orange79
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Literally thousands of stadiums around the world use them. Might they need to be special-ordered? I don't know. But certainly not impossible to replicate/replace.
the crane the crane
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BVille44
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Also seems like a waste of money to remove and reinstall the aluminum benches. Perfect opportunity replace the aluminum benches with individual seats despite the fact all football season ticket holders would have to be re-seated in a short period of time.
I could see an entire upper level section being damaged by a rogue cable. Seems like a good preventative action.
orange79
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We'll agree to disagree. IMO, unless you are looking for work for your staff to perform, the effort appears to outweigh the risk. I'm not an engineer though, so I could be very wrong.
storange
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Ditto, seems a waste of a lot of time and man hours.
IMO, if extensive damage were to occur, to custom order a multitude of seats could adversely affect the already tight schedule. Removing the seats (and having it built into the schedule) is the safe and prudent thing to do. I was told this in September; I assume it's still true.
sutomcat
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I think they are talking about the 14 heavy steel cables that hold all the fabric material in place that make up the current roof. The longest ones weight 7 tons each. They are going to be a challenge to detach from the columns that hold them, without damaging the seats and/or the concrete below them. As others have said, if the benches or seating get damaged, it will not be easy to replace them, so it makes sense to get them out of harms way soon.
The roof is supposed to be deflated and removed by the end of March. Once they start detaching the material from the roof, it will allow winds to come in and possibly tear other panels. It will be a challenge to try and get this done without damaging the panels so much that they can’t be sold. March in Syracuse up on the hill is going to be windy just about every day. Sometimes really windy.
I hope they would try and salvage some in pieces big enough so they could be used for tailgating canopies. Why not get some real use out of some of this material? People would pay to have a canopy top made of this for sure.
I assume they will take out the inner layer of material first. The Carrier Dome was the first air supported dome to have one and it played a key role in keeping the roof intact, as they would blow hot air between the layers during heavy snow storms.
I don’t see a spiral out in the open yet. I think they need they to start work on the truss again. Hope to see the white crane pull one out of storage and see the crew throw a collar and some cables on it ASAP. Looks like the next box girder is going to be the one north of Walt. It already has sidings on it.
NJCuse97
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Actually, it kinda is.
Aluminum Stadium Seating | Sturdisteel
Sturdisteel offers aluminum plank stadium seating for existing or new facilities.
www.sturdisteel.com
That said, this is in no way an attach on you. Sorry if it seems to be. These kind of sequencing and logistics/schedule things drive me crazy on a fairly regular basis (because I too wind up having to do extra work, too often on my dime due to too much or too little precaution by others).
I totally understand the concern and where it comes from. As sutomcat said, the concern is the existing cables. If there is concern about damaging the concrete, that is a much bigger issue. That is not so easily repaired (correctly) if it is damaged. If the concrete is damaged, they will need to recast the concrete and reinstall new brackets. That is going to take all the time it would take to ship a replacement bench. I hope/assume that they will lift the cables off one at a time with the crane, but yes, anything can happen. If the only concern is the benches, then I see this as a waste of time and money, but that is my opinion. I have seen efforts like this where there is a calculation of a total loss or the need to replace an entire section. I am sure that they said it would be x dollars to remove and reinstall and y to replace the entire section, (essentially saving the cost of an entire section of bench material) but that is not a realistic scenario. If you are only replacing ten rows, the cost is negated.
Lots of speculation about why things are being done. No real inside information. Personally, I don't think these guys are so dumb they would waste time and money doing unnecessary work. I could see taking out benches to create more unobstructed space to work on the inside but that is just a guess... like the many guesses here. I personally don't think they are removing benches in case we have rogue cables flying around. But I admit, that's just my hunch and I admit it.
CuseOnly
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A 7 ton cable falling would absolutely damage the benches, the weight alone even resting on the benches would deform the aluminum.
I think it is very prudent to remove and reinstall as it is just labor and a crew could probably execute that in a few days.
it would seem like 2 cranes working from the inside could remove the cables easier. if you just pick up from the middle when you release the ends they will swing down with a lot of force. now if you pick up from the middle with the big crane and then unhook the ends with the smaller cranes from the inside you can control things to allow the big one to pick it up higher.. but this also seems like something that they have a handle on how they want to do it. you have to also factor in the stress on the walls when this stuff is lowered.
Sure, A 7 ton cable would cause damage. I just don't think they are removing the seats because they think that would happen. I trust that whatever reason they are doing it is logical and prudent.
dollarbill44
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Interesting. I thought they would use the retired jerseys by filling them with construction debris and haul them off to the landfill. With the money saved on trash bags they can get some nicer ones.
Consigliere
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Pretty good hunch! I think there are a number of factors that necessitate the removal of existing seating. And this has definitely been part of the plan from its inception.
Really disappointed they are not taking this opportunity to upgrade. Since replacing the seats was never part of the 2020 or 2022 enhancements I can only assume it’s a financial thing and other items took priority
storange
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I always thought they would put in individual seats for preferred lower deck between the 20s. Have seen this at other college stadiums. Doesnt seem like a huge cost and could increase price to net gain. Guess not
Consigliere
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Will certainly still happen. Just not in this round. Tough thing is where do you put the upgraded seats? Good football seats are cheaper basketball seats. And first few rows of the third deck are where some pretty valued donors sit.
orangemass
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If they are going to remove would it make sense to re-install individual seats?
sutomcat
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Agree. Now is a natural time to switch to individual seats and in a perfect world, that is what we would do.
But as upper says, it isn’t as simple as changing out benches for individual seats.
When this is done, we will lose capacity. That means people are going to be assigned to different seats than they have now; worse seats for almost
Many have already paid for seasons for football. You have to tell people beforehand and let them understand the impact and decide where they want to seat post change. This impacts everyone and needs to be done from the best to worst seats, in a very time consuming, tedious manner. The timing for our resource constrained AD is terrible.
And then there are possible legal issues that come up when doing something like this. This exercise will have to wait until later. It is unfortunate but this is how it is to be.
