Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Minimum of $106 Million in Athletic Facility Improvements Planned
There was a prior thread about part of this, but a lot more information is now forthcoming about planned improvements to athletic facilities at WVU. It seems only final planning and approval by the governing boards is needed to embark on a minimum of $106 million in Athletic Department facilities to be paid for with revenue from Big XII Conference revenue sharing and media rights contracts that will have a wide ranging impact in Morgantown and at The University. Part of the plan involves a reuse plan for Hawley Field since the new county ballpark will eliminate the need for an on campus baseball facility.
Let's see what this actually results in, because it appears as though the best improvements WVU will be making at the football and basketball stadiums are related to adding advertising.
If WVU were big time, we'd be doing things that required actual demolition and construction, not projects which involved putting screens on the front of concrete walls.
When I started at WVU we seated 65K and had more than that on multiple occasions. We were one of the largest stadiums in the OLD big east and larger than most ACC stadiums. Since that time fifteen years ago, we've gone down in size and have schools like UL, Okie State, Baylor, UVA and other similarly small time schools meeting or exceeding us.
I should also point out that UL used to be ranked tens of spots below us in the academic rankings. As of a few years ago they were tied with us. Now, they're several spots ahead of us.
What in the hell is going on at WVU where we stay static or actually drop when everyone else rises.
UVA used to be a freaking joke in basketball and football. In 2001, UVA's stadium seated about 50K and their basketball arena seated 7500. At that same time, WVU was at 63500/14500 respectively.
Five years later? UVa is at 65K/16k and WVU is at 60k/14500.
What in the hell is going on at WVU where we are consistently getting passed by by everyone. We used to be the BEAST of the EAST, and now we're a mere afterthought...
Let's see what this actually results in, because it appears as though the best improvements WVU will be making at the football and basketball stadiums are related to adding advertising.
If WVU were big time, we'd be doing things that required actual demolition and construction, not projects which involved putting screens on the front of concrete walls.
When I started at WVU we seated 65K and had more than that on multiple occasions. We were one of the largest stadiums in the OLD big east and larger than most ACC stadiums. Since that time fifteen years ago, we've gone down in size and have schools like UL, Okie State, Baylor, UVA and other similarly small time schools meeting or exceeding us.
I should also point out that UL used to be ranked tens of spots below us in the academic rankings. As of a few years ago they were tied with us. Now, they're several spots ahead of us.
What in the hell is going on at WVU where we stay static or actually drop when everyone else rises.
UVA used to be a freaking joke in basketball and football. In 2001, UVA's stadium seated about 50K and their basketball arena seated 7500. At that same time, WVU was at 63500/14500 respectively.
Five years later? UVa is at 65K/16k and WVU is at 60k/14500.
What in the hell is going on at WVU where we are consistently getting passed by by everyone. We used to be the BEAST of the EAST, and now we're a mere afterthought...
Not sure where you're going with this, but if a Top 30 program in terms of revenue and fan base isn't big time, I don't know what is. I don't know what the attendance at UVa games is, but I'll see if I can find out. I know they generally suck, so if you think they are big time that's interesting.
Here you go... according to the Charlottesville newspaper, UVa's Scott Stadium seats fewer than Puskar... by 2,000 seats. In addition, their attendance has been steadily shrinking, and is several thousand fewer than attend Mountaineer games on average.
"That high-water mark, reached in the first year of reseating, was followed by four straight seasons in which ticket revenues ranged from $8.1 million to $9.4 million and attendance slumped from a near-capacity single-game average of 59,824 in 2007 to 47,000 from 2009 through last year. Scott Stadium seats 61,500."
You're also wrong about the UVa basketball arena. According to published reports, John Paul Jones Arena seats 14,593, or just 93 more than our Coliseum. Also, you are quoting attendance from an era when we had standing room attendees... thousands of them sitting on the hillside where the Puskar Center now sits. We traded that for facilities. Number of attendees is not, by a long shot, the most important factor for a program. Income is, and our program is doing just fine.
Making expansions and renovations to restrooms and concourses and adding luxary suites is a lot more than just advertising boards. Those are major improvements.
Last edited by CTMountaineer; 03-22-2014 at 12:09 AM..
CT.. UVA Seats 63500 to Puskar's 60K. When I was a Freshman, UVA seated 50K and WVU seated (officially) 63500.
WVU was seating 14500 in Basketball in the 70s, which was an incredible number. UVA was finally just building a 7000 person arena at that time. Fast forward 40 years, and WVU is still seating 14500 in an arena design which has mostly been demolished elsewhere, and UVA has built an arena that seats the same and hosts more large concerts than DC every year.
My point is, UVA does not emphasize athletics and has somehow started to eclipse us. At UVA, academics are king and athletics are secondary. At WVU, Athletics are a source of state pride because there isn't much else to be proud of. Despite that, UVA, who has paid basically only lip service to athletics, are beating our pants off.
If we're going to lose at academics, at least we should win at Athletics like the SEC. Instead, we simply lose at both...
CT.. UVA Seats 63500 to Puskar's 60K. When I was a Freshman, UVA seated 50K and WVU seated (officially) 63500.
WVU was seating 14500 in Basketball in the 70s, which was an incredible number. UVA was finally just building a 7000 person arena at that time. Fast forward 40 years, and WVU is still seating 14500 in an arena design which has mostly been demolished elsewhere, and UVA has built an arena that seats the same and hosts more large concerts than DC every year.
My point is, UVA does not emphasize athletics and has somehow started to eclipse us. At UVA, academics are king and athletics are secondary. At WVU, Athletics are a source of state pride because there isn't much else to be proud of. Despite that, UVA, who has paid basically only lip service to athletics, are beating our pants off.
If we're going to lose at academics, at least we should win at Athletics like the SEC. Instead, we simply lose at both...
We are not losing at academics, although that has absolutely nothing to do with this thread. We are gaining in academics in spite of a state government that operates the higher education system in the stone ages, and p*sses at least 30% of it's higher education budget down the drain on redundant programs and a teachers college at every other Interstate exit. A record number of programs at The University are nationally ranked, including the College of Business and Economics which recently moved into the Top 50 category and the very highly rated Engineering School. We are winning at academics, but not because of state government... in spite of it, due to amazing alumni support and donations.
The State of Virginia has a more appropriate approach to funding higher education, and puts more public support into their flagship institutions. It also has more than twice the population as our state. In spite of that, and the fact that they actually do have real urban population bases there while our state does not, their athletic attendance lags behind ours at UVa and is only slightly higher than ours at VTech. We're doing just fine with our Top 30 athletic support in a state that ranks at the bottom in terms of average income (admittedly that figure is heavily skewed by the southern sector of the state).
There is nothing wrong with the Coliseum that some remodeling won't fix. Aesthetics and the "latest" bad taste design are not really factors. There was a design shortcoming in terms of the concourses at both the Coliseum and the stadium. Both of those can be corrected without the massive expense of building a new stadium, and they will be as part of this plan. Everything else will get some window dressing and will be just fine. A $106 million outlay on facilities, in addition to the county's $20 million baseball expenditure are huge investments in the athletic program. This is being done without significant state support, and also (unlike other programs that float bonds on a lick and a promise of having funding to cover them) with guaranteed future income to foot the bond payments and an outstanding athletic support organization that regularly raises massive sums in donations.
Found the plans for the new auditorium at the Puskar Center. I'm happy because they did exactly what needed to be done and give that end of the stadium a clean look! Only change I'd make would be make the huge logo a solid color
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Minimum of $106 Million in Athletic Facility Improvements Planned
