Cajun Field Renovation Plans

[mgv6260]

Well, it's also for lost seating from tearing down the upper deck.

You mean all those empty seats?

[LaCajunsFan]

Summary of what I heard on the interview.
Phase 1, tear down the west side, put up a tower for the press box, suites and offices for the Athletic department thus enabling the tear down of Cox.
Complete the NW corner to make it symmetrical.
North end zone, construct a tunnel for 18 wheelers thus giving the ability to have concerts. Also replace the scoreboard and sound system.
East side, some cosmetic changes to give a different look.

Later phases to repair East side utilities, and structural capability to be able to add capacity to that side if needed.

Timing: still waiting for cost estimates of 3 proposals before deciding on one and an announcement.

This all sounds good to me. Well, the plans at least. Anxious to see the estimates/timing.

Thanks for sharing....I have not had a chance to listen to the interivew yet.

[shof]

This all sounds good to me. Well, the plans at least. Anxious to see the estimates/timing.

Thanks for sharing....I have not had a chance to listen to the interivew yet.

Also recall hearing Dr Maggard mention keeping seating close to 40K. Not a real need now, but I get the idea of keeping seating close to what we have today.

Rough math. Current seating is 36,900. Upper deck capacity is around 8,000 (NOT confirmed). So we are down to about 28,900 when upper deck comes down. Adding a section to NW Endzone puts around 1,000-1,500 new seats; keeping us around 30,000 seats, plus what we gain in the new press/suite construction.
That should be plenty for the next several years. 🧐

[Turbine]

You mean all those empty seats?

Not all

[HoustonCajun]

Am I the only one who thinks adding to the NW seats for symmetrical reasons is a huge waste?....it's not like we're on prime time national television every week with overhead cameras showing the stadium....

We need to do this right. Bowling the stadium is the right thing to do. Staying around 40,000 is also right. We want to make the cut for the next realignment and this is important. We aren't building based on the past 3 years but for the future. I don't want to end up with something like Tulane or W. KY. This will keep us up with AAC schools rather than CUSA and SBC.

[CajunVic]

We need to do this right. Bowling the stadium is the right thing to do. Staying around 40,000 is also right. We want to make the cut for the next realignment and this is important. We aren't building based on the past 3 years but for the future. I don't want to end up with something like Tulane or W. KY. This will keep us up with AAC schools rather than CUSA and SBC.

That would be great, however from looking at the numbers thrown out, we have a beer (Old Milwaukie Light) budget and not a wine (Opus 1) budget. Maybe with success over the next year or two, we can at least move from beer to wine.

[HoustonCajun]

That would be great, however from looking at the numbers thrown out, we have a beer (Old Milwaukie Light) budget and not a wine (Opus 1) budget. Maybe with success over the next year or two, we can at least move from beer to wine.

If I understood correctly, this is what Maggart is going to do and is awaiting bids. I think it is the smart thing to do unless you have no confidence in Napier. I think Napier will turn this around to much higher than HUD was in his first couple of years and our fan base will exceed prior levels. That is what Maggart is banking on. Building a smaller facility doesn't send much of a message to our fan base. Again, build for higher expectations in winning and a growing fan base.

[Turbine]

If I understood correctly, this is what Maggart is going to do and is awaiting bids. I think it is the smart thing to do unless you have no confidence in Napier. I think Napier will turn this around to much higher than HUD was in his first couple of years and our fan base will exceed prior levels. That is what Maggart is banking on. Building a smaller facility doesn't send much of a message to our fan base. Again, build for higher expectations in winning and a growing fan base.

No upper deck is imperative.

[CajunT]

Also recall hearing Dr Maggard mention keeping seating close to 40K. Not a real need now, but I get the idea of keeping seating close to what we have today.

Rough math. Current seating is 36,900. Upper deck capacity is around 8,000 (NOT confirmed). So we are down to about 28,900 when upper deck comes down. Adding a section to NW Endzone puts around 1,000-1,500 new seats; keeping us around 30,000 seats, plus what we gain in the new press/suite construction.
That should be plenty for the next several years. 🧐

That's the plan unless they change it.

[talktomewillis]

That's the plan unless they change it.

This sounds like what I heard.

[Oiler]

If I understood correctly, this is what Maggart is going to do and is awaiting bids. I think it is the smart thing to do unless you have no confidence in Napier. I think Napier will turn this around to much higher than HUD was in his first couple of years and our fan base will exceed prior levels. That is what Maggart is banking on. Building a smaller facility doesn't send much of a message to our fan base. Again, build for higher expectations in winning and a growing fan base.

Attendance is decreasing all over the country. We don't need a 40,000 seat Cajun Field. All that would do is guarantee that we play in a half empty (or worse) stadium in 90% of our home games. The only exceptions will be if we play a P5 team at home, or when we play Southern, McNeese, USM, Houston, or LaTech at home. Every other home game will average of 20K-24K if we're winning, 12K-15K if we're losing.

We don't need to kid ourselves about our future needs. We're struggling with attendance just like most AAC teams are these days. Very, very few G5 programs need 40,000 seat stadiums. The wave of the future is smaller, but very nice stadiums with lots of creature comforts. Now is not the time for us to take on a lot of debt to build a monument of a stadium that'll rarely be needed, if it ever is.

[Esqueleto]

Attendance is decreasing all over the country. We don't need a 40,000 seat Cajun Field. All that would do is guarantee that we play in a half empty (or worse) stadium in 90% of our home games. The only exceptions will be if we play a P5 team at home, or when we play Southern, McNeese, USM, Houston, or LaTech at home. Every other home game will average of 20K-24K if we're winning, 12K-15K if we're losing.

We don't need to kid ourselves about our future needs. We're struggling with attendance just like most AAC teams are these days. Very, very few G5 programs need 40,000 seat stadiums. The wave of the future is smaller, but very nice stadiums with lots of creature comforts. Now is not the time for us to take on a lot of debt to build a monument of a stadium that'll rarely be needed, if it ever is.

Amen. You said it all. Just give us a comfortable 25-30k seat stadium. You want tikets to be a hot commodity, not something you can't give away.