McGuirk Upgrade

[Berkman]

I agree with you on this.

[minutefanjsf]

For us and, I assume, for many alums, going to the campus/the Valley for the day or the weekend is a main reason for purchasing season tickets every year. It's not just about football. I kept the tickets through the Gillette experience, and was very happy when it ended, even though Gillette is a lot shorter drive. Once a year there is just fine.

For us, Springfield or Worcester or "somewhere off the Mass Pike" would be a terrible decision.

I agree. My comment was that on campus is the way to go, but that if they were to choose to build off campus I would avoid Springfield. This upcoming season will be my 20th season with season tickets. I live in a Springfield suburb, and it would be easier for me to go to Springfield than Worcester etc. I want a new stadium on campus. But, if they chose to build somewhere else, Worcester or closer to the Pike and East is better than Springfield in my opinion for making it easier to get fans there only.

[photoman]

if they chose to build somewhere else, Worcester or closer to the Pike and East is better than Springfield in my opinion for making it easier to get fans there only.

Why does a stadium exist if not for the fans? Put the stadium where the fans are. The students would be happy with free beer in a parking lot on campus and have shown ZERO interest in football. I was for Springfield being within "reasonable" distance to Amherst, but Worcester and turnpike would be that much better.

[Old Cage]

^ Hey, photoman - I don't know how you did that, but I did not say that.

[photoman]

^ Hey, photoman - I don't know how you did that, but I did not say that.

Photoshop? Well, somebody said it! lol

[minutefanjsf]

^ Hey, photoman - I don't know how you did that, but I did not say that.

Me neither...

[pk77]

The state is not going to dump money into building a $70M stadium, get over the pipe dream. if we got the money, use it to build the program and give Whipple the money to get some solid assistants and recruiters and get the games in Gillette and near where the larger donors are.

[Carl Spackler]

The state is not going to dump money into building a $70M stadium, get over the pipe dream. if we got the money, use it to build the program and give Whipple the money to get some solid assistants and recruiters and get the games in Gillette and near where the larger donors are.

PK77 you made a similar post 1 page prior....I think there is a ceiling to how much you can “build the program” without building the infrastructure. We have a great university and we have a great football performance center. In order to take the next step and position ourselves for conference affiliation we need a multi-sport IPF and a 30k to 35k first-class football stadium....on campus. I don’t think it’s a “pipe dream”as you say. Doesn’t make a ton of sense to build a first class press box and football performance center for a division III football stadium. I think there are plans to build this stadium in the same foot-print as McGuirk but for some reason these plans are not public.

[Floyd]

New stadium should indeed be built...and relocated to Springfield. With proper infrastructure and easy highway access. The whole "on-campus" thing is overrated. It's 6 games per year. Board the buses!

This is not the right move.
I don’t really like games at Gillete either, tbh. It’s quicker to get from Logan to Gillete than it is to get from Amherst to Gillete, not only does this hurt student attendance, but it also makes it, essentially, an away game seeing as we have to travel farther (by bus) than the other team (usually).
College Athletics belong on or very close to college campuses, that’s why it’s called college athletics.

I agree with this. Once the team has sustained success, students will make it a place to be and fans will come out. As others have said, making the trip out to campus is part of the experience

[Berkman]

I think there are plans to build this stadium in the same foot-print as McGuirk but for some reason these plans are not public.

There were three options on display in the new locker facility. Not sure if they are still there but if you go there and ask I am sure that someone will show them to you.

[minutefanjsf]

I think there are plans to build this stadium in the same foot-print as McGuirk but for some reason these plans are not public.

There were three options on display in the new locker facility. Not sure if they are still there but if you go there and ask I am sure that someone will show them to you.

Somewhere in this thread or over on Frank's blog you can see the drawings.

[minutefanjsf]

Here are those photos, courtesy of the 74 blog. Great work by him.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3IV6ym2k0kI/V ... G_3529.JPG

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0-TgJoMpTn0/V ... G_3530.JPG

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o3zQVvtn28s/V ... G_3531.JPG

I can't embed them because I don't know what I'm doing but click on them and bask in what could be...

His opinion was also posted on the blog...

There was no handout about the renderings, but adding a deck to the East side and endzone seats would probably push McGuirk from 17,000 to 25,000 or so. That would be sufficient for MAC-level play, but no Power Five team would ever visit. When Michigan visited UConn at Rentschler in 2013 (capacity 40,000), Michigan pushed hard to move the game to a larger venue.

TBH I disagree with that assessment. P5 teams won't visit now for several reasons: there are no facilities (ie bathrooms) and not a lot of seats for their traveling fans. But the #1 reason, at least IMO, is the visiting locker rooms. Those would be embarrassing for a high school to have, yet we use them. If the visiting team facilities were better, P5 teams would come play in Amherst if the stadium looked like that.

Maybe not every P5 team, but at some point you have to put your foot down and stop using Gillette. A P5 home game is the type of game you want on campus more than anything to get the students there. Old Dominion just signed a home-and-home deal with UNC that has the Tar Heels coming to play them in Virginia, and their stadium (Foreman Field) has a capacity of 20,118. Charlotte has a game at home against Duke on the books and their stadium (Jerry Richardson Field) holds 15,314.

If the visiting teams facilities were up to par, P5 teams would have no problem visiting Amherst. You could even make upgrades to that before even taking on doing the rest of the stadium.

Pictures

[eldonabe]

I think there are plans to build this stadium in the same foot-print as McGuirk but for some reason these plans are not public.

There were three options on display in the new locker facility. Not sure if they are still there but if you go there and ask I am sure that someone will show them to you.

I vote for the option that includes 100% demolition and starting all over again....... It doesn't need to Be a Taj-Mahal. It does need to get to 30k-ish seats with the ability to add another 10k - 15K down the road. I still say it does not have to be right on Campus either - there is a lot of land along RTE116 that could be used that is still adjacent to the campus. While you are building that you put in a trolley/rail system to transport students from a few central hubs on campus.

[photoman]

@eldonabe- Interesting idea. I like to use Rentschler as an example of "non-Taj Mahal" but does the job.

[Steve81]

Vote for a JMU style, do one side right, make it appealing and get those season ticket numbers up by people wanting to be on that side. Don't do the wing and no need of the press box so, perhaps it can be done for around 60 Million, which we all know is a sticky point. Personally would love to see a facility project that we can give to and it can be for any McGuirk improvements. Give us a goal and a chance to start building the cash, as we all know, this is a long term project.