Rome in a Day: An insider's look at Kyle Field renovation plans

Rome in a Day: An insider's look at Kyle Field renovation plans

Honest information.

Telling it like it is…
“There is a myth that Aggies have really been supporting athletics…”

Good interview...excited to see where it goes from here.

He did make a statement about all options being on the table, and then he quickly mentioned the west campus stadium theory. I don’t think we’ll end up there, but it’s an interesting idea. The one glaring problem besides moving away from main campus is it would be strange to have the Bright Complex and the new football-specific construction going up near the current field and then build a stadium clear across campus.

sorry...I call bs on the "Aggies don't support athletics"

http://espn.go.com/ncaa/revenue/_/year/2008


T = Ticket revenue D = Donations

Numbers in Millions (2008 Data)

Texas A&M T= 30.1 D: 28.3

Bama T: $28.4 D: $29.83
LSU T: $28.5 D: $23.3
Auburn T: $22 D: $35
Ark T: 28.6 D: 12.8

Mich T: 30.3 D: 15.1
Ohio St T: 38.6 D: 28.0
OU T: 35.2 D: 13.3
tu T: 44.7 D: 35.0

Did you watch? I just posted it as a teaser, but he specifically compared us to OU and tu.

Moving away from the main campus to the west campus would be a tragic mistake. Football is part of the atmosphere of a college campus in the fall. It's where the students / Corps of Cadets live; it is the heart of the campus. You tear out the heart and our traditions if we do something like that. Baylor's stadium is off campus and I believe they have suffered as a result.

No....Kyle Field needs to stay where it is.

Interesting stuff...

"We need to go from 82,500 to 95,000 - 100,000". I like the sound of that.

I am not in favor of a West Campus Stadium at all, keep it at Kyle!

But to be fair, I wouldn't really consider that an off campus stadium if it did happen

Picadillo, not saying I disagree with your overall statement, but let's not put Kyle moving to West Campus in the same sentence as Kyle Field North being off-campus. You have to DRIVE to get to Floyd Casey. Comparing apples to oranges there.. but again, not saying I disagree with your argument in general.

Alrighty real talk.....

1. No boxes on student side of the stadium...... If Visor Guy can't get rowdy and have complaints against him that will KILL Kyle Field.

2. To reiterate the first statement "Can you tell the students and yell leaders to Hump It less it's making my box a little noisy ya know here is some cash."

3. I'm cool with designs but they better have acoustic folks come in there and have a design that will maximize acoustics so it will boost the LOUDNESS. I want saftey commitees recomending their staff to be wearing hearing protection while they make their visit to Kyle.

4. New amneities will be nice lets just make sure that we can call it "Home"

My problem is West Campus has this cold feeling. Unlike the cool looking old ass buildings have the historic feel to them.

Just saying

A good plan.

Great interview and very informative.
All Ags should take the time to view it.

I thought it was interesting that he mentioned Jones Stadium (TX Tech) a couple of times. Having been to many games at Jones, and putting all emotions to the side regarding Tech, I've been pretty impressed with the renovations they've done. The concourses are wide, the concessions are plentiful, and the bathrooms are easy to access.

building the south end is the best option! we won;t have to watch anywhere else except at Kyle field

What he doesn't say about season ticket support at other SEC schools is that it is cheap. I have relatives who have season tickets at Tenn that pay $45/game/seat with no donation for sets on 10 in upperdeck. Relatively the same for LSU and UF. Very informative interview.

I am for renovating Kyle as much as anyone.

However, the talk about not playing a whole season in College Station is something to which not much thought has been given.

I believe the economy of the B/CS metroplex depends on 7 home games a year. I cannot imagine the outcry from the business community if this was proposed.

Some other altrnatives need to be explored. One side at at time?

Here's a thought... let's tear down Main Campus and build a bunch of new buildings that will look like West Campus. All those old buildings are crumbling and often have undersized bathrooms... instead of wasting money on renovation, let's do something 21st century. New buildings = more attractive to recruits. And plus we can sell the naming rights to corporate sponsors and that will bring us more money.

I think the whole idea is exciting, and agree that if we need to make a big change it's better to rip off the band-aid, so to speak. Being gone from Kyle for a year would suck, but sometimes progress requires pain.

As a Tennessee fan I love that you guys are expanding your stadium, true SEC style.

Aggielit,

I really enjoy your idiocy on both threads about Kyle....Let's just kill babies and kick puppy dogs while we are renovating kyle field, it is pretty much the same thing.

Most of the older buildings haven't been expanded multiple times greatly adding to their original intended use without updating the infrastructure. Kyle field wouldn't need wider concourses and more bathrooms if it still seated 30,000 people. I wonder if you would have been on here in 1980 saying "who needs a 3rd deck" or in 1997 griping about losing the tradition of the horseshoe?

The current administration has a lot more information than you and is obviously weighing all options which is their responsibility. I don't want to build an NFL stadium where fans seem more distracted and disinterested, but Kyle desperately needs to be updated whether you like it or not. If tearing it down is the most cost and time feasible, then that is what we should do.

Stupid Big Cigars are going to ruin Kyle Field. Suites? Go to a NFL game you a-holes.

Barnes04,

You went to a great university. You should be able to handle a discussion about stadium renovation without calling those who disagree with you idiots.

As to your points, weren't more bathrooms added as the stadium was expanded? Was there an outcry when the upper decks opened in the early 1980's and there weren't enough bathrooms?

It's one thing to add to a stadium; this is sort of like an accumulation of history where you can see the different time periods. It's another thing to raze it completely. The MSC has been added onto, and the older parts handle many more students than they were designed for in the late 1940's. But we don't tear the whole thing down, because the past has value to us.

This reminds me of the folks that were outraged the Zone was going to obstruct the view of the Reveilles. I sat in the old horseshoe at times and now have season tickets in the Zone. Any person who doesn't think that was worthwhile is beyond help.

Last year I had a game I sat on the 40 yard line 2nd Deck. Those seats are about $3k each and the amenities are worse than many HS stadiums. Then I got tickets for the Texas game sitting in basically the same area. I took an escalator to my seats and was inside the building the entire time until I reached my seats (which was especially nice on a very cold night). The walkways underneath were huge and there were tons of food options and big restrooms.

We can do better.

Funny how many complainers don't have 12th Man tags as well.

You compared rebuilding Kyle field to getting rid of the war hymn and replacing it with a hip hop song. I didn't call you an idiot, but I call exaggeration like that idiocy.

MSC isn't the best example to use. It did not have the ability to meet its demands. We are doing everything but leveling that and it is taking 3 years.

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Funny how many complainers don't have 12th Man tags as well.

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Funny how much stock you put into a silly electronic icon. Maybe we should start ranking Aggie identity by how much money we give?

Couple of quotes from the video:

"We won't compete the level everybody wants unless everyone's carrying part of their load." (10:40)

"We will never lose the integrity of the 12th Man." (15:45)

Nope, we won't lose it. We'll just redefine it in terms of money.


[This message has been edited by AggieLit (edited 10/26/2011 1:19p).]

Staff - Any way for you to post a transcript of the interview? Thanks.

Instead of complaining about every option, why don't we as the student body and alumni try to ask what we can do to help and speed up the process? Could we do any kind of labor or service? Could we help raise any kind of funds to speed up the construction? We know anything can be done faster with more money.

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It's one thing to add to a stadium; this is sort of like an accumulation of history where you can see the different time periods. It's another thing to raze it completely. The MSC has been added onto, and the older parts handle many more students than they were designed for in the late 1940's. But we don't tear the whole thing down, because the past has value to us.

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You obviously haven't seen the MSC construction. They completely blew it up and started over.

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You obviously haven't seen the new MSC construction. They completely blew it up and started over.

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Err, no they didn't.

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Quick Facts About the MSC Renovation

Renovated area: 321,000 square feet

New Construction: 71,000 square feet

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ourmsc.tamu.edu