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New ODU Stadium (Completed)


vdogg

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I'm breaking this out of sports in Norfolk because this topic is just too big. Brand new expandable stadium and taller buildings? Everything about this plan is win, lol. This is probably going to be the biggest thing to happen to this area in a long time.

http://hamptonroads.com/2013/08/odu-envisions-new-30000seat-football-stadium

Quote

Old Dominion ultimately plans to play major college football in a new, 30,000-seat on-campus stadium - not at Foreman Field - according to a proposal presented Monday to the executive committee of the Board of Visitors....

The stadium would be designed so it could expand to 45,000 or more seats, sources said....

Officials said when the campus master plan process was launched that they did not plan to take any more land from surrounding neighborhoods. Sources said that instead of expanding outward, ODU will build up - new buildings will be taller in order to compensate for the university's relative lack of land.

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My only gripe is that they should've gone with 40,000 off the bat. The Stadium sells out with 20,000, and there's 14,000 on the season ticket waiting list! We could easily fill that extra 6,000 seats in a new facility. The other thing is that light rail now has to stop at ODU. They might as well end the study now cause it is guaranteed that light rail is gonna have to come up at least part of Hampton Blvd to accommodate the influx in traffic. 

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The only gripe I have is traffic along Hampton Blvd. is going to be HELL. It's bad enough when there's an event at The Ted or Foreman, but this is going to be crazy because it requires you to go through the neighborhood and to the back end of campus. Someone in the comments section suggested beside Harbor Park, but I don't think the parking allows for 40,000 seats...plus, if Norfolk decides to beat VB to the punch on an arena, I think it should go there. At the risk of tearing down more homes, I'd suggest the area behind The Ted and the University Village, since that's mostly university housing too.

 

On another note, if MLS ever needs an expansion city, you suddenly have Norfolk and the renovated Foreman Field!  :lol:  :P That's a joke. Kinda.

Edited by BFG
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I think that this project will have 40k when they open!

 

If ticket sales increase or if the monarchs does well in conference usa, the extra seats will be added for opening day! It would be nice to have an overflow crowd for the grand opening of an 40k seat stadium in 2017. Conference USA is just a prelude to a much bigger conference in the future. East Carolina may have a larger stadium presently; however, the monarchs are on of the fastest growing universities on the east coast and winning at this level will get you noticed nationally!

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The only gripe I have is traffic along Hampton Blvd. is going to be HELL. It's bad enough when there's an event at The Ted or Foreman, but this is going to be crazy because it requires you to go through the neighborhood and to the back end of campus. Someone in the comments section suggested beside Harbor Park, but I don't think the parking allows for 40,000 seats...plus, if Norfolk decides to beat VB to the punch on an arena, I think it should go there. At the risk of tearing down more homes, I'd suggest the area behind The Ted and the University Village, since that's mostly university housing too.

That proposal i have a gripe with. The neighborhood, Highland Park, is residential (single family, duplexes with a few apartments) with some industrial on the southern edge. Besides the University Village & 49th Street area, none of it is university housing. ODU does have a big lot NOW on Hampton Blvd. since they tore down every worthwhile business, single family dwelling, and apartment for their underwhelming "business park".

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http://www.dailypress.com/sports/teel-blog/dp-teel-time-selig-odu-football-stadium,0,3246181.post?page=2

 

Interview with Selig about the new stadium. He says a lot of interesting things, not just about the stadium, but about the overall plan.

 

Q: Did you get positive feedback from the Board of Visitors and city?

A: Very positive because when you analyze the current footprint and current stadium, there are severe limitations where we currently reside. The footprint is not large enough to go much beyond 25,000 seats because you start getting into the neighborhood: houses, streets and academic buildings. … We’re hamstrung where we are.

So then you design, draw the footprint of a 30,000-seat stadium, 28-30,000 seats, that has the ability to be expanded upon based on the level of demand and interest in the program. Don’t try to figure out how far and how big you’re going to go. Get to the first step, which is 28-30, that you know you can grow beyond, and where does that go if you want to keep it on campus?

We had the conversation with a number of groups: Would it be OK if we moved this football stadium to downtown, on the river, near Harbor Park, or some other area of Hampton Roads where land is plentiful? And everybody, to a group, said there’s just far too much value in having the six or seven football weekends on campus, for what that means for alumni coming home, prospective students coming to campus, just the quality of life for the student body, the 5-6,000 students that live on campus. …

And there’s only one spot that can accommodate the footprint of the football stadium, and that’s where we have it, off of Powhatan Avenue toward the waterfront.

Q: And that requires taking down some apartments?

A: Yeah, we have a 30-year-old group of residence halls, Powhatan apartments, and they house 700 students. So obviously you must replace 700 beds before you can take them down to prepare a construction site for a stadium. And there’s dining associated with that as well.

So sequencing, you need to address some on-campus dining and on-campus housing before you can eliminate those (apartments). They’re short, they’re 2-3 story buildings and one thing we’ve learned with this campus master plan is we’re going to have to start going more vertical. So it gives us a chance to really maximize the use of the Powhatan footprint.

The ultimate, after the football stadium is complete is, we are going to build a new quad around Foreman Field. So Foreman Field does not go away. Foreman Field is eventually going to serve as a recreation area for a group of dorms that would be constructed where Foreman Field currently is. … In effect, it’s a trade, an exchange.

But you’ve got to have more housing, which we need on-campus anyway. So you go ahead and build the 700 to replace the 700 you lose at Powhatan, but then you … build even more around Foreman Field.

This is just a small portion. Article is about 3 pages long, but a good read.

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That proposal i have a gripe with. The neighborhood, Highland Park, is residential (single family, duplexes with a few apartments) with some industrial on the southern edge. Besides the University Village & 49th Street area, none of it is university housing. ODU does have a big lot NOW on Hampton Blvd. since they tore down every worthwhile business, single family dwelling, and apartment for their underwhelming "business park".

My mistake. I'm not in favor of eminent domain, at least for the single family homes.

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  • 5 months later...

http://hamptonroads.com/2014/02/new-odu-stadium-hits-road-block-assembly

 

This is really ridiculous.  Not only do all other Virginia public schools get to use student fees to finance athletic construction projects, but schools across the country do as well!  Doesn't the General Assembly want all Virginia schools to be competitive and look good in the national spotlight?  Here at the University of Illinois, we are currently doing a massive renovation of our 50 year old basketball arena, the State Farm Center.  In addition to selling naming rights (it was formerly called the Assembly Hall) to finance the renovation, the school also raised money from private donors, and charged a $25 fee on each student through a campus-wide referendum.  The referendum was overwhelmingly approved by students, mainly because we have historically been a school with a strong basketball program (5 Final Fours, 2 Big Ten Championships since the inception of the Big Ten Tournament about ten years ago, but this is me just bragging now).  ODU has a very strong football program for only being about five years old, and I am sure that if the General Assembly would let them, ODU would also put the student fee to a vote, and I am also sure that students would be more than happy to pay a small amount of money to have a world-class football venue.

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  • 2 months later...

The new master plan includes taker buildings and a more urbanized campus. They have no more room to expand out so they're building up instead.

 

I get that, I just didn't understand Norva757's comment specifically.  It's out of place and I thought he was talking about the stadium being built vertically...

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 year later...

http://hamptonroads.com/2015/06/saving-odus-foreman-field-would-cost-money-and-seats

 

So...saving Foreman Field would actually require them to remove seats. Honestly, I think building a new stadium on campus is a terrible idea, given the way Hampton Blvd. already bottlenecks for an even smaller crowd than the ones they're anticipating.

 

Personally, I wish the city would just demolish Military Circle already. That would be a prime location for a new 40,000-seat stadium and the arena that's going at the beach. Plenty of parking, easier access without causing too much traffic, and LRT could expand down Military Hwy. to the airport. Plus, with it being a public stadium, I think you could court an MLS team, or at least a few exhibition matches.

 

But, that probably makes too much sense.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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A decision hasn't been made, but ODU could be leaning towards tearing down Foreman Field and rebuilding there. The "clamshell" bleachers would go, along with that generic-looking end zone bleachers...the new party deck seats that opened in 2009 would remain. However, the stadium would only hold 25K instead of the 30K they anticipated. Also, expanding would be tough unless they demolish a nearby building.

http://pilotonline.com/sports/college/old-dominion/football/as-stadium-decision-nears-odu-looks-to-be-honing-in/article_c100c972-b4df-588e-81a1-6f75b2f188c7.html

My thing is, you want to look to the future. I hate to see Foreman go, due to its unique design, but more importantly, if ODU football takes off in 20 years and does what Marshall did in the late-90s, you don't want to have to revisit this discussion all over again, and be stuck because you can't expand your stadium. For that reason, I think Powhatan is the better on-campus location.

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  • 1 month later...

S.B. Ballard plans to propose a new 25K seat (expandable) stadium, on the Foreman Field site. The plan would incorporate elements of the original Foreman Field, but unfortunately, the "clam shell" bleachers would go.

http://pilotonline.com/sports/college/old-dominion/football/new--seat-odu-stadium-could-open-for-season-developer/article_31cb5f25-bb3f-5bc8-b05e-610c0c6748a7.html

The renderings look pretty sweet IMO...

foreman1.jpg

foreman2.jpg

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The renderings look very nice but a max capacity of 35K seems like it'd be really constraining. Especially if ODU has dreams to move to a bigger conference.

Hopefully ODU officials have a plan in their back pocket with this plan in how they'd expand. Maybe for the next few years they'll be buying up the properties right next to the stadium so they can expand it in the future.

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