WSU to Raze Cessna Stadium?

[pogo]

I bet students would love to make this area a parking lot.

Actually in one of the many master plans that hive been floated over the last few years it showed taking down the west stands and putting in a multi level parking garage. By the same token with off site parking and busing to and from I wonder how much parking is needed.

[Veritas]

If that’s the high bar for indoor facilities, let’s hope we indeed see a 12-15k seat outdoor facility.

Sorry 1972 Shocker. I pulled up the wrong pictures. That is a very nice indoor facility. I’d still rather have a larger outdoor facility though as hoped for in the 12-15k range.

[MoValley John]

Lacrosse isn't a sport that really matches up or resonates with our student body demographic. No one plays it around here, do they? Maybe some club stuff like hockey, or rugby, but nothing of any scale. Seems like a dumb idea. Nothing against the sport personally.

If Creighton were located in New England, and wanted to add a D1 sport, then that is a more of a cultural analogy/fit.

LaCrosse is in the long term planning stages at Creighton. Not short term, but they have greatly expanded their club team resources and a friend of mine has a son playing on the team. Also, while not a sanctioned sport, several Omaha area high schools now have club teams and more and more, you will see pick up lacrosse games in Omaha parks. It's far from popular, but it is growing fairly rapidly. Nationally as well.

The WSU administration including lacrosse as a possible future use doesn't mean that the school has lacrosse as a near term goal, or a sport they will ever start, but it does show they are being forward thinking and have done their homework.

While lacrosse may never happen, if I were a local, I'd be happy to see it included. I think you guys refer to them as CAVE'rs, I think that's what fever and others call them. Dont be a CAVEr when it comes to the univiversity including outside of the box possibilities.

[MoValley John]

Lacrosse is growing, but unlike soccer, its growing organically, it's not being forced upon us. Keep an open mind when it comes to lacrosse.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nyt...rowth.amp.html

https://www.uslacrosse.org/blog/repo...-in-california

https://coachad.com/articles/lacross...thers-closing/

[WstateU]

Did a quick "Lacrosse" search and this popped up... I'm thinking forward... my thumbs are up to Lacrosse!

[Old Shocker]

I am a long-time, unregistered, follower of shockernet.net, this is my first post. Shocker football brings back many memories. I attended Shocker football games from the late 1950s into the 1960s, plus a few in the 1970s. I saw lot of great games and players. Players such as Ted Dean, Miller Farr, Henry Schichtle and Bob Long went onto play professionally. Ted Dean, a running back and an All American candidate bowled over opposing players. A quick as lightening Miller Farr in his first varsity game, as a sophomore (freshman could not play varsity) , returned the game kickoff for a touchdown. Bob Long, a basketball player with limited minutes, who had one year of remaining eligibility turned to football, an in one season set a school receiving record on passes thrown by Henry Schichtle. Thinking of these and other players brings back wonderful memories. As a side note, every year during football season someone would climb atop Morrison Hall and paint a picture of Mickey Mouse on the clock face, a very visible image when viewed from the stadium.

However, my most memorable Shocker football game occurred in the fall 1970. First, I need to turn the clock back to Vietnam 1969. There I became good friends with Bart, a graduate of the University of Arkansas, from Helena Arkansas. Bart and I agreed to meet in Little Rock for the Wichita State versus University of Arkansas football game the following year. On October 2, 1970 one of two planes carrying members of the Wichita State football team crashed. The next few games were cancelled but on October 24 the scheduled game with Arkansas was played in Little Rock. The Shockers would have been underdogs even before the crash with a full varsity roster. Wichita State’s freshman heavy team was no match for the nationally ranked Razorbacks. The Arkansas starters were played sparingly. The Shockers lost 62-0. While there were not many Shocker fans in the stadium, the Razorback fans filled in magnificently, cheering on the outgunned Shockers throughout the entire game. I had a never seen such an emotional game before and surely never will. The Arkansas fans were magnificent!

[WuDrWu]

Every school in the AAC except WSU and Tulane has woman's soccer. That seems like an easy addition. Soccer is popular in the Wichita and KC areas

Lacrosse, on the other hand, I know nothing about. I know it's a fast growing sport, so maybe they are getting a jump on the trend.

Almost every school has football as well and at some point needed to square things with Title IX

[1972Shocker]

Sorry 1972 Shocker. I pulled up the wrong pictures. That is a very nice indoor facility. I’d still rather have a larger outdoor facility though as hoped for in the 12-15k range.

I wasn't proposing and indoor faciltiy although I wished our City Leaders has beat Birmingham to the punch on that Crossplex facility. I think Birmingham found an interesting niche an exploited it.

Not sure I can see why we would need an outdoor facility that seats 12-15k though.

[1972Shocker]

I would guess the great majority of NCAA D-1 (and probably D-II) athletic programs are designed around a handful of parameters:

1. Do we have a football program?
2. How many sports do we need to sponsor to qualify for D-1 competition?
3. How do we square the answers from 1 and 2 with Title IX
4. What are the benefits and what are the costs?
5. Do the benefits justify the costs?

Schools must field teams in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women, with at least two team sports for each gender. Division I schools must meet minimum financial aid awards for their athletics program, and there are maximum financial aid awards for each sport that a Division I school cannot exceed.

Cross Country, Indoor Track & Field and Outdoor Track & Field are considered 3 separate sports.

The Shocks have 7 mens's sports: Basketball, Baseball, Golf, Tennis, XC, Indoor T&F and Outdoor T&F
The Shocks have 8 women's sports: Volleyball, Basketball, Softball, Golf, Tennis, XC, Indoor T&F and Outdoor T&F

Not sure what the incentive is to add additional sports unless they believe it will produce positive cash flow or would be used to replace one of our existing sports depending on the cost differentials.

[im4wsu]

I am a long-time, unregistered, follower of shockernet.net, this is my first post. Shocker football brings back many memories. I attended Shocker football games from the late 1950s into the 1960s, plus a few in the 1970s. I saw lot of great games and players. Players such as Ted Dean, Miller Farr, Henry Schichtle and Bob Long went onto play professionally. Ted Dean, a running back and an All American candidate bowled over opposing players. A quick as lightening Miller Farr in his first varsity game, as a sophomore (freshman could not play varsity) , returned the game kickoff for a touchdown. Bob Long, a basketball player with limited minutes, who had one year of remaining eligibility turned to football, an in one season set a school receiving record on passes thrown by Henry Schichtle. Thinking of these and other players brings back wonderful memories. As a side note, every year during football season someone would climb atop Morrison Hall and paint a picture of Mickey Mouse on the clock face, a very visible image when viewed from the stadium.

However, my most memorable Shocker football game occurred in the fall 1970. First, I need to turn the clock back to Vietnam 1969. There I became good friends with Bart, a graduate of the University of Arkansas, from Helena Arkansas. Bart and I agreed to meet in Little Rock for the Wichita State versus University of Arkansas football game the following year. On October 2, 1970 one of two planes carrying members of the Wichita State football team crashed. The next few games were cancelled but on October 24 the scheduled game with Arkansas was played in Little Rock. The Shockers would have been underdogs even before the crash with a full varsity roster. Wichita State’s freshman heavy team was no match for the nationally ranked Razorbacks. The Arkansas starters were played sparingly. The Shockers lost 62-0. While there were not many Shocker fans in the stadium, the Razorback fans filled in magnificently, cheering on the outgunned Shockers throughout the entire game. I had a never seen such an emotional game before and surely never will. The Arkansas fans were magnificent!

You wached Leroy Hinman's quick kicks, no doubt.

[Shockm]

I wasn't proposing and indoor faciltiy although I wished our City Leaders has beat Birmingham to the punch on that Crossplex facility. I think Birmingham found an interesting niche an exploited it.

Not sure I can see why we would need an outdoor facility that seats 12-15k though.

They would probably have State Championship football too.

[1972Shocker]

They would probably have State Championship football too.

Not worth the investment and expense of upkeep to use a facility that might be half full once or twice a year is it? There are a lot of places they can play high school championship football.

[WSUFootballFan]

It's already been said but this is the correct decision. The internals of Cessna are just scary, Half the letters aren't even there making it say CE SNA STAD UM, there was even a youtube video ranking it as one of the ugliest stadiums in the country (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eq4RfN4SkNs).

I think a lot of forgetting first and foremost this will be a state of the art track facility. Not even talking about the other sports they may or may not want to add. To keep up with the AAC, which is pretty good in track (the Houston 4x100 team could probably beat a lot of countries in the Olympics), we had to get something new. Now the possibilites with this stadium can really be cool. Plazas connecting both sides of the stadium can save the headache of going outside and all around the gates to go back in the other side. Incorperating the new Athlete Center, that also connects to Koch now, can make for some really modern and attractive fluidity for staff and athletes. If they had space between Koch and the new stadium to put a sort of park or lawn, it could be great for tailgaiting. I did want to mention the plane crash, because I am "WSUfootballFan". I think the people upset with the razing of the stadium since it has the history tied to the football team and the plane crash should like this proposal. I propose they move the plane crash memorial from where it is currently located, and incorperate it into a terrace or plaza in the corner of the stadium (or 'endzone' area) that connects both sides. It could even have more around it commerating the whole Cessna Stadium and the football team. I think it is in a bad spot currrently and could be more appreciated by the other athletics facilities. Doing this to Cessna is the correct move and upgrades our "Athletic Village" to be on more par with schools in our conference. Which is the correct move to push the school into the future.

Now onto the other sports topics. Women's soccer is a homerun in my opinion. Like said it is played by almost every AAC team already. It is a fall outdoor sport, and that is underrated. Lacking on campus currrently is a fall outdoor sport while football is going on. WSU is also recruiting more and more students from the I-35 corridor and the majority of those cities soccer is big or growing, and lacrosse is prominent too (talk about that in a sec). These students are living on campus their freshman year and a lot of times venture to other schools in the fall for their football gamedays. Now Im not saying women's soccer is even close to having the atmosphere football does, but it can be something that can keep students on campus making the campus more lively. I know Dr. Golden at some point mentioned he wanted to bring tailgaiting, so why not tailgate an outdoor sport in the fall. Soccer costs next to nothing in the athletics world to start and keep operating compared to any level of football. WSU compared to (most) AAC schools has a lesser total amount of sports. If they want to keeep up with the growing school I seee no problem with adding women's soccer and heck even men's soccer if you can figure out the Title IX.

Now lacrosse can be up for debate. It is the one of the fastest growing sports in the country and I think just having a nice field in Wichita that can be used for lacrosse can attract regional tournaments or other lacrosse events and potentially be a catalyst to spread the sport in Wichita. I think Golden has the right vision for the athletics side of his job here.

Maybe C. Koch could toss 0.5% of his net worth to us sometime for it, but until then RIP Shocker Football.
Really excited for hoops next season.

My 2 cents. Go Shockers.

[1972Shocker]

AD Darron Boatright talking bringing down Cessna Stadium.

https://kfh.radio.com/media/audio-channel/demolition-in-the-air-0

At this point all they have is the approval of the Board of Regents to tear down Cessna Stadium. They currently have no funding sources for the razing of the Stadium let alone construction of a new new facility. As a result there currently is no timetable.

Talked about not having football at Wichita State. Football is not for everyone and with this pandemic is perhaps even more problematic. One reason he came to Wichita State is he wanted to work where everyone and everything had to take a back seat to football.

[Shockm]

Not worth the investment and expense of upkeep to use a facility that might be half full once or twice a year is it? There are a lot of places they can play high school championship football.

It depends. I don’t know the cost of a 2500 seat facility. Do you? Also is 2500 really large enough for the athletic goals of each program using it? Does it need to be 3000 or perhaps 5000? Again, I have done no studies. Have you? I understand that there would be some positive economic impact for Wichita businesses. Is there some economic assistance that will come from the Chamber of Commerce perhaps? Lots of questions I don’t have the answers to.