Roos Field Renovation

[EdubU10]

And based on her statement, I don't think there are currently any scaled down plans in place.

That's the part that worries me the most. Although I applaud the university for shooting for the moon on this project and the vision to build one of the best FCS facilities, Spokane just doesn't have that kind of donor base, especially for EWU.

I really hope Roos isn't stuck in some purgatory where the powers that be linger on the Gateway when smaller improvements can be worked out to improve the stadium.

Less dragging out, more shovels in dirt please.

 

[clawman1]

Having talked with President Cullinan and seen her support of athletics I believe she is very aware and supportive of this project. One thing that was mentioned that is not really correct is a donor willing to commit 75 mil.
The facility as envisioned at this point would have a revenue stream that would support much of the overall cost so the donation needed is much less than the overall cost.
ex: http://www.gojacks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=209276603" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
You could easily replace the names of Jackrabbits with Eagles and be spot on.

 

[JoinTheEAF]

Some interesting attendance figures below. Average attendance nationwide in 2014 for FCS football games-7,666 fans. Over 5 million attendees at 695 games. Almost 38 millions fans attended 850 games at the FBS level; 44,603 is the FBS attendance per game.

Good to see EWU make the list below; great job Dr. A and our Board of Trustees, Bill Chaves and his staff, Beau Baldwin and our assistant coaches, Mike and Kat Roos and all the donors, boosters and fans who've made this happen. Look who is number 2, very cool to see them on Game Day.

Hope to see them (or others below) in Cheney later this season.

http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/Attendance/2014.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

2014 NCAA DIVISION I FCS HOME ATTENDANCE TEAM LEADERS
Rank School G Attendance Average
1. Montana 7 166,440 23,777
2. James Madison 6 118,893 19,816
3. North Dakota St. 9 167,136 18,571
4. Montana St. 8 136,446 17,056
5. Liberty 6 102,098 17,016
6. Delaware 7 109,772 15,682
7. Jacksonville St. 6 93,439 15,573
8. Southern U. 6 92,493 15,416
9. Yale 6 91,159 15,193
10. Harvard 5 75,088 15,018
11. N.C. A&T 5 72,618 14,524
12. Jackson St. 7 99,933 14,276
13. Alabama St. 6 76,182 12,697
14. UNI 7 87,433 12,490
15. Alcorn 7 85,873 12,268
Rank School G Attendance Average
16. McNeese St. 6 72,577 12,096
17. Youngstown St. 7 84,669 12,096
18. Missouri St. 5 58,324 11,665
19. Florida A&M 5 55,863 11,173
20. Tennessee St. 6 66,622 11,104
21. South Dakota St. 6 65,613 10,936
22. South Carolina St. 5 53,489 10,698
23. Chattanooga 6 60,879 10,147
24. Sam Houston St. 7 70,027 10,004
25. Mercer 7 70,002 10,000
26. Princeton 5 49,325 9,865
27. Grambling 3 29,073 9,691
28. Western Caro. 6 57,150 9,525
29. Citadel 6 57,031 9,505
30. Eastern Wash. 8 75,455 9,432

 

[EWU98]

Playoff games for whatever reason (time of year) kill our overall average.

 

[JasonEWU]

And based on her statement, I don't think there are currently any scaled down plans in place.

That's the part that worries me the most. Although I applaud the university for shooting for the moon on this project and the vision to build one of the best FCS facilities, Spokane just doesn't have that kind of donor base, especially for EWU.

I really hope Roos isn't stuck in some purgatory where the powers that be linger on the Gateway when smaller improvements can be worked out to improve the stadium.

Less dragging out, more shovels in dirt please.

Couldn't agree more! We need some damn shovels in the ground already! Every time I see an EWU game televised on Root Sports or ESPN 3, its freaking embarrassing at this point. That visitor seating side is a flat out joke. I have heard TONS of praise on this board for Bill Chaves and the new President, but enough. Action is needed and its needed asap. The fact the president has NO plan B on the table, is infuriating to me. So were just going to stand around and wait for someone to hand us 75 Million dollars?? Come on. They need to re-do the visitor seating side now. As soon as the season ends that side of the stadium needs to be redone to hold more people and not make us look like a joke on televised games.

 

[Obzerver]

 

[marceagfan5]

And based on her statement, I don't think there are currently any scaled down plans in place.

That's the part that worries me the most. Although I applaud the university for shooting for the moon on this project and the vision to build one of the best FCS facilities, Spokane just doesn't have that kind of donor base, especially for EWU.

I really hope Roos isn't stuck in some purgatory where the powers that be linger on the Gateway when smaller improvements can be worked out to improve the stadium.

Less dragging out, more shovels in dirt please.

Couldn't agree more! We need some damn shovels in the ground already! Every time I see an EWU game televised on Root Sports or ESPN 3, its freaking embarrassing at this point. That visitor seating side is a flat out joke. I have heard TONS of praise on this board for Bill Chaves and the new President, but enough. Action is needed and its needed asap. The fact the president has NO plan B on the table, is infuriating to me. So were just going to stand around and wait for someone to hand us 75 Million dollars?? Come on. They need to re-do the visitor seating side now. As soon as the season ends that side of the stadium needs to be redone to hold more people and not make us look like a joke on televised games.

The problem is we don't have donors for this or much of anything at EWU. If they could secure funds, this would be well underway, thats part of the problem, big donors are few, very few at EWU.

There is a plan B, no doubt about it, I wouldn't worry about that side of things.

The foundation board is working hard at this, the problem isn't the want, or the need, they know of the issues and the timing, the problem is the $$$.

 

[BigEag1]

The time is NOW to make the gateway a reality.
Too many people with passion writing to this post waiting for a miracle donor.

 

[EdubU10]

Just saw on EWU Football's twitter that there's an exciting announcement coming at noon today.

 

[EdubU10]

Just saw on EWU Football's twitter that there's an exciting announcement coming at noon today.

Nevermind, just special military uniforms for this weekend's game.

 

[EAGLEFUZZ]

And the uniforms were very cool.

 

[marceagfan5]

I have some concerns we may have lost our window to pull the trigger on the Gateway.

Right now we are a borderline playoff team having a sub par season compared with our recent success. We may not make the playoffs this year, and realistically, we are a couple plays away from being 3-7. Add that to the fact we were absolutely dominated in our last two games, one to our rival, and the Cougs are having a great year, we are losing fans while the Pac 12 team down the road is gaining a ton.

We had a window in which we won the national championship and had 2 other final 4 appearances, all while the major market team in our area struggled. We sold out all of our games and the buzz, tailgates and fans have exponentially grown the last 5 years. The fact that we couldn't pull the trigger during this time, knowing that there will be another shakeup in college football realignment, is pretty telling.

I hope there is a lot more going on behind the scenes, but I haven't heard much, and I'm afraid we are really starting to lose our window of opportunity for anything in the near future.

 

[FormerEag]

I have some concerns we may have lost our window to pull the trigger on the Gateway.

Right now we are a borderline playoff team having a sub par season compared with our recent success. We may not make the playoffs this year, and realistically, we are a couple plays away from being 3-7. Add that to the fact we were absolutely dominated in our last two games, one to our rival, and the Cougs are having a great year, we are losing fans while the Pac 12 team down the road is gaining a ton.

We had a window in which we won the national championship and had 2 other final 4 appearances, all while the major market team in our area struggled. We sold out all of our games and the buzz, tailgates and fans have exponentially grown the last 5 years. The fact that we couldn't pull the trigger during this time, knowing that there will be another shakeup in college football realignment, is pretty telling.

I hope there is a lot more going on behind the scenes, but I haven't heard much, and I'm afraid we are really starting to lose our window of opportunity for anything in the near future.

I get where you are coming from Marc, and this thought crossed my mind after the dismal showing last Saturday. But I'm not sure it holds up.

Look at the University of North Dakota Fighting North Dakotans. They have done some major facilities upgrades without a great on the field product. If this doesn't happen (which it very well may not) it's because we don't have the revenue base or, more importantly, an institution that gives a rat's ass about its athletic program.

 

[grizfnz]

^ UND improvements in infrastructure are the result of Bakken oil.

 

[FormerEag]

^ UND improvements in infrastructure are the result of Bakken oil.

Ah.

 

[LDopaPDX]

If this doesn't happen (which it very well may not) it's because we don't have the revenue base or, more importantly, an institution that gives a rat's ass about its athletic program.

You've hit both nails on the head, in my opinion.

First off, I think it must've been a massive turnoff to the big prospective donor we were talking about a couple of years ago to hear a $4mm donation was going to finish the planning process of the Gateway Project. If I'm a big money guy capable of splashing that kind of dough, it would be tremendously disconcerting to hear the big donation wouldn't even begin to start the building process. In that regard, the Gateway as originally described was a bit ridiculous.

Now the object should be getting 5 and 6-figure donors on board and finding avenues for university support. You can't tell me there isn't a benefit to the university by spending a couple of million on this project. Even graduation is held at Roos Field, so the project wouldn't be exclusive to football. If the university has their ass in gear getting *something* done in the immediate future should be a priority.

I doubt there is anyone who feels comfortable with what we've got. Just because we can't afford the $70mm mega-yacht doesn't mean we have to settle for a rowboat. I saw an English architect specializing in modular stadiums showing a drawing for a 5,000 seat grandstand for 3 -4mm Pounds. That's roughly $5-6mm, and these things were really cool. Not WA-Griz cool, but definitely cool enough to feel comfortable about being on TV and representing the university.

Lastly, if Eastern loses on Saturday, there is going to be an exodus of casual fans jumping off the bandwagon. It is what it is. It would be really helpful from a PR standpoint to give fans something to savor if this season ends on a really excruciating note.

 

[nodak6511]

^ UND improvements in infrastructure are the result of Bakken oil.

Ah.

This is FALSE. The 13 million dollar facility was privately funded, and the biggest donations were from Altru Health (9m) and Scheels (1m).

Get the facts straight grizfnz.

http://und.edu/features/2013/09/high-performance-center.cfm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[ewusigep252]

Stadium Journey put out their ranking of the top FCS stadiums for 2015. Here's how the top ten looks:

1. Montana
2. North Dakota State
3. James Madison
4. Montana State
5. Coastal Carolina
6. Mercer
7. McNeese State
8. Deleware
9. Northern Iowa
10. Kennesaw State

As for the Big Sky schools, they were ranked as follows:

1. Montana
4. Montana State
11. Weber State
20. Southern Utah
38. UC Davis
44. Cal Poly
49. North Dakota
74. Portland State
87. Northern Arizona
92. Eastern Washington
105. Northern Colorado
120. Idaho State
122. Sacramento State

http://www.stadiumjourney.com/news/...college-football-stadium-experience-rankings/

 

[EWU98]

Someone posted last night on the Facebook page that from a contractor friend of his he had heard that EWU was accepting bids for the Gateway Project....I know I know don't believe everything you hear on the intraweb, but was curious if anyone else had heard of anything like this?

 

[americanisland]

EWU98 that was me- My buddy works for Skanska and told me the University was taking bids... If they are indeed lacking funding, it seems to me they should be spending less time making hype videos and put a little marketing into getting alums on the hook for donations. To have two years of silence on this thing is unbelievable. have you all looked at the school's updated master plan? They're planning some pretty amazing things- Roos Field is included in that.

-also first time posting here. big fan of this forum. go eags