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Home finale set for Oct. 29, Kessler Field demolition to follow

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During Monmouth's National Signing Day event at the Multipurpose Activity Center Wednesday afternoon, Callahan let it be known that the Hawks' 2016 home finale will take place on Oct. 29 vs. Kennesaw State. After that, demolition of Kessler Field can begin in anticipation of building its long-planned 4,200-seat bowl-like stadium.

On Nov. 19, the West Long Branch Zoning Board approved Monmouth's plan for an upgraded football stadium by a unanimous 5-0 vote. That paves the way for construction to begin on the $15 million project at the conclusion of the 2016 football season. The stadium is expected to be completed for the 2017 home-opener against Lafayette.

"We've changed our schedule for the 2016 season, we've wiped out all of our home games in the month of November so that construction can start as early as possible," Callahan said. "Really, it will give the contractors an extra month to go build it.

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Good for them. Their current field has a small high school scoreboard and you had to use port-o-johns (if you can believe that).

A 4,200 seat bowl? Does it have three rows?

93henfan wrote:A 4,200 seat bowl? Does it have three rows?

LOL - can't be many

They're a full scholly I-AA program that left the NEC 2 years ago because they wanted to upgrade their football program above the level of the NEC (now up to 40? scholly limit) and commit to full 63 scholly alottment football in the Big South. Now they are building a high school size stadium that will have a lower capacity than their current stadium (4600), smaller than any other in the Big South except for Charleston Southern, and smaller than 4 of the 7 NEC stadiums. Makes no sense..

93henfan wrote:A 4,200 seat bowl? Does it have three rows?

You beat me to it.

Monmouth is in the heart of the Jersey Shore. This means pizza and Italian sausage sammiches, Wawa and pork roll. Wider seats are needed. So the 4200 wide seats will really look like 6400.

BDKJMU wrote:They're a full scholly I-AA program that left the NEC 2 years ago because they wanted to upgrade their football program above the level of the NEC (now up to 40? scholly limit) and commit to full 63 scholly alottment football in the Big South. Now they are building a high school size stadium that will have a lower capacity than their current stadium (4600), smaller than any other in the Big South except for Charleston Southern, and smaller than 4 of the 7 NEC stadiums. Makes no sense..

They were running into issues from local government on how big they could build. They choose to go the nicer, but smaller stadium route at this time

So… if the Hawks make the playoffs will they get to play in MetLife Stadium?

dbackjon wrote:

BDKJMU wrote:They're a full scholly I-AA program that left the NEC 2 years ago because they wanted to upgrade their football program above the level of the NEC (now up to 40? scholly limit) and commit to full 63 scholly alottment football in the Big South. Now they are building a high school size stadium that will have a lower capacity than their current stadium (4600), smaller than any other in the Big South except for Charleston Southern, and smaller than 4 of the 7 NEC stadiums. Makes no sense..

They were running into issues from local government on how big they could build. They choose to go the nicer, but smaller stadium route at this time

Nicer smaller stadium route would be what UR did with 8700 (I believe they would've built 10-12k if not for local opposition). 4200 is literally HS/Div 3 stadium size.

dbackjon wrote:They choose to go the nicer, but smaller stadium route at this time

I've been to that stadium. In this case, "nicer" is a very very low bar to clear.

BDKJMU wrote:4200 is literally HS/Div 3 stadium size.

It would also be the average attendance for a third of the I-AA schools. Just sayin.

89Hen wrote:

BDKJMU wrote:4200 is literally HS/Div 3 stadium size.

It would also be the average attendance for a third of the I-AA schools. Just sayin.

Wrong. According to 2014 attendance figures, only 23 of 120 I-AA teams avg 4200 or lower (I even included anyone listed below 4300). That is less than 20%.

16 of those 23 are from non scholly to less than full 63 scholly conferences (Pioneer, NEC, Patriot).
2 (DSU & Sav St) are HBCUs.

Of the 70 teams from the 8 full scholly, AQ conferences, only 5 averaged less than 4200 in 2014:
-2 Big Sky: UNC (4,207) & S UT (3,261) (and S UT upped theirs this year to 5,579)
-2 Big South: Presby (3,565) & Monmouth (1,832) (did up to 2,461 2015.)
-Southland Houston Babtist (3,502) who was in their 2nd year of football.
http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_ ... e/2014.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So of those 70 teams from full scholly AQ conferences, Monmouth had BY FAR the worst attendance in 2014. If you include all 120 teams, they were 117th- only 3 of the NEC teams were lower. So even though they upped their attendance to 2,461 this past season, it looks like 4200 is plenty big for them. Pathetic.

What I don't get, with such a pathetic level of support, why did they leave the 40 schollies allowed NEC, in their geopgraphic footprint, where they fit right in attendance wise, to the 63 schollies allowed Big South, out of the geographic footprint? Makes no sense at all.

BDKJMU wrote:What I don't get, with such a pathetic level of support, why did they leave the 40 schollies allowed NEC, in their geopgraphic footprint, where they fit right in attendance wise, to the 63 schollies allowed Big South, out of the geographic footprint? Makes no sense at all.

It was a necessity of conference politics. Monmouth actually left the NEC for the MAAC but, since the MAAC doesn't have football, Monmouth petitioned the NEC to keep football there as an associate member. However, several other schools -- Bryant and Saint Francis, specifically, and possibly more -- were considering the same type of move which would have devastated the NEC in every sport except football. The NEC commissioner decided to draw a line in the sand and refused Monmouth associate membership, a move that kept the rest of the conference together but also left Monmouth football dangling in the wind. The Big South, which already had a history of having a far-flung northern associate member with Stony Brook, entered the picture and negotiations were swiftly concluded and successful.

BDKJMU wrote:Wrong. According to 2014 attendance figures, only 23 of 120 I-AA teams avg 4200 or lower (I even included anyone listed below 4300). That is less than 20%.

16 of those 23 are from non scholly to less than full 63 scholly conferences (Pioneer, NEC, Patriot).
2 (DSU & Sav St) are HBCUs.

I was speaking in general terms (I also count 25 which is greater than 20%) and there are 13 more teams from 4300-5000. And Monmouth is really an NEC team in disguise BDK. 4200 is also a 230% increase for Monmouth. Why would you want them to build bigger right off the bat? I'm sure they can expand if they ever needed.