|
Post by Mike on Jul 1, 2004 16:18:37 GMT -5
Let's not build a toy stadium with insufficient parking. Our competition and their facilities Florida Seminoles - Doak S. Campbell - 83,000 + Seats seminoles.collegesports.com/facilities/fsu-trads-fac-campbell.htmlUniversity of Florida Gators - Ben Hill Griffin Stadium - 85,000 + Seats www.sfo.com/~csuppes/NCAA/SEC/index.htm?Florida/index.htmUniversity of Miami Hurricanes - Orange Bowl - 72,000 + Seats [Owned by the City of Miami] hurricanesports.collegesports.com/trads/mifl-orangebowl.htmlFlorida Atlantic University - 40,000+ Domed Stadium??? Florida International University - 33,000+ ?? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Each year we should add 1 additional home game to be played in the Orange Bowl until such time as we can build a stadium with the seating capacity of an I-A team. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAU takes a good look at domed stadium - Palm Beach Post - Marcus Nelson December 2003 FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. -- Florida Atlantic had never played in a domed stadium until Saturday's game against Northern Arizona at the Walkup Skydome. The Owls could be playing their home games under a roof at home if a plan for a domed stadium on FAU's campus materializes. University officials are still considering options, but the one that is being looked at the most seriously is a domed stadium that could seat up to 40,000 people. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FAU, FIU meet deadline to forge ahead with plans for Division I-A - Sun Sentinel - Ted Hutton June 30 2004 Florida Atlantic and Florida International beat today's deadline and notified the NCAA they intend to move their football programs from Division I-AA to I-A, a jump that will put them on par with Florida, Florida State and Miami. At least on paper. Competing on the field with those schools is still years away, but FAU and FIU will be able to match the state's elite programs scholarship for scholarship, and they hope the move generates more fans and eventually enough money to offset the price of fielding a football team. ~~ ~~ FAU Athletic Director Craig Angelos said FAU will review plans Thursday for a domed stadium to be built on the main campus in Boca Raton. ~~ ~~ FIU is looking to replace its on-campus stadium with a new, 33,000-seat facility, Athletic Director Rick Mello said. ~~ ~~ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Big mistake to build a 33K Seat StadiumCompeting at the I-A level also requires top-flight competitive facilities and next to land is my second biggest concern. Rushing to build an undersized stadium with insufficient land for expansion and parking is not prudent and is a foolish endeavor just for the sake of building a stadium. I would rather tell a recruit we play our home games in the nationally known orange bowl than to tell him we are building an undersized, 33,000 seat-stadium. The Orange Bowl is owned by the city of Miami. We should play our home games there until such time as we can build a decent facility. If we want to build a Nationally Recognized Program, we must have facilities as well (or better) than our competition. Orange Bowl Classic - Florida A&M - every other year FAU? - Let's add FAU alternate years. - or - Schedule FAU for the last game of the year every year. That would really make it a special and meaningful game and build up our rivalry. Each year we can add 1 additional home game to be played in the Orange Bowl until such time as we can build a stadium with the seating capacity of a I-A team.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Jul 1, 2004 23:48:00 GMT -5
you make a good point in that the facilities should be first class facilities if we expect recruits and fans, but I disagree with part of what was said.
is 33,000 too small? if I remeber correctly, we averaged somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 in attendance at our home games. In a stadium with a capacity of 33,000 people, 8,00 to 10,000 people seems downright empty.
now the solution to this problem is to build the stadium in the same manner as several other buildings under construction at FIU... use multi-phased construction. This method saves money and allows for the stadium to be expanded as necessary.
|
|
|
Post by Xpedition on Jul 2, 2004 0:47:40 GMT -5
Some history on Florida Field:
The original stadium, constructed in 1930, consisted of the lower half of the current stadium. Seating capacity was 21,769. The entire stadium was constructed below ground. In 1950, over 11,000 seats were added on the west side and another 7,000 were provided by bleachers on the east side. The additions brought seating capacity to 40,116. Additional bleacher seats were added during the 1950s, bringing capacity to 46,164 by 1960. In December of 1965, construction started again on further additions that added over 10,000 permanent seats on the east side and temporary bleachers moved from the east side to the south endzone, providing a total capacity of 62,800 (56,164 permanent seats). The south endzone expansion in '82 enclosed the south end of the stadium, and brought the capacity to 72,000. The north endzone transformed the horseshoe into a bowl and raised capacity to 83,000.
FIU has plans to make FIU Stadium 60k seats. We're not going to have 60k people anytime in the next 5 years for every game. They will build the lower bowl at 33k, a very good size lower bowl. As demand calls for it, they will expand to eventually 60,000+. Remember, FSU and UF keep expanding their stadiums every couple of years. They find ways to add to it. FIU will follow a similar model. FAU will be stuck, like Syracuse, with around 40k forever.
|
|
GPFan
Juvenile Panther
Posts: 44
|
Post by GPFan on Jul 2, 2004 10:53:19 GMT -5
You can't possibly be serious about us playing in the Orange Bowl. Our fan base won't travel much of anywhere. UM can't even get their fan base to the OB, except for big games. FIU isn't going to play many big games for a while. The campus and the program desperately needs an on-campus stadium to help facilitate some campus life.
The 33,000 seat stadium on campus with plenty of room for expansion seems to be the right way to go. Parking will be helped by future garages. The one by the arena isn't that far away - especially compared to other campuses. Parking shouldn't be much of an issue on gamedays, unless it is Thursday night.
|
|
|
Post by FIUFanatic on Jul 2, 2004 11:42:37 GMT -5
I also agree with the cautious approach in terms of the "new stadium" capacity. Reality is that we won't need a stadium bigger than 35k seats for a while except in selected occassions for the time being. However, I submit that even though our weight room, training facilities, locker rooms, and offices etc., are fairly new, that we remodel and update such facilities.
If we build a nice, modern-looking with amenities- stadium, even if seating "only" 30-35k but with capacity to "grow", I would be satisfied in the short run. Also, I believe that given these "modern" and "nice-looking" stadium attributes, the stadium capacity wouldn't affect recruiting as much as having bigger, nicer, and state-of-the-art weight lifting/training facilities.
This seems to be what most schools (even "middle" and "lower" ranked I-A colleges) are doing to make an impact on prospective recruits. Also, I think we could "compete" a lot easier with the "bigger" schools in these issues than with building huge stadiums ala Penn St., Ohio St. Florida St., etc...
|
|
|
Post by Mike on Jul 2, 2004 12:45:12 GMT -5
Steve, Your idea that this stadium is going to be built in multi- phases is new to me. As long as they take the amount of land required into consideration in the initial design, which will larger than the existing stadium, multi-phase may indeed be the best way to proceed. I have never heard or read anything from FIU or the FIU athletic department regarding this approach. Is this already included in the present 5-year or 10-year plan? If you have any links [or additional information] about this I would like to read about it.
|
|
|
Post by Mike on Jul 2, 2004 12:48:15 GMT -5
XP, Building a stadium or any large structure in Miami requires totally different construction techniques than in other parts of the state due to our high water table.
Note what you wrote about the Florida field
This would never be possible in Miami. We are not talking about building a dormitory or academic building. As long as the footings and other sub-structure are included in the original design and construction, the mult-phase approach is feasible. Unfortunately other universities have built stadiums with the multi-phase approach in mind, and then found out they would have to rip down their stadiums and start from scratch because of poor initial engineering. I wouldn't want that to happen to us.
|
|
|
Post by Mike on Jul 2, 2004 12:59:15 GMT -5
GP, I am sure you know I am serious even as you wrote your response. I try and compose my posts so that they are clear and concise and read them carefully before I actually post them.
While I haven't mentioned or discussed a parking garage in the past, a parking garage is going to be a disaster. I have had the opportunity to attend major sports events where there was no alternative other than parking in a multi-story parking garage. It is difficult enough getting into and out of large stadiums and arenas and to require individuals to park in a multi-story-parking garage is going to make getting to and from the games even more difficult and time consuming.
If the decision already has been made, where is the garage going to be located? I hope it will have at least 4 entrances/exist onto different streets.
A major part of attending a college football game is TAILGATING. People come early and stay late. They spend money. The day of the game is more than just a game but an EVENT. A parking garage is not the way to proceed. It is almost like shooting ourselves in the foot before we start.
|
|
|
Post by Xpedition on Jul 2, 2004 13:15:22 GMT -5
Take a look at the campus master plan at facilities.fiu.edu. There will be a garage in the lot across the stadium and dorms. This will be used, i'm sure, for game day but the main purpose of the garage isn't for football. The garage will replace and add to the lot that will be lost next to the dorms and DM. That lot will be ripped up for more dorms. The bidding process for that dorm is already complete and I assume construction will start in 2005. The new dorms are also in the master plan. The field in Tamiami Park will always be available for tailgaters. Not everyone tailgates and not everyone will park in the same garage. There will be at least 6 garages in the next couple of years plus lots and the fields for fans to use. Parking is the least of our problems. As for multi-phase projects, look no further than the baseball stadium, the health building (being expanded), Chemistry and Physics (will be expanded), etc. I don't know where you've been but many projects are built that way. Many of the new condo projects downtown are being built that way (see: Everglades on the Bay for one). You took what I wrote about Florida Field all wrong. Not that we couldn't build underground but we obviously won't. The point is, if you visit UF and actually go to the stadium, you'll notice not one part of the stadium is symmetrical. It was all built in phases. It doesn't matter if they would have started from 50ft above ground, it would have been built in phases. FIU will take a similar approach with the stadium. Mello has said this on Strock Talk in the past. It will start with ~30k seats with future plans of ~60k seats. It doesn't take a marvel of engineering to do this. It's practically routine around the country to build this way.
|
|
|
Post by Mike on Jul 2, 2004 13:21:52 GMT -5
I believe you are all slowly changing my mind about the multi-phase approach.
FIU
I especially agree with you that the facilities are critically important. Over the next few years we will be adding additional sports teams. Additional weight rooms, locker rooms, practice fields, offices and study halls will need to be built if we want to attract the best student-athletes. The training facilities we have need to be expanded and upgraded.
Maintaining and building a top flight athletic program is both difficult and expensive. Making major mistakes at this point in the incubation period will cost millions to redo in the future, if it will even be possible to do so.
One more comment about the parking garage. Building a garage will cost millions. Paving additional parking areas, in comparison will cost nothing. Using that money to build the additional support structure is more important than a parking garage.
|
|
|
Post by Steve on Jul 2, 2004 13:36:03 GMT -5
As a reply to the post about parking garages costing nothing vs. parking garages costing millions, FIU needs parking garages. As a student, I am very aware of the parking problems the university faces. We also need more classrooms.
For a university the size of FIU, to have the number of classrooms needed and only have surface parking instead of parking garages, then there would be parking lots spreading for miles and miles.
I agree that a parking garage does not facilitate tailgating, however they are necesarry for the university's primary function: education. As long as they don't build parking garages in Tamiami Park, FIU can build parking garages as much as they want because there will still be sufficient space for tailgating in the park, while facilitating parking for those who do not wish to tailgate.
There is a plan in the works, just by reading the facilities.fiu.edu site, one can see that most everything is being taken into account as far as parking and traffic among other issues are concerned.
|
|
|
Post by Mike on Jul 2, 2004 14:08:17 GMT -5
X and Steve. Unfortunately www.facilities.fiu.edu it is not a valid address. Is the page you are referring to on www.fiu.edu ? This is a large web site with hundreds of pages. If you have pages you want to use as references, please post active hot links to the specific pages. Thanks.
|
|
|
Post by FIUFanatic on Jul 2, 2004 14:17:30 GMT -5
As far as parking garages goes, the University Administration (and us) have to keep in perspective that land space is kind of sparce at FIU currently. Even though parking garages are costlier, it is the best solution possible at the moment to accomodate the University's growth, both in terms of buildings and spaces needed for cars on campus.
|
|
|
Post by FIUSportsFan on Jul 2, 2004 19:18:15 GMT -5
Many people here are overly optimistic about the attendance figures. Builiding a 30K seat stadium is enough of a stretch, let alone talking about 60k, no matter what Madique or Mello say. Attendance will continue to hover in the low thousands. FIU will not be competitive for quite a while, more than a decade most likely, so lets tone down the rhetoric. UM has trouble filling its seats with everyday opponents, and our schedule is full of run-of-the-mill teams. Why would it be any different for us? Our fans are from the same area as UM's, fair weather. There's nothing to prove that FIU fans are more diehard than any other university down here. Face it guys, we need to focus on meeting the 1-A requirements for attandance this year, which will be extremely diffuclt to do so. Thank god for FAMU fans in NOV. So lets quell the grand ideas for years down the road. 30K will be the max this stadium will hold for many years to come.
|
|
|
Post by ARod on Jul 3, 2004 3:20:39 GMT -5
I agree FIUSportsFan:
You have to crawl before you walk. When we can build a solid fanbase FIRST!, then we will build the building! (see "Field of Dreams" - "if you build it, they will come")
|
|