I've seen some Herd fans mention the need to upgrade The Joan. Yes, please! Gotta admit, as a Big Green member, season ticket holder and lifelong Herd football fan, the lack of a master plan to invest ongoing in football facilities has frustrated me for a long time. The top G5 schools do this. Look at App State's facilities. They're constantly investing in them. Frankly, I wish the money and energy being put into building a new baseball stadium would instead be invested in football facilities. Win in football consistently, and there will be money to invest in other sports facilities. Top-notch football facilities ideally helps you win consistently. (And when I say win consistently, I mean win like App State does.)
The Joan is tired. I hope the next AD comes in and makes investing in football facilities a top priority. Here are things I'd like to see addressed (and I don't think a lot of this is unrealistic from a cost standpoint):
*South end zone overhaul: Remove upper end zone seats; expand the concourse and add beer/concessions for a standing/mingling area. Eventually, maybe Marshall could add end zone suite/club seating facility like Southern Miss, App State, ODU. The latter is something that can be looked at long-term, but doesn't seem like a must-have. Condensing the fans into the East and West sides -- in addition to keeping the small end zone section along the hill side -- will create for a better atmosphere.
*New video board/digital upgrade: Install massive new video board in south end zone, making it the stadium’s main video board. Remove video board on the Shewey Building, replace with ribbon board scoreboard across Shewey façade. Also add ribbon scoreboard somewhere on press box façade (many stadiums have this). So instead of two, hard-to-see digital boards in each end zone, we’d now have one massive board in the south end zone that everyone can see (except the few thousand fans sitting in now small end zone section, but they could still see it by turning around for replays).
*Additional light tower/bank of lights: Night games on TV aren’t bright enough. Remember how bright and vibrant App State's stadium looked on ESPN a few weeks ago?
*New turf: This needs to be done way more often than it is. It’s faded and worn and looks terrible. And when players are getting tackled and standing up with fake grass clippings covering their arms, yeah, past time to change it
*New chairbacks: Have these been changed out since the stadium opened? The greenish-gray color looks horrible
*Bathrooms: Not much needs to be said here. Disgusting
*Change press box façade signage: The “Marshall University” with the 1993 helmet is drab and tired. Need to replace with kelly green “We Are … Marshall”
*Power wash/clean/painting: To me, this stuff is inexcusable and a total failure of the athletic facilities department. That department needs to be seriously looked at by a new AD. There is no attention to detail from this department and it's unacceptable. Power wash the black gunk along the top of the Shewey; paint the goal posts; clean the actual stadium. There’s a railing along the walkway underneath the west stands to go into the Big Green Room that is absolutely disgusting. I ran my hand along it during the ECU game and was pissed that it left my hand covered in dirt.
In addition to the stadium, a football facilities plan should include adding two outdoor practice fields. That would help preserve the stadium turf, allow for coaches and players to do more things and add another amenity to appeal to recruits.
What do you all think? What would you like to see upgraded/added to football facilities?
The Joan is tired. I hope the next AD comes in and makes investing in football facilities a top priority. Here are things I'd like to see addressed (and I don't think a lot of this is unrealistic from a cost standpoint):
*South end zone overhaul: Remove upper end zone seats; expand the concourse and add beer/concessions for a standing/mingling area. Eventually, maybe Marshall could add end zone suite/club seating facility like Southern Miss, App State, ODU. The latter is something that can be looked at long-term, but doesn't seem like a must-have. Condensing the fans into the East and West sides -- in addition to keeping the small end zone section along the hill side -- will create for a better atmosphere.
*New video board/digital upgrade: Install massive new video board in south end zone, making it the stadium’s main video board. Remove video board on the Shewey Building, replace with ribbon board scoreboard across Shewey façade. Also add ribbon scoreboard somewhere on press box façade (many stadiums have this). So instead of two, hard-to-see digital boards in each end zone, we’d now have one massive board in the south end zone that everyone can see (except the few thousand fans sitting in now small end zone section, but they could still see it by turning around for replays).
*Additional light tower/bank of lights: Night games on TV aren’t bright enough. Remember how bright and vibrant App State's stadium looked on ESPN a few weeks ago?
*New turf: This needs to be done way more often than it is. It’s faded and worn and looks terrible. And when players are getting tackled and standing up with fake grass clippings covering their arms, yeah, past time to change it
*New chairbacks: Have these been changed out since the stadium opened? The greenish-gray color looks horrible
*Bathrooms: Not much needs to be said here. Disgusting
*Change press box façade signage: The “Marshall University” with the 1993 helmet is drab and tired. Need to replace with kelly green “We Are … Marshall”
*Power wash/clean/painting: To me, this stuff is inexcusable and a total failure of the athletic facilities department. That department needs to be seriously looked at by a new AD. There is no attention to detail from this department and it's unacceptable. Power wash the black gunk along the top of the Shewey; paint the goal posts; clean the actual stadium. There’s a railing along the walkway underneath the west stands to go into the Big Green Room that is absolutely disgusting. I ran my hand along it during the ECU game and was pissed that it left my hand covered in dirt.
In addition to the stadium, a football facilities plan should include adding two outdoor practice fields. That would help preserve the stadium turf, allow for coaches and players to do more things and add another amenity to appeal to recruits.
What do you all think? What would you like to see upgraded/added to football facilities?
