What would it take to expand our stadium to seat 75-80K

[cwtcr hokie]

ok, everything i have read from the engineers says that the structure would be in the practice field, look at the SEZ, I grew up in bburg and we used to play football behind what is now the SEZ and it goes to the parking lot. a stadium takes alot of room.

There's actually quite a bit of room left back there so I'm not sure why that lines keeps getting brought out. I'm not saying the new structure has to be as big as the South End Zone. But even if the supports for the new structure cross the street, pads can be placed on them and they wouldn't exactly be THAT close to the practice field. We may need to slightly reconfigure the road behind the NEZ bleachers. But nothing drastic.

[TexasGobbler]

Maybe they could even lower the field? "the" OH.State and others have done that.

I'm not sure that is possible. I thought the area of the field "inside the walls" was already not large enough and did not meet current requirements of the NCAA? Isn't that why they weren't able to put more Hokie Stone on the walls?

I don't know, I've been wrong before. Once.

[Edgeman]

Maybe they could even lower the field? "the" OH.State and others have done that.

Have you ever watched a game from the Swamp? It seems like the field was lowered there...

[Edgeman]

Also related to ADA requirements (access, seating, etc)

...toilets

[Ancient Hokie]

$$$ Weaver (speaking for Steger and the BOV) is on record that the only way to fund further expansion is to have unmet demand for luxury boxes and/or club seats and to use the revenue from new ones of those to pay for the expansion. That was how the SEZ and the West Side Expansions were paid for.

I don't think that is Weaver talking for Steger and the BOV, but Weaver stating the cold hard fact. You can't float the bonds until you have the means to pay them off. In stadiums, that's called demand for the seats. An individual could just pony up the money in the absence of such demand, but that would be one more fool realizing his/her inevitable relationship with his/her money.

[Mercury]

All sports fans think it would be super to add on to lane, but there has to be a business case, and with the high cost of construction (easy over 50 million dollars), the model of existing plain seating does not produce the numbers needed for make a reasonable Return of investment. Therefore VT has to go to club or stadium seating to get the numbers (and VT success right now is just ok).

This is where the economic demographics hurt VT, it is questionable if VT can 1) ratchet up skybox seating to support expansion and particularly if VT has a losing season and 2) ratchet up major contributions. Simply 25 dollar hokie club donations don't hack it. THey need huge up in major donations corporate donations and solicit these gifts worldwide. Actually the BOV and Stegar realize this and the ACC model works very well for us.

[HOKIERIT]

Merely requires seismic isolation.

and who am I to question "Seismic Isolation"...

[HOKIERIT]

see, this is where common sense flies out the window. relocate to where, the middle of the fieldhouse, the baseball field, the other practice fields? and that is the only road into that side of campus besides the road that runs by the cage, so no you can't get rid of that road

Maybe you are right, I'm not convinced, but you may be right. I NEVER heard that as a potential issue at the time. i DID hear that it kept demand high, and was plenty until such time as they did something different w/ the other EZ.

I'm not sure how you'd have to run a road through the middle of the field house in ANY event. I am guessing that the potential exists to put a "BEND" in a road... I'd have to see an aerial to see what the problem is....It's a moot point now anyway!

[chuckd4vt]

I'm not sure that is possible. I thought the area of the field "inside the walls" was already not large enough and did not meet current requirements of the NCAA? Isn't that why they weren't able to put more Hokie Stone on the walls?

I don't know, I've been wrong before. Once.

It certainly seems as though the crowd is about as close as it could get along the sidelines.

[VTEarle]

To the best of my recollection, if a new construction project touches an older project (i.e. the current stands), the older section also has to be brought up to current code, which would have cost a great deal of additional cash. Thus the south EZ was built in that manner...

I'm pretty sure that's not correct. If so the west side expansion a few years ago would have required bringing that entire side up to code.

The sections would have to be structurally independent and have separate egress paths (just like the club seats in west). When they did the west side expansion they actually cantilevered the new construction out over top of the existing foundations.