LU will spend $25,869,201 on the new field house and stadium renovations!!

[McTailGator]

It's just not adding up.

How much for the land?

[UNLV]

It's just not adding up.

How much for the land?

Freeeeee....

[AggiesAreWe]

It's just not adding up.

BISD is doing this for $30 million

which includes a natatorium and field house.

Lamar is not building from the ground up so why is LU plans so much less for only $4 million less.

If you use coach's numbers on the BISD plan, assuming the natatorium and field house cost $7.5 million, then BISD only

have $6 million to build 2 double deck seating stands. Do you see my point?

What confuses me about the BISD stadium is it's seating capacity. They say it will be 11,000 capacity, but with two decks on each side, you would think there would be more. I know that PNG, Nederland, and even 3A Silsbee's stadium holds 10,000, and that's just single decks on both sides. PNG's stadium probably holds more than 10,000 with it's new expansion.

Cardinal Stadium holds 17,500 with single decks, roughly 7,000 more than what the BISD stadium will hold. Maybe that has something to do with the lower costs of builing the BISD stadium. Looks as though those decks won't be very big. :

These are the numbers listed for biggest HS stadiums in SETX

1. Indian Stadium (PN-G) 13,000

2. Bulldog Stadium (Nederland) 11,000

3. Durley Stadium (West Brook) 10,000

3. Zaharias Stadium (Central) 10,000

3. Raider Stadium (Lumberton) 10,000

6. Pirate Stadium (Vidor) 9,600

7. Hooks Stadium (WOS) 9,500

8. Tiger Stadium (Silsbee) 9,300

9. Memorial Stadium (Memorial) 8,500- I think this number is off even though it has gotten smaller over the years.

9. Ward Stadium (Bridge City) 8,500

9. Bear Stadium (LC-M) 8,500

Lumberton added I had it just forgot to type it.

Silsbee's Tiger Stadium is actually 9,800.

[McTailGator]

LU's big plan of the future is to go to D1, which will require them to have a minimum of 33,000 seats.  They are kind of land locked, but I think there is room if proper planning is followed.  I agree, stadium renovations will be expensive and to make seating capacity at a minimum of 33k will take some vision.  They will do a good job, Dr. Simmons is all in.  There is no sense in trying to cut corners and do it the same old way.  I'm glad the idiots who were responsible for the collapse of the program are gone.  Football is expensive and the people responsible realize that they cannot cut corners.  I expect big things from LU in the future.  Bottomline, FOOTBALL is the pinnacle sport in Texas, Period!  Let's do it right.

SECOND - Your 33,000 stadium size figure is TOTALLY WRONG.  AND it was NEVER a rule EVER.

You're almost correct in your statement.  As I understand it, in the very early '80's, the NCAA split football into D1A and D1AA.  The requirement to remain in D1A, the top level of competition now known as FBS, was to have a minimum 30,000 seat capacity stadium.  Many programs, such as North Texas, chose not to meet the stadium requirement and simply dropped down to D1AA (NT's death wish).  NT remained there for 10 years, and in 1994 made the push to move to D1A.  The requirement then was to have the 30,000 seat stadium, which they did through expansion, and average 17,000 or so fans that season.  I may be off on the attendance average requirement, but 17K seems about right.  It was just a one year stadium/attendance requirement for programs wanting to compete in D1A.

Oh I am totally right, because I have made it a point to know how it was and is done.

The rule in the LATE 70's and early 80's were that IF any school averaged 17,000 TICKETS sold, OR if they had a 30,000 seat stadium, they could remain or mover OVER to I-A.

Of the SLC teams AT THAT time, ONLY McNeese and USL actually had the 17,000 attendance to do it at the time, without selling any $1.00 tickets to no one.  USL added 6,000 seats anyway aimply by renumbering their seats (ok if your butt is less than 12 inches wide) and left the SLC to "BE BIG TIME, and lose BIG TIME.  They later realized that they didn't even have to add the few seat that they did.  But they were so certain they would be the next LSU, they did it anyway.  They only needed the extra seats twice in the next 23 years.  Once in 1995 vs Texas A&M in Laugh-a-ette, and again in 2007 vs McNeese when they thought they had advanced enough to risk playing little ole McNeese.  We beat them 38-17 and took a knee on the 12 ydl, with alomost 2 minutes to play.  It wasn't that close.

Note that Toledo (and another MAC school) do not have 30,000 seat stadiums, but like McNeese, they had the attendance to do it without the stadium expansion.  McNeese just remained in the SLC (along with Lamar) to compete in a confeence within our budgetary means.

It took LaTech a couple of years to add some seats before they could do it a couple of years later.

Then the rule changed a litle, and you had to have BOTH the 30K stadium and the 17K tickets in the year prior to going I-A OR average 17K for 3 years even without the 30K stadium.  That is when ULM added `10,000 horribly unsafe bleachers, and sold $1 tickets to dead people, and unborn children to get their ticket sales up.  

Troy did it without a 30K stadium.  They had a 17,500 seat stadium at the tme in the mid 90's and just averaged 17K sold for 3 years to do it.  They added 13,000 seats the year AFTER they went I-A.  I remember being at a Troy game vs McNeese in Alabama, in the rain when McNeese fans outnumbered Troy fans, and the announced ticket sales were exactly 17,000.  All the McNeese fans look at each other and burst into laughter because there was only about 3,000 of us, and we didn't think there were 5,000 people in the stadium.

I would suspect that UNT did the same as Troy and ULM.

The NEW rule does away with the 30K requirement, only to say that a school must now AVERAGE 15,000 a game over a 2 year period to go or remain FBS.  The only catch is of the 15,000.  ALL must be REAL rear ends that PAID FULL PRICE for their tickets AND the figures are subject to an independent audit, which the NCAA does not have the balls to do.

This is proving to be very difficult for most of the SBC, MAC, and several in the WAC and even CUSA.  Houston was even in trouble for a short period of time as was Rice and Tulane.

Tulane fans expect to be outnumbered this year in the Dome when McNeese comes to town.  Which is why they want us in the dome. We keep our ticket sales and a guaranteed fee.

[McTailGator]

To be FBS today, you need to average 15k. So far the NCAA has not enforced that rule because

a lot of FBS would be booted out. Many conferences would be ripped apart; Sunbelt, WAC, CUSA....

BTW, on wiki it is showing on the SLC page UTSA is a football school playing in a 65,000 Alamo Dome

while Lamar has no stadium and is a no-football school. Talk about no respect.

Talk about IGNORANCE!    :

[UNLV]

I just heard on the news that the new Amelia elementary schools will cost $19 million. After fieldhouse

cost, LU will spend that much on the stadium. A whole school vs cosmetics to the stadium for the same amount.

[HouTexan]

The U of H renovations to the north endzone at Roberston is set to cost $38.7million:

[Green Menace]

"I would suspect that UNT did the same as Troy and ULM."

Actually, UNT did both during their 1A qualifying year in 1994.  The stadium was expanded to 30,000 (terrible seating BTW), and they averaged over 19,000 per game that year.

[AJ25]

The U of H renovations to the north endzone at Roberston is set to cost $38.7million:

haven't they already started on the renovations in houston?

[HouTexan]

UH renovations start this month.

[UNLV]

LU could do something like UH plans. Instead of classrooms, this could be the back of the new fieldhouse with added seating to horseshoe and suites on top.

[Guest coachacola]

LU could do something like UH plans. Instead of classrooms, this could be the back of the new fieldhouse with added seating to horseshoe and suites on top.

Since Dr. Simmons stated that they could easily expand the stadium to 36K then they would have to leave room for a horseshoe design.  I still don't understand why they haven't made the design public yet, unless they are still working on it.

[UNLV]

I keep telling myself LU has a very good reason to be so secretive...This is frustrating.

[Green Menace]

LU could do something like UH plans. Instead of classrooms, this could be the back of the new fieldhouse with added seating to horseshoe and suites on top.

Wonder what type of classrooms UH is planning for.  Academic for all students or study rooms for athletes only?  If the former, state money can be used.  That's how tiger stadium at LSU was partially built initially.  But they build dorms into the stadium.