Cajun Field Expansion ??

[Louisiana's Ragin T]

_ I believe part of the reasoning behind this move is that our new leadership feels it is bvetter to do all of this at one time (suites, pressbox and expansion) rather than in phases. As I understand it the original plan was to do the suites and press box first and then a few years later do the second phase which would be the expansion of seating capacity. I believe Jay Walker spoke about this and the thinking now is that rather than jump through all the hoops the state requires just to get the pressbox and suites done and then plan to have to do it all over again in a few years (their expected timetable for the second phase) it is probably better to present it all as one project and just go through the approval process once. That is probably a good plan. Remember how long the state dragged out the approval process on the indoor facility? _

V

I like the idea of expanding Cajun Field!!! I say that most of the money that RCAF gets needs to be put towards paying coaches, and recruiting. If 5 to 10 million can be put towards Cajun Field. Could you imagine if we put the same efforts in paying our coaches, and recruiting players. Look at Louisiana Tech

[DestinCajun]

I believe part of the reasoning behind this move is that our new leadership feels it is bvetter to do all of this at one time (suites, pressbox and expansion) rather than in phases.

That makes sense but what I don't get is adding seating in the end zone (if that's what we plan to do).

It's not like we have open ends and if you're going to the trouble, why not add far better quality seating on the sidelines. Not to mention there's something about all the kids playing and having a good time in the end zones that I like seeing.

Also, if we're going to do this then round it off at an even 50 thousand seats. LOL, that'll give the BBU'ers something else about Cajun athletics to yodel over.

[ulforlife]

all you people who are wondering why we would increase our capacity to 46k need to understand most teams won't come here or play a home and home because our stadium is rather small. there you go. you want good home games? make room

[HoustonCajun]

_ That makes sense but what I don't get is adding seating in the end zone (if that's what we plan to do).

It's not like we have open ends and if you're going to the trouble, why not add far better quality seating on the sidelines. Not to mention there's something about all the kids playing and having a good time in the end zones that I like seeing.

Also, if we're going to do this then round it off at an even 50 thousand seats. LOL, that'll give the BBU'ers something else about Cajun athletics to yodel over. _

With a bowled stadium that might seat 50,000, I would also suggest chairbacks on the student side of the field between the 35 yard lines. Move the students to one end going into the endzone and create more expensive 50 yard line seats. It is rediculous to give away those seats like we presently do. We need more revenue, more people want 50 yard line seats, and this is a perfect way to accomplish both. We also need to cap off the top of the student side of the stadium as it looks unfinished. And while we are at it, lets replace the non-functioning scoreboard with a nice video screen. UH a few years ago purchased very inexpensively a large video scoreboard from Texas A&M when A&M enlarged theirs and, of course, painted it in red. We could very likely do the same as an upgrade for us when a BCS program upgrades theirs as Texas and Texas A&M recently did. What they had was really nice and replaced with something that is fantactic. Their old video boards would WOW most stadiums. Anything would be an improvement over our current scoreboard(s) and could be a very cost effective upgrade.

If we are going to upgrade, then take all of these matters into consideration. My understanding is that revenue from the sale of the suites and projected increased attendance were to be used to finance the upgrades, not the RCAF and not state funding.

[CajunSaint]

_ It all depends our expectations for our program. There were no expectations in the past 10 years. Football was underfunded, losing, and barely survived under an administrative regime that had little vision for what athletics could do for a university. That is changing. Look at what has happened in the past year or so - new Indoor Practice facility, new field turf, new weight room, RCAF, now plans for upgrading track & field, softball and baseball. And, most importantly because it drives the whole athletic program, the football stadium is getting updated. Gerald told me personally that the plans are to build a press box the length of the stadium with box suites, the revenue from which would pay for the stadium improvements. He said Dr. S wants to enlarge the stadium by bowling it. He expects football to win and when we do win, the fans will come. We are positioning ourselves for future conference reallignment and a larger stadium will be necessary for that. We can win at UL and when we do, we will see support like we've never seen before. Why can't we average over 45,000 a game like they do in places like El Paso, Starkville, Oxford (barely the size of Abbeville), and Boise? UCF built a 45,000 seat stadium, averages 40,000 per game and hosted Texas. Boise State has a 32,000 seat stadium, is enlarging to over 45,000, hosts a bowl game, played in a BCS bowl and enjoys Top 25 status each year.

Why can't we dream and plan for bigger and better things and achieve similar success? If it can happen in Boise, ID, it can happen here. UL needs to prepare now for success, provide the tools necessary to be successful (and that includes facility upgrades), create new expectations of success and settle for nothing less. If our new administration is willing to so proceed, why are we not willing to follow? Isn't this the athletic guidance we have all been waiting for from UL? We have to change our mindset. It is no longer business as usual at UL. We have a new direction and we are building the tools to get us there. You can maintain the old thinking that kept us back all these years. Or, you can choose to adopt a vision of success that we all dreamed of and hoped that UL would one day achieve. _

the problem with the "dream" part of your post for alot of folks is the size of the dream. how dast we dream on such an uppity scale. why, dare i say it, some other state schools might even accuse us of trying to be like, drumroll, the purple haze. there, i said it. the mind set in most of this state is that that kind of thinking is just very presumptuous. it's not knowing "our place." it's an institutionalized mindset that is now a century old. that's hard to change, my brother. we just need to continue reminding everyone that we're not trying to be like anyone else. we just want to realize our potential, which in our case is vast. please, just get out of our way and stop questioning to death every move we make. geaux cajuns!! THE University of Louisiana.

[beavis11]

the problem with the "dream" part of your post for alot of folks is the size of the dream. how dast we dream on such an uppity scale. why, dare i say it, some other state schools might even accuse us of trying to be like, drumroll, the purple haze. there, i said it. the mind set in most of this state is that that kind of thinking is just very presumptuous. it's not knowing "our place." it's an institutionalized mindset that is now a century old. that's hard to change, my brother. we just need to continue reminding everyone that we're not trying to be like anyone else. we just want to realize our potential, which in our case is vast. please, just get out of our way and stop questioning to death every move we make. geaux cajuns!! THE University of Louisiana.


YEAH - what he said !!!!

[Boomer]

_ I was President of the UL Houston Alumni Chapter for a couple years several years ago and we had a very active chapter with great attendance at our functions. We had an annual Chapter Event at the Polo Club attracting as many as 400 people with a band, silent auction, UL coaches as speakers, local Cajun restaurants providing food, etc. We had monthly meetings at the Ragin Cajun that were well attended. That was a few years ago. Things have changed as the Houston Alumni Chapter was fragmented. With approximately 4,000 alumni in the greater Houston area, it is sad that things have fallen so badly. It would certainly help to play a football game vs. Houston or Rice every year here in Houston, not only for alumni but for recruiting and university recognition. None of that happens, UL athletics have not been successful, and people have nothing locally to get them excited. That, plus the factions that I mentioned, have sadly left the Houston Alumni Chapter practically null and void. _

Hey ---I think everybody knows that you are the guy---tell Luke and tell the board what you need---and don't forget Mike the pirate---let's get it going again---how about a huge party near the end of Summer?????

[CajunRebel]

Expanding Cajun Field is the absolute stupidest idea I've ever heard of.

Please tell me I'm not the only one here!

If anything we should reduce capacity by 10,000...

A good example to look at is Major League Soccer, whose teams average about 18,000 per game just like UL has for the past few years. Instead of building 50,000 seat stadiums hoping for a miracle to happen they have built really nice 22-25,000 seat stadiums. This creates a much more intimate setting. When you have 20,000 people in a 20,000 seat stadium the atmosphere is great. When you have 20,000 people in a 45,000 seat stadium you have a lot of empty seats and not a lot of atmosphere. Also it creates big demand for tickets which means you get tons more season ticket holders. This means more people paying for tickets for an entire season which means more tickets being purchased and a steadier source of income. And if we start to sell out every game consistently that's when we slowly expand. If we expand too quickly we lose season ticket holders because there is no need to buy them anymore when you can just walk up and buy them.

This is why the MLS team in Toronto won't expand their 21,000 seat stadium despite the fact they have sold out every game since they started playing.

This is also why Seattle's MLS team won't sell more than 28,000 tickets in the NFL stadium they play in even though they also sell out every game.

This is also why MLB teams have built smaller stadiums. Instead of spending $800 Million on huge stadiums they spent that money on making fewer seats more valuable by building nicer stadiums with intimate atmospheres.

Small, first-class facilities will create a high demand for seats. Spend that money making Cajun Field nicer and not bigger. There are a million things we need to improve! We have enough empty seats as it is.

[racajun54]

_ Expanding Cajun Field is the absolute stupidest idea I've ever heard of.

Please tell me I'm not the only one here!

If anything we should reduce capacity by 10,000...

A good example to look at is Major League Soccer, whose teams average about 18,000 per game just like UL has for the past few years. Instead of building 50,000 seat stadiums hoping for a miracle to happen they have built really nice 22-25,000 seat stadiums. This creates a much more intimate setting. When you have 20,000 people in a 20,000 seat stadium the atmosphere is great. When you have 20,000 people in a 45,000 seat stadium you have a lot of empty seats and not a lot of atmosphere. Also it creates big demand for tickets which means you get tons more season ticket holders. This means more people paying for tickets for an entire season which means more tickets being purchased and a steadier source of income. And if we start to sell out every game consistently that's when we slowly expand. If we expand too quickly we lose season ticket holders because there is no need to buy them anymore when you can just walk up and buy them.

This is why the MLS team in Toronto won't expand their 21,000 seat stadium despite the fact they have sold out every game since they started playing.

This is also why Seattle's MLS team won't sell more than 28,000 tickets in the NFL stadium they play in even though they also sell out every game.

This is also why MLB teams have built smaller stadiums. Instead of spending $800 Million on huge stadiums they spent that money on making fewer seats more valuable by building nicer stadiums with intimate atmospheres.

Small, first-class facilities will create a high demand for seats. Spend that money making Cajun Field nicer and not bigger. There are a million things we need to improve! We have enough empty seats as it is. _

The only problem with your suggestion of a smaller staduim is and some of you guys correct me if I am wrong but you have to have either a certain size staduim and/or a certain avg. attendence. I think that is why ULM has that deal with Arkansas for a ULM home game in Little Rock. If they didn't their avg attendance would fall and they could automatically be dropped from the FBS. I know that is a rule they had at one time and I maybe off base but I do think you have to have a certain size facility. I would say that improving Cajun Field might be a better use of the school's money than expanding at this time.

[CajunRebel]

_ The only problem with your suggestion of a smaller staduim is and some of you guys correct me if I am wrong but you have to have either a certain size staduim and/or a certain avg. attendence. I think that is why ULM has that deal with Arkansas for a ULM home game in Little Rock. If they didn't their avg attendance would fall and they could automatically be dropped from the FBS. I know that is a rule they had at one time and I maybe off base but I do think you have to have a certain size facility. I would say that improving Cajun Field might be a better use of the school's money than expanding at this time. _

Right. I know that rule is there somewhere that you have to have a 30,000 seat stadium to stay in Division 1A but at the same time you have schools like FIU and Idaho who have stadiums that are WAY below 30,000 and schools like ULM and Tech who put tarps over their seats making capacity less than 30,000 so I don't know how set in stone that rule is.

[cajunhawk]

Just hearing that there are plans for this have me excited. Its a step that wouldnt have been discussed with Authement as prez. As we have seen with the purple madness, it only takes one year, just one year of winning, just one year of bounces going your way, and the people of south louisiana will come in droves. I thought 08 was our year, 5-2 with 4 games left, 6-6 and felt like we had a damn good shot at a bowl game, but all that got shot to hell by dirty ruston red neck dealings. Lets hope Brad McGuire and this defense can get us to the magic 7 we need to be friggin seen.

[leeman]

_ V

I like the idea of expanding Cajun Field!!! I say that most of the money that RCAF gets needs to be put towards paying coaches, and recruiting. If 5 to 10 million can be put towards Cajun Field. Could you imagine if we put the same efforts in paying our coaches, and recruiting players. Look at Louisiana Tech _

If you build it..... they will come.....

[Just1More]

_ Expanding Cajun Field is the absolute stupidest idea I've ever heard of.

Please tell me I'm not the only one here!

If anything we should reduce capacity by 10,000...

A good example to look at is Major League Soccer, whose teams average about 18,000 per game just like UL has for the past few years. Instead of building 50,000 seat stadiums hoping for a miracle to happen they have built really nice 22-25,000 seat stadiums. This creates a much more intimate setting. When you have 20,000 people in a 20,000 seat stadium the atmosphere is great. When you have 20,000 people in a 45,000 seat stadium you have a lot of empty seats and not a lot of atmosphere. Also it creates big demand for tickets which means you get tons more season ticket holders. This means more people paying for tickets for an entire season which means more tickets being purchased and a steadier source of income. And if we start to sell out every game consistently that's when we slowly expand. If we expand too quickly we lose season ticket holders because there is no need to buy them anymore when you can just walk up and buy them.

This is why the MLS team in Toronto won't expand their 21,000 seat stadium despite the fact they have sold out every game since they started playing.

This is also why Seattle's MLS team won't sell more than 28,000 tickets in the NFL stadium they play in even though they also sell out every game.

This is also why MLB teams have built smaller stadiums. Instead of spending $800 Million on huge stadiums they spent that money on making fewer seats more valuable by building nicer stadiums with intimate atmospheres.

Small, first-class facilities will create a high demand for seats. Spend that money making Cajun Field nicer and not bigger. There are a million things we need to improve! We have enough empty seats as it is. _

No. When you make major structural mods to a stadium like Cajun Field, and when you have the plan that we have in the works, you make the stadium seating expansion in conjunction with that new architecture. You phase it, but you definitely make mods to facilitate the easy off-season seating expansion. The predominant cost to our current modification plan is the press box/suites and the structural mods required to do so. This modernization/expansion is not being taken lightly. It isn't about how many people we "have seated" at Cajun Field. It is about the new ties to business and community that have been prescribed for decades. There is no relevance to the past 15 year attendance and what the new facility push has in mind. It is very similar to a business expansion. You don't talk about what you used to stock in the warehouse when you expand your business. The new warehouse expansion is being done in correlation to the new business venture. We are bringing an expanded clientel with the press box/suite rennovation. It is part of an "understanding" between the business people that are involved and are targeted to get involved.

You only need to have x amount on-hand, and only x amount of increased yearly "guarantees" to pay for the expansion. Part of RCAF is to establish a stable membership financial stream. It only currently constitutes a very small base of easily reached fans. The money coming in is far more powerful in banking and borrowing terms that some realize. Phase I has to promote and facilitate the new commitments that are coming into our athletic system. Once that has happened, we will... without a doubt... require the additional seating. Balancing the whole thing with increases in coaching salaries and required performance will drive the investments into wins, championships, bowls and more. If you play FBS, you either suck it up and do the heavy lifting... or you get stomped on.

The average participating fan talking about what is and isn't "practical"... does not understand why and how we have had so many habitual bad or less than spectacular seasons. You have to put forth a bold plan and seek new investors. UL cancelled a lot of faith in former willing Cajun participants. When you do what we did, you do not win folks back with marginal moves. We have to go extreme to rally our former friends to come back. The people that fear these fans are not "one of us"... are completely incorrect. They are Ragin Cajun hearted people that got shafted when they tried to help many years ago.

[Hardcore]

_ No. When you make major structural mods to a stadium like Cajun Field, and when you have the plan that we have in the works, you make the stadium seating expansion in conjunction with that new architecture. You phase it, but you definitely make mods to facilitate the easy off-season seating expansion. The predominant cost to our current modification plan is the press box/suites and the structural mods required to do so. This modernization/expansion is not being taken lightly. It isn't about how many people we "have seated" at Cajun Field. It is about the new ties to business and community that have been prescribed for decades. There is no relevance to the past 15 year attendance and what the new facility push has in mind. It is very similar to a business expansion. You don't talk about what you used to stock in the warehouse when you expand your business. The new warehouse expansion is being done in correlation to the new business venture. We are bringing an expanded clientel with the press box/suite rennovation. It is part of an "understanding" between the business people that are involved and are targeted to get involved.

You only need to have x amount on-hand, and only x amount of increased yearly "guarantees" to pay for the expansion. Part of RCAF is to establish a stable membership financial stream. It only currently constitutes a very small base of easily reached fans. The money coming in is far more powerful in banking and borrowing terms that some realize. Phase I has to promote and facilitate the new commitments that are coming into our athletic system. Once that has happened, we will... without a doubt... require the additional seating. Balancing the whole thing with increases in coaching salaries and required performance will drive the investments into wins, championships, bowls and more. If you play FBS, you either suck it up and do the heavy lifting... or you get stomped on.

The average participating fan talking about what is and isn't "practical"... does not understand why and how we have had so many habitual bad or less than spectacular seasons. You have to put forth a bold plan and seek new investors. UL cancelled a lot of faith in former willing Cajun participants. When you do what we did, you do not win folks back with marginal moves. We have to go extreme to rally our former friends to come back. The people that fear these fans are not "one of us"... are completely incorrect. They are Ragin Cajun hearted people that got shafted when they tried to help many years ago. _

AMEN

We must be forward-thinking! Everyone talks about "being a sleeping giant" and positioning ourselves for realignment if/when it occurs....this is how you go about doing it!

[RedBug58]

No. When you make major structural mods to a stadium like Cajun Field, and when you have the plan that we have in the works, you make the stadium seating expansion in conjunction with that new architecture. You phase it, but you definitely make mods to facilitate the easy off-season seating expansion. The predominant cost to our current modification plan is the press box/suites and the structural mods required to do so. This modernization/expansion is not being taken lightly. It isn't about how many people we "have seated" at Cajun Field. It is about the new ties to business and community that have been prescribed for decades. There is no relevance to the past 15 year attendance and what the new facility push has in mind. It is very similar to a business expansion. You don't talk about what you used to stock in the warehouse when you expand your business. The new warehouse expansion is being done in correlation to the new business venture. We are bringing an expanded clientel with the press box/suite rennovation. It is part of an "understanding" between the business people that are involved and are targeted to get involved.

You only need to have x amount on-hand, and only x amount of increased yearly "guarantees" to pay for the expansion. Part of RCAF is to establish a stable membership financial stream. It only currently constitutes a very small base of easily reached fans. The money coming in is far more powerful in banking and borrowing terms that some realize. Phase I has to promote and facilitate the new commitments that are coming into our athletic system. Once that has happened, we will... without a doubt... require the additional seating. Balancing the whole thing with increases in coaching salaries and required performance will drive the investments into wins, championships, bowls and more. If you play FBS, you either suck it up and do the heavy lifting... or you get stomped on.

The average participating fan talking about what is and isn't "practical"... does not understand why and how we have had so many habitual bad or less than spectacular seasons. You have to put forth a bold plan and seek new investors. UL cancelled a lot of faith in former willing Cajun participants. When you do what we did, you do not win folks back with marginal moves. We have to go extreme to rally our former friends to come back. The people that fear these fans are not "one of us"... are completely incorrect. They are Ragin Cajun hearted people that got shafted when they tried to help many years ago.

Thank You!!