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Old Cage wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 9:14 am 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.

minutefanjsf wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 10:59 am

Old Cage wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 9:14 am 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 wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 1:22 pm ^ Hey, photoman - I don't know how you did that, but I did not say that.

Old Cage wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 1:22 pm ^ Hey, photoman - I don't know how you did that, but I did not say that.

pk77 wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 3:42 pm 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.

sloves90_611 wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 12:28 am

photoman wrote: Fri Jan 05, 2018 4:46 pm 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.

Carl Spackler wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 5:10 pm 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.

Berkman wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 7:17 pm

Carl Spackler wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 5:10 pm 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.

rsox1221 wrote: Mon Aug 10, 2015 6:35 am 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.

Berkman wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 7:17 pm

Carl Spackler wrote: Sat Jan 06, 2018 5:10 pm 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.