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New ODU Stadium (Completed)


vdogg

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  • 4 weeks later...

  • 1 month later...

It's not half bad.

vdogg, it isn't just 2000 more seats, It will replace the original structure in which the quality and integrity are in question. Plus there will be better bathroom facilities, better concessions, and better offices and locker room spaces. Plus it will lay the foundations for it's eventual expansion.

I fully understand their reluctance to overbuild. Who knows what the demand will be in 2020.

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I like it...at least there's a better chance for expansion with this design. Plus they keep the end zone "party deck". At the same time, I wonder if they could've done this 10 years ago when they announced football was coming back. 

That said, 25K makes more sense starting off. 

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2 hours ago, BFG said:

I like it...at least there's a better chance for expansion with this design. Plus they keep the end zone "party deck". At the same time, I wonder if they could've done this 10 years ago when they announced football was coming back. 

That said, 25K makes more sense starting off. 

I fully expected 25k. It's a nice middle ground target that they could easily fill. 22k is just fear. I understand not wanting to over build too, but we could easily get more for the type of money they're spending.

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Here's the full feasibility study from Populous (PDF, 66 pages), with a timeline of the project. The renderings look really, really cool when you see them from other angles, esp. the expanded 30K concept! There's also a rendering of the stadium in the original Powhatan Dr. proposal. I like that it incorporates elements of Foreman Field.

http://www.odu.edu/content/dam/odu/admin/univ/foreman2016/foreman-field-study-presentation.pdf

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There's complaints on the ODU Facebook page, and it makes me wonder whether people around here satisfied about anything (FB, not this forum). If they had demolished the university housing off Powhatan, there would've been complaints about not prioritizing students. They decide to demolish Foreman, without impacting the neighborhood houses, and folks complain that the school is thinking small.

Many of the C-USA stadiums are about the same size (give or take a few thousand), and average similar crowds. ODU is not at VT's or UVA's level where they can go for 50,000+ seats. The program isn't even 10 years old yet. ODU hired Populous, arguably THE premiere sports architectural firm in the country. If they say opt for 22-30K, I'm gonna take their word for it.

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  • vdogg unpinned this topic
  • 10 months later...

https://pilotonline.com/sports/college/old-dominion/football/odu-will-emulate-fau-s-football-stadium-when-it-renovates/article_33b028ee-3081-5e6b-8483-cabf8016738e.html

Sooo yeah ummm I don't even know what to say anymore. We're down to 20,000 from the 23,000 and they modeling it more off FAUs stadium because why even try to get a bigger stadium with bigger crowds and more ticket sales right? But at least they're still on track to have it built by 2019 right? Although they still haven't ironed all the details of this new design ... and still have to send it to the state for approval.

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3 hours ago, Urbanlooker said:

https://pilotonline.com/sports/college/old-dominion/football/odu-will-emulate-fau-s-football-stadium-when-it-renovates/article_33b028ee-3081-5e6b-8483-cabf8016738e.html

Sooo yeah ummm I don't even know what to say anymore. We're down to 20,000 from the 23,000 and they modeling it more off FAUs stadium because why even try to get a bigger stadium with bigger crowds and more ticket sales right? But at least they're still on track to have it built by 2019 right? Although they still haven't ironed all the details of this new design ... and still have to send it to the state for approval.

Wow. That is absolutely awful. Talk about playing it safe. At 20,000 seats, their stadium will remain smaller than James Madison (who plays in a lower level and in friggin Harrisonburg). When they went from 30K or so to 23K I thought they were playing it way too safe then. Now.... they're not even adding capacity. They needed to upgrade their other facilities too, don't get me wrong. But ODU is squandering an excellent opportunity to jump start their profile. Building one of the smallest stadiums in the FBS is not the way to do it. Especially with about 2 million people living within an hour and a somewhat decent sized alum base (largely in Hampton Roads).

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I wasn't a huge fan of the original 22K proposed, but I figured they would eventually expand, and thought it's a start. But why not at least go for 30K to get closer to NSU? Right now, you're still smaller than at least three of the FCS schools in the state: JMU, NSU, and Liberty.

I get that they plan to expand in the future but why? Extra space or not, to start off with anything below 25K makes no sense IMO.

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  • 4 months later...

The design is nice, and I get that you gotta start somewhere, but for an FBS stadium, I do wish they'd start off at 25K or 30K. Get rid of the standalone end zone seating (not the party deck, the other side), and create a "horseshoe" layout.

That said, I will miss the clamshell bleachers.

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  • 5 months later...
  • 5 weeks later...

I left after Coach Wilder spoke thanking the fans, but as I drove off, they had a “turn off the lights” ceremony where they shot off fireworks and played “Closing Time”. I thought that was a nice touch. 

My mom used to take me to NSU games as a kid, when they played here. Much as I look forward to the new digs, I’m gonna miss this place. 

864DB952-1BE7-4D57-8964-14F6159B5B8C.jpeg

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