To be fair he didn't say they were building a 40k stadium he said it gives them the option down the line if its needed. We all know its not needed right now, 25k is what they are doing he also didn't rule out the campus still if the feasibility study doesn't fit what Sac State wants. I still find it weird that people are upset that they are looking at every option to see what works best for the school and program. We didn't have any of this type or movement for years and now that we do we got people complaining about where it is. 2-3 miles from campus is nothing. Yes a on campus stadium is the dream but if i cant have that give me 25k at Cal Expo everyday of the week. Its better than what we have now period. It means progress period.
The numbers 40-50k are being mentioned which means it’s affecting the decision making.
Forgive me this could be long… I did my own minor feasibility study.
Our #20 media market they’ve been promoting is a great statistic when it comes to pitching media rights/deals. However, I feel like that same stat is being used as to why our attendance should be great also, which I don’t think is directly transferable.
Cleveland/Akron is #19, the Zips are not the only team in town for people to root for with the Browns, the Cavaliers and the Guardians, and then the Buckeyes are less than 150 miles away. Lastly, Akron is not a good FBS team but they haven’t drawn more than 10k this year.
Now #21 Charlotte, UNC Charlotte is competing for fans against the Panthers, Hornets, Charlotte FC, and a AAA baseball team. Big thing is also they have Clemson, Wake Forest, Duke, UNC, USC within 150 miles. Charlottes largest home attendance was 22k and that was even against in state UNC, otherwise averaging 13-15k. And lastly, Charlotte also is not a well established FBS team.
Now #20 Sacramento/Modesto/Stockton. So first thing is, I wonder how many of our fans are traveling each Saturday from Modesto and Stockton. Then you have competing for fans against Kings, Athletics, Republic, Rivercats, unfortunately Davis, and another few thousand? people tied up from 3 Sacramento JC’s playing football. Now include, 4 FBS teams within a 2 hour drive. And the Hornets are coming off a flash in the pan of success and trying to recover at the FCS level, so, far from a proven FBS.
Now let’s look at the local FBS teams. Add in the #10 media market of the Bay Area and the Hornets are just about equal to SJSU in attendance this season and cross town rivalry game SJSU/Stanford topped out at 26k. Fresno has the luxury of being the only thing in town and was fortunate to have 15 years of success and 11 bowl games under Pat Hill to keep riding the wave of.
California from top to bottom is the definition of a fair weather fan or what have you done for me lately, and I don’t think there is any evidence that 40/50k is possible at all. Even with the desire to host a bowl game, outside of the major games around New Year’s Day, bowl games are not well attended.
Alllll that being said, move the shot put/hammer throw area to all the grass by the soccer field, there’s plenty of space, and you can easily fit an 8 lane track at the practice field. Sac St Track has a whopping 3 days of meets scheduled at home this year, I think the throwing events will survive being relocated. And build us a nice quality home side, with a beautiful press box and some luxury suites, and leave the away side as all this modular seating they keep talking about, squeeze it up against the broad to make it feel like a closed in setting and if they want closed in on both ends they can add bleacher seating for the band on The Well side (Boise is this way). JUST GET IT DONE! I don’t even care if it looks like the original rendering that they sent out.