Roos Field Renovation

[clawman1]

Wow, this would be amazing for EWU. I love the fact that our president is on board because that will make all the difference.

The are many Universitites across the country that love to have a President as supportive of athletics as Dr A. He obviously "gets it" when it comes to realizing athletics are the front porch of the University, whether the academics like it or not.
Mention Boise State most anywhere in the country and what will people first recall? The football team and the smerf turf not academia or anything they have done.
And Thank You Dr A for your stron support. I DO believe athletic achievements strongly contribute to a great University.

I agree. I think in the case of Boise State, it's worth noting that many of their academic programs and the growth of their University in general has benefitted from the success of their football team. Impressive considering they were a Junior College 40 years ago.

Leadership

 

[EWURanger]

I believe there are a lot of people who don't attend Eastern football because of the parking. If the upper lot can be expanded easily, in my opinion it would be ridiculous not to have it done before next season.

Obviously you have not been to a WSU game. As the stadium is expanded and the new building on the east side eliminates parking stalls it will only get worse. The bare land on the west side is largely owned by someone else so not an option for expansion.

I remember we were talking about the proposed expansion and increased parking problems. I was googling for more info on the gateway project and found this:

http://wiki.ewu.edu/campusmasterplan/File:11CampusLandBase.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The EWU campus contains some 329.5 acres, less than half of which are developed. The additional acreage, located west of Washington, insures flexibility to accommodate future growth without having a significant impact on private properties in Cheney.

The graphic is kind of old, but it shows all the land that the University owns in the gray region. So it looks like the upper parking lots could be expanded with no worries in relation to land. The University owns all of it.

 

[ewunerd]

My thoughts about the feasibility study:
- We drew greater than 100% capacity last year. Obviously there is potential for demand.
- Montana draws consistently well. That proves that an FCS team can draw well.
- Positive trends in attendance the last 10 years. I believe all our records have come in the last 5 years (and been broken a few times).
- 2010 National Championship still fresh in everyone's minds.

If this goes according to the Easterner article... I'd say EWU would have the second nicest stadium in the conference, behind Portland State.

 

[EWURanger]

My thoughts about the feasibility study:
- We drew greater than 100% capacity last year. Obviously there is potential for demand.
- Montana draws consistently well. That proves that an FCS team can draw well.
- Positive trends in attendance the last 10 years. I believe all our records have come in the last 5 years (and been broken a few times).
- 2010 National Championship still fresh in everyone's minds.

If this goes according to the Easterner article... I'd say EWU would have the second nicest stadium in the conference, behind Portland State.

Portland State doesn't own PGE Park, so I don't include them in that list. We could still be playing at Joe Albi and that's a pretty decent facility, too.

If everything goes accordung to plan, we'll have to see where Roos Field stands in relation to the other schools in the conference. I don't think UM, MSU, Weber, or even Sac State's facilities can be discounted. UM and MSU play in what amounts to lower-level FBS stadiums, and Weber's and Sac's aren't far off. With an additional 7,000 seats and all of the other things like Academic Center, Football Operations Center, locker rooms, etc. I think Roos would be basically on par with MSU, and ahead of every other school but Montana. UM is building new locker rooms and an academic center from what I understand.

I think the key to all of this is that the President seems to be behind it. Without that, and the support of the Regents, it'd be dead in the water. Pending everything gets approved, the big issue is obviously going to be funding it. But I don't think this thing would have even gotten as far as it has now if they didn't have at least a few potential big-time donors lined up.

 

[FrontFive4Life]

EWU alums are all over the board and have been waiting for something inspiring to get behind. If this thing can get pushed through committee into a funding phase, just watch...My gut says that the dollars will roll in faster than we realize.

 

[marceagfan5]

We need to have the school and board behind this 100%, my guess is they will see how things go in the 2012 season. We had fantastic attendance last year, but a lot of that was because we were coming off a national championship. This year will be very telling. Our first home game is not until week 5. We will sell out the first game no matter what, it is the Griz, that game always sells out. The key will be our 4 other games after that. How well will we draw? We don't have the championship momentum coming in to this year and we could be 2-2 or worse (I sure as hell hope not) after the Griz game. If we show strong attendance again this year then I think the renovations are a no brainer. Bottom line is we need to have the fans come out strong again this year and the team needs to have another good season. Winning brings in fans and a strong showing by the team and by the fans this year, could have a major impact on renovations in the coming years.

 

[clawman1]

marc;
The decision to improve facilities can not be based on the attendance of one year. The desire to improve facilities for the long term good of the University has to come from the leaders which starts with the board. And we know Dr A is on board and the current athletic administration have done awesome things thus far, so now it is up to alum, fans, and boosters from the community. There needs to be some faith in the mindset that, If you build it they will come.
If "the pirate of the Palouse" is able to turn things around there the competition for fans will dial up exponentially.
IMHO the window of opportunity is open NOW and it is time to be the leader of small universities and take advantage of it.

 

[BLACKFALKIN1]

I think ff4l is right. This thing will fund quickly, eag fans n alum have been waiting

 

[Screamin_Eagle174]

Hey Ranger, what'd you do with the composite you made with an athletics building as part of the East side grand stand? Couldn't find it in the thread... wanted to post it over on the CS thread.

 

[eagwatcher]

Here's a story on the concept this morning in the Spokesman: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2012/apr/06/ewus-vision-future/

 

[EWURanger]

Hey Ranger, what'd you do with the composite you made with an athletics building as part of the East side grand stand? Couldn't find it in the thread... wanted to post it over on the CS thread.

Gotta look for it.......but yeah, I was thinking the artistic rendition that was in the Spokesman was kinda similar to the first concept picture I had.

*Edit - I thought I had it uploaded to photobucket, but I guess not. I think it's on my Mac Pro desktop that I did all of that stuff on but haven't set back up yet (just moved).

Anyway, here's the artist's rendition of what the real thing might look like. SWEET! :notworthy:

 

[FormerEag]

YES. How do we this?

The way I see it, with Higher Ed costs rising, regionally schools -- like EWU -- are going to see a dramatic rise in attendance. And I believe that we've seen some pretty staggering increases in population already. With Idaho floundering, I think that in the next 5-10 years we have a genuine opportunity to assert ourselves as a top tier Uni in the region. Not only in athletics, but overall. If we can continue on-the-field success and fund some capital projects, we could make some serious waves. The fact that this project and renderings of the stadium have been published in the SR is promising. If the University and the board are willing to share this info publicly, then we are surely on the path to change. The best is yet to come and it's a great day to be an Eagle! :thumb:

 

[LDopaPDX]

FWIW, I think Eastern is slow playing this... I know donors have been contacted and at least 3 have committed money in principle. There is one guy Eastern is courting with the potential to give big $$$.

 

[BLACKFALKIN1]

I agree, the fact that this has been put out to the public is a good sign that at least some of it will be approved to some degree.

I like the idea of having the gransdtands covered. It looks cool, plus people wont mind comin to a bad weather game as much. I also hope they throw in track removal bc this would be a huge improvement for better sightlines, crowd noise and gives the stadium a more big time feel. I think only 5 teams out of 13 big sky teams have a track. Crowd noise adds to hfa and the bsc teams with a track ( us, sac, unc, weber, & suu) have less of a hfa bc of this. I was at the ewu vs nau game a few months ago and the attendance was around 5k and when nau made a big play IT GOT LOUD. Sac st gets decent attendance numbers but bc of the track you dont get that roar like at UM, MSU and NAU.

 

[eaglesfootball]

i love the big taiwan poster on the side of the building. nice touch. Ranger should do a new version that is based off of this concept.

 

[EWURanger]

FWIW, I think Eastern is slow playing this... I know donors have been contacted and at least 3 have committed money in principle. There is one guy Eastern is courting with the potential to give big $$$.

It'll be interesting to see if they go the route of trying to secure a big donation through naming rights. They could probably just sell naming rights to the new facility. The "whatever" at Roos Field. And I hope you're right about the potential donors, will make getting this going that much easier. The artice also mentions that not all of the funding would have to be secured prior to construction being started.

 

[FrontFive4Life]

FWIW, I think Eastern is slow playing this... I know donors have been contacted and at least 3 have committed money in principle. There is one guy Eastern is courting with the potential to give big $$$.

It'll be interesting to see if they go the route of trying to secure a big donation through naming rights. They could probably just sell naming rights to the new facility. The "whatever" at Roos Field. And I hope you're right about the potential donors, will make getting this going that much easier. The artice also mentions that not all of the funding would have to be secured prior to construction being started.

In a lot of bigger conferences/schools, it's pretty common to have separate naming rights for the stadium and for the field. See Florida State and Virginia Tech as examples (Bowden field/Doak Campbell Stadium, Worsham field/Lane stadium, respectively). I would like to see Roos maintain naming rights for the field itself, as it was his spark that lit what is now the Inferno. Let's open it up and let whoever speaks loudest with the most dollar signs name the stadium.

Large value donations are necessary, but without a high volume of donors, the project is sunk. I've been doing some preliminary crowd sourcing to gauge interest (just in my personal networks) and the response has been good so far. Like I mentioned, I really think that if this can get pushed into a viable funding phase, there will be loads of people ready, willing, and able to help. As someone who remembers the old Woodward without our new press box or end zone seating, this is all very exciting!


That being said, if I ever hit power ball, I reserve the right to name it Optimus Prime Stadium. :nod: :thumb:

 

[flyingnail]

I wouldnt hold my breath Eagle faithfull ! These were the same old promises offered to us in "07" to help their recruiting quota ! The only difference was Mike Roos and the Red turf and that sure wasnt in the recruiting sell ! These are great plans and need to become reality however in these days of struggles to just get by I honestly dont think this has any steam ! O yeah, wheres that new score board that was also part of the hard sell !!! For now nothing more than a high school stadium with a very poor scoreboard ! And thats the truth !! :tothehand:

 

[FrontFive4Life]

Aaand just like that, flyingnail's back to shit in everyone's corn flakes.

 

[Ewuticketoffice]

EWU, rarely, if ever, spends money on design ($140,000 donated by 2 architecture and engineering firms) without some real potential of actualization. Stay tuned, faithful, stay tuned...