THE BLACKFALKIN PROPOSAL

[BlackFalkin]

Best way to expand Roos and working around the annoying track.

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

The best way is to level it and start over.

[JBB]

That track gives the field and bleachers that unmistakable "big time" high school feel. Nice bleachers and refreshment tables though and a good plan to boot!

[G&B]

The best way is to level it and start over.

No shit.

[youngterrier]

someones good at microsoft paint

[CatMom]

horseshoe it in with a v locker room and put the board on top...add a locker room/complex at the other, or one with locker rooms for both teams. Parking garage is a waste of money when you need to be adding actual seats.

[DJH]

incredible artistic skills you have BF.

[EWURanger]

My rendition of the updated Roos video board and expanded east grand stand.

[CAA Flagship]

What is the land situation there that you need a parking garage? What attendance do you expect for the need to expand?
No mention of luxury boxes? It is difficult to make the dollars work for expansion without luxury boxes.

[kalm]

What is the land situation there that you need a parking garage? What attendance do you expect for the need to expand?
No mention of luxury boxes? It is difficult to make the dollars work for expansion without luxury boxes.

We have luxury boxes. The parking situation isn't great even considering our low attendance. The upper parking lot/tailgating area is often full 2 hours before kickoff and people end up having to park along the street upwards of half a mile away. But the east grandstands are still a far greater neccessity IMO.

[EWURanger]

Tha parking garage thing probably addresses the parking situation on the campus in general, and not just for the football/basketball venues.

I'm not completely sold on the idea, and I think that there's other areas where money could be invested that would pay higher dividends, but parking is a problem. On a reasonbly well-attended game, you can't find parking anywhere remotely close without having to walk quite a distance, so it is an issue that will have to be addressed at some point. One option may be to simply expand the current upper parking lot - there's tons of room back there to do so.

[ASUSandman]

The stadium currently seats 8600. For the 2010 regular season you averaged 7290, a number greatly skewed upwards by the Montana game. The average for the other 4 regular season games was 6188. You followed that up with an average of 4775 for the playoffs with only 6600 showing up for the semi-finals. You draw 71% of current capacity on a regular basis. Why all the fuss for something that obviously isn't needed?

[Grizalltheway]

The stadium currently seats 8600. For the 2010 regular season you averaged 7290, a number greatly skewed upwards by the Montana game. The average for the other 4 regular season games was 6188. You followed that up with an average of 4775 for the playoffs with only 6600 showing up for the semi-finals. You draw 71% of current capacity on a regular basis. Why all the fuss for something that obviously isn't needed?

Stadium envy.

[Montanan]

does EWU have an ongoing capital campaign? has AD Chaves continued his donation/contribution efforts with your alumni assns? is EWU admin/athletic dept using the current momentum to establish a facility upgrade committee?

[EWURanger]

The stadium currently seats 8600. For the 2010 regular season you averaged 7290, a number greatly skewed upwards by the Montana game. The average for the other 4 regular season games was 6188. You followed that up with an average of 4775 for the playoffs with only 6600 showing up for the semi-finals. You draw 71% of current capacity on a regular basis. Why all the fuss for something that obviously isn't needed?

Playoff attendance will always be a struggle at someplace like EWU which is on the quarter system, meaning school is out before the playoffs even begin. This is true at other schools as well. Although I do think attendance will be up to near capacity for a lot of games next year, it's more than just an issue of needing additional seats. It's an aesthetic issue just as much as anything else.

Earlier this decade EWU started a multi-phase stadium renovation plan which replaced the press box, entrances, added the north end zone seating, etc. as well as new locker/weight rooms. The plan also called for additional seating on the press box side as well as replacing the crappy bleachers on the opposite side.

This video (circa 2002) shows what the venue looked like prior to the media center and end zone seating. Pretty bad.

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For most EWU folks, I think we just want to see the original project completed, which I believe would bring capacity up to around 12,000 which is a good number. We probably wouldn't fill it right off the bat, but it would leave room for growth and give the venue more of a real "Division I" feel, vice a glorified D-II stadium.

While the comparison isn't totally applicable, look at Montana's program prior to 1986 when WGS was built. They were an average program that played in marginal facilities with mediocre fan support. When WGS opened, all that changed. Two national championships later, and the rest is history.

Now, I don't think any EWU folks are under the illusion that we need to build a WA-Griz, but there's definitely room for a lot of improvement at Roos. People go to football games for the game-day experience as much as they do to watch the game. The red turf was a nice kick-start (we like it), and a new jumbo-tron which may come in as early as next year will help, to really get to that next level and sustain it there, further improvements are needed. A new grandstand is part of that, because it will do tons for the aesthetic quality of the venue and help in recruiting. Like I said, we wouldn't fill it right off the bat, but another few years of making deep runs into the playoffs will help that. There's a new buzz around the program - we don't expect to be one and done - so I know a lot of folks that want to see this happen. We just need to convince the folks with the big money that it's going to be a worthwhile investment. Maybe TJ will help out after a few succesful years in the NFL.

[HenZoneNation]

My rendition of the updated Roos video board and expanded east grand stand.

I must say that is pretty cool...awesome job...makes me wish I knew anything about computers.

Way cool.

[bpcats]

Parking garage is a good idea in general and should be explored.

As long as you have a track running around the field, it will always make the gameday experience feel 2nd rate. Sorry. Have everything going for your program.

More permanent bleacher on the visitors side would be nice.

[BlackFalkin]

Parking garage is a good idea in general and should be explored.

As long as you have a track running around the field, it will always make the gameday experience feel 2nd rate. Sorry. Have everything going for your program.

More permanent bleacher on the visitors side would be nice.

[Appaholic]

As long as you have a track running around the field, it will always make the gameday experience feel 2nd rate. Sorry. Have everything going for your program.

Agree that it would be preferable not to thave the track, but it's cost prohibitive to remove. Personally think it's overblown importance...nice, but no deal killer as you can see from BF's accompanying pictures. Gameday experience starts in the parking lot & moves to the stands. The track, whole not visually appealing, can be overcome with loud fans and I do not even notice when attending App games. But I will concede it was cool as heel to be right on top of the sidelines at Wa/Griz.

[EWURanger]

I guess I've never really felt like tracks were that big of a deal. Sure, it'd be nice to get rid of it and put it somewhere else, but even aesthetically I've never really thought they look all that bad. Here's another example:



Although it does look like it's going to be removed with the renovation:



Also, I really like what App's done with their grandstand opposite the press box. What's the capacity on that side of the field?

[EWURanger]

My rendition of the updated Roos video board and expanded east grand stand.

I must say that is pretty cool...awesome job...makes me wish I knew anything about computers.

Way cool.

Google sketch-up. It allows you to take a piece of google earth imagery and then build stuff on it. Did take me a while to do it, though.

[Silenoz]

Have to agree with bpcats, I hate watching games at stadiums with tracks, since I'm used to being 5 feet away from the opposing team/sideline, not 30 yards.

Although it could be worse:

May as well watch it on TV at that point

[Silenoz]

What is the land situation there that you need a parking garage? What attendance do you expect for the need to expand?
No mention of luxury boxes? It is difficult to make the dollars work for expansion without luxury boxes.

I can only speak for the Griz games, but we get there plenty early and still have to walk several miles to the stadium. I could be the last one to the stadium for a Griz home game and still park twice as close.

[EWURanger]

What is the land situation there that you need a parking garage? What attendance do you expect for the need to expand?
No mention of luxury boxes? It is difficult to make the dollars work for expansion without luxury boxes.

I can only speak for the Griz games, but we get there plenty early and still have to walk several miles to the stadium. I could be the last one to the stadium for a Griz home game and still park twice as close.

Yep. Parking sucks.

[Thumper 76]

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