Texas A&M probably doesn't care. They'll probably give away a large # of those tickets to student/cadets if they can't sell them out, much like LSU puts their empty non sellout seats for $15 to faculty & students, and police/fire/security personnel. Texas A&M has more money than God. Ask where the Bush I Presidential Library will be: on the campus of A&M in College Station. You'd be surprised, but there is more money there than brackish water in South Louisiana. They are looking for ways to spend all that dough they get in the AD. Fifthchoiceione left Bama for exactly that reason. They have deep pockets. There is no facility upgrade they can't take care of in mere months. There is no price too steep, and no request that's reasonable that they can't fulfill for a coach.
Good point on the high $$$ seats, Red A&M is gambling that their "Field of Dreams" will pay off ... Texas A&M sits in one of the best recruiting areas in America ... :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: A&M loses recruits because of their current facilities ... maybe not anymore :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: :champs: Plus, oil is $50+ a barrell and will be $40+ for the long term Kudos to A&M for the guts it takes to plan something like this ... I see stadiums of 150K thirty years from now I wish LSU would quit screwing around and put a 100K + plan out there A Purple and Gold "Field of Dreams" ... Build it ... And they will come
All this political correctness is kiiiiiiiiiilling me. I posted a joke about Aggie engineering. Haven't you ever heard an Aggie joke ? Until I read your post it never even dawned on me about the possible connection with the incident you are referring to. My post did not involve that indicent, PERIOD !
Now all that A & M will need is a decent team. Once they play OU and Tejas, they will be lucky to still be ranked.
LSU has to try and figure out if a stadium expansion would be worthwhile. Would it pay for itself quickly, such as increased season tickets, which is probably the only way to garauntee funding. The building of the new upper deck was given the go ahead due to the new suites being sold so fast. I really don't think we will enclose either upper endzone unless they pre-sell most of those seats with season tickets. It really would be nice to get over 100,000 for the good games but I doubt if we would get that many for teams like Troy.
Joe Dean once stated that intitial studies indicated that the costs of endzone upper decks in Tiger Stadium would never pay for itself. Planners indicated that it would, in fact, be cheaper to build a new, larger Tiger Stadium out on the River Road than expand Tiger Stadium any further. 1. There is no room. Two major streets would have to be closed. Conjestion in central campus is already bad without new road bottlenecks. The PMAC would have to be demolished. 2. The older parts of Tiger Stadium are over 80 years old and decaying badly. Expensive sideline seats are served by narrow, dark and decrepit ramps, bathrooms, and concession areas. 3. The old dormatories underneath the stadium are abandoned, no longer maintained, and are becoming an eyesore. This space is too valuable to be wasted. I don't think we will ever see endzone upper decks in Tiger Stadium. The next renovation of Tiger Stadium will likely be the replacement of the aging lower bowl. It is important to notice that both upper decks are free-standing and not structurally connected with the original bowl. This will not be cheap and the $400-surcharge people will be demanding it soon. But, . . . it will still probably be cheaper to just build a big, new stadium out on river road.
Red, LSU has ample room for a new stadium ... I can tell you right where I'd build It would easily fit into the section of land between Coach McClendon FB Practice Facility and the River ... with ample parking space and room where pastures now lie ... The spot on the River could be developed with a couple of nice high rise buildings and a small dock ... riverboats, casinos, etc ... A stadium could hold 125 thousand people with huge east and west sides with prime seating up to the rafters ... the west side could empty directly into corridors crossing over to a River side development with hotels, restaurants and casinos. LSU could even Dome the thing ... then it would really Never rain in Tiger Stadium LSU Football, Rock Concerts, Jazz Festivals, Superscreen Broadcast Events (Away Games) ... High School Championships you name it Build it to looking ahead 30 years ... Build it ... and they will come ...
It would be great to have a nice new stadium, but wouldn't you guys be sad to see our current stadium go??? Would the new one still be Death Valley? Also, how does A&M have so much money? I know Univ. of Texas owns alot of oil fields and such, same deal with A&M?? Also, I don't think A&M would do that much better in recruiting with better facilities, mainly because A&M is a cult if you ask me. People who are going to go there, go there. Others aren't going to care about the facilities - it's to militaristic. And finally, how can LSU get this burden of so much money???? Aren't we investing in alot of pharmaceutical things that could pay off big in the future? What about the new PHD's we're hiring from the Flagship Agenda? Could that bring money to the university?
I'd be sad if we moved into a new stadium, and the new place wouldn't be the real Death Valley to me. I rather see the lower bowl re-structured than to see a completely new stadium. There is something to be said for that kind of thing, taking the money and bringing Tiger Stadium up to code. It might even be more expensive to re-structure Tiger Stadium than to build a new one, but part of the charm of LSU is having the real Death Valley. That said, I don't see the need for more expansion to Tiger Stadium. We don't need high endzone seating, I feel the expansions we have made are fine. We have one of the most famous stadiums in all of college football, a rare on-campus stadium with plenty of history, so I don't see the need to tear it down and build some new cookie cutter stadium with a shelf life of 20 years. About those dorms . . . I was part of the last few incoming classes at LSU to have working dorm rooms in Tiger Stadium. It is one of the coolest stories of all time, when it comes to why are they there . . . and in today's age of roaming sideline reporters, wouldn't be interesting if they could do like they used to and go into one of the rooms during the game to show the noise and shaking the crowd noise produces in those rooms. I'm sure in any rebuilding effort, those rooms will be gone . . . so I wonder if they would do some kind of tribute or "mock" room when and if the future work is complete. How about on campus hotel rooms for tailgaters? Something interesting.
120,000 people have showed up to LSU religiously since the late 70's for gameday...LSU has consistently NOT sold out its stadium's capacity for non-marquee games...When capacity was 78,000...When it was 82,000...and now that it's 91,600. Let me repeat this...For the last 35 years, LSU has consistently not sold out tickets to Tiger Stadium for games. When there were almost 50,000 more people than seats, we did not sell it out. When there were 45,0000 more people than seats, we did not sell it out. Now there are 35,000 people on campus, each and every day, and we do not sell out. Prime customers are within a one-mile radius of the product. Tickets have been reduced to $15 at times. 30,000 individuals who have lots of discretionary income who come to the area specifically for the atmospher around the product do not participate and buy a ticket to witness the actual product. Past history is the best indicator of future behavior... We can't sell out 91,600...Recruits see empty seats just as they don't see empty seats in Lincoln, in the Bighouse, and in Neyland... Some here would tell you to create supply when historically, over the past 3 and a half decades, the demand has continually not been there amongst the single most narrow and focused target demographic-LSU fans-in a one square mile radius of the product. If it don't make dollars, it don't make sense... The facts are there...and the facts support the simple supposition... We can't sell it out now...When the demand is there for 110-125K seats, then I will lead the charge amongst the fanbase...But now? At this point? They still haven't sold all the season tickets in the New East Side, so how can they sell 30,000+ more all of the sudden? If it don't make dollars, it don't make sense...and all the fanciful Field Of Dreams talk here won't change the simplicity of this fact...The movie he references is a work of fiction. It is not true. We have more than what we need now, and we will soon have even more after the West Side Expansion is done. The demand side must exist before the supply side can be utilized to exact a profit...
