They really should bulldoze the place and build a new indoor practice facility but at least they are doing something.
Mellencamp getting new turf
- Thread starter Pazhoosier85
- Start date
They really should bulldoze the place and build a new indoor practice facility but at least they are doing something.
Dumb questions: what’s wrong with it? Looks like it’s old with no natural light. Could we renovate it with windows? Or is it just too small and outdated?
It needs to be expanded and updated is the problem.
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wonder if it will be the same turf that is going into the Colts stadium that is supposed to reduce injuries.
Also hopefully they might still be able to renovate the building later without destroying the new turf.
Also hopefully they might still be able to renovate the building later without destroying the new turf.
It seems like providing some minor aesthetic upgrades to Mellancamp and building a second bigger facility would serve the athletic department best. I have to think that Mellancamp can be useful for other sports/activities and the occasional football spillover activity. Connect the two with a hallway and call it good.
The indoor facility (Mellancamp) was out-dated before it was completed. The ceiling is too low for punters, K/O's. & generally, is too small in housing the entire FB team during practice. Replacing just the turf will further delay the necessary construction.
Thanks. Yea, it looks tiny in there.
IU not thinking ahead… probably would not have cost that much more to make it larger in 1996.
Liked Vandy’s indoor short track (perhaps not quite 400m … but close enough).
Should we build a new one … let’s make sure it fits a regulation soccer field too
I'm sure when it was proposed Mallory was ecstatic. About the only addition to the status quo of his time at IUFB.
A new turf is a good start and I hope it leads to improvements in the next couple of years.
Winning cures everything.
More butts in the seats=more revenue=more facility upgrades.
GoHoosiers
More butts in the seats=more revenue=more facility upgrades.
GoHoosiers
Bit of chicken and egg. Got to invest to win, win and you can invest more.
This seems like a waste of money if it's that bad of a practice facility.
Literally the only issue people have noted about it is the roof height. Which impacts our ability to run fast, block, tackle and execute strategy.
A few people heard that we needed a new indoor facility....they didn't know why, but then ran with it as some huge example of IU not being committed to football. It's fine. It's nothing glorious or fantastic. The team hardly ever uses it to begin with, it gets a lot more use by other sports. It's just something else for people to bitch about.
Makes sense.
We got some compliments on our overall facilities when the coaching search was happening. Maybe we aren’t too far off anymore. It’s not a good measure but when I drive by everything looks pretty nice, and I’ve been to a lot of campuses/games.
I think the topic is interesting. Personally I don’t have any concerns unless I hear Cig citing a facility issue and asking for something. I haven’t heard that.
It has more issues than the roof as it doesn't allow the team to play on a full field, there is not room on the sidelines, and many other things if it is to be used for football practice.
May not be close to elite, but Indiana doesn't have unlimited funds to throw around. Or donor funds. Especially when we're using them on buyouts in football and soon basketball. I don't know if I want the current big buyout regime deciding what else to spend on either.
Sure, it'd be great to compete at the top of the arms race, but we have recently heard a lot of good things about our facilities. So I think NIL and coaching staff are going to be enough to overcome a smaller indoor facility.
Cignetti doesn't remind me of someone who will put up with cruddy facilities. Even though he's coming from small ball, just can't see him getting beaten up on the recruiting trail due to Mellencamp.
He'll be in Dolson's ear, IMO. Hell, he reminds me of Knight and Knight ran that athletic department for decades! As a football man, I wouldn't mind Cignetti calling the shots across the board!!
He'll be in Dolson's ear, IMO. Hell, he reminds me of Knight and Knight ran that athletic department for decades! As a football man, I wouldn't mind Cignetti calling the shots across the board!!
Knight ran his program without any frills and is part of the reason our facilities were so far behind and why Cook Hall was so important.
Leave it to be used by the university for other student
athletic needs. Build a top of the line football only facility.
WTF for? So we don't get wet when it rains? Because it gets so freaking cold in Indiana that we can't practice outside? WTF do we even need an indoor facility for more than a handful of times a year?
You seem to know exactly how often it's used. Tell us please. I honestly don't know much about it other than some dude from my hometown area donated a chunk for it about 30 years ago.
If Cig wants/needs an expansion or major renovations, I'm pretty confident he'll figure out how to get it done. Probably without consulting anyone hanging out around here.
In the grand scheme, football is the shot caller. With conference mergers, if football is not the shot caller, then Indiana takes a walk to some low level conference where money is real skinny and their athletics probably eventually suck butt.
That's reality in today's big time conferences. If you look closely at the top 25 in basketball, the football schools are VERY well represented. Schools like Tennessee, Bama, and Auburn are looking real good from where I sit.
That doesn't address my question/point in the least. You just described it as something that we need even though we don't use it. WE're not Minnesota, WIsconsin, etc where the weather keeps us from practicing or having productive practices. We can be outdoors damned near every day, even in the spring.
Suggests they are not getting rid of it for a bit. I guess they could keep mellencamp and add another facility
So Melloncamp is the new weight room now?
Stop acting like that place is used 24\7 for FB.. NW, U of I and Iowa let their Ultimate Frisbee team use the indoor practice fields in the off season.
Plenty of uses for the old building if we build a new one. Intramurals, club sports, HYPER classes, community uses etc.
The weather in Indiana sucks six months a year.
If CCC2.0 had an issue with renovating Mellencamp then he probably would say something.
More than likely replacing the turf is about reducing the risk of injury and nothing else. Sure, it may make it less likely that we will just bull doze Mellencamp soon but reducing injury risk in the meantime is a plus
More than likely replacing the turf is about reducing the risk of injury and nothing else. Sure, it may make it less likely that we will just bull doze Mellencamp soon but reducing injury risk in the meantime is a plus
lol what’s that brought since Knight has left??
Quonset hut architecture went out of style not too long after WWII. It was a design to build on the cheap. New construction of this basic configuration is pretty much limited to State HW Dept storage of sand, salt and gravel.
Interesting. Mellencamp was built in ‘95-96, seems like we had a thing for this old style of architecture?
Bullshit. And even if true it wouldn’t be any of the months that encompass football season.
It’s the “Indiana mentality,” not too far removed from the more imbecile “Purdue mentality.”
I suspect Mellencamp’s Pavilion was built to mimic the Gladstein Fieldhouse, built in 1960. Both buildings are horribly outdated. Likewise, the 1971 Assembly Hall seating design mimics the 1960 Memorial Stadium sideline seating. Both have rarified atmosphere nosebleed sections poor for viewing.
There’s a full 120 yard field in there. This isn’t the CFL.
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