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Fan Amenities at JCE Stadium

Mike Gwinn

I'd rather be fishing.
Feb 26, 2002
27,627
4,475
113
Beckley, WV
I leave and go out to my tailgate at halftime for four specific reasons: to get a quick bite to eat, to drink a beer, to get up and walk around/stretch my legs and to catch up on the scores of the day.

If we expanded the concourses for more people to get out and move around a bit(maybe even throw in a few tables and chairs in a corner or two of the concourse), increased the number and offerings of concessions, sold beer and had TV monitors in the concourses showing highlights and scores... I wouldn't really have a reason to leave the stadium.

What fan amenities would you like to see if you were in charge of making improvements?
 
Those are all great ideas !! GO HERD !!
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Originally posted by Mike Gwinn:
I leave and go out to my tailgate at halftime for four specific reasons: to get a quick bite to eat, to drink a beer, to get up and walk around/stretch my legs and to catch up on the scores of the day.

If we expanded the concourses for more people to get out and move around a bit(maybe even throw in a few tables and chairs in a corner or two of the concourse), increased the number and offerings of concessions, sold beer and had TV monitors in the concourses showing highlights and scores... I wouldn't really have a reason to leave the stadium.

What fan amenities would you like to see if you were in charge of making improvements?
You nailed it
 
Party deck or entertainment area on top of the shewey where you can drink your beer. Tvs in concourse and redo the fencing around the joan to brick instead of chain link fence.
 
Just come take a look at Great American Ballpark 'REDS' and go from there!
 
Originally posted by Mike Gwinn:
I leave and go out to my tailgate at halftime for four specific reasons: to get a quick bite to eat, to drink a beer, to get up and walk around/stretch my legs and to catch up on the scores of the day.

If we expanded the concourses for more people to get out and move around a bit(maybe even throw in a few tables and chairs in a corner or two of the concourse), increased the number and offerings of concessions, sold beer and had TV monitors in the concourses showing highlights and scores... I wouldn't really have a reason to leave the stadium.

What fan amenities would you like to see if you were in charge of making improvements?
Since I don't drink, I can do all I need inside the Joan at halftime. In fact. I never leave my seat from kickoff till the clock is at 0:00 at the games end.
 
Maybe something for the kids at halftime. I don't have any suggestions off the top of my head but can come up with some. I agree with everything in the OP.
 
How much would it cost to make all seats chairbacks like UL? That would be sweet. Could probably get some sponsoring to help pay for it with logos of whatever company added to the seats.
 
We have some bigger fans that can't fit comfortably in the chair backs.

I still think they need to take out the top section in the endzone and build a big party deck with concessions. Over top of the concessions you could build 2-3 levels of more boxes, but have these with outside seating. The overhang of the outside seating would create a roof for part of the party deck. Make the party deck kid of "sports barish" with table seating, flat screen TVs, a little festive.
 
Originally posted by banker6796:
We have some bigger fans that can't fit comfortably in the chair backs.

I still think they need to take out the top section in the endzone and build a big party deck with concessions. Over top of the concessions you could build 2-3 levels of more boxes, but have these with outside seating. The overhang of the outside seating would create a roof for part of the party deck. Make the party deck kid of "sports barish" with table seating, flat screen TVs, a little festive.
Yes, please!
 
I agree with banker. Boxes in endzone like ODU has. Fantastic return on investment. The outdoor seating would attract a lot of people that may not like the seclusion of the boxes we currently have.
 
Who among us is willing to forward all of these suggestions to Mike Hamrick? Unless it is a certainity that he reads these posts!
 
Originally posted by Penn2moss:
I agree with banker. Boxes in endzone like ODU has. Fantastic return on investment. The outdoor seating would attract a lot of people that may not like the seclusion of the boxes we currently have.
I couldn't agree more. The chairbacks or the boxes would be the last place I'd want to watch a game from even if I were a millionaire.
 
Beer is a double edged sword. If we add it, have non drinking sections clearly delineated. If we took down the middle third of the upper endzone and then add in a tiered party deck with TVs stand up Bars and a view of the game it would rock. Lord please redo the bathroom urinal stalls, their rusted and look like crap. Take the asphalt below the stadium walkways out and brick it. Open up the stadium via fence outside to the new IAF and put hot dog stands out their or beer stands outside too. Add TVS at each concession with the game on. Fence the stadium with a nice fence that goes around to 3rd and 20th. Add some trees,like oaks or maples where you can. Finally PLEASE clean the sidewalks and the streets prior to each game, the sand and mud look bush league. Spotless isn't hard if you put in a plan and make it a priority. City of Huntington should assist with cleaning too.
 
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I have to laugh at having a play area for kids. Tell your kids to sit in their seats and watch the game. I have kids and not one time during any game did they get up except to go to the restroom. What's next? Baby sitting services.
 
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Oh one last thing. The steel girders on the west side holding up the seats are rusted , peeling and in terrible need of sandblast and painting. If there one gripe with hambone he's a great builder but this is yearly maintenance that needs to be tended to. Hygenics matter and beside that brand new IAF the peeling girders make it look less than what it is. Which is perfection.
 
Originally posted by banker6796:
We have some bigger fans that can't fit comfortably in the chair backs.

I still think they need to take out the top section in the endzone and build a big party deck with concessions. Over top of the concessions you could build 2-3 levels of more boxes, but have these with outside seating. The overhang of the outside seating would create a roof for part of the party deck. Make the party deck kid of "sports barish" with table seating, flat screen TVs, a little festive.
This is a great idea that would modernize the Joan. I haven't been financially able to donate a lot of money to the athletic department, but I would start doing so with progressive ideas like this.

I'd say beyond banker's idea and the OP's ideas, I'm going to keep banging the drum that a lot of us do and mention the severe need for bathroom renovations. They feel like an old junior high school's bathrooms.
 
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Really the first and foremost should be the bathrooms. It shouldn't take too much time and money to renovate them. The space between the stadium and ACF should be used as a kids funzone type of area where there are blowups and games. You could charge $5 a head to play maybe? Seems like a good way to make money. Some pro stadiums already do this setup.
 
First and Foremost its 2015 not 1950 the troph style bathrooms need to go

I love the idea of TV monitors all over the stadium concourse connected to the jumbo screen with an improved sound system so if your not inside the stadium you don't miss the action. Also add stadium grade speakers in the parking lot so the pregame show can be heard by the tailgaters.

Let's add a Horn that lets tailgaters know it's 30 mins, 15 mins, 10 mins, and 5 mins till kickoff.

Upgrade the concession options also, the food is terrible and it's no wonder people leave at Halftime.

And Finally SELL BEER!!!!!!!!

The Joan is a nice stadium, it just needs a lot of modernization
 
No - reentry would hurt our attendance. Our problem is not those who leave and come back. Our problem is those who leave and DONT come back. How does no re-entry solve that?
 
Originally posted by HerdFan73:
No - reentry would hurt our attendance. Our problem is not those who leave and come back. Our problem is those who leave and DONT come back. How does no re-entry solve that?
If we're selling beer, it'd lead to increased concession sales where we could demand more $ from Sodexho.

Even those that come back, a lot of them come back with 5 to go in the 3rd quarter or so, they'd be there for the start of the 2nd half.
 
Originally posted by HerdFan73:
No - reentry would hurt our attendance. Our problem is not those who leave and come back. Our problem is those who leave and DONT come back. How does no re-entry solve that?
A no re-entry policy on its own won't solve anything. A no re-entry policy combined with beer sales, increased food options and other amenities suggested in this thread would help discourage people from leaving in the first place and could actually encourage more people to come in.

Here's my theory, most of the people that leave and come back in late or not at all are casual fans who are there just as much for the social aspect of game day as they are to attend the game. As it is now, the social aspect of game day happens exclusively in the West Lot and surrounding tailgate lots. Moving the social aspect of game day out of the tailgate lots once the game starts and into the stadium and stadium concourse areas would have to help alleviate some of that. Just my opinion.

People that plan to leave and not come back are just not going to come back. Re-entry or no re-entry policy.
 
To me, Marshall upgrading fan amenities would be something like a fresh paint job in the bathroom, maybe some new urinal troughs that aren't rusted out, or try and get somebody up in a man-lift to clean up the peeling paint from the ceiling of the Cam. There's a lot of really basic maintenance stuff that Marshall should have spent millions on the last few decades, but hasn't, relying on the graciousness of our fans to just ignore it all.
 
Just take a look at the concourse at Akron. If we expanded ours like theirs moved the concessions to the opposite side took old concessions and converted to nice modern clean rest rooms added team shops beer sales and much needed walking space in the concourse areas. A good general cleaning and spruce up of the stadium. As for chair backs I find them a bit uncomfortable and tend to slide down in them lol I like renting seats. Just my thoughts.
 
In my opinion we should take out the "second level" of end zone seating. This will help to fill out the rest of the stadium and look better on tv. Then in its place we put a lower area with a patio and the upper few levels can be boxes like has been mentioned. The only thing I would like to see that hasn't been mentioned is a restaurant. On the patio level, lease that space to Marshall Hall of Fame or another local restaurant. On game day it can serve as a bar with mostly patio seating and after games would be a very busy restaurant. Throughout the week and all year round you could go eat there and sit on the patio looking over the field or if they had A glass front you could sit and look out at the stadium.
 
Hamrick, should really visit some College and professional stadium and sit down with a designer and redesign the concourse especially the Eastern side.

TVs and nice speakers, and modern bathrooms is a start
 
If last year tells us anything, it's that record and ranking does not equal butts in seats. With our schedule for the foreseeable future, its going to take more to coax people out of their living rooms and into the stadium.

Casual fans have the choice now to watch Marshall play Charlotte or Old Dominion from their living room and eat/drink whatever they want for tens of dollars. Or, they can drive to the stadium and spend hundreds of dollars to stand shoulder to shoulder with a stranger to pee in a rusty can and stand in long lines for Ginos pizza.

The stadium's simplistic charm has served us well for the last 23 seasons. Now it's time to take it up another level.
 
Our endzone should have this.

2381751912_4bf21f0ec6.jpg

Walk through underneath with concessions & a covered party deck above w/tvs and be able to enclose the sides in the winter. Make it to where you have to be a certain level Big Green donor (Green level, $600/yr?) to get access up stairs. Mount the video board on the top of that thing.

It would enclose the stadium and be a good counter piece to the Shewey Building. And it would also fill the sides of our stadium a little more with people not sitting in the endzone.
 
Originally posted by SHAMMOND16:
Our endzone should have this.

2381751912_4bf21f0ec6.jpg

Walk through underneath with concessions & a covered party deck above w/tvs and be able to enclose the sides in the winter. Make it to where you have to be a certain level Big Green donor (Green level, $600/yr?) to get access up stairs. Mount the video board on the top of that thing.

It would enclose the stadium and be a good counter piece to the Shewey Building. And it would also fill the sides of our stadium a little more with people not sitting in the endzone.
That would be awesome, inexpensive to build and would have a small footprint in an area where there isn't a lot of room to work with. Don't make them luxury suites but a club level for all Big Green members to access with and indoor and outdoor area.

Take out the entire upper level of end zone seating and replace it with this over the lower level of end zone seats and concourse area.
This post was edited on 4/17 10:38 AM by Mike Gwinn

This post was edited on 4/17 10:40 AM by Mike Gwinn
 
I'm old and old fashioned I guess. I go to the restroom at home, drive to the stadium, get in my seat. I stay there till the game is over and then leave and go to dinner somewhere.
I guess bar area's etc are important to some of you. For me, I go watch my Herd at home and on the road. Pretty much the same scenario on the road too.
 
Indeed herdmeister I too am an old style fan. Still Marshall has NOT done a good job with basic maintenance and hygenics around the Joan. Rusting stalls, peeling girder paint and mud dirt and filth all around the streets surrounding the stadium are items that can be easily fixed with a minimum amount of expense. I wish hammy would simply start with those as soon as spring ball is over. Then call Steve the Mayor and put together a Plan to clean the streets the night before each game.

I flat nosed shovel and a wheelbarrow may be needed to get some of the large amounts of mud and sand but we are a university , let's put a face on it.

Even go as far as the streets behind 3rd ave and clean those up too.


Finally there's an old marshall shuttle that drives around and nobody gets on it. Hambone needs to repaint it kelly green and run that to downtown. Make sure to have a Stop at the Holiday Inn (it has NO shuttle to marshall games, the Pullman does) and any bars that want to enlist it, have it stop there too. It would help bar business if people knew they had a shuttle that would take them to the game. Ga Tech has a shuttle that goes to the bar district and takes people to the game. Why you have that shuttle currently driving around tailgate areas that's a 3 minute walk to the stadium is beyond me.

To me the most promising area for something that has fan amenities added at a minimum of expense is the area between the new IAF and the stadium. Picnic tables, beer stands, vending stands, a child's play area all could be added there and even stored and taken down after each game. Oh and all those unused chairbacks just laying around on the visitors side of the stadium need a storage area. Again it looks bush league to have them just lying around.
 
Originally posted by thundermax:
I have to laugh at having a play area for kids. Tell your kids to sit in their seats and watch the game. I have kids and not one time during any game did they get up except to go to the restroom. What's next? Baby sitting services.
Your laughing may have interfered with your reading. We we are talking about halftime so the game isn't being being played. The inflatable stuff for them to play in is really nice. Stuff like that is what I was referring to in my post.
 
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