RBB89

Cool. It's progress though, as we are now winning enough games to get to bowls, and competing with the upper echelon teams as well. OSU and UM no longer steamroll us, and we gave a nine win, ranked Utah team a heck of a game. We were leading well into in the fourth quarter. No one said we want to be stuck on six wins forever, but if you can't see how much the program has progressed, you seriously just don't understand football. Thanks again for hijacking my thread.

You seriously have no idea what you're talking about. Not a clue. You're completely making things up. We had the 88th "best" scoring offense in the country last year. We were ranked 120th in red zone offense. The only reason we went to a bowl was because Allen took our defense from the 120s to the 40s, and he's done that now at two separate schools. I'm in not saying Wilson isn't a good offensive mind, but the offense was really bad last year other than putting up some big plays. And who said anything about running a slower offense? You're completely making that up. DeBord and Allen have talked nonstop all off-season about continuing to run a tempo spread offense and going fast. DeBord's offense at Tennessee during his two years there averaged nearly 500 yards per game and 37 points per game. Tennessee set a school record for points in a season last year. If you watched our spring game, for the most part, we went faster than Wilson's offenses because there was much less staring at the sideline for the play call. I don't really know how much clearer I can make this: we are running a spread tempo offense. No huddle. They got the plays off really, really quickly at the spring game. That's what the coaches what. We also already have 4 commitments for the class of 2018, which includes either 4 three stars or 1-2 four stars and a couple of three stars, depending on the site you look at. Each one has other Power 5 offers. This is the best start we've in recruiting in years, and Allen has only officially been head coach for a few months. And yet again, for some reason you continue to ignore the fact that the facility upgrades are for the entire athletic department. It helps the football program and makes the stadium look better, but also will be used by every single sport. So other than the things I pointed out, you are spot on. And thanks for hijacking my thread.

I already tried to point out to him that 90% of this project is for training facilities for every sport. He ignored it.

Heck like I said in my other post, we can get to seven wins this year simply by beating Virginia, FIU, Georgia Southern, Rutgers, Maryland, Illinois, and Purdue. And if you throw in Michigan State, who we beat this past year, there's eight right there.

First of all, despite our attendance issues, we already sell out the club seating/suites that we have. There is a demand for that. They will sell these too, because people like to schmooze and drink alcohol. So actually, yes we will make money off of this because the club seating is expensive and is a revenue producer. Second, facilities are pretty important, I don't know if you just never read any recruiting articles or what, but it appears you just don't care about that because you continue to ignore the fact that seating is a tiny part of this project compared to the actual training facilities. We are not adding another general seating section, the seats we are adding are specifically for varsity club donors. The terrace just replaces Knothole Park. Third, we literally took Ohio State and Michigan (2OT) to the final play of the game two years ago, and scared the crap out of both of them on the road last year (especially in Ann Arbor, where we were winning at halftime and well into the third-quarter before losing 20-10). This year, we can get to seven wins simply by beating UVA (2-10), FIU, GA Southern, Illinois, Maryland, Rutgers, and Purdue. I tried to be nice earlier, but let's face it, it appears that you are completely talking out of your you know what. Our attendance over the past five or so years has been around 44-45,000 per game. Our capacity is 53,000. So no, the stadium is not half empty, even acknowledging that the announced attendance is tickets sold. All I know is thank God you are not our athletic director, because you have absolutely no long-term vision whatsoever. Football revenue is topped out? Really? No one is suggesting that we need to expand the stadium to 80,000 and try to sell another 40,000 seats per game. Simply getting to 50,000 out of 53,000 would increase our revenue a ton. Your logic on this is completely asinine. How do you suggest fixing a struggling program other than through investing in coaching and facilities? And it has already paid off because the program is already back to getting to bowls and making incremental progress. This is the most competitive they've been in years And for like the third time, the entire thing is being funded through private donations, so who is this hurting? Obviously a lot of people wanted to donate to this and it's their money, so who cares? The university isn't taking funds away from education, and several other sports have gotten or are getting facilities upgrades as well. You suggesting that adding a new seating section does not help anything is completely disingenuous and you know it. No one said it would: the training facilities help attract recruits. You completely ignored 90% of this project and my post to focus on a tiny part of the project. No one said those seats would improve recruiting.

This is several weeks old and there's been a bit of progress since then, but it's a good look at the scope of the project. The area south of the stadium between the actual structure and the road will be regraded and turned into additional green space. The circle drive around the entire stadium will continue, but they are going to spruce up the south end's with more landscaping and brick pavers like on the north end: Another interesting aspect is that you will no longer be able to see the visiting team's equipment truck sitting in the end zone. The road down to the loading dock and visitor's locker room will be hidden and go underneath a little drawbridge type of thing that will act as the entryway to the stadium: Finally, a quick look at the progress on the Marching Hundred's new home. It will be finished in November:

One of the trustees actually asked about this at a board meeting, and the University architect basically said seats could easily be added to the east side, north end, and even south end in the future. Obviously the east side would be easiest. There's plenty of room to grow still. Personally I'm glad they didn't add a bunch of bleachers until we can create more of a demand for tickets. If we get to the point where we are consistently selling out and people are going to be relying more on stub hub, that means we're winning more games, and bringing in more money, and then another expansion wouldn't be that big of a deal. But we aren't there yet. I'm not really as concerned about having the third smallest stadium in the Big Ten as much as packing the place and making it a tough place to play. Look at Oregon...their stadium is the same size as ours. And remember, we famously made Bo complain to the refs in 87 about how loud our crowd was when we beat Michigan, and that was with an open ended stadium.

Yeah it's just a really crappy attitude, which also doesn't even make any sense. Part of improving something is investing in it.

Obviously I've been planning that mic drop for a few months now. Ha ha

Not trying to be rude, but I suggest you take the time to actually read what the project entails (when you get a chance, I get that people have to work). Seating capacity is only going to increase by like 200 or 300 at a maximum. They are literally adding zero bleachers. The only seating is for a club area (alcohol) and then a rooftop terrace for kids and families. As with the north end zone project, this project will focus on training facilities for the entire athletic department. As in, every single sport will have access to these facilities. The new dining hall is a huge recruiting tool (you should see Oregon's), along with new rehab and nutrition facilities, office space, and a health center. The space freed up under the west stands that is moving to the south end zone will also allow the football team to double the size of the locker room and get a new players lounge. I honestly don't really understand why this has to continue to be explained. This info has been out there literally for two years. I even posted a link at the top that describes the project in full. In addition, basketball literally just got a full arena renovation, the baseball and softball teams got new stadiums (complete with training facilities/clubhouses) less than five years ago, the soccer stadium is scheduled to be renovated before 2020 as part of this capital campaign, the wrestling and volleyball teams are getting their own new arena by Cook Hall (will break ground later this year), the golf course is going to undergo an $11 million renovation here soon, and the Marching Hundred are getting their own new building across the street from Memorial Stadium. Also, we are coming off of our second straight 6 win season/bowl appearance, so what you said is inaccurate. The idea that the athletic department should not invest in facilities until the team reaches some arbitrary win total is incredibly short sighted, and is what set us back for so many years in several sports. Because they did absolutely nothing to the facilities for a good 25 years. Even if we had only won like two games the last few years, it is always a good idea to invest in football facilities. There is far too much money to be made there to ignore it. And again, people are donating to the sports you mentioned, and this Memorial Stadium project is being funded entirely through private donations.

Thanks man! Alright I think I'm done for now ha ha.

The new north end zone video board will be installed this summer up between the two towers where the current scoreboard is. It will be the main scoreboard for this upcoming 2017 season and provide video and stats. There will be no scoreboard in the south end zone the season, other than a basic temporary one at field level for the players to see time and score. Interestingly, the old south board, which is not really that old, is currently in storage until they figure out what to do with it. A new, larger south end zone video board will be installed before the 2018 season and then that will become the main video board, with the north one remaining as a secondary board.

Apologies for absolutely butchering the thread title. :) "expensiom"? *** Thanks to whoever corrected that!

Some info on the concessions/restrooms renovation coming up...all the old facilities will be redone as a part of the project. Technology wise, they are going to do something similar to what they did at Assembly Hall...all the signage will be digital. http://quality-connect.com/sporting-facilities-audio-video-installation-menu-boards/#!Indiana University Assembly Hall RenovationAt Indiana University, QCAV worked with the Technology Services Department to incorporate over 150 Screens for Digital Menu Boards, Ticket Box Information and Wayfinding driven by PingHD software. Then entire installation took only five working days with just two crews from QCAV. We also took over the project in their Henke Spirit of ‘76 Club where we hung and connected an additional 12 screens, just to help keep things moving along for the entire project. Working with I.U. was an amazing experience and we look forward to doing a similar installation for I.U. at Memorial Stadium 2017/18. This is the third BIG-10 school we have worked with including projects at Northwestern University’s brand new building at the Kellogg School of Management and University of Illinois’ Assembly Hall upgrades.

Jeremy Gray (assistant AD) on Facebook threw in an interesting tidbit. He said the team will actually take the field from near the south end once everything is complete, because of how the locker room is situated and how it's going to be renovated/expanded; they're going to create a new tunnel for them to come out of instead of coming out of the weight room. Which will be interesting since the visitors locker room will exit near there too.

The trustees are approving the design next Friday. There should be some pics that come out via twitter. I'll post them if I see them. Until then, here's more details for the project:

Just to be accurate, his son hasn't signed anything yet. He's a verbal.

Also, all active duty or veterans of the military, police, fire, or EMT can get two free tickets this weekend. Application is under promotions on the IU site.

Yay? Ignoring the whole brain trauma thing, I've never understood why people pull out the ol' tough love card. Bob Knight went beyond tough love way too many times. It's just basketball. There's no reason to treat people like that. None. It's not war.

He said in the book that he still cares very much for Knight. He also feels bad about disrespecting the program. He came back and was actually at Hoosier Hysteria.

See: Stockholm Syndrome