Thursday, August 13, 2015

Athletic Facilties Update



http://www.urbantallahassee.com/index.php/theforum/viewtopic.php?p=33142#p33142


The Democrat has a new article about improvements being made to the stadium. Most of it is known information, but I did see a few things I hadn't heard of before.

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/sports ... /31457107/

- FSU is looking to install a large, state-of-the-art scoreboard in the north end zone.
- At the conclusion of the 2015 football season, the demolition of south end zone stands and construction of the main structure of the Champions Club will continue.
- Repair of the east and west stands, which began this summer, will ramp up after the 2015 season as well. The work will include removing the bleachers, sandblasting, addressing rust issues, painting the lower and top decks and replacing the bleachers.
- The vision [for the future] features a modernized Doak Campbell Stadium. The Moore Athletic Center would be a multifaceted football headquarters. A new facility would be designated for Olympic sports and also house a volleyball arena. The basketball training center would be expanded. These are the the long-term goals FSU entertains for academic space and for facilities in other sports, with women’s lacrosse potentially being added as the athletic department’s newest team.


Most surprising to me is that they are already looking to replace the north end zone scoreboard. The current scoreboard was installed in 2008.


http://floridastate.forums.rivals.com/threads/jerry-re-new-scoreboard.31836/
Sorry, I didn't see this thread until this evening (Sunday). I was at the Chamber Conference in Destin hustling the club seat project all weekend. Before I answer your questions, let me report to you that there are a lot of great things happening in our city that involve FSU, FAMU, TCC our Economic Development Council and the Chamber. Exciting times.

Now about the scoreboards, let me warn you, this is what we are planning and as you'll see in my answer it can still change based upon a lot of factors not the least of which are engineering studies and budgets

As a poster said earlier, I have grown leery of posting on this board until the project is in stone. The engineering study could alter the budget or the timeline and affect what we do and when. If the project should get changed, but at the risk of being called a bafoon or liar again, I will share with you what we know as of today.

Yes, we have plans to replace the scoreboard in the North Endzone and probably the board in the South too. The North could be 2016. The sourth willl be 2017 at best. The North is envisioned to be larger than that at the south.

Now for what could change it. The structural engineers have some work still to do. On the North side we want to be sure we have a plan for that space right below the board. It would be great if we could use that space for additional offices which athletics needs at some point down the road and want to engineer for it before we put the board up.. It would be more attractive than the banners and serve an important function too. The engineers have some work to do over the next few weeks to confirm that the existing structure is sufficient to support the new board and to look into any support changes needed to prepare for the construction of offices underneath it down the road.

The North board right now is about 160 wide with about 80 feet of video. The board we're exploring would be all digital so the video image could cover the whole 160 foot width oe could show the video on a smaller image with stats or digital ads. A digital board 160 feet wide would be a huge improvement to the stadium experience.

We're also studying audio in the stadium which eminates from that speaker cluster in between the banners.

Jamie mentioned that a new board would be able to provide updated scores which is what the tech guys have told me too. What the video nerds tell me is all those updated scores come on a subscription service feed from a central location and our board -- which is like 9 years old -- isn't capable of handling it. The new board would be. That technology is constantly changing -- like your apple phone -- and becomes obsolete (like our existing board) very quickly..What was true last year may no longer be this year.

The south endzone may also be receiving a new board -- not before 2017 -- but there's more structural questions to be resolved before we know what that board will be. The engineers have calculated weight for the existing board and a larger board in that endzone but also have to calculate wind load as that board becomes a sail in the wind above the building. The contractor can build whatever the engineering report requires but there's an optimum size financially and architecturally and we don't need to spend Booster member money if we have already built a bigger board in the North.

We will build the support structure for the south board when building the Champions Club in 2016 but logistically we can't have the board being installed above the Champions Club while the workers are working below.

All of this is subject to change so this is my report as I know it today. Please be kind to me and Jamie if the plans should change.

2016 is going to be crazy. We'll be working on the South Endzone Champions Club starting in mid November 2015, sandblasting and painting the rest of the stadium (top and bottom), and installing the north endzone scoreboard all before Sept. 2016.

Excuse the following gratuitous solicitation... The scoreboard and enhancements to Doak are being funded by revenue generated by our members annual donation to Seminole Boosters and from revenue generated by the Champions Club. No athletic facility can be funded by the university or the state. So, if you like this project, and want to help us build it, please consider joining the Boosters (www.SeminoleBoosters.com), increasing your 2015 Booster contribution or by purchasing club seats (www.FSUClubSeats.com),
45 Jerry Kutz, Today at 12:25 AM 


nolemanb said:
From what I understand, the club seat section seats can be removed with a maximum capacity of just over 6,000 seats.
Click to expand...
The club seats we are planning to use are attached to rails and not bolted to the stadium pan so they could possibly be moved or removed. This innovative design is being used in the San Francisco 49ers stadium and creates versatility you don't find in older stadium designs.

There are many applications. One that I am intrigued by and will be surveying our club seat buyers about is a table that the club seat buyer could purchase in lieu of a seat that can be placed either in between their club seats, or on either side of their seats, that would make their group of seats a little more private and have some utility. If their needs changed, and they wanted more seats, they'd be able to convert the table to another seat. The tables could be the same width as a club seat (but priced less) which would make it very easy to convert later. You could also go the other way and change out an existing club seat for a table.
83 Jerry Kutz, Yesterday at 11:22 AM 


You are correct.
While some SEC teams have increased stadium capacity the trend in college and pro sports is to convert bleacher seats to wider chair back seats with ample legroom which happens to reduces capacity and to trade out low demand areas for high yield premium club seats and suites.

I just came back from a conference with 1300 of the top stadium Officials and the mantra was retention and yield and 365 day activation of your investment.
Having said all that, we believe that end zone space under the board would be great for multi-purpose.suites with a view of field and office space inside that space. The ROI would be good and much more usable by our student-athletes year round than more end zone bleachers six days per year.

The space between the roof and the bottom of the scoreboard is ample for that suite space and offices but we have structural engineers verifying so we can build it when ready.

This is our current thinking and subject to change.
 


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