Archbold was built on the site of a natural oval. It makes sense to use a site like that; you can save a lot of money on cooling and heating and much of the walls doesn't have to be pretty. You might even get some money for recovering a site that was an environmental blight.
Forget to add that my concern about the quarry is whether there is enough space there to fit a stadium, some surrounding add-on structures (hotel, conference center, restaurants, etc.) and a vast, tailgate friendly parking area.
Although I am very much in the camp of constructing the arena/stadium off the main the campus, I would however very much miss seeing the Dome as I come around the corner on I-81N approaching the city. That image is iconic in my mind (more than the pee troughs). I'm not sure I would be able to see it if it were on south campus somewhere.
I wonder if the existing residence buildings at Skytop could be converted into micro-hotel spaces. There's a pressing need for accommodations and I count more than 75 buildings up there from Googlemaps.
Not only helpful, essential. One of the main reasons SU can't host bigger NCAA games is hotel capacity - there's huge demand for big tournament games. I don't know if it would be feasible to convert student residence buildings to micro-hotels. But if it's possible, these units would add capacity without being in competition with Hotel Syracuse.
Ok, thanks, 97. As far as my "idea", looks like it's not practical. Good thing I'm not in the design field.
I agree with many if not most of your thoughts and points, but I just feel the University has made its mind up, and student engagement is a big reason why.Ok, thanks, 97. As far as my "idea", looks like it's not practical. Good thing I'm not in the design field.
In terms of your comments about the facility location (to add to my previous post), student engagement and in-game experience, I have some concerns. They may well reflect the administration's outlook. But:
1. Community support is economically essential for SU's FB and BB programs. I'm sure the AD knows this. I can't tell you the exact percentage of community members versus alumns/students at every game. But most of the fans are community members. And these days there is usually television coverage and many other competing interests. IMO, ignoring the community, either in terms of ingress/egress or other factors, is unwise. SU would do that at its peril;
2. Many alums are out-of-towners (yours truly included). If they make it too much more difficult for me to get in and out of games, that'll change the equation. I'm sure it's like that for many alums from the areas SU is courting - Rochester, Albany, Binghamton and beyond ... it's a big expense, long trip, hard to find parking, difficult to clear post-game traffic, and in our case we've even had to pay a babysitter (usually almost $100). So ingress/egress is not just just a matter of convenience for locals;
3. Student attendance is on the decline (nationally as well). We've got some creative initiatives going to slow that trend, but the participation rate is a challenge. I don't think it's money (esp. at $55-60k T/R/B per year). It's team performance and the "atmosphere". The Dome is dark almost everywhere outside the bowl. The seats are uncomfortable. It's hot. The concessions impede traffic, tail-gaiting is decentralized (precluding large-scale entertainment options), and the in-game experience needs a makeover. Winning will mask some of these deficiencies over the short term. But a new facility would be a better long-term solution to attract students and provide the open spaces, freedom of movement and light that they are accustomed to at other SU (leisure/residence) buildings.
4. Lastly, there's the futility of dumping $200 - $250M into a 40 year old arena that's well past its prime and structurally resistant to affordable modernization and expansion, to say nothing of the nightmare of a 10 year construction mess (necessary to avoid interrupting BB/FB).
So those are some off-the-cuff reactions to the items you brought up. Thanks, as always, for your insights.
And $$s. They don't have $600M for a new stadium and the new infrastructure that would require.
Yeah, I mentioned that too in my initial post
There is a relatively new (about 2 year old) Aloft Hotel built on the inner harbor. Maybe that is the property you're thinking of?
sorry that is not right. The Hotel Syracuse is not changing the hotel world here it's mainly shifting hotel business, and the key on all of this is full service hotels and air carriage. The new buildings are mostly limited in services and the flight numbers don't add up. Quite frankly the Dome wouldn't hold up to the Final Four which is the only bigger NCAA event we can host.
I said "bigger" games (events), not FF. That was never an option in Syracuse (major city). However, there has been an ongoing concern about hotel capacity for large scale events (later round NCAA's, women's events, etc).
