add in another $500,000 for south endzone alumni walk between east and west sides, complete with 8 ft high brick wall with wraughtiron amubulance gate...

That's only $4 million - and we would have a MUCH improved stadium for our team and a much more beautiful JAS -

If our administration can't pull the plans together and then sale this to our fan base and raise $5 million over a 5 year period to get this completed by 2008 -

Then we need to get out of the D-1a football business...

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Originally Posted by Techfan

I don't know that endzone seating means we really have to raise that much seating capacity. That's the worst thing we could do right now.

If we added seats on the endzone, that means we could bulldoze those metal extensions on the north end that make such great advertizing space. How much do each of those seat? I think we could stay close to 30K. We don't need more seating than that, we just need it all to be closer together.

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I think that's what most people are talking about -

Reduce the stadium capacity back down to 24,000 by removing the temporary corners and making the horseshoe...