(08-20-2015 04:44 PM)Niner National Wrote: But, years ago construction dollars went a lot farther than they do today because there weren't nearly as many codes or regulations that had to be followed.
We went for quality construction, spending 45+ million on our stadium. Had we gone with a steel construction, we probably could have done 25,000 or more for the same price, but we didn't want an ugly eyesore in the middle of campus.
Not just quality construction (which it is - its a beautiful stadium), but expandability. There is no excavation or basic foundation work needed to erect the middle and upper decks. It will be as close to Lego style building as it gets, because the site was prepped for it. Some of the buildings on the sides were constructed to be foundational for vertical expansion.
The misconception in this thread is that there is no expansion plan for Charlotte. There has been one since the day the stadium construction was announced, and before the program was even invited to CUSA.
This is the 40k pre-rendering. Note that the stadium can actually be increased to over 60k, but that would entail some structural changes (likely involving enclosing the open sided end zone).
The disconnect is that the AD is being very quiet about when and how they will execute it. However, their logic has already been discussed on the board. It breaks down to two basic steps:
1) Evaluating attendance/ticket demand in season one of CUSA play. This has as much to do with how well FAU & UTSA draw as Marshall, ODU and USM do. (however, I contend you should build for your regularly occurring high demand games). What incremental expansion to add next. 5k? 10K?
2) Properly funding the expansion - private capital campaign vs increasing student fees.
I find it likely that they will continue to add seats in the 5k blocks over time as the season ticket base is built up, and more high draw local interest games are added to the schedule. App State is going to draw better than anyone else we face, simply because of proximity and animosity. The already scheduled Duke game will be played in about 5 years (when I expect the stadium to be at 25-30k). If the program lands rumored games against Maryland, UNC, etc, it will only increase demand for expansion.
The other thing to understand is that the expansion can be accomplished in a single offseason, and with time to spare. Again, owing to the pre-engineered design.
The bigger challenge would be altering the pre-renderings to add suites on the opposite side of the stadium, and bathrooms will have to added regardless.
Finally, if you look at the history of nearly all the great old college football cathedrals, they weren't built in a day, or a year. 100k didn't happen overnight. They started small, usually around Charlotte's current size (or smaller), and gradually added seats over decades. Why would anyone expect anything else from Charlotte? If it just takes them 5 years to add 10k seats, they'll still be doing it faster than most of those vaunted programs ever did.
Guess which stadium this was?