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Post by unafied on Apr 7, 2019 5:49:57 GMT -6
After looking at both sites, and as much as I would love to see the stadium on campus, the old ECM site looks to be the best all around. Tons more parking, and more room for expansion. Especially if more than 20k is ever needed. Just being honest. I know you’ve been a big on-campus supporter, and I can’t imagine any of us aren’t. I think we have to ask ourselves what’s more important: do we want a stadium that has to have some corners cut here and there, but gives us that awesome on-campus atmosphere? Or, do we want one where there’s plenty of space to build exactly what we need, at the expense of it being off-campus in a boring location? And if that is a hard question to answer, I think that’s because it is. I can see pros and cons both ways. Honestly the ECM site to me is a dud. If it were just a couple of blocks closer to downtown, I might be more agreeable to it. As it is, it’s just stuck in a neighborhood. The one positive might be that it is an easy walk to Bunyan’s, haha. Otherwise it just doesn’t excite me at all. I do think the University needs to buy that site though. I’ve said that for a while now. If not for a stadium, use it for future expansion of dorms/classrooms, or turn it into a nice student intramural/recreation area, something that fits more into the neighborhood. If I were making recommendations, this is what I’d say about the campus site. First, can College View church find a new home? The more I look at the site plan, the more I think that chunk of land is needed. A potential upper deck on the visitor side is probably limited due to the elevation change up to their parcel. Remove the church, level the ground, and you probably have more space to work with. Maybe the church can be given part of the ECM property? Or if we do make use of ECM for intramural fields, give them the current field. Win/win for everyone (though of course the church might not agree). Second recommendation - go ahead and include another parking deck in the cost of the stadium. Otherwise I fear you’ll have people griping again about lack of parking. The campus design only shows about 300 spots by my calculation, and part of that is accomplished by apparently removing a couple of homes at the northwest corner of the property. Why not replace the surface parking lot at the back of Flowers with a deck? Even if the University doesn’t need the parking now, the hope is to grow by several thousand students, and then it WILL be necessary. And that deck will be full every game day, whether it’s football, basketball, or soccer.
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Post by brandon on Apr 7, 2019 14:36:02 GMT -6
Things I would like to see happen with a new stadium. Especially on campus. And regardless of size.
First- make it as appealing visually and functionally as possible. Dont cut corners when it comes to the experience.
Second- and a good way to help with costs, I think there are 7 county schools that play football in Lauderdale County, not to mention Mars Hill and Shoals Christian. Have a high school game every Friday night with our local schools.
Start having concerts as well.
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Post by brandon on Apr 7, 2019 15:48:22 GMT -6
The more I look at the layout of the stadium, 12k+ seats to start may not be that bad. Dont get me wrong, I would rather it be 15k pr better. But with the area at the Pine Street endzone, it may be able to hold a few thousand paying fans for standing room.
And after talking to someone today, they informed me that the actual 10-12k seating capacity is just for the preliminary. They will adjust that as more interest shows. So like I said, get them emails flowing...
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Post by northalaspectator on Apr 7, 2019 20:45:00 GMT -6
I have no problem starting out with 10,000, but I do have a problem with it not being able to enlarged to no more than around 18.000 and that is if sometime in the future the plaza area being enclosed with seats. If we was in semi-final playoff game with either Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Jacksonville State, or even one of the Tennessee OVC schools will 12,000 be enough.
For over 20 years the NCAA was please on how the Shoals Area handle the D2 National Championship, maybe one day we might be able to host the FCS Championship. During those Championship games back in the nineties when they had to bring in bleachers down in the end zone no more tickets could be sold than the number of people that would have a seat.
Not any of today students and probably most of the Administration today didn’t experience that.
Ten or Twenty years in the future we get an FBS invite and have a Home game with UAB or Middle Tennessee State would we have enough seats.
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Post by brandon on Apr 7, 2019 21:01:30 GMT -6
I have no problem starting out with 10,000, but I do have a problem with it not being able to enlarged to no more than around 18.000 and that is if sometime in the future the plaza area being enclosed with seats. If we was in semi-final playoff game with either Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Jacksonville State, or even one of the Tennessee OVC schools will 12,000 be enough. For over 20 years the NCAA was please on how the Shoals Area handle the D2 National Championship, maybe one day we might be able to host the FCS Championship. During those Championship games back in the nineties when they had to bring in bleachers down in the end zone no more tickets could be sold than the number of people that would have a seat. Not any of today students and probably most of the Administration today didn’t experience that. Ten or Twenty years in the future we get an FBS invite and have a Home game with UAB or Middle Tennessee State would we have enough seats. I think it's just people talking who dont really know what they are talking about at the moment. Go to YouTube and look at Coastal Carolinas stadium. The layout is smaller than what our rendering for a stadium is. They claim 15k ih that. Granted they are currently in the process of expanding to 25k. But pre expansion is claimed to be 15k. Then compare it to our rendering and tell me how they came up with 10-12k. And it even looks like very similar construction of the seating. Then look at Kennesaw States stadium that is roughly 8-9k. I think you will realize that whomever came up with the 12k number really is just guessing. I think when it's all said and done, it will be at least 15-18k to begin with. And upper deck expansion will not spread the footprint much at all.
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Post by brandon on Apr 7, 2019 21:01:48 GMT -6
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Post by Lion2001 on Apr 8, 2019 6:32:01 GMT -6
I have no problem starting out with 10,000, but I do have a problem with it not being able to enlarged to no more than around 18.000 and that is if sometime in the future the plaza area being enclosed with seats. If we was in semi-final playoff game with either Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Jacksonville State, or even one of the Tennessee OVC schools will 12,000 be enough. For over 20 years the NCAA was please on how the Shoals Area handle the D2 National Championship, maybe one day we might be able to host the FCS Championship. During those Championship games back in the nineties when they had to bring in bleachers down in the end zone no more tickets could be sold than the number of people that would have a seat. Not any of today students and probably most of the Administration today didn’t experience that. Ten or Twenty years in the future we get an FBS invite and have a Home game with UAB or Middle Tennessee State would we have enough seats. Exactly. I was just looking at renderings of UAB’s new place, and USA, and a few other existing fcs venues, and I still think the “home side” should be larger. That’s not getting expanded because of the box behind it. So we are looking at a lopsided stadium in the future with a “visitor side” much larger than the side with the press box. Also, while there is some overlap if you have an upper deck, unless they are all directly on top of the deck below it, then there is an expansion in the footprint of the stadium needed. I’m just hoping that the Times Daily article gets the right people talking and we don’t end up with some half-measure “adequate for now” stadium that can’t become what we need it to be later.
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Post by unafied on Apr 8, 2019 7:12:55 GMT -6
I have no problem starting out with 10,000, but I do have a problem with it not being able to enlarged to no more than around 18.000 and that is if sometime in the future the plaza area being enclosed with seats. If we was in semi-final playoff game with either Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Jacksonville State, or even one of the Tennessee OVC schools will 12,000 be enough. For over 20 years the NCAA was please on how the Shoals Area handle the D2 National Championship, maybe one day we might be able to host the FCS Championship. During those Championship games back in the nineties when they had to bring in bleachers down in the end zone no more tickets could be sold than the number of people that would have a seat. Not any of today students and probably most of the Administration today didn’t experience that. Ten or Twenty years in the future we get an FBS invite and have a Home game with UAB or Middle Tennessee State would we have enough seats. Exactly. I was just looking at renderings of UAB’s new place, and USA, and a few other existing fcs venues, and I still think the “home side” should be larger. That’s not getting expanded because of the box behind it. So we are looking at a lopsided stadium in the future with a “visitor side” much larger than the side with the press box. Also, while there is some overlap if you have an upper deck, unless they are all directly on top of the deck below it, then there is an expansion in the footprint of the stadium needed. I’m just hoping that the Times Daily article gets the right people talking and we don’t end up with some half-measure “adequate for now” stadium that can’t become what we need it to be later. I actually think it would work out ok, if an eventual upper deck was only on the "visitor" side and the endzone. Looking at the proposed design, the "home" side seats are already taller than the visitor side. If the press box/luxury suites are tall and impressive enough, I think things would balance out visually. But I can understand disagreeing. I have some OCD tendencies, and prefer symmetrical layouts, so once it was built I might change my mind quick haha. Just wondering here, do stadiums usually consider luxury boxes to be part of the total amount of "seats"? Say we average 2000 people per game in luxury boxes (I have no idea if that's a realistic number or not). If you have that, plus 10k-12k folks in regular seats, plus however many people in the endzone "plaza"... maybe the announced numbers would be fine for now. Obviously that doesn't mean not to plan for the future.
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Post by brandon on Apr 8, 2019 7:35:41 GMT -6
Exactly. I was just looking at renderings of UAB’s new place, and USA, and a few other existing fcs venues, and I still think the “home side” should be larger. That’s not getting expanded because of the box behind it. So we are looking at a lopsided stadium in the future with a “visitor side” much larger than the side with the press box. Also, while there is some overlap if you have an upper deck, unless they are all directly on top of the deck below it, then there is an expansion in the footprint of the stadium needed. I’m just hoping that the Times Daily article gets the right people talking and we don’t end up with some half-measure “adequate for now” stadium that can’t become what we need it to be later. I actually think it would work out ok, if an eventual upper deck was only on the "visitor" side and the endzone. Looking at the proposed design, the "home" side seats are already taller than the visitor side. If the press box/luxury suites are tall and impressive enough, I think things would balance out visually. But I can understand disagreeing. I have some OCD tendencies, and prefer symmetrical layouts, so once it was built I might change my mind quick haha. Just wondering here, do stadiums usually consider luxury boxes to be part of the total amount of "seats"? Say we average 2000 people per game in luxury boxes (I have no idea if that's a realistic number or not). If you have that, plus 10k-12k folks in regular seats, plus however many people in the endzone "plaza"... maybe the announced numbers would be fine for now. Obviously that doesn't mean not to plan for the future. Yes, Luxury box is included in attendance. So would the plaza area.
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Post by unafied on Apr 8, 2019 9:15:13 GMT -6
I actually think it would work out ok, if an eventual upper deck was only on the "visitor" side and the endzone. Looking at the proposed design, the "home" side seats are already taller than the visitor side. If the press box/luxury suites are tall and impressive enough, I think things would balance out visually. But I can understand disagreeing. I have some OCD tendencies, and prefer symmetrical layouts, so once it was built I might change my mind quick haha. Just wondering here, do stadiums usually consider luxury boxes to be part of the total amount of "seats"? Say we average 2000 people per game in luxury boxes (I have no idea if that's a realistic number or not). If you have that, plus 10k-12k folks in regular seats, plus however many people in the endzone "plaza"... maybe the announced numbers would be fine for now. Obviously that doesn't mean not to plan for the future. Yes, Luxury box is included in attendance. So would the plaza area. Then if they are counting people in the boxes and plaza as part of the 10k-12k... I don't know. It's just a head-scratcher to start that low. Maybe they are angling for a PR bump or something. "We are so pleased with the outpouring of support for a new stadium, we've added an additional 5k seats to the design!"
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Post by lions09 on Apr 8, 2019 11:14:53 GMT -6
I have no problem starting out with 10,000, but I do have a problem with it not being able to enlarged to no more than around 18.000 and that is if sometime in the future the plaza area being enclosed with seats. If we was in semi-final playoff game with either Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Jacksonville State, or even one of the Tennessee OVC schools will 12,000 be enough. For over 20 years the NCAA was please on how the Shoals Area handle the D2 National Championship, maybe one day we might be able to host the FCS Championship. During those Championship games back in the nineties when they had to bring in bleachers down in the end zone no more tickets could be sold than the number of people that would have a seat. Not any of today students and probably most of the Administration today didn’t experience that. Ten or Twenty years in the future we get an FBS invite and have a Home game with UAB or Middle Tennessee State would we have enough seats. I realize you're talking hypotheticals but A&M and Bama State are in the SWAC which doesn't participate in the playoffs. We will, however, get a feel for how well in-state schools will travel to us in the next two seasons with the Bulldogs coming to town this September and the Gamecocks coming over to Braly in 2020.
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Post by lions09 on Apr 9, 2019 11:08:21 GMT -6
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Post by unafied on Apr 9, 2019 12:12:43 GMT -6
Thanks for the link! I'm usually not brave enough to read the AL.com comment section. There are some... interesting folks there. What gets me the most is people who will never come to a UNA game, at Braly or otherwise, telling us what a bad idea it is. Those are also the ones that likely didn't read the article and don't realize that no taxpayer money will be used. They literally have no reason to care what we do. But some folks only care about winning arguments on the internet, I guess. I don't see how any logical football fan could look at the current state of Braly and decide it is acceptable for a program that is striving to be a top FCS program. Even if we decided to stay there, MAJOR upgrades would be needed.
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Post by brandon on Apr 9, 2019 12:41:44 GMT -6
Thanks for the link! I'm usually not brave enough to read the AL.com comment section. There are some... interesting folks there. What gets me the most is people who will never come to a UNA game, at Braly or otherwise, telling us what a bad idea it is. Those are also the ones that likely didn't read the article and don't realize that no taxpayer money will be used. They literally have no reason to care what we do. But some folks only care about winning arguments on the internet, I guess. I don't see how any logical football fan could look at the current state of Braly and decide it is acceptable for a program that is striving to be a top FCS program. Even if we decided to stay there, MAJOR upgrades would be needed. Over time, we would spend more money just keeping Braly from falling apart than it would cost to buld a very nice stadium. Like I've said before, people who either have nothing to do with the school want to put their negatives into it, or alumni that would rather spend their money elsewhere want to say stupid crap. This is what will happen. UNA will build the stadium, on campus. It will be a little over 12k to begin with. As much as I think it should start bigger, it will allow the administration to determine if expansion is necessary. If so, what areas? The can build new luxury boxes as well as upper level seating in the endzone and opposing side to the home side. The footprint will grow, but minamal. And as much as I think it should start bigger, the reason that it is not, is our (along with the students) fault for not showing up. And I'm not talking about the guy who lives hours away and have a family to work with, im talking about the one that otherwise could come but Alabama or Auburn or whomever is playing the same time and stay at home to watch that. Or worse, go spend their money at those schools. But that's your right, but if your that guy, dont put any input on OUR stadium... Like someone said before, we are D1 now. My opinion, it's time to start acting like it and show up.
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Post by unafied on Apr 9, 2019 13:40:53 GMT -6
Thanks for the link! I'm usually not brave enough to read the AL.com comment section. There are some... interesting folks there. What gets me the most is people who will never come to a UNA game, at Braly or otherwise, telling us what a bad idea it is. Those are also the ones that likely didn't read the article and don't realize that no taxpayer money will be used. They literally have no reason to care what we do. But some folks only care about winning arguments on the internet, I guess. I don't see how any logical football fan could look at the current state of Braly and decide it is acceptable for a program that is striving to be a top FCS program. Even if we decided to stay there, MAJOR upgrades would be needed. Over time, we would spend more money just keeping Braly from falling apart than it would cost to buld a very nice stadium. Like I've said before, people who either have nothing to do with the school want to put their negatives into it, or alumni that would rather spend their money elsewhere want to say stupid crap. This is what will happen. UNA will build the stadium, on campus. It will be a little over 12k to begin with. As much as I think it should start bigger, it will allow the administration to determine if expansion is necessary. If so, what areas? The can build new luxury boxes as well as upper level seating in the endzone and opposing side to the home side. The footprint will grow, but minamal. And as much as I think it should start bigger, the reason that it is not, is our (along with the students) fault for not showing up. And I'm not talking about the guy who lives hours away and have a family to work with, im talking about the one that otherwise could come but Alabama or Auburn or whomever is playing the same time and stay at home to watch that. Or worse, go spend their money at those schools. But that's your right, but if your that guy, dont put any input on OUR stadium... Like someone said before, we are D1 now. My opinion, it's time to start acting like it and show up. Attendance will be very interesting, and important, this season. I'd love to see an actual sell-out at Braly for a game or two (or all of them).
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