Stadium expansion details slowly surfacing….

Found this today:

http://www.alscarchitects.com/current/current.asp?56

Here’s an external, elevated look of what the stadium will look like, post-renovation. It’s not real impressive as a picture, though, hard to really see any good details, other than it’ll be an actual bowl:

Compared to a model of what things look like today, you can see it’s a step up:

This one is much better – Here is a pic from inside the stadium tunnel looking out the other way:

45,000 seats, plus numerous upgrades and amenities. I LOVE it! It’s probably hard for you since you haven’t been to Martin since what, 1994? You can’t believe how badly we need to change things, especially when you are taking kids to that place. It’s cozy, but it’s so poorly outdated that even just 37,000 fans is a nightmare to get to the bathroom, or even something to eat or drink. The access to the stadium is terrible, too, so this will be wonderful! We certainly need to do this to compete with what the Beavs are going to look like when they are done.

The important thing to remember, however, is that the above pic of OSU is after PHASE 3 in their fundraising efforts. That would bring them to 55,000 seats, but that’s only if/when they make it through 3 phases. It’s a huge undertaking, probably going to be over $100 million, and that’s a lot for a school like OSU. From what I’ve gathered through Todd, we’re probably looking in the neighborhood of $75 – $80 million to totally accomplish what we want. We will probably have a couple of phases, but not 3. And, if things go as planned, we’ll probably announce something by Apple Cup, and they’ll break some ground early next year to have one phase possibly ready by kickoff of next year. They are still busting balls to get the big-time private donors wrapped up, and that just takes time. Todd says the good news is the money IS there to be had, though, so it’s not like this will turn into the indoor practice facility disaster that was under the previous AD’s watch!

On the game today – after a good night sleep, I think I’ve come to my senses. I’m going AZ 20, WSU 17. Pains me to say it, but I think we’re going to suffer a heartbreaker today in the desert. It might even be an OT game, but Langley will lose one for us (and come to think of it, if he hits 3 of the missed/muffed field goals vs. Colorado, we’d be 3-0 today….).