American Athletic Conference

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

You sound like a former Wichitan who stated Intrust would fail. I don't live in ICT anymore, so you could be correct (depending how the stadium is financed). I'll reserve final judgement to see how $20m will make Cessna a "classy, attractive pig." Makes sense to me to save the $20m, invest in a new 20-25k stadium with attractive amenities with expansion options built into the design.

I'm a former Wichitan who worked extremely hard for the Vote Yea campaign to get that arena passed. Convincing 52% of the population to spend $200 million was one of the most difficult things I've ever been a part of. We should have built an 18,000 seat facility and spent about $100 million more, but that would have been downright impossible. We built what we had the political will to build, and despite its shortcomings it is a fine facility and is accomplishing everything it promised to do.

As far as a football stadium, I could get behind your idea of building a new smaller facility with future expansion options built into the design. My only concern in bringing the program back is convincing the public that it should be done, so any good idea like yours that lowers the initial cost is worth pursuing.

[SHOCKvalue]

In basketball, I remember wondering , at our low ebb in the nineties, why we could not at least be a top 50 program like, say Tulsa. I attended a Tulsa football game about three years ago. I thought they had a great stadium, surprisingly good atmosphere. I know they have a pretty good D1 program which I guess is apples and oranges to our possible startup. But still, here I am wondering again why we can't If they can.... Especially on a more modest scale....hey, we passed them in basketball!!

Attendence of Tulsa FB games is really bad. One of the worst in FBS.

[bleed yellow]

Cessna looks like a 10k seat stadium with another 20k seats patched on, because that's exactly what it is. It was and is ugly, I can't believe someone thought that was a good idea back in the day. Reminds me of Eck and its jumbled together look.

20 mil is a huge chunk to put down on something where your parameters are partially constrained from the start and really almost completely defined.

If going FCS to start then even 15K stadium designed with expansion in mind would be great. A full house is always better than a half empty one. Shiny stuff and atmosphere does matter to recruits and coaches for that matter. Recruits and coaches matter to winning, winning matters to fans.

I always thought Cessna looked "decent" considering it's a abandoned football stadium. Lol. It could be a lot worse being that it's merely a shell of what it was originally intended for use wise.. Had it not been for the track team using the ruins for track meets and practice, the university probably would of tore it down in the mid 90's.

[DPruett2333]

All of the pessimistic, anti-football peeps better NEVER complain about being in the MVC again, because without football, we're likely stuck in the MVC for a long, long, long time.

[AndShock]

All of you pessimistic, anti-football peeps better not EVER complain about being in the MVC again; because without football, we're likely stuck in the MVC for a long, long, long time.

I thought we were going to the Big East?

[DPruett2333]

I thought we were going to the Big East?

That's the only other possibility. Don't be an ass.

[WSUwatcher]

If a significant number of people are choosing to go or not go to a WSU football game based on the shiny-ness of the stadium they are playing in, we should just shut it down right now.

Agreed, dizzle, because the novelty would wear off -- sooner if the team wasn't winning -- and then you'd be back with the question of how to keep football from being a financial drain on an otherwise successful athletic program that is currently prospering mightily without it, and a diversion of resources that could go to maintaining an elite basketball program.

[bleed yellow]

Agreed, dizzle, because the novelty would wear off -- sooner if the team wasn't winning -- and then you'd be back with the question of how to keep football from being a financial drain on an otherwise successful athletic program that is currently prospering mightily without it, and a diversion of resources that could go to maintaining an elite basketball program.

At this point we have no choice but to sit back and watch what the brains of the university do..

-They have to retain Marshall. First priority.

-Baseball might be screwed. It generates the least revenue. As sad as it is to admit.

Football- Gotta have it. No if's and's or but's.

[Veritas]

Attendence of Tulsa FB games is really bad. One of the worst in FBS.

Tulsa downsized their stadium from 40k in 2004 to 35k in 2006 to its current capacity of 30k in 2008 (actually closer to 27k with " standing room only " of about 3k giving them a capacity of 30k)

$20m for Cessna? Knock 1/2 of east stands down tied in with parking garage. South side has the athletic office expansion (separate project), put luxury suites on top of shortened east side stands with suite parking available on garage top level with direct ingress/egress ramp (garage is separate project), chair backs, ADA compliant issue fix, new locker/weight rooms, larger concessions, fix bathrooms, new state of art scoreboard north side ( separate sponsorship). Capacity roughly 22k.

Is there a 30k minimum for FBS?

[shox1989]

25,000 people will fill up what they currently have quickly. Plus weekend classes.

I remember going to a few football games at Cessna that had more than 25,000 people at them and I don't remember a parking problem. Football games are on Saturday afternoon and evening, the lots are usually pretty empty at those times. If you have ever been to a ku football game, they don't have much parking and they have close to a 50,000 seat stadium (not that it is ever full).

[Singeril]

Tulsa downsized their stadium from 40k in 2004 to 35k in 2006 to its current capacity of 30k in 2008 (actually closer to 27k with " standing room only " of about 3k giving them a capacity of 30k)

$20m for Cessna? Knock 1/2 of east stands down tied in with parking garage. South side has the athletic office expansion (separate project), put luxury suites on top of shortened east side stands with suite parking available on garage top level with direct ingress/egress ramp (garage is separate project), chair backs, ADA compliant issue fix, new locker/weight rooms, larger concessions, fix bathrooms, new state of art scoreboard north side ( separate sponsorship). Capacity roughly 22k.

Is there a 30k minimum for FBS?

One problem with that--don't put luxury boxes on the east side. The people, for evening games, will be staring directly into the blinding sun. I remember this at other stadiums...it can be almost painful. It still happens at the high school games at Cessna each Fall.

[bleed yellow]

I remember going to a few football games at Cessna that had more than 25,000 people at them and I don't remember a parking problem. Football games are on Saturday afternoon and evening, the lots are usually pretty empty at those times. If you have ever been to a ku football game, they don't have much parking and they have close to a 50,000 seat stadium (not that it is ever full).

I went to a ku football game during the Todd Reesing era.. People were parking mostly in the back roads or just walking miles to get to the stadium. I even walked about a mile that day, but the walk wasn't problem for anyone. All in all the biggest headache of that whole day was listening to ku media claim the their football team was going to be in good shape for a long time. Lol. They deserve whatever curse they brought down on themselves from firing Mangino.

[_kai_]

Renovate Cessna to allow football to be played for 3-5 years there, the renovations would be made with the intention of turning it into the track facility/football practice field. Then construct a new stadium either on a portion of the old golf course, or build it somewhere over by k96 by Koch.

[Veritas]

Here is an old 1992 article from the Wichita Eagle indicating cost to refurbish Cessna at $24m
A couple of interesting points:
30,000 seats are required for FBS
$1,000 per seat for a new stadium (in 1992 dollars)

http://www.kansas.com/sports/college/wichita-state/article49017480.html

[1972Shocker]

Here is an old 1992 article from the Wichita Eagle indicating cost to refurbish Cessna at $24m
A couple of interesting points:
30,000 seats are required for FBS
$1,000 per seat for a new stadium (in 1992 dollars)

http://www.kansas.com/sports/college...e49017480.html

In 2016 dollars that would be the equvilent of $1,700 per seat or $51,000,000 for a 30,000 seat stadium. Of course current construction costs may or may not have grown at the same rate as CPI since 1992. Could be less could be more. No doubt the building codes and regulations probably have become more involved.