A $300 million development project.
They also want to build a baseball stadium in the same footprint as the old Fulton County Stadium.
This should make Champ967 very happy.
http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/colle...to-foot/nfq8R/
A $300 million development project.
They also want to build a baseball stadium in the same footprint as the old Fulton County Stadium.
This should make Champ967 very happy.
http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/colle...to-foot/nfq8R/
If Georgia State can pull this off, they'd without a doubt be next in line for C-USA.
Vision concept:
http://media.bizj.us/view/img/262853...2014-05-05.pdf
Here's a few images.
Last edited by Dawg06; 05-17-2014 at 03:55 PM.
Georgia State already has a comparable endowment ($112 million), student body size (32,087 students), U.S. News Ranking (207-270 National), and large metropolitan area (Atlanta) to many of the new members of Conference USA. This would be the cherry on top for that university.
The only four teams I would consider from the Sun Belt Conference would be Georgia State, Arkansas State, UL-Lafayette, and South Alabama.
South Alabama is less than 100 miles from Southern Miss, so S. Alabama might be out due to locational reasons. Arkansas State might claim the Memphis market, but there are still issues with student body size, endowment, and U.S. News Ranking.
Compared to UL-Lafayette, Georgia State has a larger athletics budget, larger endowment, comparable U.S. News Ranking, double the student body size, and a much larger media market than Lafayette could ever boast. Georgia State plugs a huge hole in the southeast and gives C-USA access to the largest metro area in the southeast outside of Miami. To me, Georgia State is the most logical choice for a C-USA spot should a spot open up in the near future.
I think you forgot Texas State. Georgia State first. Texas State second if we lose a team from Texas. Everybody else from the Belch is a very distant fourth behind James Madison. Of the remaining Belch schools, Arkansas State would have the least amount of opposition.
I thought about Texas State, but C-USA has UTSA in the San Antonio market right now. It doesn't seem right for the conference to double up in one major market, which makes the inclusion of FIU and FAU in the Miami market puzzling...but that's another discussion.
Now if UTSA left the conference, then Texas State looks a lot more attractive. Either way, I'd still pick Georgia State over anyone else.
It's not doubling up in either market. FIU is in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale market (#16), and Florida Atlantic is in the West Palm Beach-Ft. Pierce market (#38). UTSA is in the San Antonio market (#36), and Texas State is in the Austin market (#40).
Texas and Florida are by far the largest and most important states in C-USA's footprint as far as recruiting goes, and I think that's why it's necessary to have multiple teams in those two states. I don't think any other state is important enough to have multiple teams. Also, close travel partners reduce travel costs for the other teams in the league.
I think the #1 criteria C-USA looks at is athletic budget. Georgia State, Texas State, New Mexico State (blocked by UTEP), James Madison, and Delaware (?) far surpass all the other potential candidates on that one.
Appy State budget was projected to increase to $20M very soon. Not sure where that places them on the list.
Still well behind. Those other schools have $25-35MM budgets.
http://www.latechbbb.com/forum/showt...=1#post1328498
Thank goodness we had BVDV, who got us into C-USA.
That's a great plan, I hope its followed through. The design is a win-win for Georgia State and Atlanta.
Someone just jumped to the front of the line for possible C-USA targets if realignment occurs again.
The deal for Georgia State to purchase Turner Field has been completed.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-...200555371.html