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Post by bogeyman on Dec 20, 2014 14:41:24 GMT -6
Watching playoff game at New Hampshire. What a dumpy looking football stadium for a successful program? Here's hoping our new stadium will help us match their football atmosphere.
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Post by bogeyman on Jan 14, 2015 14:14:08 GMT -6
Since I now live in Myrtle Beach, SC and the closest college to me is Coastal Carolina, I really am becoming a fan of CCU sports. Joe Moglia is a terrific football coach with a very interesting background (CEO of AmeriTrade when hired to coach CCU). He is a very principled individual and cleaned house when he became coach. CCU has been in the FCS playoffs each of his 3 yrs and will be a national championship hopeful in 2015. It's interesting to see what CCU is doing with facilities and compare them with ACU. CCU had an enrollment of 9976 students in Fall, 2014 as compared to ACU with 4428, so we are comparing a school that is over double our size. CCU plays football at Brooks Stadium with a capacity of 9400 but with plans to add until it reaches a max of 20,000 (the plans called for it to be built in stages). I pass by Brooks consistently on my way to play golf. I can only see the visitor side from the road and it looks crudy, so I suppose a lot of the additions will be on that side. I would guess that our capacity of 8,500 fixed and 12,000 max on grassy areas is about right for our size--but hope our plans might call for the ability to enlarge at some time. CCU has just build a new basketball facility (the HTC Center with 3,600 capacity--pretty small if you ask me) and will play baseball in its new baseball stadium this spring (after 2 years playing at Pelican field--the location of a minor league baseball team). The baseball complex will have a fixed seating capacity of 2,500 with outfield berms that will seat about 3,000 more. Included in this complex is a new softball field (500 fixed seats and standing room areas around the outfield) and indoor practice facilities for both softball and baseball. CCU is also very competitive in Track and Field and in men's golf (Dustin Johnson is a recognizable alum.) Men's golf has unbelievable facilities access (and just hired the coach from Augusta St. who led that school to 2 national championships; think Patrick Reed) with the many top of the line golf courses and teaching schools in the area. I was glad to hear Coach Shaw respond on Twitter to one of our golfers that hitting bays were coming. All in all, with the new football stadium and track and soccer field added to a great baseball field, very nice basketball facility and top of the line indoor and outdoor tennis venues in addition to the glitzy fitness center and weight rooms we're looking pretty good in comparison to the much larger CCU (which I have a feeling we'll be butting heads with nationally over the next years.)
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Post by curious1 on Jan 15, 2015 9:25:12 GMT -6
What is the word on the new ACU football stadium? Last I've seen was that construction was to begin in the fall 2014 on the stadium part itself. That obviously didn't happen. Is the funding still the hold up or are there other issues? Does anyone know? Don't see how we are going to open up the 2016 season in a new stadium if construction doesn't start soon.
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Post by OscarWildeCat, Admin on Jan 15, 2015 9:37:51 GMT -6
What is the word on the new ACU football stadium? Last I've seen was that construction was to begin in the fall 2014 on the stadium part itself. That obviously didn't happen. Is the funding still the hold up or are there other issues? Does anyone know? Don't see how we are going to open up the 2016 season in a new stadium if construction doesn't start soon. I think the original plan was to start construction for the track stadium in the fall and the football stadium this month, pending funding. Last I heard we were still several million short. I don't know the revised plan.
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Post by Cap'n Cattitude on Jan 15, 2015 10:10:01 GMT -6
They aren't going to tear down Elmer Gray until the track/soccer facility is finished. Just eyeballing it, I would say it will be done within 4-6 weeks. Then we'll see how the stadium construction progresses. Those I've talked to are holding to fall '16 completion.
Totally unconfirmed rumor: couple of people who made big promises early haven't come through. I speculate that oil prices may be playing a part.
I just knew that when my $100 check cleared they would be ready to go. :-)
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Post by bogeyman on Jan 15, 2015 12:47:25 GMT -6
Your check cleared?
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Post by Cap'n Cattitude on Jan 15, 2015 15:21:55 GMT -6
Well. Not yet.
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Post by WildCatToothDoc on Jan 15, 2015 17:10:15 GMT -6
Ill pay for higher gas prices now if that's what is holding things up. After its built, then lower gas prices. : )
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Post by Cap'n Cattitude on Jan 16, 2015 8:27:19 GMT -6
Heard around campus .... Stadium architect fired. ACU wants to hold costs to $40mm. Architect was proposing $48mm. Hmmmm.
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Post by bogeyman on Jan 16, 2015 9:43:04 GMT -6
What happened to the $30 mil price tag on the original announcement? I believe that is still the figure on the Vision in Action ad on the sports website.
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Post by bogeyman on Jan 16, 2015 9:43:15 GMT -6
What happened to the $30 mil price tag on the original announcement? I believe that is still the figure on the Vision in Action ad on the sports website.
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Post by curious1 on Jan 16, 2015 9:50:57 GMT -6
Either way, $20M, $30M, $40M, ground needs to be broke and start that first $1. Lots of promises have been made. If we don't do what we said we would do, then the program is going to get a huge setback. Lots of recruits told they would be playing in a new stadium for 2016 season. Fall 2014 ground breaking on stadium portion.
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Post by wildcatter on Jan 16, 2015 10:59:44 GMT -6
Either way, $20M, $30M, $40M, ground needs to be broke and start that first $1. Lots of promises have been made. If we don't do what we said we would do, then the program is going to get a huge setback. Lots of recruits told they would be playing in a new stadium for 2016 season. Fall 2014 ground breaking on stadium portion. I brought this up a while back. Some stated that playing in Shotwell shouldn't matter to recruiting but I guarantee seeing construction taking place would make a huge difference compared to just seeing pictures posted up around the facilities. I think our recruiting classes will continue to impress but seeing that new stadium on official visits will greatly increase interest.
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Post by Cap'n Cattitude on Jan 16, 2015 13:00:38 GMT -6
I'm betting on construction going forward this spring and summer.
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Post by gopher on Jan 18, 2015 9:46:49 GMT -6
So at halftime of the basketball game Collums was interviewed and seemed to have a great deal of energy. Probably from the hoops results at halftime but the euphoria from the big recruiting weekend. Talked up the stadium and what it meant to the school. You could glean that things were on track based on the intervie
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