With the recruiting budget discrepancy, it's a VERY valid question.
You are Scott Dolson…
- Thread starter Rags to Roses
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The new money will be used for bigger and better professor's lounge
and new Volvos for all.
You've said this 3x now. I have yet to see where I've made that statement, or even inference, once.
Our weight room isn't the biggest/best like it was a decade ago, but it's not garbage or lacking in anything.
So when you combine that facility with....
- a new locker room
- enclosing our stadium, not once, but twice in the last 15 years
- installing video boards 2x that are among the largest in the nation
- the excellence academy
- increased coaching and staff salaries/resources
It's been well documented that we've had our best recruiting success ever in the past 3 years, yet we're somehow supposed to believe that's 100% because of LEO and not because recruits can't see our investment in winning football in other tangible ways?
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Objectively, we’d finish 7th or 8th in the Big West and no better than 5th in the East in terms of facilities. One of us doesn’t think that’s so good. Not sure why you think it’s somehow logical to think that’s the way to success, but so be it. And speakers imply, listeners infer.
Yet we're outrecruiting about half of the conference over the past 3-4 years.
Absolutely.
I believe this isn’t just possible but probable if IU is asleep at the wheel.
"You 'can' share the largest weight room in the country", ought to be the answer to any negative recruiting remarks. From a marketing feature/benefit it's an easy sell. 1 team, many sports should be a pride filled statement.
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I've yet to see anything solid saying Coach Allen was made to pay off NS contract. Must admit it is good gossip to use if you dislike Dolson.
Here is one of many I found https://www.espn.com/college-footba...-head-coach-tom-allen-takes-pay-cut-part-move
Yes, but it does not identify a directive to substantiate the action. My belief it very well could have been Allen's idea but I can't substantiate that either. It just fits his character to a T.
The apartments the IU basketball and football players are steered to are as nice if not nicer than this. The football only facilities and assistant coaches salaries (and skills in the case of Hiller) need upgrading as well as the recruiting budget. You're so unhappy and hopeless about IU sports, why not just stop commenting and spare the rest of us your always negative take on stuff. You will always find IU sports a negative experience - if so why continue to pay attention , wouldn't your life be better without them?
Nah….some of us just want to see the university flourish instead of trying the same old insulated strategies it’s always used. If you are happy with the status quo, I can’t help you there.
Strange seeing support for more seats when we don't fill the ones we have.
I do wonder though if I-69 will improve fan support. In the past trying to get to the stadium from the north on game day was a deterrent.
I do wonder though if I-69 will improve fan support. In the past trying to get to the stadium from the north on game day was a deterrent.
I love the idea of expanding MS, but the demand simply isn't there and it won't be there until the product on the field improves. Work on bringing in more big $ donors, and improving the team results, and if we start consistently packing the stadium(as in a minimum of 5/6 games are at or very near capacity, and we don't have any games where MS is half empty), then we can consider adding capacity to MS.
Hot waitresses to deliver food and drink to your seat.
New Press Box
New indoor practice facility
More bathrooms/replace the horse troughs (although I'm sure some of you like them)
Huge beer garden (biergarten) outside stadium for pre and post game partying, run by real Germans who know how to run one - not the faux ones in the US.
Off campus parking with complimentary shuttles to and from the game
As Vesuvius said above - improve the fan experience.
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some interesting discussion here. My question is what does administrative support for the football program really look like and how does it differ from the administrative support provided to the men’s basketball program over the past 50-75 years?
From a facility standpoint, I think we can all agree that a new or heavily renovated indoor facility is needed and likely a place where the administration has not provided to football. The NEZ facilities as well as the Tallen complex seem perfectly “adequate” if not spectacular. Salaries for the staff seem to be have been a traditional problem area, but one where improvements have been made. The situation with Sheridan is a bad look, but likely an effect of a drop in revenues due to Covid, as much as a lack of administrative support.
I know that, when DiNardo was here, he raised some issues regarding the need for preference in class enrollment and the lack thereof at the time being an issue when scheduling practice time, etc. Assuming that has been addressed, but not sure if there is anything in that bucket where the admin is dropping the ball.
Definitely not trying to call out anyone or anything here, but genuinely curious about what “support for football” from the school and AD really looks like, because I don’t think we have really seen it historically.
From a facility standpoint, I think we can all agree that a new or heavily renovated indoor facility is needed and likely a place where the administration has not provided to football. The NEZ facilities as well as the Tallen complex seem perfectly “adequate” if not spectacular. Salaries for the staff seem to be have been a traditional problem area, but one where improvements have been made. The situation with Sheridan is a bad look, but likely an effect of a drop in revenues due to Covid, as much as a lack of administrative support.
I know that, when DiNardo was here, he raised some issues regarding the need for preference in class enrollment and the lack thereof at the time being an issue when scheduling practice time, etc. Assuming that has been addressed, but not sure if there is anything in that bucket where the admin is dropping the ball.
Definitely not trying to call out anyone or anything here, but genuinely curious about what “support for football” from the school and AD really looks like, because I don’t think we have really seen it historically.
1) An indoor practice facility with all the bells and whistles. Keep and renovate Mellencamp, and add a much bigger, nicer, all-inclusive practice facility adjacent to it.
2) Make sure the coaching budget is whatever it takes.
3) Add building(s) the the east and west side of the stadium to provide suites for fans and better facilities for football/olympic sports. Eliminate the critique that football has to share its space.
the main point of adding suites (whether "ordinary" seating is expanded or not) is to be able "work on bringing in more big $ donors" and if IU can't raise enough money from donors and from their share of the 2024 contract, the school really has no business trying to compete in the "new, improved" B1G in football.
IMO plans for a new practice facility (and retro-fitting Mellencamp to be the future weight room for all non-football varsity athletes) should already be in the works and soon ready to be included in Dolson's future fundraising drives ASAP. And, yes, work should be commissioned on some tentative plans to add suites to the East stands within the next decade--whether fans see the need for them or not. I suspect some donors who want football to finally really succeed see the need for them already.
There have been feelers put out for a number of years to gauge the interest and willingness to commit financially to suites. There simply hasn’t been sufficient interest to do anything beyond what exists for people via the Press Box, NEZ and SEZ offerings. If we’re able to build a winning program, hopefully that changes, but right now there isn’t any demand. They would also push out the north wall in AH for more suites if there’s ever demand there.
Back in 1979, when Hayden Fry came to Iowa from the state of Texas, he knew what support looked like. He saw how invested administrators were in that state for the sport of football. So, when he got to Iowa, he was coming into a situation where the school had 2 decades of terrible football in the 60s and 70s and no support. He threatened to walk if the university did not build a new indoor practice facility (and those were the days without tv contracts to fund such endeavors). They did and recruiting took off. Prior to 1982, the Hawks had been to 3 bowls. Over the last 40 years, they have been to 35 bowls. That’s what administrative commitment looks like.
I'm afraid in the future this kind of mindset (not from you, from the parties you described) will be unsustainable.
Once the "2 super conferences" paradigm is up and running, continuing to play in a one-third or one-half empty stadium is a ticket to eventually being disinvited from the conference. I don't doubt that there are some B1G AD's who, if they could pull it off, would replace IU with Oregon or Washington by sundown today.
IU may have to be aggressive and innovative enough (Kelley School, anyone?) to CREATE some demand and with a $90-100 Mil windfall on the horizon, I think at a minimum plans should at least be drawn up for a new practice facility and suites, even if the demand has to come later. If Dolson waits for CTA to turn things back around and Allen continues to struggle, AND nothing substantive is done on the vision/upgrades/promotions side, by the end of Allen's current contract I fear it may be too late. Whether Allen's still around by then or not.
They put up one of the original bubbles because HF demanded they do so. And Iowa did it in 1985, well over a decade before we got around to it. It created a huge recruiting and prep advantage for them.
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The only problem with suites in the east stands is that the sun is directly in their face during afternoon games and it get really hot in the warm weather games. I think they would be better added in the west stands.
I think the new I-69 will help quite a bit but it is still three years away from helping.
The sun tends to be more S and SW than out of the West during games, but I understand your point. From a construction standpoint, the East side opportunity would be far easier from an engineering perspective, though. Afraid none of it matters if there’s no demand, however.
Mellencamp came online in the mid ninties (well before the TV contracts). Glad IU had the same commitment.
Agreed. It would make more sense to put the premie seats and suites on the west side and add to the east side to add more seats, if needed (which we don't at this time).
Last time I drove up I69 from B-town, I was able to drive straight through to I465. although a lot of construction as you go north.
What's it like now?
Those obstacles are easily overcome these days.
Hit or miss. Last time i went down when back in Indy it was one lane all the way and painful.
West is too high up and frankly having an air conditioned suite to step in and out of at will helps with the sun/heat problem up until the time that the sun is welcomed.
A lot more construction now. They are working heavily on the stretch between Indy and Martinsville. Pretty much every east-west intersection with I69 has an overpass going in. However, going through Martinsville is a breeze. No lights. Last season was a nightmare going through downtown Martinsville. The travel during the Cincy game was brutal. Once you navigate the 15-20 mile stretch between Indy and Martinsville, it’s pretty easy.
Drove down and bit for a week for the bball camp a few weeks back. I didn't think it was bad. Definitely better than it's been. I live in Fishers - the south part of 465 was painful but it always is.
Yeh, like I said hit and miss depending on what they are up to that day. With 65 closed downtown, 465 is a shitshow.
possibly, although that would likely make them more expensive
but then I'm not saying "since Lane Stadium (Va Tech) was modeled after Memorial Stadium, IU needs to do the exact same thing Tech did https://hokiesports.com/news/2021/6...rcent-capacity-for-tech-football-in-2021.aspx
I'm thinking of something much smaller (& potentially expandable in the future) like a considerably smaller, scaled-down and less elaborate version of McCreary Tower (Wake Forest): http://www.ljvm.com/our-venues/mccreary-tower-at-bbt-field/
McCreary IIRC has 6 floors, a little over over 122,000 square feet and cost around $48 million--I'd be thrilled wiith something one-half or even one-third that size and half the # of floors if it were at Memorial Stadium.
Here's what little Oregon State has planned for $153 Million-: https://www.nbcsports.com/northwest...es-plans-reser-stadium-153-million-renovation
is it too much to ask, especially with the new TV revenue starting in 2025, for IU to spend a quarter, or even a fifth, of what Oregon State's juggernaut football program is getting?
Here's what La Tech did with 30,000 square feet for approx $18 million (in 2017 dollars):
https://www.gensler.com/projects/louisiana-tech-university-joe-aillet-stadium-renovations
A version of this in the East stands (with an exterior that more closely matched the aesthetic of the rest of the stadium) would IMO be well worth Dolson's and the BOT's consideration. Even if you "cut it in half" and flanked the press box in the West stands with the two halves.
https://www.gensler.com/projects/louisiana-tech-university-joe-aillet-stadium-renovations
A version of this in the East stands (with an exterior that more closely matched the aesthetic of the rest of the stadium) would IMO be well worth Dolson's and the BOT's consideration. Even if you "cut it in half" and flanked the press box in the West stands with the two halves.
With an extra hundred mil to play with the AD ought to be able to go with some version of the VT model on both the E & W sides..., while adding extra bathrooms at the same time...
it's eerie to look at Lane Stadium and think "what might've been" at IU over the decades
