Stadium on Campus

[cee]

Based on you're proposal, should we just pull our cars up wherever we'd like to park/tailgate?  Hmmm...the field between Cooper Hall and the Business building would be great.  Let's see if I can get my van to hop the curb here.......wait, wait, the lawn in front of the alumni center, much better........

what i'm saying is that parking will occur at all the parking lots across the campus, and tailgating will occur throughout campus.. that is all.. much like at a UF game-- although i'm not a gator fan, i do gotta admit, their tailgate is much better than anything that goes on at RJS.. both on campus and directly off campus..  and BELIEVE ME, the parking situation at usf is much better than at UF.. which means, it can accomodate more parking for those coming to games from off campus, and more parking for those who want to tailgate.

[USFFan]

Wow.  14 pages of posts of everybody talking but nobody listening.  It's pretty clear that cee is convinced that an on campus stadium has to be our highest priority.  Explaining reasons why you think it shouldn't is of no concern to him/her.  Meanwhile, cee, it's not apathy if people don't believe in it.  I think most believe a well built on campus stadium would be nice, but that it could/should only be considered if and when we've addressed other concerns (like the poor baseball and softball facilities).  

Meanwhile, I don't recall if it was Joe or cee who made the comment that using the argument that the students can't be bothered to walk from Beta Hall to the Sun Dome isn't a valid comparison because the team wasn't very good.  Whoever it was, do you realize that THAT is the root of the problem?  If we'd had an on campus stadium this past season but were 4-6 heading into the final game, would it have been acceptable not to show up because the team's "just not that good?"  

As for my own opinion, I personally don't think that we need an on campus stadium.  If we had an extra $150MM sitting around, I'd use it to revamp our olympic sports facilities, upgrade the SunDome, build an indoor practice facility with both grass and artificial turf, upgrade our pay scale for coaches so that we can retain the best staff and maybe investigate ways of building school spirit amongst the apathetic student body.  If the students aren't sufficiently motivated to go to free football games at RJS knowing that they're able to watch BCS caliber football, then they're not going to be motivated to become active alumni willing to donate to further build the program.  

USFFan

[BullGrad95]

A-FREAKING-MEN............

Very well said.

[Joe]

 I've lived in Tally and gainesville and been to both stadiums.  They suck (as did the Orange Bowl) compared to RayJay.

Well if you wanna go with an astetics standpoint...then DUH!

But they don't call Wrigley the best stadium in baseball because it's astetically pleasing. I would take the Swamp and Doak (and their energy level) over RJS and it's "environment" You cannot tell me with a straight face that a GREAT Bulls game has even close to the energy level of either stadium on a saturday, no matter who they are playing.

[BullGrad95]

Well if you wanna go with an astetics standpoint...then DUH!

But they don't call Wrigley the best stadium in baseball because it's astetically pleasing. I would take the Swamp and Doak (and their energy level) over RJS and it's "environment" You cannot tell me with a straight face that a GREAT Bulls game has even close to the energy level of either stadium on a saturday, no matter who they are playing.

You just hit a nerve with me.  Wrigley is BOTH asthetically pleasing and has a great environment.  Anyone who doesn't know that, needs to book a flight to Chicago and visit the Mecca of baseball.  

Nobody will argue that at this point RJS has a better environment than Doak or the Swamp.  But guess what, an OCS will not change that.  Do you really expect that our environment will rival those after only nine years of football?  Give me a break.  As me that question in another 25 years, then I can give you a fair answer.

[Paisa el Toro]

Actually, at this point I don't think an OCS is going to make our fans "better" from an "energy" standpoint either.  Our fans are mostly alumni who attended USF when it had no football. They don't know how to get jazzed up about football, but we are all learning. It takes time to build tradition, and an on campus stadium is not going to be the "steroid" to inject our fans with "energy." I like Ray Jay, for now. We really need to focus on improving other things rather than even thinking about an OCS. All these analogies make me tired.

[Velcro]

Not too bad a spot.  Couple of problem that I see.  All of the apartments that are located across 50th Street.  I can't see how they could get clearance to put something of that nature directly across the street from a residential area.  Second, no way in the world that the roads around that part of campus could handle the volume for 40-50K who would attend the games.  I understand you could close some of the roads off during game time, but again, you can't completely block off the residential traffic, especially since 50th is the only in/out for most of those places.  

One other question to add.  Where exactly would you expect people to tailgate?  In the Sundome parking lot?  Give me another spot on campus for parking and tailgating?  Preferrably not an asphalt parking lot.

They would do that the same way they got clearance to put a grammar school on a college campus  

[Sitting_BULL]

Well if you wanna go with an astetics standpoint...then DUH!

But they don't call Wrigley the best stadium in baseball because it's astetically pleasing. I would take the Swamp and Doak (and their energy level) over RJS and it's "environment" You cannot tell me with a straight face that a GREAT Bulls game has even close to the energy level of either stadium on a saturday, no matter who they are playing.

You can't expect the environment to be the same?  You are comparing a crowd of 25-30k to 70-80k.  How could it be as rowdy even if it were "on campus?"

[No_Willie_Jokes_Yet]

Cee,

First a couple of things. Stadiums dont "make money" as a rule. They only make money when the revenues are larger than the expenses. Those expenses include but are not limited to:

Debt Servicing (Interest and Principle)

Maintanance Costs and upkeep (field workers, repair folks, cleaning people)

Concession purchases

Concession workers

Parking Workers

Stadium Administration

Insurance

Taxes on skybox rentals.

So you cant assume a stadium will make money.

Also, those spots on campus look nice but I know for a fact THERE IS NO SPACE AVAILABLE ON CAMPUS FOR AN ON CAMPUS STADIUM. It may seem like it but there isnt. That nice space across from MOSI is designated for the Patel Center (He coughed up 36 million). Those other spots are not big enough. You would have to tear down the soccer stadium and related practice fields and build in there but that would mean a football stadium with a track and field set back (seats further from the field).

I want an on campus stadium. I know what it is like to tailgate on campus. I just know that it wont happen for a long while.

[Velcro]

For having 30k at the UL game, that was an incredible environment.  I couldn't even imagine how crazy it would have been if we had over double that many.   Scary!