Joel via Palouse: I wanted to thank you first and foremost for taking the AD Job and moving forward. Is the phase III part of our stadium on perm hold or will we start to hear about the directions you have chosen to take it? Will there be any changes to the phase due to demand for larger boxes vs premium seating… Thanks GO COUGS!
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Bill Moos: Joel, I am still assessing our facility needs but do feel that areas that can benefit our student-athletes and help in recruiting should be a priority. The day will come when we will expand Martin Stadium, just when is still in question. |
Makes sense, right? I mean Moos is the guy who was in place in Duck-ville, when Oregon did a full renovation of not just Autzen but the entire locker room experience was transformed into something even NFL teams would envy.
It’s a double-edged sword. I mean in an ideal world, where every Coug you know is happily writing checks and donating their discretionary income to WSU Athletics, you CAN have both an upgraded stadium and top-notch facilities. But we live in the real world, don’t we? WSU is 10th out of 10 in many financial categories in the conference, we don’t need to rehash all of that right now. It’s still a brutal economy, and we may only now be hitting the bottom before we can dig out of this mess. We might still be a few years away before things can get back to some sort of “normal”. Conference expansion is certainly going to help the cause, and if all the projections are right in regard to a TV network and conference title game, as well as a big game at Qwest Field every year, the revenues will increase. But that is still a few years away before WSU can reap those rewards of being in the new Pac-12. So there is still a lot of ground to cover before WSU can take that next step and compete with the conference superpowers, at least financially anyway.
And, as we are all aware, Martin Stadium Phase III does need to happen at some point. The first two phases have been a real strong change to the stadium, and if you have been able to experience all the new concessions and restrooms on the student side of the stadium, as well as the endzone facilities and new scoreboard, you know what I’m talking about. It’s night-and-day better compared to what we used to deal with on gameday. But Phase III, with the premium seating and all that, is vital for increasing revenue. You know that ultimately it will happen while Bill Moos is in town, that much we can be sure of. Like Moos says in the quote above in regards to Martin Stadium, this isn’t a situation of IF, but WHEN the upgrades will occur.
All that said, the good news today is that WSU’s newly-renovated weight room is fully up and running, filled with student athletes working as hard as they can. WSU just released a video yesterday of the new Strength and Conditioning complex, and it’s pretty nice! Check it out:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_ivHGZQJcA&w=450&h=286]It might not be Oregon’s super locker room experience, but it’s a very good step towards enhancing the student-athlete experience! And maybe, just maybe, a facility like this is already reaping benefits in areas like recruiting, where WSU already has 12 commits for this year, including four all the way from Florida? So far so good! It will be interesting to see what’s next.
Some other stuff out there today:
- ESPN Gameday is expanding to THREE hours! Why? To appease Erin Andrews, of course. EA will now get an expanded role at the Worldwide Leader, where she will handle the first hour as a host on ESPNU. Then she’ll shift over to reporter for the final two hours.
Hooray more Gameday, hooray more EA! (and thanks to Michelle for the picture).
All for now. GO COUGS!
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