McGuirk Upgrade

[Steve81]

Jumped on the JMU expansion as they were CAA, like us and had a more primative stadium as well. Plus David Biancamano while at Rice (2011-13), Biancamano served as the Director of Development and led fundraising on a $31.5 million football facility expansion and $9 million tennis center project. During his second stint at JMU from 2008-11, Biancamano was the primary fundraiser for the Memorial Stadium Project ($9.5 million new baseball and softball complex), and he was a member of the team that raised capital funds for the Campaign for Bridgeforth Stadium ($62 million football stadium enhancement).

[Quann]

Just curious... Do any of you like watching games from an end zone seat?
I was lucky enough to have a dad who was a buyer for a power company. He would get treated to Jets tickets at Shea Stadium in the upper deck behind the end zone. We were up a ways, but we got to see the plays opening up, just like they we drawn up. Don't know if we would have appreciated seeing the same from lower viewpoints.

My family has had end zone seats for the pats since Gillette opened. I like the view. We’re in section 140 so kind of in the corner.

[69MG]

I went to the Army game and the UMass tickets were in the end zone. I liked the view as we were halfway up. We could see the whole field and the scoreboard gave us a closeup view if anything important happened down the other end. Of course, all of our touchdowns were scored at our end, so it was very special.

[Quann]

Just curious... Do any of you like watching games from an end zone seat?
I was lucky enough to have a dad who was a buyer for a power company. He would get treated to Jets tickets at Shea Stadium in the upper deck behind the end zone. We were up a ways, but we got to see the plays opening up, just like they we drawn up. Don't know if we would have appreciated seeing the same from lower viewpoints.

Ends and sides are great for football … corners not so much

Corners are not bad at all for football in the lower section of a stadium which is where ours would be.

[Berkman]

No regular place to put this but the Carolina Panthers were only charging .45 cents to sit in the third balcony seating in the pouring rain.

[shizzle787]

UMass should not increase capacity at McGuirk. UMass has not sold out a home game there since 2014 against Bowling Green. Before that, the prior sellout was against New Hampshire in the 2006 FCS quarterfinals. Prior to that, I don't even know. Going back to 1982 (the last year Wikipedia includes all attendance figures) they did not have another sellout. So in 40+ years, there have been two sellouts at a 17,000-seat stadium. Increasing capacity would be a massive waste of money. Decreasing capacity to 12-14k and significantly increasing amenities would be the way to go.

That would result in a much better game day experience.

[Berkman]

But isn't a requirement of the NCAA that to remain a 1A school you need to be able to seat 30,000?

[Quann]

UMass should not increase capacity at McGuirk. UMass has not sold out a home game there since 2014 against Bowling Green. Before that, the prior sellout was against New Hampshire in the 2006 FCS quarterfinals. Prior to that, I don't even know. Going back to 1982 (the last year Wikipedia includes all attendance figures) they did not have another sellout. So in 40+ years, there have been two sellouts at a 17,000-seat stadium. Increasing capacity would be a massive waste of money. Decreasing capacity to 12-14k and significantly increasing amenities would be the way to go.

That would result in a much better game day experience.

I think you should enclose the entire field with end zone seating on both ends and fill in the spaces on both sidelines in the front. A continuous bowl is aesthetically pleasing. The result is more seating but the goal is to make it a better gameday experience.

Berkman the ncaa eliminated the capacity requirement a few years ago. There is no longer a minimum requirement to stay in Fbs.

[Crank]

^I don't see them moving the FPC to add seats to that endzone but I'm all for adding them to the other one.

[Steve81]

UMass should not increase capacity at McGuirk. UMass has not sold out a home game there since 2014 against Bowling Green. Before that, the prior sellout was against New Hampshire in the 2006 FCS quarterfinals. Prior to that, I don't even know. Going back to 1982 (the last year Wikipedia includes all attendance figures) they did not have another sellout. So in 40+ years, there have been two sellouts at a 17,000-seat stadium. Increasing capacity would be a massive waste of money. Decreasing capacity to 12-14k and significantly increasing amenities would be the way to go.

That would result in a much better game day experience.

This November after our Army win, we had 14,672 or 2,328 shy of capacity. People are starting to believe in the program. We have not had a winning season and well over a decade and we are coming close to sell outs. Next year with some good weather and early wins, we will be sold out out. Shizzle787, this UMass fan doesn't like UConn fans. Go back to the boneyard and stop trying to understand UMass from your UConn prospective. You would sh-t on UMass at every opportunity. First some crap about how we'd never leave the A10. Then posting you don't understand anything we are finally starting to do.

Yes, we went FBS on the cheap. Now we have a Chancellor that is a sports fan, including football. He is championing a real strategic plan. He will be changing things at UMass. Don't care whether you believe, understand or like it or not. Go support your programs scheduling 5 P5 games a year and enjoy be independent. We've done it far too long.

[Quann]

^I don't see them moving the FPC to add seats to that endzone but I'm all for adding them to the other one.

On that end I would just add seats from the FPC down to the field, you have enough room for a few rows there. It would look pretty cool. The other side can have full end zone seating.

[Steve81]

^I don't see them moving the FPC to add seats to that endzone but I'm all for adding them to the other one.

On that end I would just add seats from the FPC down to the field, you have enough room for a few rows there. It would look pretty cool. The other side can have full end zone seating.

Our AD, early on said if tickets sold out, they could sell SOL (standing room only) tickets and the area for them would probably be in front of the FPC.

[Quann]

Or we could add seats now and people could actually use them instead of the hypothetical future when we sell out a game.

[InnervisionsUMASS]

One stadium in MA is getting renovated:

https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/of ... e/3223624/

[jjmc85]

But isn't a requirement of the NCAA that to remain a 1A school you need to be able to seat 30,000?

No. That requirement was removed a long time before UMass joined FBS.

This season the NCAA also removed the average attendance requirement which I guess is a good thing as UMass hasn’t reached that in almost a decade anyway. Now it’s based on sports you offer and scholarships you give.