Reply With QuoteTedford better start doing something with that team to justify this. 5 more years of shattered expectations and Emerald Bowls and those fans are going to stop buying tickets.
SAN FRANCISCO -- The University of California has approved a $321 million renovation of UC Berkeley's Memorial Stadium.
The UC Board of Regents signed off on the renovation and seismic retrofit of UC Berkeley's 87-year-old Memorial Stadium, which straddles the Hayward Fault. The project will reduce seating from about 72,000 to 63,000 and upgrade restrooms, food service and public safety facilities.
The project is expected to begin later this year and be completed by the start of the 2012 football season. The stadium will be closed during Cal's 2011 season, when the team will play at another location.
UC officials say the project will be funded mainly by sales of long-term rights to about 3,000 stadium seats and that no state money will be used.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
*************
Very interesting. This looks to me like they're spending $300 MM in order to make less money. That stadium is a dump and needs to be fixed, but they're losing 9k seats and sacrificing the 2011 home slate. Plus, you'd have to think that if people paid $50k+ per seat for long-term rights on 3k premium seats then they're not paying the regular ticket price for those seats going forward.
I hope Bohn studies this in depth and learns something valuable from it. CU is going to need to look at a Folsom, Dal Ward & Balch project at some point in the near future. The Cal plan may offer some ideas since they pulled it off without using state money, but I'm skeptical that it's the exact right model.
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat. - Alex Levine
Tedford better start doing something with that team to justify this. 5 more years of shattered expectations and Emerald Bowls and those fans are going to stop buying tickets.
what's the big deal.. they play their 2011 schedule at Oakland Alameda Coliseum. They'll probably outdraw the Raiders..
Disagree on Tedford.. They haven't gotten over the hump, but that program is in so much better shape than before. Tedford is a good coach..
This sounds remarkably like what Stanford did a few years ago. They went from a 85K seat stadium +/- to around 55K ( I don't know the exact figures, somebody can feel free to correct me) but made the stadium much nicer.
Originally Posted by absinthe
you are right, although somehow it only cost Stanford about 1/3rd of the Cal price.
"Don't argue with an idiot, he'll drag you down to his level and beat you with experience."
ENTJ
$321MM is a ton of money, no doubt about it. I shudder to think what CU could do with $321MM.
Has to be location. Cal's stadium is on a fault, and on a hill, might make it a little more expensive. Plus they probably have to pay the tree people to move during the construction.
What sucks is that this is going to make Tightwad Hill a thing of the past. It's really a great place to watch a game. And it's free!
I think it was similar to the LA Coliseum before they lowered the field in that it had a track and had a pretty flat slope. It almost looks like they completely rebuilt it because not only is the track gone but it now has an upper deck. And I'm pretty sure they rarely ever had a capacity or near-capacity crowd anyway, so it's not like they lost much if anything by giving up that many seats. I guess having 85K seats (or whatever it was) helped in getting them a Super Bowl played there.
I was in that old stadium. It was a relic from a bygone era. Huge stadium.I think it was similar to the LA Coliseum before they lowered the field in that it had a track and had a pretty flat slope. It almost looks like they completely rebuilt it because not only is the track gone but it now has an upper deck. And I'm pretty sure they rarely ever had a capacity or near-capacity crowd anyway, so it's not like they lost much if anything by giving up that many seats. I guess having 85K seats (or whatever it was) helped in getting them a Super Bowl played there.
apparently a large chunk of the money is for a retrofit. they are gunna separate the stadium in sections and lay a bunch of plastic below it so it will "move" with the earthquakes.
Can't wait to check out the stadium before they close it down. Next season can't start soon enough.
Colorado football is not a matter of life and death; it's more important than that.
Exactly. Plus, it's typically easier to just tear something down and rebuild it, which is what Stanford did.
Stanford did the whole thing in a single offseason too which is pretty incredible. The old stadium was a terrible place to watch a game especially with the track around the field.
The furds' old stadium sure did suck. Haven't been to the new one yet, but have heard good things.
Pretty much all stadiums with tracks suck. The only stadium I can think of that doesn't is Husky Stadium, which would be absolutely amazing if it got rid of the track somehow.
Posting Permissions
