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Penn State to release Populous study results

you could put 20 football stadiums there, and have room for parking. space isn't the issue, building an on ramp isn't the issue either, it's that the land isn't for sale..

as far as spacing though, just googlemaps it, look at the size of Heinz or PNC park and compare it to the empty space along the river..
Actually, you can only fit a stadium in the wider sections closest to Hazelwood (and furthest from Pitt). Much further down from the Hot Metal Bridge.
 
Actually, you can only fit a stadium in the wider sections closest to Hazelwood (and furthest from Pitt). Much further down from the Hot Metal Bridge.
maybe, it would be a tight fit. 2nd avenue and the river make for a tight squeeze.. would have to get creative.
 
I agree @3genpanther , I was referring to everything east of the hot metal bridge, including right next to thermo fisher. Everything on the city side of hot metal, along Technology drive - 2nd ave, is spoken for. companies beat us to that waterfront property..

only option would be to buy that lot up from thermo, build em a garage in front of their place for parking. while we are spending pitt's money and all.
Don't we have to get all the way down to the Almono site to have the space?
 
maybe, it would be a tight fit. 2nd avenue and the river make for a tight squeeze.. would have to get creative.
I wish... but I don't think it's possible. Maybe we could just have stands on one side of the field and make it work. Then we wouldn't have to discuss tarping seats any longer.
 
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I wish... but I don't think it's possible. Maybe we could just have stands on one side of the field and make it work. Then we wouldn't have to discuss tarping seats any longer.
you'd definitely want it to be somewhat open on the river side, or at least do it where open end was facing the city. think that would be a pretty view, looking in at the point on the open side. not sure how we pull off a "one sided" football stadium like HIghmark, with the open side for the river. that screams pretty small time to me..

we do have to figure out what to do with 2nd avenue. it's mucking up my plans here..
 
@3genpanther, what about this. Dude, I don't even know if this is real or what the heck is this. it's all fun and games til the ball goes floating down the river. not even sure about if a player goes over the side and drowns, do you end the game or keep playing?

 
@3genpanther, what about this. Dude, I don't even know if this is real or what the heck is this. it's all fun and games til the ball goes floating down the river. not even sure about if a player goes over the side and drowns, do you end the game or keep playing?

Love it.

Even on this field, I bet Wanny still would have run the fade route to Darrell Strong against Navy on that infamous 4th down in OT back in 2007 play when Shady could not be stopped.
 
@3genpanther, what about this. Dude, I don't even know if this is real or what the heck is this. it's all fun and games til the ball goes floating down the river. not even sure about if a player goes over the side and drowns, do you end the game or keep playing?


This is a stadium in Bangkok. Not a bad idea for a minor-leagueish stadium.
 
what is psu trying to do? I know they want to upgrade their stadium but would you hire a consulting firm for that? 16 month study sounds like an overkill to find out options to make your football stadium nicer. do they have other plans for facility upgrades?

Really a pretty picture of Beaver Stadium...yes -no?

link: http://www.statecollege.com/news/co...ng-beaver-stadium-a-national-roadmap,1471421/

The Dollars and Sense of Renovating Beaver Stadium: A National Roadmap

by Mike Poorman on March 05, 2017 10:30 PM



Beaver Stadium at night.
Click photo for gallery

Next Monday afternoon we'll know the long-anticipated long-term fate of Beaver Stadium.

That's when Penn State plans to release its Facilities Master Plan.

The plan will cover all of Penn State's athletic facilities, but the crown jewel of the report -- and PSU sports overall -- is Beaver Stadium.

Built in 1960 at a cost of $1.6 million, while repurposing over 1,000 tons of steel from New Beaver Field that was moved by train tracks from nearby Rec Hall to its present location, Beaver Stadium is likely to get the bulk of attention when Penn State's 20-year plan is released to the public next week.

For good reason:

Beaver Stadium is the cash register that runs Penn State's athletics. According to its 2015-16 budget, as submitted to the NCAA and recently released, the biggest chunk of Penn State Intercollegiate Athletics' revenue came from football ticket sales.

(See the report to the NCAA, all 76 pages of it, by clicking here.)

To be exact, $31,399,691 of the $132.25 million generated by PSU sports last fiscal year came from 2015 football ticket sales. That's almost 24%. More than alumni and booster donations ($26 million), more than media rights ($22 million), and more than licensing, royalties and sponsorships ($12.7 million). That's pure football ticket sales, not even counting donations made just for the right, ostensibly, to buy tickets.

We already know that Penn State is going to renovate, not rebuild, Beaver Stadium. Fixing -- and fixing up -- the stadium won't be cheap. Based on what has been spent on renovating and constructing stadiums for elite college football programs over the past decade, the price tag for upgrading Penn State football's home field and stadium could be stunning. A half-billion dollars wouldn't be surprising.

The gold standard for stadium renovations is Texas A&M's Kyle Field, which was completed -- and almost completely redone -- over 18 months to the tune of $485 million. Remember that number. Nearly 90% of the stadium was new, by the time construction was completed. Its 102,000 seats were sold out in 18 minutes.

The company that engineered the A&M total makeover was Populous, the same firm that is behind Penn State's master plan. Former PSU linebacker Scott Radecic is a principal of Populous. He was the lead for Penn State's last $100 million re-do of Beaver Stadium back in 2001, when Radecic was with HOK. It won't be that cheap this time around, that's for sure.

THE GOING RATE

Here's a look at recent price tags for college football stadium renovations:

$485 million -- Kyle Field, Texas A&M, completed in 2015.

$400 million -- Notre Dame Stadium, Notre Dame. Termed the "Campus Crossroads Project," it is slated to include a new student center, space for its anthropology, psychology and music departments, as well as premium seating and suites, to be completed in 2017.

$321 million -- Memorial Stadium, University of Cal-Berkley, completed in 2012. Current Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour was AD at Cal at that time and oversaw the project, complicated by the fact the stadium was situated on a fault line and required a seismic retrofit, and was hindered time- and publicity-wise by tree-sitters who protested the project.

$285 million -- Husky Stadium, University of Washington, completed in 2013.

$268 million -- Sun Devil Stadium, Arizona State, ongoing.

$226 million -- Michigan Stadium, University of Michigan, completed in 2010. (That's about $260 million in today's dollars.)

$164 million -- Amon J. Carter Stadium, Texas Christian University, completed in 2012.

$160 million -- Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, University of Oklahoma, completed in 2016. (The stadium co-namesakes gave over $50 million to the university, some of it earmarked for stadium improvements).

$150 million -- Camp Randall Stadium, University of Wisconsin. According to Wisconsin's master plan, released in January 2017, the cost to renovate Camp Randall, based on three different options, could range from $39.6 million to $150 million.

$132 million -- Memorial Stadium, University of Illinois, to be completed by 2020.

$63.5 million -- Memorial Stadium, University of Nebraska, completed in 2013.

$42 million -- Ohio Stadium, Ohio State University, to be completed by 2020.

PENN STATE HAS ITS PHIL

As mentioned above, Barbour is experienced at stadium reconstructions. (Watch a time lapse of the construction at Cal here.) Her deputy athletic athletic director and chief operating officer, Phil Esten, oversaw the construction of a brand-new on-campus stadium at the University of Minnesota. As associate athletic director at Minnesota, Esten was the point person for the $300 million TCF Bank Stadium, which opened in 2009. Esten played a key role in securing funding for about $90 million in individual and corporate support.

For her part, funding the stadium renovation at Cal was much more complicated for Barbour, as the university faced a debt load of over $450 million following the stadium expansion and a corresponding $153 million student athletic center.

The sources of funding for any renovation of Beaver Stadium are likely to be multi-faceted. At Texas A&M, the funding was broken down this way: $232 million in seat license revenue, $75 million in student ticket revenue and fees, $18 million in a facilities access agreement, $35 million that was undisclosed and $125 million from the school's booster club, the 12th Man Foundation.

Penn State hopes to pay for at least some of the renovations by maximizing the football game day experience at Beaver Stadium -- meaning everything from suites with grills, open-ended "social setting areas" and possibly premium alcohol sales. According to the aforementioned 2015-2016 budget submitted to the NCAA, Penn State made $5.3 million from football-related novelty, program, parking and concession sales in 2015-16.

In addition, look for Penn State to make much greater use of a renovated Beaver Stadium than just eight times a year -- the Blue-White Game and seven regular season games.

That actually begins later this year, on Saturday, July 8. That's when Blake Shelton and the "Happy Valley Jam" will take the stage for the first-ever concert in Beaver Stadium. (Arts Festival begins July 13.) Managed and promoted by Basis Entertainment, the concert features ticket prices from $31 (obstructed view) to $209. Basis promoted a Blake Shelton concert at Iowa's Kinnick Stadium last August, which included an appearance by Ashton Kutcher, and had an announced attendance of more than 45,000.

Penn State has indicated that it hopes to host outdoor NHL games, like the one at Pittsburgh's Heinz Field in late February between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Flyers, which drew 67,318. The current stumbling block, Penn State officials have said, is that Beaver Stadium is not weatherized. Temperatures in Pittsburgh were in the 70s a few days before the game, although it was 36 degrees for opening face-off.

(Which brings to mind two of the most wintery and non-weatherized games I ever attended in Beaver Stadium: the Nov. 21, 1987, contest between Penn State and Notre Dame, won 21-20 by the Nittany Lions in 25 mph winds and minus 20 degree wind chill conditions, and the Nov. 18, 1995 Snow Bowl, when 18 inches of snow was dumped on Happy Valley three days before the Penn State-Michigan game. Inmates from Rockview helped shovel out the stadium and about 80,000 fans were bused in from satellite lots.)

SOCCER, GOLF AND...

New revenue opportunities will likely be under the purview of Esten and Michael Cross, who in 2015 was hired by Penn State an as assistant athletic director for new business development. Cross, who was the athletic director at Bradley University for five years, is "charged with identifying new business and revenue generation opportunities, engaging with various constituencies within the Penn State communities and intercollegiate athletics."

In the future, Beaver Stadium could host state high school football playoffs, big-time soccer friendlies -- Michigan Stadium drew 109,318 and made $3 million for a Manchester U-Real Madrid game in 2014 --and even stadium golf, which has been all the rage at Petco Park in San Diego the past two years.

The golf idea is no laughing matter -- night-time tee times went for $450 for a twosome and $900 for a foursome, as over 2,700 golfers played the The Links at Petco at last year. (The White Course is 20 bucks...if you walk.)

Link: http://www.golf.com/photos/links-petco-park
 
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New revenue opportunities will likely be under the purview of Esten and Michael Cross, who in 2015 was hired by Penn State an as assistant athletic director for new business development. Cross, who was the athletic director at Bradley University for five years, is "charged with identifying new business and revenue generation opportunities, engaging with various constituencies within the Penn State communities and intercollegiate athletics."

In the future, Beaver Stadium could host state high school football playoffs, big-time soccer friendlies -- Michigan Stadium drew 109,318 and made $3 million for a Manchester U-Real Madrid game in 2014 --and even stadium golf, which has been all the rage at Petco Park in San Diego the past two years.

The golf idea is no laughing matter -- night-time tee times went for $450 for a twosome and $900 for a foursome, as over 2,700 golfers played the The Links at Petco at last year. (The White Course is 20 bucks...if you walk.)

JoePa would never had stood for such Tom foolery.
 
JoePa would never had stood for such Tom foolery.

Joe would go along with the basic stadium improvements such as reduction of bench seating allowing for chair back seating. The stadium capacity will probably be reduced to 95k, the lower level beneath the stadium enhanced & enclosed, new restrooms & other added amenities in the lower level. Upgrade the concession food, currently it stinks.
 
Joe would go along with the basic stadium improvements such as reduction of bench seating allowing for chair back seating. The stadium capacity will probably be reduced to 95k, the lower level beneath the stadium enhanced & enclosed, new restrooms & other added amenities in the lower level. Upgrade the concession food, currently it stinks.

There was a ton of money spent on a museum and gift shop, police station, money counting room, and locker rooms during the last go around. Other than the luxury boxes that BoT members don't even get to sit in for every game, there has been little added for fans. Well, unless they want to pay a premium to sit in the Mt Nittany Club.

Joe actually had it right about the baseball stadium and the BJC being built "too close". I doubt he would have let hockey be played on the field and he always railed against any other football happening in the stadium. The half-hearted bids the University would submit to host the state championship games is all the proof you need. He certainly understood the business of football. I'll always give him credit for that.
 
There was a ton of money spent on a museum and gift shop, police station, money counting room, and locker rooms during the last go around. Other than the luxury boxes that BoT members don't even get to sit in for every game, there has been little added for fans. Well, unless they want to pay a premium to sit in the Mt Nittany Club.

Joe actually had it right about the baseball stadium and the BJC being built "too close". I doubt he would have let hockey be played on the field and he always railed against any other football happening in the stadium. The half-hearted bids the University would submit to host the state championship games is all the proof you need. He certainly understood the business of football. I'll always give him credit for that.

Yep, sums up the circumstances about right. Joe argued against the baseball stadium’s location but I believe the BOT “turned the other cheek”. The entire nation of college football is becoming whacked out with elaborate stadiums.

I believe college football is a giant bubble right now that will eventually explode. I’m thinking the beginning of the fall of the Roman Empire. Noticed how much student attendance has continued to decline all over the country, especially at tradition rich programs? That's the future season ticket base for these programs!!

Good day, have to attend to work.
 
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This is the same AD who oversaw the University California Stadium that was over budget and held up over a bird in the tree I believe. Sandy has a budget and she uses every penny of that budget.
The Cal project was the cryzies thing.. They spent like 240M to make it safer. Cant believe people in California allowed that. They could have built a new one for 150.
 
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