FIU's new stadium

[Mama_Bull]

I would love to see an OCS, but only if it can be done right.  Until that time comes, Raymond James is better than fine.  

[Rabbi Bull]

They should surround the football field with the track for our OCS...just a thought. That could save money and space.

Definatley a bad idea to have a track around the pitch, fans are away from the players and the field and the atmosphere loses something, that was the experience of football stadiums over here and in europe.  If you have having your home stadium you want to create an intimidating atmosphere the fans need to be close.

actually if we could build a stadium similar to the one UNC has, I would take it, even though the fans are not on top of the field, it is still a great environment, especially since you can walk around right next to the field. (only thing between the fans and the field is some bushes and a small fence.)

[Rabbi Bull]

its not a priority when we have softball playing on an intramural fieild, baseball needs a new stadium as well, soccer and track and field need new ones, football still needs those practice fields, and we still need to renovate the Sundome with the basketball complex, as well as the new varsity tennis courts.  After those things are finished, then we can talk about a OCS, until then be happy with RJS.

As someone who works in college athletics here's my point of view on these other venues. They mean skit to the school. Baseball, Softball, Tennis, etc. will more than likely never make a penny for your school. Even a "revenue" sport like basketball struggles to earn revenue. That is why football is king, and that is why all these "football schools" have become great "basketball schools" too (Florida, Ohio State, Texas)

Not saying those sports don't deserve venues, they deserve every penny they can get and every chance to compete. But you have to know where you bread is buttered. USF should be (and is) putting as much as they can (without infringing on Title IX, etc) into their football program.

However, we need to understand that these upgrades in nonrevenue sports, while needed, should pale in comparison to what we should focus on football. To me it would make no sense to spend 70 Million completely refurbishing an athletic complex for nonrevenue sports whne your one revenue sport does need some attention.

Does this mean build an OCS now? No. But we do need to make plans to build and assure the viability of our athletic department and its staple should be football. Once football money is pouring in, then we can focus on building a state of the art softball field, or a new Tennis facility, because we can be assured that a top notch football program bringing in millions, on top of the money being donated by boosters to keep it top notch will feed these programs adequately.

This is how most schools have done it. And I believe and hope this is how USF would like to do it, because it is proven to work.

Joe, the point of my post was that since we already play in a great stadium, why not build stadiums for our other sports who play in crappy stadiums yet compete and win.  Those other sports stadiums won't cost as much as a football stadium, and with them all added up will probably not even be half of what a stadium would cost us.  remember, when USF builds something now, they make sure it is done so that it looks amazing, I expect the samething when it comes to the OCS.

[E.T.]

nuke hit it on the head regarding the other team's reason to build.

And agree that I don't want a track seperating us from the field.

And those non-revenue producing sports still need nice facilities to recruit better players.

The Athletic facility was built for all to enjoy.

The Dining Hall will do the same.

Football practice fields and other upgrades will come.

An OCS is not a high priority because of the great place we play and we don't have the fan base yet. Simple as that. When we have the upper deck opened for all 6 home games, then there will be serious talk and it will have to continue into the next and following seasons.

And our fan base need to come to games like Elon also. And come in force, will never understand how so many will not be excited about seeing our BULLS play after waiting 8 - EIGHT Freakin' months ! I don't care who the team is, I wanna see my Beloved BULLS !

And in the future, I hope we can start having 7 Home Game seasons again. When we start signing 2 & 3 for 1's against non-BCS teams, we'll have those 7 Home games AND fans need to come and watch ... to help generate revenue !

And remember, if you can save less than $100 a month towards USF season tix with a Club Level(Green Jacket) donation, just think how much sooner that stadium will be built. And that donation can be paid quarterly.

Go BULLS !!!

[E.T.]

You get what you pay for ... and I am happy to wait for when we built it:

The $54 million stadium is being built by Odebrecht Construction, which also built AmericanAirlines Arena and the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts. It is slated to be constructed in several phases, with the dismantling of the old stadium set to begin early next week.

The first phase features about 18,000 seats with either chairbacks or backrests, 1,400 club seats, a 6,500 square-foot Panther Club, an upper concourse, 19 suites and a Jumbotron scoreboard.

[WoDoS]

nuke hit it on the head regarding the other team's reason to build.

And agree that I don't want a track seperating us from the field.

And those non-revenue producing sports still need nice facilities to recruit better players.

The Athletic facility was built for all to enjoy.

The Dining Hall will do the same.

Football practice fields and other upgrades will come.

An OCS is not a high priority because of the great place we play and we don't have the fan base yet. Simple as that. When we have the upper deck opened for all 6 home games, then there will be serious talk and it will have to continue into the next and following seasons.

And our fan base need to come to games like Elon also. And come in force, will never understand how so many will not be excited about seeing our BULLS play after waiting 8 - EIGHT Freakin' months ! I don't care who the team is, I wanna see my Beloved BULLS !

And in the future, I hope we can start having 7 Home Game seasons again. When we start signing 2 & 3 for 1's against non-BCS teams, we'll have those 7 Home games AND fans need to come and watch ... to help generate revenue !

And remember, if you can save less than $100 a month towards USF season tix with a Club Level(Green Jacket) donation, just think how much sooner that stadium will be built. And that donation can be paid quarterly.

Go BULLS !!!

I totally agree with you ET..  All this OCS is like putting the cart before the horse.  All you have is a fancy cart with nothing to pull it..

[USFan]

My person view... I don't see us building an OCS because of RJS being close to USF (at least not yet).  That's why USF will turn its attention (they have already done so) to the other facilities before building an OCS.

When we decide to build an OCS, I believe it will be nicer than BHNS and definitely nicer than FIU's OCS.

But I don't expect too much of an upgrade from UCF's OCS.

Let’s remember that USF was negotiating a 5 year lease with the option of adding 5 more years, which was different from the original 10 year lease. (should be a hint)

Greg/Brett… has this been finalized?

[BULLfreak]

Its ridiculous that a team that goes 0-12 in the 2006 season gets rewarded with a brand new OCS. Yet, USF doesn't think that the bulls need one.

Dude Stick to what you know (which at the present is nothing) USF knows they need a OCS but we are going to do it the right way and first class so give it time. It has been posted may times 5-10 years we will have a new stadium and that number is a year old.

[E.T.]

... I will venture to say that when we do get our OCS, it will be low-budget ...

The reason I disagree is that when we build our stadium(5-10 years), we will be averaging 45-50K easily and most would assume that an OCS will increase students coming, although they will most likely be paying by then.

I see a 55K seat stadium being built with a club section on the home side. Expansion will come after our 2nd National Championship(yes, we'll have a Title before the stadium which will push the building of it). Expansion will be another club on the "visitor" side with adding another 10K seats. After our 3rd National Title, we'll build an other expansion on one of the End Zones, like a TD Club and another 5K seats.

Love Off Season Dreaming !

:GoBulls

[79 Bull]

FIU will play in the Orange Bowl this year - they will probably average about 10,000.

The visitor stands in the new stadium are going to be awfully (as CJL would say) far away from the field.  They must be doing that so they can accomodate the width of an international soccer field.