WSU to Raze Cessna Stadium?

[1972Shocker]

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.

The biggest event it would host (unless something not currently on the radar develops) is clearly the KSHAA All-Class Track & Field Championships. That no doubt has to have some very positive economic benefits to the City of Wichita which I guess is good for WSU in the big picture. Not sure about any economic assistance from outside the University. I have no idea what the direct financial benefits or costs to WSU are for this event. Depending on how the COVID-19 unfolds over time it's possible the KSHAA may not even want to concentrate the student athletes and their families all in one place. I suppose getting all those prospective students and their parents on campus might be a really good recruiting tool for WSU although I would have no idea how to measure those benefits but that may be the biggest reason for making sure they retain that if they can. How big a stadium they actually need for that is something else I am not sure about. But it sounds like this event is the primary reason for wanting a 12,000 to 15,000 seat stadium. I have not heard of anything else that would come close to needing a stadium that big.

I guess if WSU is going to need a track facility for its teams it makes sense to use it as for as many things as possible that can help pay for it. Track & Field doesn't seem to draw much in the way of general fan support nor does it host that many events in a year. At least I didn't see much evidence of general fan support at the MVC Championships in 2017 or the AAC Championships last May held in Cessna Stadium. But maybe a new Stadium would and better marketing would help that but the support for those events in and of themselves certainly doesn't seem to support the need for anything close to a 12,000-15,000 seat stadium.

In any case, it doesn't sound like it is anything they will need to decide on real soon since they have no funding for the razing of the stadium, nor for a new stadium and no time table to do either at this point. And who knows what the financial impact of COVID-19 will be on the WSU Athletic department as we go forward. I assume whatever they eventually will build will be based on some kind of reasonably astute analysis of need, benefits, cost and financial wherewithal based on a lot more information than we have.

I think one thing most everyone agrees on is that Cessna Stadium does not add anything to the WSU Campus and needs to come down. What to replace it with is a more difficult question.

[shock]

I could see something similar to Cushing or Bernie Moore Stadium being built there.

[The 'hut]

It has been discussed on numerous high school sports boards that Kansas needs a place where they could have multiple state championship football games. While there are stadiums where they could be played, the logististics of having multiple schools staying overnight for a 2 day (or more) event is rather community prohibitive. Current state championship towns/stadiums like Hays, Hutchinson, Pittsburg, Salina would be simply inadequate in lodging and food service, let alone some of the stadiums. Wichita is in a unique position, if they build a 20,000 seat venue, to offer this to KSHSAA. Whether they want to do that is another question. I know they like "spreading the wealth". Still, Wichita is as centrally located as Kansas can offer for a metro area. I am not optomistic this will happen, but it may. Remember, Manhattan and Lawrence cannot offer this because college football is still being played now on Thanksgiving weekend, they each have a Big XII game every other year and the schedule is released only a year in advance.

I have great memories of Prince and Rueben, but Cessna has become an eye sore. It needs something and as said previously, it would never be adequate to be the home of even a FCS football team in today's athletics.

[pogo]

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.

Two very solid first posts. Welcome to SN