People around here and lots of other places are bitching at LSU for how stupid it was to try and do the west upper deck between seasons. However, what the fail to consider is that by doing it the way they did, not one season ticket holder will miss a game in Tiger Stadium in 2005. Some people who may normally get single game tickets will miss out in the first game or two (the number looks around 1500 now), but not season ticket holders. If it had been done over a longer period, every person seated in the west upper deck, including the PRESS BOX and the Stadium Club areas would have been out of the stadium. This is illogical and a whole lot worse scenario. In that case you would have people who donate a whole lot of money put out of the stadium and bitching b/c Joe Schmoe is still in the stadium. So basically when it comes down to it, the project was done this way so as to inconvenience the LEAST amount of TIGER FANS. I am sorry if you are reading this and won't get into N. Texas or ASU because you rely on single game tickets, but frankly your dollar means a whole lot less to LSU and TAF than that of season ticketholders. It was an ambitious project and will give LSU a great facility that was erected faster than anyone else would even dream to attempt. LSU!
For the fans. If it were ony about the money, TAF would have jacked the rights to renew five-fold. People would have screamed, but someone would pay for the right to buy tickets. LSU's always loyal fan base has run demand for tickets through the roof over the past five years. Sesaon ticket renwals have been at 98%+ the past four years, amazing when considering there are 60,000 season tickets sold and our less than stellar economy. When the original upper deck was buit, it took one or two years and deadlines were not a priority, after all no one had seats up there. Not this time around, there are season ticket holders with seats in the west upper now. LSU couldn't easily say there seats were gone for a year. Not good PR. I think the fact LSU is going to pull this off with minimal disruption to the vast majorityt of fans is amazing. Only individual ticket buyers to the first two game are effected by the delay. Or could it be a conspiracy to pump up ticket sales for Appalachian State...
It was a choice between having no west deck at all for a whole season . . . or having an incomplete deck for a couple of out-of-conference games. No brainer.
Most any other school would have (and has in the past) told ticket holders to simply deal with it and proceeded with a generous timeline. I love the idea that at LSU this isn't even up for discussion.
I had a post a week or so ago where I said that most people forget that this project wasn't just a building project where LSU was adding on to Tiger Stadium. This was a demolition / dismantling project prior to building anything, so that makes what LSU is doing even more impressive. Plus if y'all remember right the builders ran into unforseen problems with large pillars of concrete buried below the area where pylons and the elevator shafts were to be placed. Those pillars of concrete had to be dug out and removed which put the project behind schedule. To me what LSU is doing is remarkable and a testament to its commitment to improving the university and athletic department.
I work for a large construction company here in Baton Rouge, and the engineer type guys we have here are amazed that LSU even tried to do what was essentially a two year project in what ? 10 to 11 months ?
And none of the season ticket holders should miss a game, they'll sit elsewhere in the stadium I believe.
So you're saying that the reason other than money the Stadium is being done in a single offseason (which is something never successfully attempted before, by the way) is...money. Thanks for playing.
No, that is not what I am saying. My statement was not in reference to the project, but rather to displacing season ticketholders for the first two games. I was saying that people who rely on buying single game tickets for those first two games should realize (if they don't get in) that the season ticketholders will be accounted for before they are. Basically, you might not get a single game ticket for NT or ASU because season ticketholders will be in them. So no, thank you for playing. :grin:
