Why Are We Broke?

[savbandjacket]

When they went through the last round of upgrades, they brought a group of alumni in to ask their opinions. I told them that it made the most sense to use design and construction firms with experience in sports facilities that had GT alumni working there. They were the ones living the experience, season ticket holders, potential or current donors. They knew the buildings and shortcomings, where the bodies were buries, etc. Danny Hall was in that meeting and told me it was crazy talk. They need to go to the top national firms and take the lowest price, because they would all be equal. That's how you get premium seats facing the sun and cutting off the lower bowl, and north endzones to the sky.

At McCammish, they took the low bid. Found out that the firm hadn't researched the facility effectively and had a bad plan. Then, they went to the next bidder (a GT-run company) and coerced them into giving their design to the low bidder.

It's not the alumni base that is holding us back.

Yet another reason to fire Danny Hall.

why the hell does the damned baseball coach have a say in who designs and constructs the football stadium anyways?

 

[gtleviathan]

I love our quirky, piecemeal stadium. Sure, it has its warts but destroying the character and history with a tear down/rebuild would be a shame, imho. Even if we had the money.

 

[savbandjacket]

Yeah, can’t build the east stands out over Techwood (City of Atlanta thing, I think), and can’t modify the west stands without losing that ADA grandfathering, IIRC.

All things being equal, it would be awesome to start over on BDS, but it’s basically OK and it would be a nightmare to redo it. (Plus you know we’d have to cheap out and end up with something like UCF’s aluminum trailer park stadium.

I do wish we had built the club seats elsewhere. Other more recent club areas in other stadiums indicate that you can put the club just about anywhere (end zone, top of the stadium), because people are there for the club and not the seat location. No good way to fix that mistake that I can think of, though. Maybe move the club to the upper east and provide good elevator access down into the club lounge?

JRjr

There’s a very easy way to fix the club seats. You take them out and turn the lounge into concessions to alleviate the problem with lack of concessions on that side of the stadium. It may require knocking some brick out on the outside of the stadium and re-doing some hallways over there, but it solves two massive problems. Put students over there where they should be so they can harass the opposing team’s bench.

move club seating to the waste of space south stands and make it like a chop house type setup.

 

[vapspwi]

There’s a very easy way to fix the club seats. You take them out and turn the lounge into concessions to alleviate the problem with lack of concessions on that side of the stadium. It may require knocking some brick out on the outside of the stadium and re-doing some hallways over there, but it solves two massive problems. Put students over there where they should be so they can harass the opposing team’s bench.

move club seating to the waste of space south stands and make it like a chop house type setup.

I like the idea of turning the club lounge into a food court kind of area, which opens up the claustrophobic east concourse.

What’s even in Wardlaw anymore? Last I knew, there was a parking deck (behind the south stands) and a big ballroom (at the top of the stands). It would cost some money, but you could conceivably convert that stuff into club amenities and integrate it into the stadium.

JRjr

 

[andrew]

I love our quirky, piecemeal stadium. Sure, it has its warts but destroying the character and history with a tear down/rebuild would be a shame, imho. Even if we had the money.

Me too. Can't believe people are saying they'd like to raze something that's so unique and important to our history.

 

[vapspwi]

Me too. Can't believe people are saying they'd like to raze something that's so unique and important to our history.

I like it on the whole, but we haven’t done it many favors with some of the design decisions (the disproportionate north deck, moving the field so it doesn’t align with Wardlaw). It looks a lot better when it’s full - these last few years haven’t shown the place in a very good light.

JRjr

 

[JJacket]

The 42 million were on the hook for this year doesn’t seem cheap; or 10 mill a year in interest payments.

What’s cheap is how we fund our major sports programs with budget coaching hires, limited staff, and less resources than our immediate competitors.

If we invest and revenue outruns the interest it is a win.

I ain't paying off a 3% loan with my $100k if I can get 10% returns investing it.

 

[GT65_UGA89]

The West and East are fine. I love sitting in the lower portion of UE, great view of the entire field from the north 5 yard line. The N is just aesthetically unappealing, plus I’m very left-brained and the unevenness of the structure drives me crazy. If fans other than red-n-black every other year would fill it up, it wouldn’t be as much of an issue.

 

[andrew]

If we invest and revenue outruns the interest it is a win.

I ain't paying off a 3% loan with my $100k if I can get 10% returns investing it.

Agreed. Totally agreed.

 

[gtg970g]

Agreed. Totally agreed.

Everyone with a mortgage and investments is effectively borrowing to invest. That is a lot of people, myself included.

 

[oldgoldbee]

Yeah, can’t build the east stands out over Techwood (City of Atlanta thing, I think), and can’t modify the west stands without losing that ADA grandfathering, IIRC.

All things being equal, it would be awesome to start over on BDS, but it’s basically OK and it would be a nightmare to redo it. (Plus you know we’d have to cheap out and end up with something like UCF’s aluminum trailer park stadium.

I do wish we had built the club seats elsewhere. Other more recent club areas in other stadiums indicate that you can put the club just about anywhere (end zone, top of the stadium), because people are there for the club and not the seat location. No good way to fix that mistake that I can think of, though. Maybe move the club to the upper east and provide good elevator access down into the club lounge?

JRjr

Our group of longtime GT fans had 10 season tickets in the Lower East for a long time, our seats where from the 30-40 yard line in the LE. There used to be many former GT lettermen that sat near us, it was a great place to be and to give the opposing team hell during the games. Then the conversion to the club seats took place, our 10 seats went from the 30-40 yard line to the 10-20 yard line. WE were all pissed off about this, not to mention we had never heard from the GTAA or anyone else that we would be losing our prime seats that we had purchased for many years.

Based on what we had been contributing to the AT Fund and the number of season tickets (10) we were buying each year, the GTAA let our group sit one year in the club seats, to me it wasn't the same. We were not against the club seats, but we all felt they should have been put somewhere else, perhaps the Lower West. The Upper North addition should never have been added either. IMHO, there were a lot of bad decisions made or bad advice given on the stadium reconfiguration and enhancements.

 

[The Champ]

If we invest and revenue outruns the interest it is a win.

I ain't paying off a 3% loan with my $100k if I can get 10% returns investing it.

In theory yes. Now how many GTAA investments have pulled a 10% return? And how many have essentially been lighting cash on fire?

 

[originalwombat]

I like it on the whole, but we haven’t done it many favors with some of the design decisions (the disproportionate north deck, moving the field so it doesn’t align with Wardlaw). It looks a lot better when it’s full - these last few years haven’t shown the place in a very good light.

JRjr

You like it on the hole?

 

[samsgt02]

I love our quirky, piecemeal stadium. Sure, it has its warts but destroying the character and history with a tear down/rebuild would be a shame, imho. Even if we had the money.

Exactly, look at the old baseball stadiums in the major cities. That's what we are. We're limited just like those old stadiums were/are. We don't have 40 acres of cow pasture to expand into like most schools.

We're not as bad as these high school baseball stadiums.

 

[savbandjacket]

I love our quirky, piecemeal stadium. Sure, it has its warts but destroying the character and history with a tear down/rebuild would be a shame, imho. Even if we had the money.

From a design aesthetic, everything is fine except UN which is bad. The field not being centered is also annoying, but most people don’t notice that.

a common sense rebuild that would look best on tv is tear down north stands (I know, the newest part of stadium) when tearing down Edge, and rather than build a corner building, put the Edge facilities across that end of the stadium. Continue with a partial upper and lower horseshoe off the east stands, with luxury boxes in north stands as part of the new Edge complex. UN should be same height as and contiguous with UE.

The gap between N and W stands won’t be all that apparent on tv due to camera angles, and you could put a portion of Edge there to fill space and create the tunnel and bridge the space. That leaves the W stands as the only non-contiguous part of the stadium.

 

[Buzzilla]

I'm sorry, but this is a cluster. And it's about to get more cluster-y and sunk cost-y. This bric-a-brac collection of incoherent buildings and structures is just a mess. Visually and functionally. Definitely not Feng Shui.

Some enterprising Architecture or Building Construction grad student should consider doing a comprehensive study for their thesis on a complete demolition, design and rebuild of all of these facilities attached to this sprawling conglomerate. Including a cost/benefit analysis of, potential maintenance and repair cost savings and energy efficiency savings as well as any sustainability contributions. I would imagine there are some significant savings and benefits that could be factored into the overall costs just from replacing all of the outdated and mismatched facility systems. Not to mention the increase in ticket demand from improvements in game day and game viewing experience in a vastly improved facility. I'm sure some of this information is already known.

As always, just my 2¢.

 

[andrew]

I'm sorry, but this is a cluster. And it's about to get more cluster-y and sunk cost-y. This bric-a-brac collection of incoherent buildings and structures is just a mess. Visually and functionally. Definitely not Feng Shui.

Some enterprising Architecture or Building Construction grad student should consider doing a comprehensive study for their thesis on a complete demolition, design and rebuild of all of these facilities attached to this sprawling conglomerate. Including a cost/benefit analysis of, potential maintenance and repair cost savings and energy efficiency savings as well as any sustainability contributions. I would imagine there are some significant savings and benefits that could be factored into the overall costs just from replacing all of the outdated and mismatched facility systems. Not to mention the increase in ticket demand from improvements in game day and game viewing experience in a vastly improved facility. I'm sure some of this information is already known.

As always, just my 2¢.

It's hard for me to imagine that the savings and increased ticket demand could make up for the likely enormous cost of demolishing the stadium and rebuilding it. It's not like dozens of corporations will be dropping millions a season for luxury boxes.

Not to mention the ill will you would generate from donors and fans, most of whom are really proud of having the oldest stadium in FBS.

 

[savbandjacket]

It's hard for me to imagine that the savings and increased ticket demand could make up for the likely enormous cost of demolishing the stadium and rebuilding it. It's not like dozens of corporations will be dropping millions a season for luxury boxes.

Not to mention the ill will you would generate from donors and fans, most of whom are really proud of having the oldest stadium in FBS.

That’s why you do what I said.

 

[JJacket]

Wow!!! Those are some really nice, upscale, luxury his/her outhouses you have in the background, there, JJacket!! With Tiki Torches, too!!

Scooter looks like an awesome friend, too.

Merry Christmas, Go Jackets and God Bless!

M39Buzz

Those are butterfly houses.

The sheds were on clearance several years back. I think I paid $300 each. They were normally $600 or so. They are close to $800 now.

 

[JJacket]

I love our quirky, piecemeal stadium. Sure, it has its warts but destroying the character and history with a tear down/rebuild would be a shame, imho. Even if we had the money.

Meh. Time to blow it up and build better.