KeaneyBlue - The URI Basketball Forum

http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/ ... dium-s1723
Well, not a bad review considering, and that was for maybe the Stony Brook game, not the Richmond game.

Obram-good stuff, game day atmosphere is fine,area,location,etc..
It is as much deferred maintenance as anything.
I think the field looks bad,particularly given the fact the university is affiliated with turf and landscape management ?

The review seems pretty accurate. I agree about the deferred maintenance. If they were able to just do some small renovations it would make a big difference. Things I notice are the landscaping in front of the main entrance. Also, it would make a different if you took down that beat up old silver fence and put up something more permanent that makes you feel like you are walking into a stadium. And maybe even an actual concession stand instead of that tent. Even high schools have a built concession where you order at the front window and wait around the side for what you ordered. You could maybe even sell URI merchandise if you built something like that.

Good article , one thing bothers me that I agree with "No souvenir stands were seen anywhere within the stadium."

What would upgrading our Stadium Cost?
Look at these $60 million stadiums being built for High Schools in Texas

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-schoo ... -stadiums/

It would probably cost about 20-30 million to get Meade to an acceptable CAA level.

I need some wins before spending $20M

A souvenir stand would be good...so wouldn't opening up the Rhody pub. And, it is weird that their turf is an issue considering you can't swing a dead cat around here without hitting a turf farm...

My review of Meade is they need to bulldoze it.

NYGFan_Section208 wrote:A souvenir stand would be good.

The Rams Zone in the Ryan Center is open every football game

It is amazing how little things have changed for URI Athletic Facilities. Pools are getting close to 50 years old and may not be regulation length, still no stands for baseball, still no outdoor track, and Meade does not look much different. Only difference in 40 years is that the Ryan Center was build and cast a shadow on Meade and West Stands needed to be build.

Thankfully we have new science buildings, and engineering on the way, but what about the Hotel?

I agree, bulldoze Meade, and place in another location that does not flood, don't put more money into Meade. I think the Physical Plant area is an eyesore, should be moved, and Meade moved across the street North of Ryan Center, you have the parking lots in place already.

You ask why football teams has had poor results, well one reason URI has the worst facilities now.

Is Meade a safety issue, some of those planks on East Stands are very flexible, some have been replaced. Can URI be that much out of money?

What is the ROI on any investment in URI Football? Cant be too great...

UMass famously lost more money the further they went in the playoffs when they were on our level. Any ROI would be more in terms of pride then financial. Maybe you get some more/better applicants to come to URI if football is better. You probably get some more donations. Maybe you can design the stadium so it can easily host concerts or other profitable events. The FCS model doesn't really make sense financially.

If ROI is a criteria,no school would have any sport.
Maybe schools could do simulated games?
"Now playing in mens online (insert sport) :State U Vs. Stink Tech"!
Sure,homecoming would be tough,but almost all Rhodys teams would have better records.

Put another way, last year Thor said we were on pace to lose about $500,000 on football, and we sold about $150,000 in tickets. So even if you expand the stadium to the point where you can triple attendance and get about 12,000 fans a game, we'd still end up losing about $200,000 a year on football. Of course, that assumes you can build Meade up to 12,000 seats, you have no payments on the stadium upgrades, sell all the seats, and you don't increase spending in other areas of the football program. So losing $200,000 a year on football is the absolute best case scenario for our program at the CAA level.

Get rid of it already. Nobody cares - it's like having a college hockey team in southern Mississippi. I'll make the announcement to all the players if they want me to.

When was the last time they won 5 games? Win 5 games and I'll probably go to them all....

Does any sport at URI have a Return on Investment? Has URI seen any return from building the Ryan Center for $54 million? No, you have sports to bring people together. You can also bring students to college on scholarships that otherwise could not afford to go.

The Football Team is planning a Toll Gantry on 138

If they put it inside a pothole, no one will ever know it's there.

60+ FB players staying on campus this summer.
Highly regarded Jordan Vazzano running # 1 at QB.

Hal Kopp wrote:60+ FB players staying on campus this summer.
Highly regarded Jordan Vazzano running # 1 at QB.

Hal,
How does that number of 60 compare to prior year summers?
Looking forward to this season

Ramster- more I think.
New SADC probably a major factor in that.

I honestly believe that if we were to be even decent, most games would be a near sell-out. The location actually helps since locals have to travel to either BC or UCONN to see a good D1 football game. (Bryant, Brown maybe). It's astonishing how many people have shown up to the games over the past 5 seasons with the records they have finished with.

No one applies to a school because it has a good 1-AA football program. UMASS won with Whipple on that level, and students used to sit in nearby bars and watch Florida on TV.
URI football is like one of those furniture stores that takes five years to go out of business. Of course Texas high schools have nicer facilities than our team. The players are probably better too.

Excellent crowds last year, and with an improved team this year the crowds will grow more.

ramster wrote:Excellent crowds last year, and with an improved team this year the crowds will grow more.

As I posted in the basketball portion of the message board...
For those of you scoring at home, the men's basketball team averaged less fans per game than the football team.
4718 for basketball; 4753 for football

And for those of you who are critical thinkers, you realize it's an apples to oranges comparison. Football plays all their games on a weekend afternoon that is optimal for people to attend whereas basketball plays many games on weeknights that can be tough for people to attend and even had one of their best games scheduled during normal working hours. If you just use average attendance per event, NASCAR is the most popular spectator sport in America. Does anyone think that's true? Of course not.

Plus, that doesn't take into account a couple of poor trends for football. Each of the last two seasons' average attendance has fallen and they averaged 874 fewer fans in 2015 then they did in 2013.

And football is played outside and many games get very cold and windy.
Homecoming, Family Day, Senior Day are highlights for the school and for alumni and their families.
Brown and Bryant have football and we are supposed to drop it? The Ol' State University?
PC dropped baseball to save money. They had excellent teams. Now URI and Bryant are going to the NCAA. First time in history 2 teams from RI going to the national championships. And baseball loses money and has stands that a high school would be embarrassed to have.
Just fix the football team. It can be done. The trajectory is now upward.
Excellent spring practice.
Two solid quarterbacks battling it out.
The $500k that football costs would not ever go to the basketball team.
Basketball is doing just fine
Baseball outstanding
Track and field great
Rowing awesome
Patience with football

spookydog wrote:

ramster wrote:Excellent crowds last year, and with an improved team this year the crowds will grow more.

As I posted in the basketball portion of the message board...
For those of you scoring at home, the men's basketball team averaged less fans per game than the football team.
4718 for basketball; 4753 for football

Come on, you know this is a bullshit comparison, right?

And basketball doesn't have events like Homecoming or Family Day. Senior Day was such a highlight for football this past year we got about 2500 for the game if memory serves right.

I don't base what URI should do on what other schools do. The old, if they jumped off a bridge, would you. I base what we should on what we want to excel in. And clearly football hasn't been one of those things over the last three decades. Plus Brown and Bryant have real stadiums that aren't dangers to fans.

I've been hearing for years how great our personnel is and I've been hearing how great we look at spring practice and then I see us win one game the whole season. People talk about needing to see it to believe it with basketball, maybe if one time you guys were right or even close in your assessments of football and their talent and chances some of us would believe things were turning around. The recruiting rankings are a nice sign, but not enough with how bad things have been.

Patience with football? We haven't been to the playoffs since 1985. Haven't had a winning season since 2001. We're beyond patience. It's past time to cure or kill.

Of course we always look good in spring practice, we're playing against ourselves!

What I mean is patience with the current Coaching staff

But considering the poor records of recent years it is amazing how high a number of people attend the football games.

I'll give you Senior Day - but it's also late in the season when the weather is not usually good

But Homecoming and Family Day are great days.

Many schools that do not have Football Teams do the Homecoming during the Basketball Season - just is not the same

RhowdyRam02 wrote:And for those of you who are critical thinkers, you realize it's an apples to oranges comparison. Football plays all their games on a weekend afternoon that is optimal for people to attend whereas basketball plays many games on weeknights that can be tough for people to attend and even had one of their best games scheduled during normal working hours.
....
And basketball doesn't have events like Homecoming or Family Day. Senior Day was such a highlight for football this past year we got about 2500 for the game if memory serves right.

I was just making the statement because I found it surprising. I didn't mean it as a negative statement towards the basketball team...or really as a positive one towards the football team. I just found it intriguing. Christ, I have been to more URI basketball games at Mohegan Sun over the last decade than I have been to home football games. Look at my signature if you want to know my thoughts about the football team. The only football game I went to this year was because the men's basketball team had an open practice prior to kickoff.

To play devil's advocate to the scheduling, a weekend afternoon in the cold & wind to watch a sucky team is much worse than the friendly confines of the Ryan Center. And you mention Homecoming, Family Day & Senior Day...yes football has those. And basketball has their Senior Day, the Pink Out, & get an actual rivalry home game every year with UMass & every other year with PC. The state comes to a stop when its PC v URI & yet no one gives a shit when we play our rival(?) in Brown.

All in all, I was just surprised that the football team had that high of attendance. That was all.

OBRAM wrote:I think the Physical Plant area is an eyesore, should be moved, and Meade moved across the street North of Ryan Center, you have the parking lots in place already.

I don't know if they plan on moving Facilites Services, but it is in the future capital budget to fix that area:

"URI Facilities Services Sector Upgrade – The Governor recommends expenditures of $11.8 million from RIHEBC bonds to build new facilities for the URI Service Sector, comprised of Facilities Services, Capital Projects, Central Receiving, Postal Services, Lands and Grounds, and a vehicle servicing station. If authorized, projected disbursements of bond proceeds total $931,496 in FY 2021, $2.9 million in FY 2022, and $8.0 million in the post-FY 2022 period."

Also, 280 Dairy Barn parking spots across the street from Burnside are going to be used for the new apartment complex they should start building this summer.

RhowdyRam02 wrote:

OBRAM wrote:I think the Physical Plant area is an eyesore, should be moved, and Meade moved across the street North of Ryan Center, you have the parking lots in place already.

I don't know if they plan on moving Facilites Services, but it is in the future capital budget to fix that area:

"URI Facilities Services Sector Upgrade – The Governor recommends expenditures of $11.8 million from RIHEBC bonds to build new facilities for the URI Service Sector, comprised of Facilities Services, Capital Projects, Central Receiving, Postal Services, Lands and Grounds, and a vehicle servicing station. If authorized, projected disbursements of bond proceeds total $931,496 in FY 2021, $2.9 million in FY 2022, and $8.0 million in the post-FY 2022 period."

Also, 280 Dairy Barn parking spots across the street from Burnside are going to be used for the new apartment complex they should start building this summer.

Seems like getting more people to live on/next to campus would be a good thing.

A new stadium should be built in that area, after facilities Services ( looks like a dump now) moves.
You have the room, and parking lots are close by.
But they will not listen to me.
Seems like now Master Plan, or they don't follow one, just piece meal building.

There used to be a pond near the parking area in the Cow Barn lots area, close to the brook.
It would be nice to have another pond like Ellery Pond at that spot.

OBRAM wrote:A new stadium should be built in that area, after facilities Services ( looks like a dump now) moves.
You have the room, and parking lots are close by.
But they will not listen to me.
Seems like now Master Plan, or they don't follow one, just piece meal building.

There used to be a pond near the parking area in the Cow Barn lots area, close to the brook.
It would be nice to have another pond like Ellery Pond at that spot.

If a new football stadium were to ever be built, it should be out where there is plenty of room and not be shoehorned in. I would propose it be put out in the fields between the new Plains Road Extension (RC Parking lot northern border) and the Amtrak line. Would have a great amount of space around the stadium for tailgating. Convert present Meade to be the new Soccer Stadium. I think some open space needs to kept near the main part of campus for future development. I would rather it be reserved for full year every day use facilities such as dorms and academic buildings.

We can't improve what we have and you guys are proposing adding millions of dollars to the cost of the project

Right, I mean that idea sounds awesome, but haven't we been struggling to get lights put in for years, which most little league fields are able to do in a weekend?