Stadium Renderings

[MARSHALL77]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founders_Park

http://media.thestate.com/smedia/2009/02/19/22/baseballstadiumusc.source.prod_affiliate.74.pdf

36.5 million in 2009 built this.

Toward the bottom is a list as well as some photographs of other college ballparks if you are interested in comparisons regarding our new facility vs what others have. The list is compiled by conference affiliation.

 

[GoHerdMarshallYes]

1) show me where I compared this to Great American Ballpark?
2) I’ll go back to football and spend money out of my budget when games are enjoyable, (I guess that’s what you were referring to in saying I don’t attend games... not sure how you know about my attendance patterns. Creepy really.
3) I don’t pay for Herdnation... which directly impacts the athletic department.
4) not 1 place did I say I wanted a bigger stadium. But hey, don’t let facts get in the way of your whiny narrative.



Actually I plan to attend as many games as I can at the stadium. I’m a local baseball coach, I love the game, and would love a minor league team (probably won’t happen given the reduction in minor league teams that is coming) or at least a wood bat summer league. Baseball is my passion and I’m very excited we are getting a stadium. I will be there. I don’t hate the stadium, I want the stadium to be the best it can be for my alma mater

I just wish it was as good as it possibly could be, and feel like (as always) we are going about this wrong.

Oh wow...even better.
Bet you'll end up getting into arguments with your kids when they compliment said stadium.
"No...you don't know what a good stadium is supposed to look like."
"What stadium around here looks better coach?"
"..."

 

[GoHerdMarshallYes]

I agree, it is extremely overdue. I’m 29. It has been overdue my entire life. My argument is not that this project shouldn’t happen. And I would rather have a stadium than not have a stadium.

my entire point is this: we’ve waited a long time for our stadium. Now that we are doing it, we need to do it right. I cannot imagine the cost being exponentially higher to have the seats centered behind home plate, again I could be wrong I’m not an architect but it shouldn’t be a deal breaker.

So you can't just appreciate the fact a stadium has never been around since you've been alive?

How about you go to Hamrick as simply ask him about the stadium designs and why you wonder so badly about seating?
Seriously...you'll go right to the source and get your answer.

You are no architect, absolutely correct. Grou d hasn't even been moved, this stadium could very well end up looking like the one you want.

But you'd complain because Hamrick didn't release more accurate pictures of one prior to construction.

 

[redsfan5590]

Oh wow...even better.
Bet you'll end up getting into arguments with your kids when they compliment said stadium.
"No...you don't know what a good stadium is supposed to look like."
"What stadium around here looks better coach?"
"..."

You’re right about one thing. My current response “...”

 

[redsfan5590]

So you can't just appreciate the fact a stadium has never been around since you've been alive?

How about you go to Hamrick as simply ask him about the stadium designs and why you wonder so badly about seating?
Seriously...you'll go right to the source and get your answer.

You are no architect, absolutely correct. Grou d hasn't even been moved, this stadium could very well end up looking like the one you want.

But you'd complain because Hamrick didn't release more accurate pictures of one prior to construction.

I absolutely appreciate it. I also want it to be as good as possible. It’s a simple philosophical difference, you accept mediocrity from Marshall and will be happy as long as we field a team, and have athletic events regardless of outcome or actual growth. In fact, you most likely will welcome mediocrity because it allows you to wallow in self righteous indignation as you troll people who are upset with mediocrity.

I just want us to have the best possible in whatever we do. Simple difference

 

[W-S HerdFan]

I absolutely appreciate it. I also want it to be as good as possible. It’s a simple philosophical difference, you accept mediocrity from Marshall and will be happy as long as we field a team, and have athletic events regardless of outcome or actual growth. In fact, you most likely will welcome mediocrity because it allows you to wallow in self righteous indignation as you troll people who are upset with mediocrity.

I just want us to have the best possible in whatever we do. Simple difference

Hey reds - I think we can all agree on your last sentence 100%

Serious suggestion - why not send an e-mail to Mike telling him of your concerns and suggestions on possible improvements to the design? You might find out that indeed he is looking at several different changes before the concrete sets and would appreciate your insight. I mean, would be a lot better than having an internet fight...……..WS

 

[TwolfHerdfan]

Why don't we see what the final version looks like, then we can pass judgement. I doubt the powers that be would ever alter their ideas based on an email from a fan anyway.

 

[redsfan5590]

Email has been sent. And I’m not really trying to get into internet fights. Really the entire purpose of this thread was to see if others felt the way I do. Some do some don’t. Personally, and I’ve stated this before.... I don’t think the athletic department is being run well. That’s just my thoughts, I know many disagree.

 

[mubaseballking]

Need to find a naming rights sponsor to help cover some of the construction costs.

 

[redsfan5590]

Need to find a naming rights sponsor to help cover some of the construction costs.

stewarts?

 

[riflearm2]

stewarts?

He offered to sponsor it but only if gays and Muslims have to sit behind the right field fence.

 

[sportsphantom1]

While I agree the best seats are from dugout to dugout and it would be nice to have more of them, Im not sure it would work given the location where the new ballpark is being built and what Marshall is trying to do with amenities and features built in to this new ballpark.

Overall this design is much better than any of the pictures I have seen of the other ballparks in the conference. Start with walking into the ballpark. You have a wide open concourse and can see the field from anywhere. This is similar to other designs of some highly regarded ballparks including professional ones like Great American Ballpark. The other ballparks in the conference, you are behind the stands getting your view blocked. You want to go get a hotdog but dont want to miss the game? At other CUSA ballparks you will be doing it behind the stands not watching the ballgame. With an open concourse design like Marshall's you can still watch the game. This is a very nice feature.

Looking at the other ballparks in the conference, how many of those designs have luxury suites and club seating? Southern Miss and Charlotte? None of the others if they have them look significant judging by the pictures shown. Look at the Marshall design. I don't know how many luxury suites and how many club seats the new ballpark will have but it looks substantial especially for a college ballpark much less CUSA.

Last part I want to mention is the renderings show Marshall will have ten rows of seats behind home plate. That is actually comparable to several of the CUSA ballparks shown in this thread. WKU has 9 rows of seats. FIU looks like it has 13. FAU has about 11. Charlotte looks like it has 14 total rows but is missing a large portion of six of those rows behind home plate. You're not looking at that big of a difference in my opinion. It would be nice to add a couple more rows of seats giving Marshall 12 total rows but I'm not sure if space limitations would allow this given the small build site.

 

[GoHerdMarshallYes]

Email has been sent. And I’m not really trying to get into internet fights. Really the entire purpose of this thread was to see if others felt the way I do. Some do some don’t. Personally, and I’ve stated this before.... I don’t think the athletic department is being run well. That’s just my thoughts, I know many disagree.

Your last sentence is about the only correct thing you've stated this entire time.

 

[GoHerdMarshallYes]

I absolutely appreciate it. I also want it to be as good as possible. It’s a simple philosophical difference, you accept mediocrity from Marshall and will be happy as long as we field a team, and have athletic events regardless of outcome or actual growth. In fact, you most likely will welcome mediocrity because it allows you to wallow in self righteous indignation as you troll people who are upset with mediocrity.

I just want us to have the best possible in whatever we do. Simple difference

Funny thing is you're the one who went on some rant about mediocrity and MU...and yet falsely state you'll be going to games.

If you want MU to have the best possible, then you'd not have bitched about the stadium to begin with. Considering the alternative is simply spending the money elsewhere and not even building one.

Care to share a copy of said e-mail sent to Hamrick? Its easy to say you did something on here and not actually have done it.

 

[riflearm2]

While I agree the best seats are from dugout to dugout and it would be nice to have more of them, Im not sure it would work given the location where the new ballpark is being built and what Marshall is trying to do with amenities and features built in to this new ballpark.

I've asked if the design is due to size/money restrictions. Nobody has been able to answer that. Now, you're telling me that the design and great detriments in building it that way is simply to allow a concourse where people can buy a hot dog without missing any of the action? I highly doubt that. If that's why the design is like it is, the firm and everyone in Shewey needs to be canned.

Overall this design is much better than any of the pictures I have seen of the other ballparks in the conference.
.

That's an amazing conclusion. Every conference school I posted and just about every top stadium in the country uses the same design, at least initially, in building a stadium. Yet Marshall is the one lone school to come up with the best design. Wow, we are lucky to have the best design in the country even over schools that have the ability to pay far more for a stadium.

Looking at the other ballparks in the conference, how many of those designs have luxury suites and club seating? Southern Miss and Charlotte? None of the others if they have them look significant judging by the pictures shown. Look at the Marshall design. I don't know how many luxury suites and how many club seats the new ballpark will have but it looks substantial especially for a college ballpark much less CUSA.

Luxury suites aren't how you build a great program. Luxury seats are used by businesses, not die-hard fans that are the foundation for a program's success.

Go to any top program that has luxury seats and see which is more crowded - the stands or the suites. Many of those suites sit empty in many games. Those aren't the die-hard fans that build a program.

Last part I want to mention is the renderings show Marshall will have ten rows of seats behind home plate. That is actually comparable to several of the CUSA ballparks shown in this thread. WKU has 9 rows of seats. FIU looks like it has 13. FAU has about 11. Charlotte looks like it has 14 total rows but is missing a large portion of six of those rows behind home plate. You're not looking at that big of a difference in my opinion. It would be nice to add a couple more rows of seats giving Marshall 12 total rows but I'm not sure if space limitations would allow this given the small build site.

This isn't just about seats directly behind the plate. Look at the rows right next to directly behind home (so from the inside of one dugout to the inside of the other). Marshall is behind everyone in that. You mentioned FIU - look at the sections right next to directly behind home plate. Look at the sections directly behind the dugout. They all gain more rows in those box seats while Marshall actually further reduces the number of rows.

There are many factors, and in all of them, Marshall's design is behind everyone else's. Again, why can nobody defending the design explain why Marshall is the loner when it comes to this design compared with everyone else in the conference and just about every other major program's stadium?

 

[goherd73]

Here's the rest of the design drawings. They look great.

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.tow...-5853-a7fa-9651798357fd/5dbb5352466c3.pdf.pdf

 

[W-S HerdFan]

I think these additional view points provide a lot more clarity. It will never please everybody....thoughts?

 

[GoHerdMarshallYes]

I think these additional view points provide a lot more clarity. It will never please everybody....thoughts?

Nope it won't.
But given the comments, you'd think MU's best academic program was architecture.

 

[riflearm2]

....thoughts?

You understand how message boards work, right? People freely share their thoughts, opinions, and information.

You constantly asking for people’s thoughts doesn’t elicit more responses, as people sharing their thoughts is the most fundamental basis of a message board.

This board has survived for 20+ years, amazingly, without the need for you to ask people to share their thoughts on it.

 

[MichiganHerd]

My inclusion of the stadiums wasn’t to show whose were better. It was to show that they all use the same design - the one that is best for numerous reasons - instead of the one Marshall is using.

A stadium built 30 years ago isn’t going to look as good as one built this year. The point was that they all share a similar design.

Look down the left field line in the first picture. See what it is? It’s an inflatable slide in a children’s area. That school knows that a family with young children won’t be able to be entertained for 3+ hours sitting restrained in seats. So they provide other options for entertainment to allow everyone in the family to have fun and get them back for future games.

This is the berm area that I have referenced numerous times as being important. Marshall’s design doesn’t have that. Do you really think a family with young children will be entertained for an entire game?

There are many reasons why the design almost every other school uses is better. I’m still waiting for one reason Marshall’s design is better.

I'm drinking beer tonight amongst beautiful WMU coeds in Kalamazoo, and you're sitting around waiting for your next Uber client to contact you.

 

[Raoul Duke MU]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founders_Park

http://media.thestate.com/smedia/2009/02/19/22/baseballstadiumusc.source.prod_affiliate.74.pdf

36.5 million in 2009 built this.

Toward the bottom is a list as well as some photographs of other college ballparks if you are interested in comparisons regarding our new facility vs what others have. The list is compiled by conference affiliation.

That stadium looks to have a nice party area behind center field. Maybe I should not compare AAA baseball to college baseball (why, I don't really know), but here in Louisville the party deck areas are really popular.

Here's the rest of the design drawings. They look great.

This source is much more clear. I now understand why my preferred behind-home area is short-stacked. I do agree with Rifle that while the boxes might sell they will never be full, but it is a good revenue maker.

 

[riflearm2]

I'm drinking beer tonight amongst beautiful WMU coeds in Kalamazoo, and you're sitting around waiting for your next Uber client to contact you.

Came across a phenomenal 16' x 5' Park City Mountain Resort metal guide sign today. That, along with a separate guide marker, will look great in my new downtown loft since the ceilings are 32' high. Unfortunately, the sign wouldn't fit in either of my vehicles, and my attempt at renting a truck at Home Depot and the other location that rents them in the town failed. I randomly stopped at a bike store where I saw two box trucks that they owned. I asked one of the employees if they could pick up my sign and deliver it with me - which would take no more than 15 minutes - and I would PayPal or Venmo them money for it.

The guy said they would do it for free as soon as one of the other employees came back. After talking with the guy for 15 minutes, I discovered it was the New Balance CEO who recently resigned. He bought the bike shop after it was failing, and I returned the favor of using the box truck by buying his store lunch.

I sat outside on the store's porch bullshitting with the former New Balance CEO while we ate lunch and he smoked a stogie. He invited me up to his $12 million mansion tonight to watch the USC/Oregon game, but I had already committed to going to a philanthropic dinner at the nicest hotel downtown this evening, invite courtesy of a smokeshow whose aunt is an exec for the major league soccer team here (which has a star player whose fiancé' I have been banging since my days in Florida).

After the dinner, the smokeshow wanted to take me to a place she thought I hadn't been yet which is a cool restaurant/nightspot. However, I had gone there when I came out to visit a month earlier, and a hostess there ended up sending me nudes on IG after coincidentally coming across me on Bumble hours after I had met her during lunch. She wasn't working tonight though.

So yeah - enjoy Kalamazoo, Michigan. I'm sure it is ranked as one of the best resort towns in the country, right? I'm sure it has the second highest percentage of millionaires among small towns in the country just after Park City, right?

 

[riflearm2]

Here's the rest of the design drawings. They look great.

https://bloximages.newyork1.vip.tow...-5853-a7fa-9651798357fd/5dbb5352466c3.pdf.pdf

Those drawings do look much better. It still doesn't justify the downfalls of the design. Four suites are simply not enough of a positive to make up for the drawbacks of it. And I am very skeptical that about half of the things shown in those plans will actually be built.

But the drawings were accurate in that it shows all of the fans in the parking lot instead of in the stadium:

It's also accurate in that it shows all of the fans on the concourse trying to buy hot dogs without a single fan in the stands: especially accurate after the fans realize there is nothing there to provide more entertainment/enjoyment like most other college stadiums provide:

 

[GoHerdMarshallYes]

Those drawings do look much better. It still doesn't justify the downfalls of the design. Four suites are simply not enough of a positive to make up for the drawbacks of it. And I am very skeptical that about half of the things shown in those plans will actually be built.

But the drawings were accurate in that it shows all of the fans in the parking lot instead of in the stadium:

It's also accurate in that it shows all of the fans on the concourse trying to buy hot dogs without a single fan in the stands: especially accurate after the fans realize there is nothing there to provide more entertainment/enjoyment like most other college stadiums provide:

Don't be fooled, the concorse had Stewarts hot dogs. **** them.

 

[muthed]

Rifle, there are no fans in the stands because the game hasn't started yet. No players on the field yet. Gates don't open til 1.5 hours before first pitch.

 

[greengeezer]

Personally, I am looking forward to attending a game at the new Stewart's Hot Dogs Stadium. I will cheer when our team takes LGBTQ Field, and watch the balls and strikes count carefully on the Heiner's Buns Scoreboard.

I do hope a small Marshall Baseball Hall of Fame is included so I can point to a picture of Rifle and proudly tell my friends, "I kind of know that guy."

 

[riflearm2]

I saw two stadiums in person the last few days which not only further proves my point about stadium design, but it also proves my point about earning fans.

Below are pictures of Utah Valley University's (don't worry, me neither) baseball stadium. They are a D1 school. First, notice the design which is just like how I have argued stadiums should be built . . . which is just like how almost every other legitimate program builds their stadium:

They don't build down the line until it is absolutely needed due to not having enough seats. Instead, they build up the stadium part making it look bigger/nice instead of having just 6-10 rows from the dugout to dugout area. They also build with down so there is a berm which is very popular among college students and families.

Now, check out their crowds. Sure, the seats have a solid crowd, but look at how packed the berm and outfield areas are. Why? Because people enjoy being able to spread out, be more relaxed, and have room for college students to be loud and talk shit to opponents and children to have more space to play.

The seats are important, because that is where you will have your loyal fans - the people who show up no matter what, even during bad seasons, and buy season tickets. However, that number will always be limited if you don't have the means to hook people into loving the product. And the way to hook people into loving the product is to give them more entertainment/fun/enjoyment than just the game, which is what the berm allows. Eventually, those people end up becoming more of the loyal fans and also show up during bad seasons after it is engrained in them:

Below is BYU's stadium. Once again, you can see that they first built up the main portion of the stadium giving it a bigger, better, and more prestigious look. They have a two level stadium. They haven't build down the lines and use those areas for batting cages, etc. They realize that the bigger stadium looks better, people prefer to sit closer to the main action (dugout to dugout), and it is a recruiting tool.

 

[TwolfHerdfan]

Not sure about the elevated concourse area. Looks sorta cheap if you ask me. I am sure it will all be top notch though.