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the three village Patch just released a new article.

5.7$ million allocation for the expansion of LaValle for atleast 2,500 more seats. An expansion that would make it 10,000 seats or more. A good amount for the Colonial Athletic Association.

Here is the article. It made my day

http://threevillage.patch.com/articles/ ... -expansion" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Good for Stony. LaValle looks as if it should hold more than 8,300 already so I can only imagine what it would look like expanded.

I understand eventually we will expand to around 15k in the next few years. With the CAA teams and hopefully some good no conference teams coming ( NO D2's) We should fill the place .

I'm pretty sure when they built LaValle they put the footings in on the visitors side so that in the future a deck could be easily added, mirroring the home side...Imagine that, the State of NY was actually forward thinking about something.

I'm guessing the 2500 now would be for the north endzone and the deck would bump it to 15K?

LastofthePatriots90 wrote:I'm pretty sure when they built LaValle they put the footings in on the visitors side so that in the future a deck could be easily added, mirroring the home side...Imagine that, the State of NY was actually forward thinking about something.

I'm guessing the 2500 now would be for the north endzone and the deck would bump it to 15K?

We're doing the same thing at Bob Ford Field. All the site work is supposedly included for the full build-out to 24,000 so all you need to do is bring in the pre-fab pieces and drop them in place.

BTW - that money for SBU has been pieced together over the last 5 years or so in budgets. I remember seeing those line items when I was searching that huge clusterF of a document that is the NYS budget for anything "stadium" references.

I'm hoping Albany does the same thing with its expansion funding - a couple mil here and there. Its what we should have been doing for the last 10 years for our initial stadium funding. No one bats an eye at $2.5m. $25m catches the attention.

Way to step up to the plate future CAA mate.

No track around field.

UA also just hired its first full-time permanent President since our last President Hall died in 2006.

Word from multiple folks at UA is that the new President is very pro-Athletics and was in fact a interim AD at Minnesota in the early 2000s. People are very optimistic about his hiring.

It will just be nice to get some consistency and a constant presence with legislators and lobbyists.

Good to hear.

Danefan, What will be the capacity of Bob Ford Field on opening day?

SeawolvesFan90 wrote:Danefan, What will be the capacity of Bob Ford Field on opening day?

6500 seating
1500 terraced endzone berm that will serve as the student section

Total 8,000 give or take a few.

I wish they would have started at 10,000ish, but the end zone section will actually be pretty cool for the students. Specific concessions and everything for them out there plus a ramp area down through the student section where the players will run down onto the field from.

The away side will be temp bleachers too for now. They plan on doing the full visitors side at once (lower level and upper tier).

From what I understand these new seats will be on the visitors side and will include additional restrooms and concession stands. Now with our new conference mates coming in next year we should fill those additional seats.

Saw this in my local craft beer store. You guys should be lining these up in the parking lot for tailgates!

danefan wrote:

SeawolvesFan90 wrote:Danefan, What will be the capacity of Bob Ford Field on opening day?

6500 seating
1500 terraced endzone berm that will serve as the student section

Total 8,000 give or take a few.

I wish they would have started at 10,000ish, but the end zone section will actually be pretty cool for the students. Specific concessions and everything for them out there plus a ramp area down through the student section where the players will run down onto the field from.

The away side will be temp bleachers too for now. They plan on doing the full visitors side at once (lower level and upper tier).

That's great Dane! 8k should be fine for the CAA. and the plans for future expansion are there so even better

Congrats on the upgrades, SBU guys. There is no reason why you guys shouldn't have 15k for all home games in the next few years if the team can maintain some momentum into the CAA.

Obviously northern CAA expectations for attendance are significantly less than their southern counterparts.

Great news on the upgrades. Taking the CAA move seriously.

I think getting our seating up 10k + will be fine. We are a long way from 15k-20k for homegames as many southern CAA or SoCon teams now enjoy. I undestand the CAA travels well so those seats should be put to good use. Plus adding the creature comforts of restrooms and new concession stands makes for happy visitors. Right now it is hike for anyone to get to a restroom or by a hot dog as I saw this past weekend again.
So we are optimistic about the expansion and it will start to look like a real football stadium.