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ODU Problems

MolivaManiac

MolivaManiac

Spider's Club
Feb 8, 2004
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Some interesting ODU stuff this week:

1- The new CUSA TV deal is even worse than previously projected, now at $200k per school per year.

2- Their much anticipated new stadium plan was unveiled today. Tear down 20k stadium. Spend $55m, build 22k stadium and hope to have it open by 2019. Brilliant stuff.

Read somewhere that the Monarchs had a season ticket waiting list close to 5000 a few years ago. Now there is no waiting list.
 
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As much as I didn't like the move to FCS years ago, it is preferable to spending $55 million to compete in lower-level BCS with its associated costs, its shaky future, and its generally boring product (unless you attended one of the schools). Go FCS... Go Spiders.
 
Years ago, Rutgers was ridiculed for spending roughly $45m to add 8000 seats. ODU spending $55m to add 2000 seats makes Rutgers look smart. And that's a really hard thing to do.
 
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Hey, went spent $17 million to remove 1500 seats from our basketball arena. Who are the smarties now?!
 
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This is further proof that sooner than later top tier FCS and low tier FBS will merge. There is just no enough money to support low tier FBS, and they are going to continue to get less and less as the power 5 gets more.
 
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wr70beh said:
It looks way more classier now than it ever did. I think it's money well spent.
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Presumably ODU feels the same way about their project. Foreman Field is 80 years old.

But yes, the whole C-USA money situation is ugly. The exit fees from Memphis et al. have run out, coupled with the TV deal cratering...not good.
 
if they have donors who wish to pony-up to do this, no probs but if they are counting on that huge fbs revenue to pay for it, complete nonsense and wishful thinking.
 
$55 million was their cheapest option, and they're doing it without increasing student fees, so I give them credit for that. $10 million cash plus $3.25 million a year for 20 years.

To go to the full 30,000 seats they were considering would have been $125 million...obviously would have been a much bigger rebuild than what they settled on. Current plan rebuilds the bowls on the sides, but leaves end zones as they are.
 
Can you imagine what it would have cost to redo city stadium? Probably having similar problems with Foreman Field
 
Foreman Field is pretty dumpy, so I have no doubt that the new stadium will be an upgrade, but sinking $55M into something without a likely ROI that justifies it in the somewhat near future seems like a mistake.
 
you nailed it Eight. think somewhere in their small brains, they think, feel, that the acc will take them in and then they can build 80,0000 seats.
 
Eight Legger said:
Foreman Field is pretty dumpy, so I have no doubt that the new stadium will be an upgrade, but sinking $55M into something without a likely ROI that justifies it in the somewhat near future seems like a mistake.
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It is dumpy. But,did they not renovate it before restarting their football program about a decade ago?
 
Yeah, they put $25 million into it to get it ready for when they restarted football in 2009.
 
SFspidur said:
Yeah, they put $25 million into it to get it ready for when they restarted football in 2009.
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We're going to have a thread about ODU football in roughly 2025 and it's going to be about how Wood Selig and their President got fired over it.
 
So the payout for each C-USA member is $200,000/year. So payback will come for ODU in 165 years! Great move by ODU. OSC
 
And JMU wants to join up with that hot mess? So they can go to the Poulan Weed Eater Bowl in Shreveport? I guess the bowls pay out some pittance, I suppose to justify it. Just look at the crowd for this stellar bowl. Weather looks great, too.


635851938581478585-I-Bowl-crowd.JPG


The days of an upstart like Boise breaking up the party are over. The Power 5 (really 4) conferences have built firewalls to prevent that from happening ever again. More money for them.
 
Appalachian State, with their great fan base, wins 11 games for the 1st time in school history. A great season, with a great fan base that travels well. As solid a program as you can find outside the Power 5, wins as many games as they ever have in program history and the best they can command is a December 19 date in something called the Camellia Bowl. I'm sure that is just what they had in mind when they made the jump to FBS. The board members that made that decision should be called on the carpet.
 
Mo and friends..you guys sure are being hard on my boys. I am a proud alumnus that's not happy about the size either but there is no doubt about how much more revenue this upgrade will produce. A great deal more suites, outdoor boxes and donor experiences. So the former stadium to this one will absolutely be akin to retrofitting Robins Center to fewer seats. My bigger worry is where the program can go over the long haul with just continuing to serve us affluent (but graying) alumni that have carried the program over the years for football and basketball. It's a similar problem that UR is and will continue to deal with as well.

I also struggle with why ODU leadership didn't move on this at the exact time that JMU moved on its expansion. Unfortunately now we are probably the only public in the US that has to modernize its WW2 era stadium without some help from its 24,000 students. I get why this is the case, given the insane costs for higher education but really think that my leadership was asleep at the wheel when it was ok to do so. But we'll be ok over time and I do believe we'll get that 30k phase 2 level that was not shared by RCSGA. Just not as soon as I want.
 
You guys are doing great stuff in Norfolk. Your AD is showing great leadership. VCU and JMU could use a litte of that. Just dont let FBS football jump up and bite you in the butt.
 
Love ODU. Wish ODU and EVMS would merge; just seems like a natural and would benefit everyone. OSC
 
That is a nice looking stadium. One must not forget that athletic department revenues are not just derived from ticket sales and bowl games, but include donations. The better the team, the higher the donations. IMHO, that is why these schools make the jump to FBS.
 
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MolivaManiac said:
Some interesting ODU stuff this week:

1- The new CUSA TV deal is even worse than previously projected, now at $200k per school per year.

2- Their much anticipated new stadium plan was unveiled today. Tear down 20k stadium. Spend $55m, build 22k stadium and hope to have it open by 2019. Brilliant stuff.

Read somewhere that the Monarchs had a season ticket waiting list close to 5000 a few years ago. Now there is no waiting list.
Click to expand...
Their stadium is fine for the current 19-20k seats. I wouldn't upgrade to less than 30k. However, like Richmond, there is no parking for the current 19k fans. They do have a huge alumni base but no natural rivals in the conference they are in. I hear no one travels in that conference either.
 
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