MASSIVE NEWS, MEADE RENOVATION COMING

[Rhody15]

I've long had the opinion any football field without end zone seats isn't truly a "stadium."

Need at least SOMETHING in the end zones to give a it a true stadium feel.

[Ramulous]

These look like UNH’s stadium.

[Jdrums#3]

How about a horse shoe stadium with a nicely designed concourse at the opposite end zone for concessions, groups, etc ?

That said, it won’t take much to satisfy me. I am just thankful that an upgrade is coming in the near future.

[jakepnickers]

As much as I would love to see a full bowl, I don't see that possible with the space they have. The north endzone gets very close to both the Ryan center Ram lot and West Alumni Ave. With the new dorm in place, I don't see them rerouting or cutting off the road. Plenty of room for a horseshoe design by filling in the south endzone though with on-field suites in the north endzone like they have set-up in the south endzone this past season.

[NYGFan_Section208]

As much as I would love to see a full bowl, I don't see that possible with the space they have. The north endzone gets very close to both the Ryan center Ram lot and West Alumni Ave. With the new dorm in place, I don't see them rerouting or cutting off the road. Plenty of room for a horseshoe design by filling in the south endzone though with on-field suites in the north endzone like they have set-up in the south endzone this past season.

cut out some parking spots, re-route the road and bowl that sucker up

[RhowdyRam02]

These look like UNH’s stadium.

That was my first thought when I saw option 2. And frankly that's as good a place as any to start

[RhowdyRam02]

At least all of the renderings show a field that can only be used for Football and possibly Soccer and that's it. There is no track.

Same concept as the Ryan Center, they wanted a facility that did not double as a hockey rink, but instead build stand-alone facilities instead. And I think long term, that has been the wiser move.

No reason to play soccer at Meade unless the soccer complex truly can't host tournament games, then it's acceptable to use Meade for those until we can get the soccer complex up to par. Meade however will be the home of the women's lacrosse program starting in the spring of 2025

[RhowdyRam02]

I think it’s so important to have end zone seats along with a decent size east stands. I would like the length be 20 yard line to 20 yard line. With a nice size press box possibly with luxury boxes to sell.
End zone seat I would like to see maybe 20-25 rows high but the length of the whole end zone. Even 6-7 feet off the ground comparable to west stands against ryan center.
A new replay score board on top of end zone stands not pushed in the back between pine trees.

That’s my wish list.
I’m sure a drawing will come out probably by august when tickets need to be sold.

20-25 rows for end zones seats are probably way too many, though that will be entirely dependent on how big/how many seats the new East stands would hold. For reference, the Ryan Center stands are only 16 rows, having end zone seats larger than a sideline would look silly, plus you could have a lot of empty seats with end zone seats being least desirable. Also, I'm not sure you could do 20-25 rows of seats in the north end zone without large changes to West Alumni Ave., which I can't imagine would work.

One model I would like us to take a look at if we're doing south end zone seats is Minnesota's Huntington Bank Stadium.



When you look behind the end zone on the right side of the picture opposite the scoreboard, you'll notice right in the middle a section of stands that don't match the rest of the end zone seating. That section is for the band. I think a dedicated section like that with a band area and student section surrounding them could make it a really tough environment for any opposing team trying to operate at that end zone

[RhowdyRam02]

I know some people have talked about when we could see plans for what this new stadium will actually look like. Considering this is part of the budget, we probably won't know until sometime right around June 30th whether the stadium will make it through the legislative process or not. If I have to guess, assuming passage, I think we get an announcement from the University/athletic department shortly to immediately after passage with a tentative construction timeline but without a design and that we won't see a design until around Alumni and Family Weekend.

One thing I'd be interested to know is what is the University's strategy on this? Do they want to put a full court press on this issue during the legislative process or do they hope this is able to sneak through relatively quietly. I think it will be interesting to see how they operate this spring and summer

[Brian Forster]

No reason to play soccer at Meade unless the soccer complex truly can't host tournament games, then it's acceptable to use Meade for those until we can get the soccer complex up to par. Meade however will be the home of the women's lacrosse program starting in the spring of 2025

I agree with Rhowdy (a rarity). The thought of soccer playing in Meade is crazy .
Just started a D1 lacrosse team and FB is subsidizing it right off the bat?
People ask why the other sports (most) don't fund raise? There is no reason too,because they know football will give them the $$.

[Blue Man]

As much as I would love to see a full bowl, I don't see that possible with the space they have. The north endzone gets very close to both the Ryan center Ram lot and West Alumni Ave. With the new dorm in place, I don't see them rerouting or cutting off the road. Plenty of room for a horseshoe design by filling in the south endzone though with on-field suites in the north endzone like they have set-up in the south endzone this past season.

Honestly (as I've thought about what I would do with a powerball jackpot), why couldn't you just move the lands and grounds facility (the sheet metal shed directly across the street), to the other side of the commuter lots at the base of Flagg Rd?

You could re-route traffic and expand parking where lands/grounds used to be - as well as gain a ton of parking spots where the street currently resides in front of Lincoln Almond Plaza.

I think with the kind of funding they're throwing, it's not out of the question to pull that off.

[adam914]

One thing I'd be interested to know is what is the University's strategy on this? Do they want to put a full court press on this issue during the legislative process or do they hope this is able to sneak through relatively quietly. I think it will be interesting to see how they operate this spring and summer

This will be interesting. I say keep it quiet, people will undoubtedly bitch about it. Then hopefully it passes and at that point you start the marketing campaign about why its such a good thing.

[RhowdyRam02]

The track should only cost roughly 5 million. For around 50 million, I think URI could complete at least one end zone seating area. I think the 2001 rendering is top-notch, even over 20 years old. Looks like the capacity of Meade if the complete build-out for the 2001 model would be around 16-18k. I still believe FCS/Bowl Subdivision D1 football will be gone in the next 10 years as D1 bowl division team's win will only count against other bowl division schools for the 12-team playoff. This means schools such as URI will either go D2 or move up. I would not be surprised if the entire CAA football eventually moves up to the bowl division.

As long as we have at least 11,000 seats and are anywhere in the 11,000-15,500 range I'll be happy. Looking at Maine and New Hampshire, our two closest rivals, their stadiums average 10,500, but Maine has plans to add seats behind one end zone in the next 10 years or so through the Alfond Program. When you compare stadium size to enrollment size you end up in that 15,500 area.

My concern is that we're going to look at less than 11,000 based on past stadium size, but that's a poor idea because we would be basing our future on a past negative feedback loop that this new stadium would be breaking. Substandard stadium leads to lower attendance and worse product on the field. Worse product on the field leads to lower attendance. Lower attendance leads to not taking care of our current stadium the way it should be. Not taking care of our current stadium leads to lower attendance.... You get the picture. This is literally a once in 50 years bite at the apple, we need to go into this planning for the stadium to lead to a more successful program which would increase attendance

[jcru]

I'm not going to argue because I meant what I said: I'll literally be happy with any of the plans they have shown so far.

You are all Rhody fans, so, I shouldn't have to explain this to any of you, but I will just to reiterate the point:

Win, and everything will take care of itself. The interest will be there, and the money will be there. Concentrate on pulling off another season like the last two we just had.

Produce a culture of winning, and they'll be the only show in town. They'll be the SDSU of the entire area.

Lose, and it all goes away.

[jcru]

btw this is their build:






Link:

South Dakota State Stadium Info

[OBRAM]

As much as Meade had history, the area is too small. They boxed in the Meade Stadium with the building of the Ryan Center.
I like the idea, move the Stadium to the cow barns area, those corrugated buildings are in bad shape anyway. You have to think big.
Make the stadium able to hold soccer and football. Meade can be used for practice and women's lacrosse.
If you look at South Dakota State, I think it is big enough for even FIFA standards.

[Bartoburger]

Well with $50 million URI could certainly build an campus stadium as they would already own the property. A stadium identical in size/capacity to the SDSU stadium would fit too. I was impressed by the crowd URI had a few years ago against Delaware for their first night game.

[RF1]

The utopian dream would be to build a completely new football stadium out in the fields beyond the big parking lot toward the Amtrak tracks with plenty of parking around it for tailgating. Turn Meade into a soccer stadium keeping the west stands connected to the Ryan Center and building a similar stand on the east side.

[RhowdyRam02]

As much as Meade had history, the area is too small. They boxed in the Meade Stadium with the building of the Ryan Center.
I like the idea, move the Stadium to the cow barns area, those corrugated buildings are in bad shape anyway. You have to think big.
Make the stadium able to hold soccer and football. Meade can be used for practice and women's lacrosse.
If you look at South Dakota State, I think it is big enough for even FIFA standards.

Why do you insist on combining football and soccer facilities? It's dumb and unnecessary to combine both

[damram]

The soccer players would rather play on grass.

[OBRAM]

Yes, soccer players would rather play on grass. Many colleges do use Field Turf for Soccer.
If you make able to host football and soccer available, there could be soccer tournaments held there, maybe A-10,
Also maybe concerts in the summer.

[jcru]

I'm sure it will be.

Gillette Stadium is not just used for Pats games. The Ryan Center is not just used for men and women's basketball games.

I don't know what kind of disillusionment is going on here, but once an impressive facility is built, it will probably be managed by TicketMaster or whoever does our tickets these days, and once that happens, you'll pray they keep the A-10 soccer championships, and concerts to a minimum.

Did you guys not read the SDSU link? The first event, before the very first SDSU football game was played, was a country music concert.

[NYGFan_Section208]

I'm sure it will be.

Gillette Stadium is not just used for Pats games. The Ryan Center is not just used for men and women's basketball games.

I don't know what kind of disillusionment is going on here, but once an impressive facility is built, it will probably be managed by TicketMaster or whoever does our tickets these days, and once that happens, you'll pray they keep the A-10 soccer championships, and concerts to a minimum.

Did you guys not read the SDSU link? The first event, before the very first SDSU football game was played, was a country music concert.

Haven't seen anything that should make one think that the stadium "will be" used for anything besides football.
How many non-footballs have there been there since the lights and turf were installed?
And...when was the last one before that? For some reason, that's just not a thing that happens here....

[jcru]

Sorry, I was fantasizing about the bowl down the street idea, with a similar build to like what SDSU has except four sided.

Yeah, if it's just a East Stands upgrade, then nothing will probably change.

[Brian Forster]

There are no hotel and/or large capacity dining rooms to host any type of tournaments or conference events.
Most of the singular football teams stay out of town.
Where would you hotel and feed the A10 soccer or track and field tourneys/championships?
Must be within 20 minutes max . ,say top 12 teams. say 300 persons?

[NYGFan_Section208]

There are no hotel and/or large capacity dining rooms to host any type of tournaments or conference events.
Most of the singular football teams stay out of town.
Where would you hotel and feed the A10 soccer or track and field tourneys/championships?
Must be within 20 minutes max . ,say top 12 teams. say 300 persons?

no excuse to not have concerts....at least...

[OBRAM]

This leads to what is the status of the Hotel on Upper College Road.
It must be 7 years since the design was in the local newspaper, but then covid hit.

[Brian Forster]

no excuse to not have concerts

Yes-there were concerts at Meade back in the 80's when the team was great.
But an important distinction-concert goers are local and are paid customers.
The few people who go to soccer games don't pay anything? Unless something has changed? The reason soccer does not charge am told is nobody would go?
What's being suggested here is the state will be paying tens of millions of $$ to move a non revenue sport from a perfectly fine soccer complex to a football stadium. This is a great example of why this type of planned spending should be kept quiet.

[RhowdyRam02]

no excuse to not have concerts

Yes-there were concerts at Meade back in the 80's when the team was great.
But an important distinction-concert goers are local and are paid customers.
The few people who go to soccer games don't pay anything? Unless something has changed? The reason soccer does not charge am told is nobody would go?
What's being suggested here is the state will be paying tens of millions of $$ to move a non revenue sport from a perfectly fine soccer complex to a football stadium. This is a great example of why this type of planned spending should be kept quiet.

Soccer is free of charge, that's correct, but what you are told is wrong. They charged back in the late 90's/early 00's but when the Ryan Center went online and we set up our ticketing system through that it wasn't worth it to set up an auxiliary system out at those fields

[RhowdyRam02]

There are no hotel and/or large capacity dining rooms to host any type of tournaments or conference events.
Most of the singular football teams stay out of town.
Where would you hotel and feed the A10 soccer or track and field tourneys/championships?
Must be within 20 minutes max . ,say top 12 teams. say 300 persons?

I mean we've literally hosted both men's and women's A10 soccer tournaments in the past and we host the A10 indoor track and field championship every year

[RhowdyRam02]

I'm sure it will be.

Gillette Stadium is not just used for Pats games. The Ryan Center is not just used for men and women's basketball games.

I don't know what kind of disillusionment is going on here, but once an impressive facility is built, it will probably be managed by TicketMaster or whoever does our tickets these days, and once that happens, you'll pray they keep the A-10 soccer championships, and concerts to a minimum.

Did you guys not read the SDSU link? The first event, before the very first SDSU football game was played, was a country music concert.

Haven't seen anything that should make one think that the stadium "will be" used for anything besides football.
How many non-footballs have there been there since the lights and turf were installed?
And...when was the last one before that? For some reason, that's just not a thing that happens here....

It will also be the home of our women's lacrosse team and intramurals and other sports use the field now

[ramster]

True. No charge for soccer games. Never seen a soccer when there was not enough seating, even when hosting PC.
Field is in good shape and has lights for night games.

[Brian Forster]

Never seen a soccer when there was not enough seating, even when hosting PC.
if the current soccer complex is fine for large events,all that much more reason to keep it where it is.
Track and field is silly point, highly doubt they are putting a track around the football field.

Rhowdy-do you go to the soccer games or not? Seems like Ramster does?

If getting paid customers is as easy as moving the games to Meade,why isn't it being done now?

[RhowdyRam02]

Never seen a soccer when there was not enough seating, even when hosting PC.
if the current soccer complex is fine for large events,all that much more reason to keep it where it is.
Track and field is silly point, highly doubt they are putting a track around the football field.

Rhowdy-do you go to the soccer games or not? Seems like Ramster does?

If getting paid customers is as easy as moving the games to Meade,why isn't it being done now?

I do go to the soccer games, I have since back in the late 90's, which is why I know your information about ticketing is wrong.

It's not being done because there's no reason to move them to a different field. Back when it was grass there were no lights and it would have chewed up Meade more than necessary. Now that it's turf they play on a superior surface for soccer over at the complex

[Brian Forster]

"It's not being done because there's no reason to move them to a different field.
Now that it's turf they play on a superior surface for soccer over at the complex"

Thank you.

[LIRAM]

Meade should be lined for football only. Lacrosse and soccer lines will make it a mess. No serious program has lacrosse lines running through the field turf that I know of. Soccer facility is fine. Our turf(grass) is incredible and our Coach is Irish! They play the game on grass! Upgrade the soccer facility (press box, bathrooms with small concession stand etc.)
When redoing the track -turf the infield and make lined for Lacrosse and Soccer. Build a small fieldhouse/pressbox with bleachers (3,000 seats). Almost every High School has this setup. But you can not put Lacrosse/Soccer lines on Meade Stadium in my opinion.

[jcru]

I do not believe the issue was making Meade Stadium a home for the Soccer program.

The discussion was on using a suped up facility to HOST a A-10 Soccer Championship game or a FIFA game, as OBI said.

TWO VERY DIFFERENT THINGS.

At least, I never suggested that. And I don't recall seeing anyone else suggesting it either, just the standard overreaction that we get anytime you try to suggest that a multi million dollar renovation from the state is going to necessarily include new and inventive ways to recoup the money for the renovation.

[jcru]

What's being suggested here is the state will be paying tens of millions of $$ to move a non revenue sport from a perfectly fine soccer complex to a football stadium. This is a great example of why this type of planned spending should be kept quiet.

That's NOT what was being suggested AT ALL. No.

And keeping things quiet is why it took until 2023 for this to happen, it's called paranoia, and it doesn't actually serve any purpose whatsoever

[RhowdyRam02]

"It's not being done because there's no reason to move them to a different field.
Now that it's turf they play on a superior surface for soccer over at the complex"

Thank you.

We've agreed all along on this point, it's Obram that's insisted on combining football and soccer facilities, which I've always pushed back on. The only reason to ever play a soccer match at the football facility is if it's the difference between hosting an NCAA tournament or A10 conference tournament game or not

[RhowdyRam02]

I do not believe the issue was making Meade Stadium a home for the Soccer program.

The discussion was on using a suped up facility to HOST a A-10 Soccer Championship game or a FIFA game, as OBI said.

TWO VERY DIFFERENT THINGS.

At least, I never suggested that. And I don't recall seeing anyone else suggesting it either, just the standard overreaction that we get anytime you try to suggest that a multi million dollar renovation from the state is going to necessarily include new and inventive ways to recoup the money for the renovation.

"As much as Meade had history, the area is too small. They boxed in the Meade Stadium with the building of the Ryan Center.
I like the idea, move the Stadium to the cow barns area, those corrugated buildings are in bad shape anyway. You have to think big.
Make the stadium able to hold soccer and football. Meade can be used for practice and women's lacrosse."

That's from an Obram post two days ago. He's always insisted on this plan that combines football and soccer facilities for reasons only known to them

[jcru]

If it's just renovating the East Stands, which for $50+ million dollars, I mean, ok.

SDSU built an entire horseshoe stadium not 7 years ago for $65 million that seats 19,000 but we're going to just build the East Stands. I'm not complaining, let's just do something, but I guess you don't get the same bang for the buck out here that you do out there.

...

But, again, if it is just the East Stands, I don't think you have to worry about Meade being used for anything really, except URI Football games. So, the point is pretty much moot.

[jcru]

Sorry, 02, I was suffering from Covid last week. Didn't see that.

However...

Again, I think he was talking about a stand alone brand new facility. And, is that even happening here? I haven't seen any plans drawn up for anything like that.

[OBRAM]

They play soccer and football at Gilette. The lines can be adjusted for both, they are not permanent.
Maybe in 15 years soccer will be dominant, who knows?

[damram]

We don’t have to worry about soccer on the football field if the field is synthetic. Any decent soccer player would not give Rhody the time of day. It would hurt recruiting for sure. MLS players will take a maintenance day rather than travel and play on an artificial surface. The last time the Revs played the Galaxy at Gillette, there were literally thousands of fans with Zlatan shirts. They were very disappointed that he didn’t make the trip.

[TruePoint]

They play soccer and football at Gilette. The lines can be adjusted for both, they are not permanent.
Maybe in 15 years soccer will be dominant, who knows?

They do, and it is an awful and embarrassing situation for the Revs.

[RIrugger01]

Meade should be lined for football only. Lacrosse and soccer lines will make it a mess. No serious program has lacrosse lines running through the field turf that I know of. Soccer facility is fine. Our turf(grass) is incredible and our Coach is Irish! They play the game on grass! Upgrade the soccer facility (press box, bathrooms with small concession stand etc.)
When redoing the track -turf the infield and make lined for Lacrosse and Soccer. Build a small fieldhouse/pressbox with bleachers (3,000 seats). Almost every High School has this setup. But you can not put Lacrosse/Soccer lines on Meade Stadium in my opinion.

Syracuse plays lacrosse in the dome

[Rhodymob05]

The football lines are inlaid in the turf. Other sports can be painted, but it’s bushleague to combine sports with football in D1.

[RhowdyRam02]

Definitely exciting to see this, long overdue. Has there been any indication yet that it might include additional things like scoreboard or other improvements? I noticed it only says "Meade Stadium East Grandstands" in the part quoted above.

No indication yet, but Meade improvements and the Slade outdoor track project is a combined $54.1 million. How much can an outdoor track facility redo cost? Lets say $6.1 million, which seems high. That still leaves $48 million for improving Meade. Have to think a scoreboard and other amenities can be fit in with that amount even with rising costs

So looking into this further, UMass is hosting the A10 outdoor track and field championships this spring, and they built a completely new track and field complex back in 2005 for $3.1 million. That comes out to $4.7 million today with inflation

https://umassathletics.com/facilities/u ... complex/10

[Brian Forster]

Figure $6M to be safe.

[RhowdyRam02]

So there we go, $42 for Meade, $12.1 for the Slade track and field facility. That feels like a lot for the track, and I'm surprised it's more costly than what we're thinking for baseball