Collegiate Stadiums

NCAA FBS College Football Stadiums, Attendance, Stats, History & Travel Blog

Tag Archives: Washington State

Daily Huddle 4-22-12

Today’s daily huddle will be all photos and videos since I worked 18 hours yesterday and 14 hours today.

A photo of the 2011 Michigan State team ring

A photo of the 2011 Michigan State team ring

 

Georgia Tech showing of their beat up field before the spring game

Paul "Bear" Bryant at General Robert Neyland's funeral

2012 Penn State spring game crowd

2012 Arkansas spring game crowd

2012 Kentucky spring game crowd

2012 NC State spring game crowd

2012 Ohio State spring game crowd

2012 Ole Miss spring game crowd

2012 Syracuse spring game crowd

2012 Washington State spring game crowd

Not much to say here, it's Trooper Taylor in a fireman's hat

A photo of Bryant-Denny Stadium from an Army helicopter

And finally, Brandon Weeden destroying clay pigeons with a football. Personally, I can’t do that with a shotgun, let alone a football!

[ring photos via @MSU_Football]

[Grant Field photo via @GeorgiaTech]

[Bear Bryant photo via @LinkVol]

[Penn State photo via @KevinOnCFB]

[all other crowd photos via @SPORTSbyBROOKS]

[Weeden video via @pistolsguy]

[Bryant-Denny photo via @marctorrence]

Multiple Stadiums Updates

Since I am trying to get caught up on everything I need to, I am going to make a large post here with little nuggets of stadium information. Normally this will go in either the daily links section or a separate post.

At Conference USA Media Day, Larry Porter said “Facilities don’t win championships, players do. But facilities do win players.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

First up is an older story on Colorado and how they are looking for a corporate sponsor for their stadium due to financial issues in the athletic department.

Stanford is adding AT&T WiFi to their stadium this year. It says you can connect to the WiFi with any device but I have a feeling it will be faster for AT&T devices.

Cal is renovating their stadium and are going as far as having seismic experts check over the plans.

This story is about Penn State adding WiFi and new scoreboards, among other things, to Beaver Stadium over the next three to four year, but it is a few wrong statements in it. For one, Beaver stadium will not be the only or even the first college stadium with AT&T WiFi, just check the Stanford story above. Two, they took seats away to make room for the 101 ADA seats, lowering seating capacity in Beaver stadium to 106,572.

Staying with Penn State, here is a study from their FieldTurf research building that shows the new FieldTurf Revolution is by far the best turf in terms of wear. The report is huge and will teach you more than you could ever imagine about synthetic turf. Ironically, Beaver Stadium is grass and Penn State has the best turf grass management program in the country.

The final item from Penn State is this picture of upgrades to Lasch Building, their football only complex.

Upgrades to Lasch Building

A photo of a trial version of the Kansas Touchdown Club

And here is a link for the full story on Kansas trying to build a club for big boosters. Note that season tickets in the club are coming down as the team continues to be bad after their magical BCS run. 

Here’s a good story behind how Boone Pickens decided to donate $165 million to Oklahoma State athletics.

Oklahoma State is adding a huge flag poll to Boone Pickens Stadium

I’ve linked this story before, but to me it just outlines how desperate some schools are to try and keep up in the money race of BCS and FBS football. Washington is begging you for money and will let you sponsor or name just about any park of their stadium.

A nice video of the scoreboard update at Arizona.

Vanderbilt replaced their grass field this summer for the first time since 1999!Photo of the grass being laid at Dudley Field

Story to go with the Vanderbilt picture, or if you want a video, try this link.

The new "vintage" scoreboard that has been added to the Rose Bowl

Picture of workers installing seats in the UNC Blue Zone

UNC added the Blue Zone, which cost ticket holders a large donation per seat, then they fired Butch Davis, which might lead to a lawsuit as I linked earlier today. At least it looks good in this picture. The picture below is of the scoreboard going on top of the blue zone seats. Here is another take on the scandal and renovation.

Scoreboard on top of the Blue Zone seats

Part of a two year process at Nebraska to expand Memorial Stadium

Nebraska also has a time lapse video of the construction. And a link for the construction details, explaining the completion date of fall of 2013 and capacity of approximately 92,000 fans.

The newest official photo from Kansas State of Bill Snyder Family Stadium

I’m assuming the picture is to show off the new AstroTurf GameDay 3D360 grass for which they sent out this video. 

 Skip Holtz wants USF to build an on-campus stadium. This story outlines why on-campus stadiums help, which is probably what sparked the Holtz quotes.

I’m not sure what was so great about this except Washington State was excited to see the sun out at Martin Stadium, so they sent this picture.

OMG, sun in Washington!

 OK, in all seriousness, Washington State does have a cool program, just like a few other schools such as Army and North Texas where they have movie nights in their stadiums during the summer. I think it is a great way to bring out fans and to use the stadium in a non-traditional way, especially with drive-in theaters dying off so quickly.

Georgia added an HD scoreboard to Sanford Stadium

Michigan will now allow you to say “I do” at Michigan Stadium for the right price. Thankfully they added lights and a scoreboard this summer to enhance the experience.

A photo of the new scoreboard at Michigan Stadium

A photo of the TCU Stadium construction

This is just a general story about planned facility upgrades at South Carolina. 

A photo of the field at Bobby Dodd Stadium

 LSU provided this picture of the window upgrade project. And a full gallery of photos here.

Photo of the LSU window project

Also, LSU has raised the capacity of their stadium to 92,542 seats this year according to a trivia contest they ran on twitter. 

The Chick-fil-A kickoff game wants you to have this info if you are attending the game.

Baseball playoffs might make the Cal-USC game move according to ESPN. Remember that Cal is renovating their stadium so they are playing in AT& T Park this year.

Davis Wade Stadium is getting ribbon boards. Hard to see in this picture but you get the idea.

Here is a rendering of planned upgrades and a full story.

A nice rendering of planned upgrades to Davis Wade StadiumUSC Coliseum is getting a new scoreboard

Lost Letterman ranked his 10 worst stadiums. Sorry, I can only rank places I have been which I will do at a later date

Here is a look at the value of home field advantage and features a heavy dose of Penn State.

Corn Nation is afraid that booing will return to Memorial Stadium at Nebraska this fall.

Rutgers wants everyone to know that they are enhancing game day festivities. Pretty much a fluff piece but worth the read if you are a VIP ticket holder.

Wisconsin has been informed that Soldier Field will have new turf installed in time for the Northern Illinois game according to Brett Bielema.

Boise State may not be able to remove the track in Bronco Stadium due to state board inaction.

Cincinnati has changed up the tailgating areas. Here is the full story.

 

Two-A-Days: Team #84 – Washington State

Quick Thoughts: The AD says the team needs to win 6 games to avoid a coaching change. Expect a change.

How others rank Washington State

Publication Rank
Phil Steele 79
Athlon Sports 85

My “sure-to-be-wrong” game score predictions

Date Team Predicted Score
Sat, Sep 3 Idaho State W 17-27
Sat, Sep 10 UNLV W 30-31
Sat, Sep 17 @ San Diego State L 17-24
Sat, Oct 1 @ Colorado L 23-27
Sat, Oct 8 @ UCLA W 27-24
Sat, Oct 15 Stanford L 37-20
Sat, Oct 22 Oregon State L 31-17
Sat, Oct 29 @ Oregon L 20-45
Sat, Nov 5 @ California L 23-24
Sat, Nov 12 Arizona State L 27-20
Sat, Nov 19 Utah L 28-21
Sat, Nov 26 @ Washington L 23-31

Predicted Record: 3-9

As always, feel free to toss in your opinion on why I am wrong.

Washington Huskies will name their field after you

University of Washington's Husky Stadium (photo via gohuskies.com)

That’s right, according to a recent article from Bob Condotta (@BCondotta), the University of Washington is willing to sell the naming rights for the actual field for $50 million to help fund their $250 million renovation. As you can imagine, they are having trouble finding someone who is a serious buyer.

Is anyone serious yet about ponying up the money to put their name on the field?

“Not really,” said Jennifer Cohen, UW’s senior associate athletic director for development, adding that “there have definitely been some families that have had some questions about it, some interest, some people that have the capacity to do something like that.”

The naming of the field itself is not the only naming opportunity the University has offered up however as they have raised almost $41 million in private donations for the stadium project. Amazingly that money has come from less than 100 people, so you can see why the University feels that they have some alumni and fans who are able to afford the $50 million price tag for naming the field. The money raised so far includes approximately $10 million for the naming of various portions of the stadium.

Cohen said the school has raised about $10 million in various naming opportunities. That includes $2 million from former Huskies lineman Joe Ryan, a Wenatchee native who lettered in 1962-63, for the field tunnel, and about 30 stadium-tunnel entrances at $100,000 each.

According to the University, while the school will need to take out a $200 million loan, resulting in a yearly debt-service of $14.3 million, most ticket prices will not be affected. In fact, ticket buyers can expect some tickets to come down in cost once the team returns to playing games at Husky Stadium in 2013.

Money raised in advance will not impact future ticket prices, Cohen said. She said some tickets in the renovated stadium are already scheduled to be “more affordable than they are today.”

However, as soon as you get excited that ticket prices are going to come down at Husky Stadium, the University adds that tuition costs for athletes and other capital project needs are expected to rise significantly and that future ticket prices are not even set yet.

Future ticket prices are among the decisions the school plans to reveal sometime in August, when it will go live with a website devoted to the renovation.

Of course, you will likely want to check out the renovation site once it goes live, since it will have information about the November Apple Cup game versus Washington State, plus the entire 2012 season, that will be played at the home of the Seattle Seahawks, CenturyLink Field. The site is also expected to have all kinds of updates on the Husky Stadium project including new artist renderings.

Another view of Husky Stadium, originally built in 1920 (photo via gohuskies.com)

Personally I feel this is a great way for a school to go about raising capital for athletic departments. Much better in my opinion then what Rutgers did earlier this week by renaming the entire stadium for a company that many of us have never heard of. Just look at the stadium that the Huskies will be playing in this year, CenturyLink Field. How many people know it was recently renamed from Qwest Field? Or, even worse, look at what the Miami Dolphins have done over the years with their stadium name. It seems to change on a monthly basis, currently going by Miami Gardens Stadium. I don’t see how it helps build any type of brand recognition for the team or the company naming the stadium.

I will add though that I wonder how long the naming rights last for if you make the $50 million donation? I mean, this will be the third time (1950 & 1987 are the others) that Husky Stadium has been renovated since it opened in 1920. What is going to be left for the University to sell the next time the stadium needs renovated, or worse, what happens if they just decide to build a new stadium next time?

I’m always curious how others feel when schools sell stadium naming rights, so please feel free to add a comment.