Digging has begun!

[Zip_ME87]

Phase I complete.

I saw they mentioned that the new playing field will be turf?

I like having the grass berm on both the east and north sides now. Can' wait to get the new lighting system in, which finally allows games to be on TV.

"Turf" does not necessarily mean artifical.

Athletic Turf

[g-mann17]

Unfortunately you are wrong. The first phase (Lights, new field, drainage, irrigation, etc.) is going to be completed on time. Phase Two (Grandstand) is in need of money and the university is looking to cut aspects of the stadium that will make it less than adequate for the level we aspire too. It's all about money now and Caleb needs help. No major donor has stepped forward.

Maybe they should add up all of the money they left on the table last year when all of those games sold out on Tuesday because of inadequate seating. Imagine how many tickets they could have sold if they had twice as many seats. Or more. For crying out loud I've seen 19,000 fans at indoor soccer games before, some paying for SRO. Not to mention the very weak inventory of Zips wear they have for sale in their used Winnebago trailer, they park next to the portable outhouse. How much money did they leave on the table just in those games (OSU, MAC tourney, and NCAA tourney)?

What a bass ackward bunch of clowns. Build a 30,000 seat football stadium for a team that has a hard time drawing 3,000, and put a national powerhouse soccer program (smack dab in the middle of a soccer hotbed) on a crap field with less seats than a local high school football program draws for JV games.

End of rant. Thanks for letting me vent.

What an ignorant statement

[72 Roo]

Unfortunately you are wrong. The first phase (Lights, new field, drainage, irrigation, etc.) is going to be completed on time. Phase Two (Grandstand) is in need of money and the university is looking to cut aspects of the stadium that will make it less than adequate for the level we aspire too. It's all about money now and Caleb needs help. No major donor has stepped forward.

Maybe they should add up all of the money they left on the table last year when all of those games sold out on Tuesday because of inadequate seating. Imagine how many tickets they could have sold if they had twice as many seats. Or more. For crying out loud I've seen 19,000 fans at indoor soccer games before, some paying for SRO. Not to mention the very weak inventory of Zips wear they have for sale in their used Winnebago trailer, they park next to the portable outhouse. How much money did they leave on the table just in those games (OSU, MAC tourney, and NCAA tourney)?

What a bass ackward bunch of clowns. Build a 30,000 seat football stadium for a team that has a hard time drawing 3,000, and put a national powerhouse soccer program (smack dab in the middle of a soccer hotbed) on a crap field with less seats than a local high school football program draws for JV games.

End of rant. Thanks for letting me vent.

What an ignorant statement

Hope you feel better after that rant. I know I do when I let off steam. Unfortunately, your statement might be, how shall we say ... ill informed? For the record no division I men's soccer program breaks even, let alone turns a profit. Football on the other hand can do so and maybe will if we continue improving it with performance and a better conference. When you look at the money left on the table for soccer, it is significant , but not huge. Our best crowd was 4500 for Tulsa last year. If we averaged that with a new facility the revenue might look like this: half are students so no income; the other brings in $22,500 if all are adults, which they aren't and they pay $10; parking is $0; food is maybe $3,000; spirit wear is $1,000. That equals $26,500 times 12 regular and exhibition games = $318,000. Out of that you pay concession workers and game day officials and you can see the revenue is not huge.

If your point is that we at least will better our situation, you are right and I agree whoeheartedly that we should do it. But i do want to add that the revenue a new stadium will bring does not mean a windfall. A new stadium does push us to the top five in the country and to me that brings a hell of a lot of value.

One final note. We have signed a contract to play Tulsa next season at our place on national TV. It will mark the return of the Zips to night time TV. Thanks for the new lights. Now we all have to pack the stands to show the country great things are going on at Akron and to the soccer world this is the place to be. Sounds good doesn't it. Hang in there. I believe we will see football and basketball become programs we can be proud of.

[tbozeglav]

Unfortunately you are wrong. The first phase (Lights, new field, drainage, irrigation, etc.) is going to be completed on time. Phase Two (Grandstand) is in need of money and the university is looking to cut aspects of the stadium that will make it less than adequate for the level we aspire too. It's all about money now and Caleb needs help. No major donor has stepped forward.

Maybe they should add up all of the money they left on the table last year when all of those games sold out on Tuesday because of inadequate seating. Imagine how many tickets they could have sold if they had twice as many seats. Or more. For crying out loud I've seen 19,000 fans at indoor soccer games before, some paying for SRO. Not to mention the very weak inventory of Zips wear they have for sale in their used Winnebago trailer, they park next to the portable outhouse. How much money did they leave on the table just in those games (OSU, MAC tourney, and NCAA tourney)?

What a bass ackward bunch of clowns. Build a 30,000 seat football stadium for a team that has a hard time drawing 3,000, and put a national powerhouse soccer program (smack dab in the middle of a soccer hotbed) on a crap field with less seats than a local high school football program draws for JV games.

End of rant. Thanks for letting me vent.

What an ignorant statement

Hope you feel better after that rant. I know I do when I let off steam. Unfortunately, your statement might be, how shall we say ... ill informed? For the record no division I men's soccer program breaks even, let alone turns a profit. Football on the other hand can do so and maybe will if we continue improving it with performance and a better conference. When you look at the money left on the table for soccer, it is significant , but not huge. Our best crowd was 4500 for Tulsa last year. If we averaged that with a new facility the revenue might look like this: half are students so no income; the other brings in $22,500 if all are adults, which they aren't and they pay $10; parking is $0; food is maybe $3,000; spirit wear is $1,000. That equals $26,500 times 12 regular and exhibition games = $318,000. Out of that you pay concession workers and game day officials and you can see the revenue is not huge.

If your point is that we at least will better our situation, you are right and I agree whoeheartedly that we should do it. But i do want to add that the revenue a new stadium will bring does not mean a windfall. A new stadium does push us to the top five in the country and to me that brings a hell of a lot of value.

One final note. We have signed a contract to play Tulsa next season at our place on national TV. It will mark the return of the Zips to night time TV. Thanks for the new lights. Now we all have to pack the stands to show the country great things are going on at Akron and to the soccer world this is the place to be. Sounds good doesn't it. Hang in there. I believe we will see football and basketball become programs we can be proud of.

TULSA spelled backward is ASLUT

[Spin]

My point is, we leave money on the table when a Saturday night game sells out on Tuesday morning. We need more CAPACITY.

Then, address the woeful merchandise program.

The people I sat with in the MAC and the NCAA were affluent people. They were soccer fans. They wore jerseys (for other teams of course) and talked about ManU and all that. And the ones who could get tickets before the sell-out sat on the frozen ground.

I know there's only two college sports that break even, at precious few schools if you knew the truth. But this is a different situation here. We had the only profitable indoor soccer team. The only profitable arena football team. And we know what happened to those leagues. I saw the Cleveland Caps break USL attendance records, before the league mandated they play on grass, and lead a nomadic existance begging for high schools to let them use the stadium a couple times a season. The first of two financially successful USL teams the league botched. The Aeros broke attendance records and is often the best selling minor league merchandise. This market could be the exception.

If for no other reason, giving these fans a comfortable seat and humane restrooms would go a long way to breaking the stigma Buchtel High has.

I applaud the much needed upgrades. But we're screwing ourselves if we don't have more seats when it's all said and done. IMHO.

[tbozeglav]

I applaud the much needed upgrades. But we're screwing ourselves if we don't have more seats when it's all said and done. IMHO.

I think its safe to assume this will happen. Last design I remember seeing called for a 2500 seating capacity in the stands alone, plus another 2k on the grass berm seating (I think). You do have to consider that we didn't sell out EVERY home game last season; However its always better to be able to reasonably hold those large crowds. As this team's exposure and popularity grows on the region, Im sure we'll see a larger average attendance. Now if the marketing dept would get their act together and get some quality soccer merch out there (in addition to the stadium's team shop), then we'd be in great shape.

Im glad to hear Phase 1 is going well. Also glad to hear this playing surface will be able to handle anything NE Ohio decides to throw at it. Now to get the money together so we can upgrade the other parts of the stadium!

[Jake]

So, new field for this 2010 season and stadium for next season? Is that the plan?

I've heard that they got a donor to sponsor the whole thing and rumor is that it will all be done by the fall. Could be wrong, just saying what I've heard.

Actually and fortunately, you are closer to being right, if not totally accurate. At the very least, UA currently has received more donated funds than originally anticipated that will not only allow them to complete phase one but also 50% or more of what would have been phase two by the begining of the 2010 season. Additionally, there is a good probability that through additional anticipated donors, phase two will be totally completed in time for UA's first soccer game this September which will be nationally televised from Lee R. Jackson Field.

And the university is not looking to cut aspects of the stadium that would make it less than adequate. Nothing could be further from the truth. This was planned to be a top notch soccer stadium and that plan has not and will not change.

[Jake]

J. Dicky is accepting donations, as I wrote during the season, but evidently ZNO are all talkers [writers] and not doers.

not this ZNO...not by far!

[Blue & Gold]

Awesome news, Jake! Thanks for the scoop!

I really want to believe this, but is the construction of a new grandstand complete w/ facilities & pressbox physically possible between now and September?

[tbozeglav]

A little birdy in my ear tells me that the University is working on getting web cams put up on the light poles (once the new ones have been installed) so that people can see the progress of the new stadium as it's being built, much like during the Info's construction

[ZachTheZip]

A little birdy in my ear tells me that the University is working on getting web cams put up on the light poles (once the new ones have been installed) so that people can see the progress of the new stadium as it's being built, much like during the Info's construction

They could stick one on top of the softball pressbox right now and it would give you a view of the whole thing without having to wait for the light poles to go up.

[Jake]

Awesome news, Jake! Thanks for the scoop!

I really want to believe this, but is the construction of a new grandstand complete w/ facilities & pressbox physically possible between now and September?

To be honest, I don't know. I'm not a knowledgeable person when it comes to construction deadlines and architectural realities. My sources seem to think so. I have to admit, I did more listening than questioning when I was told this.

If you recall though, many people couldn't believe that InfoCision would be completed in time when they viewed the stadium's construction progress in the Spring of 2009. Certainly, the soccer stadium will be on a much smaller scale than our football stadium. Let's cross our fingers. My attitude is UA will do what it needs to do.

[Wally B]

I'm not a construction type either but the posted GoZips schedule has an exhibition against Virginia Commonwealth on 8/25, and the home opener versus Cincinnati on 9/17. That's only 4months. If admin has the funds and project schedule ready to go we should have heard something official by now. For not breaking ground on phase2 and the scope of the project i don't see this happening, atleast not in 2010!

[Zip_ME87]

From what I have heard recently, the grandstands will not be built this year. The field will be moved and include better drainage and the new lights will be installed. I also heard additional berm seating on the north side...which will be interesting to see how this works with the team benches.

[tbozeglav]

From what I have heard recently, the grandstands will not be built this year. The field will be moved and include better drainage and the new lights will be installed. I also heard additional berm seating on the north side...which will be interesting to see how this works with the team benches.

The team benches I believe are bring relocated to the grandstand side of the stadium. It would make sense since the designs we've seen in the past called for the grandstands to be where they currently (albeit larger) with the team benches along the front.

[Buckzip]

From what I have heard recently, the grandstands will not be built this year. The field will be moved and include better drainage and the new lights will be installed. I also heard additional berm seating on the north side...which will be interesting to see how this works with the team benches.

The team benches I believe are bring relocated to the grandstand side of the stadium. It would make sense since the designs we've seen in the past called for the grandstands to be where they currently (albeit larger) with the team benches along the front.

What designs. Are there pics of what this is supposed to look like?

[ZachTheZip]

From what I have heard recently, the grandstands will not be built this year. The field will be moved and include better drainage and the new lights will be installed. I also heard additional berm seating on the north side...which will be interesting to see how this works with the team benches.

The team benches I believe are bring relocated to the grandstand side of the stadium. It would make sense since the designs we've seen in the past called for the grandstands to be where they currently (albeit larger) with the team benches along the front.

What designs. Are there pics of what this is supposed to look like?

Yeah. They were posted to ZN a few months ago.

[mes102]

here's the thread with the plans:

http://zipsnation.org/forums//index.php?showtopic=16075

[Buckzip]

here's the thread with the plans:

http://zipsnation.org/forums//index.php?showtopic=16075

Thanks. I never saw that. Looks good.

[tbozeglav]

so does anyone have updated photos of the progress being made?

[jem101]

so does anyone have updated photos of the progress being made?

I drove by the field on Friday, and there really isn't much to see. The whole field has been reduced to dirt and it looked like they were about to put in some gravel or something for drainage. Unfortunately, the bleachers haven't been touched so it looks like they are going to hold off on that for another year. I didn't notice any changes in the lighting, but I wasn't really paying attention.

[ZachTheZip]

As of today, there is a layer of gravel in the dimensions of a standard soccer pitch. It is graded and ready for the next layer to be applied. There is also a berm shaping up on the north side of the field. All of it seems to fit without the tennis courts being torn down. A new electrical system is installed, but no new light stands are up yet.

[ZachTheZip]

Two crappy cell phone pictures, coming up! There are four concrete pylons near the corners that I assume will be the bases of the light poles. There's also some kind of concrete foundation by the southeast corner, not sure what that will become.

[Zip_ME87]

Two crappy cell phone pictures, coming up! There are four concrete pylons near the corners that I assume will be the bases of the light poles. There's also some kind of concrete foundation by the southeast corner, not sure what that will become.

Thanks for the pictures Zach!

[ZippyTuba11]

Depending on the stands, they can generally be completed very quickly. There simply isn't much to them. That's why the Info is playable without being completed. The most time consuming work is interior detail. If they go the cheap aluminum rout, they could have everything completed for this season.