BostonZip

Good idea. Maybe move it to the northeast end of Stile and point it toward the dorms so we can watch their progress.

Looks like they've taken down the last of the girders that the glass workers rode up and down on, so it would appear that work is essentially done, save for a couple of pieces.

To me the most surprising number on that list is Can't State at #2 in the MAC in football revenue at $6 million, especially considering it had a crowd of 2,267 at its ill-advised Tuesday night mid-November game against Northern Illinois; the BC game at Cleveland Browns Stadium was a bust; and it had only one decent-sized road payday (at Iowa State).I guess having 4 games on the ESPN network carried the freight.

End zone lettering

They're starting to put up the steel for the remaining stands on the west side.

Looks like some of the Zip players might be scoping out the stadium. A handful of athletic looking guys in shorts and T-shirts (and no hard hats) are next to the north end zone buiding, checking out the field and doing a lot of pointing to the tower. I think they like it!

Maybe they are leaving a little more room to accommodate the dimensions of a soccer field.Also, when you consider there are 80 or 90 players, plus coaches, trainers, equipment managers, benches, water stations, kicking net, photographers, videographers, sideline reporters, recruits, etc., etc., on the sidelines, you need a fair amount of room.

Some fresh photos from the Beacon Journal/Ohio.com:http://www.ohio.com/sports/47267352.html

Getting close...turf is the next step:http://www.prograssturf.com/Product/InstallProcess.aspx

The Pick A Seat crowd has descended on the stadium (see Stadium Cams).

We used to have wall-to-wall turf in our basement my first year on campus. There were giant piles of it when they redid the practice field so we took a few rolls. It ended up on our front porch for a couple of years after that.Nice...I wonder what they have planned for the Bowl?Wonder if the turf could be donated to the Akron Public Schools for installation at one of its football fields?

Okay... seriously? how many times is this going to be posted out of sheer ignorance? I think by now we get it... its going to be SIMILAR to whats already in place, however that statement doesnt say exactly what it will be. Is this really that big of a deal? It's a playing surface. Regardless of what it is, i just want some kind of surface for our team to play on. Let's just stop posting this and be slightly more intelligent like I think we all are (or at least should be)There is nothing "ignorant" about being interested in more details about the type of playing surface to be installed. There are several varieties of synthetic turf (Field Turf, A-Turf, AstroPlay) as well as different methods for handling drainage.Also, whether or not the field will have a traditional crown, a more modest slope, or is flat if of great interest to the players, coaches and athletic trainers. Crown-less fields play much "faster" and also are highly preferably for soccer, should any soccer games be played at the Info. A flat surface also makes it easier to construct things like concert stages, etc.

two trenches they dug about a month or more ago are the main drainage system. Field was dug down to the proper depth, now they have to go in with dozers and grade the field. As you may have seen after a big rain, there'd be big puddles of water in the middle of the field. Thats because the field isn't crowned yet to drain the water towards the two large drainage trenches they dug. What they're more than likely doing now is moving dirt from the outside inward to create that crown. Theres really no major drainage systems to put in place right now. Id say definitely within the next month we'll be seeing turf.Not sure which turf surface is being used, but Field Turf offers a drainage system that virtually eliminates the need for a traditional crown. Hopefully that will be the case here, although it looks like there are some black pipes laid down near the newly arrived green equipment. Anyway, I suspect they'll hold off on intsalling the turf until the cranes return to the field to install the remaining steel for the tower side stands.

I noticed in the Virtual Tour (found under the Premium Seating tab) that there are four tall light towers shown in each corner of both end zones, with the letter "A" in the middle of the two poles that form each tower. These don't appear on the stadium rendering. Was this an earlier idea that was dropped? The Virtual Tour also shows much taller light towers above the east stands than those that appear in the rendering.

The rendering on page 15 of the premium seating brochure shows brick on the walls surrounding the field (and on the scoreboard structure, which someone previously mentioned).Premium seating brochure

I like the idea of the MAC flags around the stadium actually. I think it would give the impression that ICS is the flagship (Pun intended) stadium in the MAC but I can't dispute that their only purpose is aesthetics. In the pictures they show them both on the West Facade of the stadium and surrounding the interior of the stadium. If I had to pick one between flags surrounding the stadium and on the West facade, it would be a tough trade as the ones in the stadium would add to the gameday atmosphere, but only for 6 games a year. The ones on the West facade would be visible to all year round.Call me nostalgic, but I think flags are a nice touch. Many of the old-time baseball stadiums (Tiger Stadium, Cleveland Stadium, Yankee Stadium) used to have them. In fact, at Yankee Stadium they were flown in order of each team's position in the standings that day. I think flags with the MAC teams names or helmets would be cool.

I'm not a doom-and-gloomer, but that item was actually posted on Feb. 10, not today.Posted yesterday was a release about Saturday's tours (please bring your cameras, ZipNation members!).Stadium tours press release

A Division I caliber arena certainly has helped Xavier's program. From Sports Illustrated:"It's not one thing, but many little things that have happened over the years that have allowed success to breed here," says Mike Bobinski, the athletic director at Xavier [and former AD at Akron], which, like Gonzaga, is a small (6,700 students) Jesuit school. "We made a commitment to use basketball to build up the image of the university, and we've had to renew that commitment many times."The most visible sign of the school's all-in fervor is the Cintas Center, the 10,250-seat, $46 million arena that opened on campus in 2000. "It puts us on par with so many programs that we weren't on par with before," says [Coach Sean] Miller. "People ask: Can you win a national championship at Xavier? I think we've shown that we can compete with the teams that are winning national championships."Freshman center Kenny Frease, a 7-footer from Massillon Perry, was among the most recruited big men in the country last year, with offers from Kentucky, Indiana and Notre Dame. "I visited all those schools," Frease says, "and in the end I realized that Xavier was as big-time as any of them."SI articleXU sold out 11 of 15 homes games this season, including the entire eight-game Atlantic 10 home slate.Xavier press release