McGuirk Upgrade

[McKinney]

I told you I had a very good source for this info about the IPF that I posted in February : )

Looks like you did. But also looks like some info got jumbled up because the $25-30M is for a permanent facility, not the bubble.

Keep us posted if you hear anything else!

[DearOleUMass]

BUBBLE BUILDING — Bamford said UMass is in the early stages of soliciting donations for an indoor practice facility. It’s primary tenant would be football, but all outdoor teams could benefit from it.

The project ranges from a temporary bubble, which can be inflated and deflated based on weather, or a permanent facility.

Costs range from $5 million for a temporary bubble to $35 million for a higher-end permanent structure. How much money UMass is able to fundraise will likely determine the caliber of structure.

“If I had to guess, we’ll be somewhere in the mid-$20s,” Bamford said. “If we can’t get the funding right, we’re not opposed to a season bubble like BC and Harvard have, but I’d like to build something fixed if we could.”

Bamford said there’s preliminary interest among donors.

“We have a couple of soft (donation) commitments on it that we feel pretty good about,” he said. “We’re going to go through a quiet phase over the next three or four months and figure out who’s in. That’ll dictate what we do with the indoor facility and the stadium.”

ACADEMIC SPACE — The athletic department is completing a $750,000 overhaul of its academic support center in Boyden.

http://www.gazettenet.com/Contract-exte ... g-16754878

I told you I had a very good source for this info about the IPF that I posted in February : )

I'm still confused..originally you had mentioned it was a bubble but then went on to say it was in the range of 25-30 million. A bubble wouldn't cost 25 million. Let's hope we can get to that $30 million goal.

[McKinney]

I actually like this idea. Getting a temporary facility now (and for free other than delivery) eliminates the current competitive disadvantage and gives the department a little bit more time to fundraise and build the permanent structure. Thoughts?

[dennisdent]

http://www.gazettenet.com/Contract-exte ... g-16754878

I told you I had a very good source for this info about the IPF that I posted in February : )

I'm still confused..originally you had mentioned it was a bubble but then went on to say it was in the range of 25-30 million. A bubble wouldn't cost 25 million. Let's hope we can get to that $30 million goal.

It was called a "bubble" to me, and what I was told mirrors what was written in the article--that was two months ago and the process is always changing. Hope you're planning on donating to the 30 million goal!

[MJatUM]

I actually like this idea. Getting a temporary facility now (and for free other than delivery) eliminates the current competitive disadvantage and gives the department a little bit more time to fundraise and build the permanent structure. Thoughts?

You left out the reply where 5CM said they do not offer bubble delivery services

Not sure what the cost associated with buying the used bubble, finding land, I assume it would need some excavation, flattening, fields installed (etc etc etc). If, say, $2M of the $5M bubble cost is in everything I said above it may not be worth the future loss if you're going to then have to rip it all up to add a permanent fixture.

[Jack]

Install a permanent IPF and get on with it. 20-25M is hardly an insurmountable price tag. no stop gap temp facilities or hand me down crap. That approach is really foolish and destructive on multiple levels.

[McKinney]

^^ I think that BC's bubble is meant to be used within their stadium. It should fit inside McGuirk so I don't think there'd need any prep work. I believe Mike's financing plan was to take the bubble off their hands in exchange for road games. BC isn't going to get much for a 20 year old bubble that's at the end of its service life anyway.

There would be transportation and installation costs. The bubble probably weighs about 70,000 lbs which means that it could fit in one truckload. The shipping is estimated at $120, so the packing and shipping might only be in the 4 figures. I couldn't find maintenance and operational costs, but those are kind of negligible to the argument because we'd have that annual expenditure with an IPF as well

This is not a long term solution, bubbles are designed to last 20 years and if they're very well maintained they can last 30. This is only a stop gap measure. It rids us of our competitive disadvantage for a couple seasons.

Sources:
http://www.thedp.com/article/2011/11/ai ... _penn_park
https://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/t ... s/?slide=6
http://worldfreightrates.com/freight
https://www.sportsfieldmanagementmagazi ... uctures-4/

[MJatUM]

Install a permanent IPF and get on with it. 20-25M is hardly an insurmountable price tag. no stop gap temp facilities or hand me down crap. That approach is really foolish and destructive on multiple levels.

*GASP

I agree with Jack

[DearOleUMass]

I told you I had a very good source for this info about the IPF that I posted in February : )

I'm still confused..originally you had mentioned it was a bubble but then went on to say it was in the range of 25-30 million. A bubble wouldn't cost 25 million. Let's hope we can get to that $30 million goal.

It was called a "bubble" to me, and what I was told mirrors what was written in the article--that was two months ago and the process is always changing. Hope you're planning on donating to the 30 million goal!

Absolutely, I will be doing what I can. I'm in this for the long haul!!

[McKinney]

Right around the 21 minute mark Whip talks about the difficulty of not having an IPF.

It’s been a really miserable spring in New England weather wise, but our guys have been really good. We’re excited about - they’re practicing right now - we’re gonna have the Spring Game tomorrow night at 6:30 and we’ll open on August 25th so we’ll open on week zero again. I think in college football it’s really important to have balance - and I’m trying to do that, it’s hard to do when you don’t have an indoor facility - of giving these kids some time away from football. With the summer and all the things that way. We’re opening camp July 27th. When are these freshman just gonna get some downtime.

https://herosports.com/college-football ... thers-aiai

[Jack]

*GASP

I agree with Jack

There's hope for you yet !!

[Berkman]

RFP by UMass for bubble and some FB stadium upgrades:

https://247sports.com/college/massachus ... -118199415

[eldonabe]

Lipstick on a pig

Is there a real and viable option to expand seats on this current foot print (to add enough to get to 30K-35K total seats)?

Honestly, why spend anything significant on this pile of concrete if there isn't a way to make it substantially bigger at some point? They must have something in mind. Right?

[MJatUM]

Not sure what your definition of significant is... but if the whole project estimate is ~$10M - I'd think minimum half of that is on the IPF/bubble - I don't really think spending a few mill on the pig to at least make it presentable to current fans is a bad idea.

I think it is most important now to win and get asses into the seats. At least putting lipstick on the pig makes the few thousand (high, I know) loyal patrons happy while not totally turning off and disenfranchising the newbies we pull in, students included. If tear down and/or rebuild is not a feasible option in the near-immediate future, then I think this is the lesser of 2 evils with the other evil being doin' nuttin'. Also, I think the IPF is the main nugget here so they are trying to include the upgrades to McG and Garber in the bid.

[McKinney]

Honestly, why spend anything significant on this pile of concrete if there isn't a way to make it substantially bigger at some point? They must have something in mind. Right?

On the one hand I see where you're coming from. We may not need a 30k seat stadium right now, but I don't see how we get into a conference and/or attract "high level opponents" without one. We either have a reasonably sized stadium designed for FBS (not one the size designed for College Division and Division II) or we accept that the more attractive games on the schedule will have to be played off-campus.

On the other, given the finances and higher priority of other facilities (like an IPF) I'm thinking the latter may be really the only viable option. If that's the case I can see why they'd be going down the path of "fan experience" rather than capacity. Even if we do have to play a game or two away from campus, with these cheap enhancements at the very least it will improve the experience for a lot of games and commencement. And that "experience" upgrade might help attract "mid level opponents". I'd think those upgrades would be good enough to get basically anyone outside of the P5. Surprisingly it appears they've been able to do this so far. But who knows how long they'll be able to do that.