Wow. Lot's of interest on this topic and also lot's of opinions. Here's mine. I was invited by the school to participate in a brainstorming session at the Spokane Club last year regarding the gateway building and having been involved with EWU for many years, I can say that they are light years ahead of any other administration's planning and organization for a stadium project. There have been drawings and dreams for many years but the current planning is far and away more organized and visioned than before. I have already given my pledge to buy a suite in the new building whatever the cost provided the project starts and is constructed as shown in the current drawings. In my opinion, the most important part of it is the football team center on the main floor that will dwarf anything at the fcs level let alone our conference. This is because it gives us that much more of a recruiting upgrade which I'm sure would be important to Coach Baldwin. Secondly, the suite and club area has to be done right because they are inside and warm and that's critical to the Spokane market. It's an absolutely home run and they can't compromise on this. I have current and history with both Gonzaga and Washington State and will do the same at my school provided they do it as planned. Putting up four or five thousand seats to simply put more seats in the stadium would be what ewu has always done. Limiting opportunities for pride. I'm not a big alma mater downer but the school could be much more than it is as could the city of Cheney. Perhaps a little vision would appeal to some people but not me. I don't believe they will sell out the stadium if they phase it either and selling it out before it opens was shown as a critical financial factor. Tickets will be more expensive although not crazy but everyone is going to have to be okay with that. I do believe that if built as shown, the school will have no problem selling season tickets to it.
There are some posts that question whether or not it will sell if we can't sell now which couldn't be any more silly. There's now way to compare what you have now out there with what this project will do from a stadium standpoint. During the work session they said the current press box side will become one large student section similar to Delaware or some other school they visited. The new side will be the side they are selling so the number of tickets for sale will be around 10K and not 20k. They are going to try and encourage 6k students to come to all of the games and said that will be as important as selling the new side out. Either way, if the team stays successful, the project will offer an opportunity to ramp up the entertainment in the stadium which may be attractive to the student body.
Also, from what I understand the project is completely donor based with some larger asks first to get the fundraising off the ground. Having been involved in this before at other places I can promise it is slow at best. The most important thing that we as fans do is support the team. I posted on another thread to buy as many tickets this weekend as possible to sell the game out. As important as donations are, the case for demand builds on the justification for project. This weekend is probably important on several levels and if they are entertaining donors for the project and having to rely on the build it and they will come fallacy because the stands aren't full on the most important game of the year, could spell trouble.
As far as the build it and they will come dreamers, good luck with that. The university will have to employ a sales group similar to my businesses to service the increased interest and it will have to be carefully orchestrated in a contained period of time. Both GU and WSU had a three month windows on the back side of the public announcement to capitalize on the excitement to meet their measured sales goals. I tried to buy some extra tickets this morning for this week's game from the ticket lady out there and she blew me off saying she was too busy to deal with me. I was able to call back a couple of times later and get it done but the service element is a sign of systemic issues that will turn the gateway upside down in a hurry so I'm hopeful they have this thought out. Nothing could be worse than donors saying yes and the backend being marginalized.
With the number of alumni in the Spokane area, the gateway building is more than doable. What it's not is easy, especially if donors are expected to do this for the university. It is time for EWU to take itself more seriously though so I would love to see more growth than less and I'm not interested in limiting or reducing what I'm seeing as a very big awesome vision. If someone with a lot of money has a different opinion then so be it but I'd love to see it as scoped and then when it's done, I want to see what the dreams of the next phase are. I don't believe this has anything to do with anyone other than EWU and who they can be. No offense or praise to other universities, I just think Spokane will support it with the right service element and when it get's done, whenever it get's done, it will be simply the best. I went through the Montana locker room area while visiting my parents a couple of years ago and the gateway will make theirs look like a junior college in comparison.
I would let donors say no before I would run the mouth and say this won't happen. Given the superior organization of the project there's a fighting chance it will happen with only limited private support. I think they are working through the big donor part now which even in my limited past, took six months to finalize. If asking is going on now it could be a year before finances get finalized. It's nice they are at least asking so let's do our part and come to the damn game this weekend.
