Is There a Bigger Eye Sore in Power 5 CFB Than the M-Club Building?

[Lord McBuckethead]

The only thing that disappointed me in that structure was they sort of goofed by not building it further towards the junction by about a 100 feet. The last two sections on each side of the southern end of the stadium cannot see the board and the sections next to them have to strain their neck to see it.....and the answer was to build another jumbotron on the north end of the stadium. So we spent around 15 million (from what I hear) to build that gigantic south end jumbotron. Now we are going to tear it down....hmmm.....we must be flush with dough. There's a unique concept in most really good engineering schools and in good engineering itself. It's called planning. Sometimes I wonder if we teach our grads about planning and the costs of poor or no planning for at least 20 years down the road.

Yeah, they planned for the jumbotron to cover the eyesore and the eyesores roof.

[BuckyIsAB****]

Yeah Im not with ya on this one Gun.

I dont think anybody pays attention or gives a shit.

[mstatefan91]

Yeah the Southern Miss game a couple years ago, I slipped on the West side and knocked myself out on the pavement for a bit. Dislocated my shoulder, slight tear of my Labrum. Yeah, the west side is safer?
In all fairness, they textured and repainted the west side ramps that week between games. Still doesn't help my shoulder though.

The truth is we need a new M-Club Building and we also need to do something about the ramps. The ramps are WAY too steep on the West side to be ADA approved- no question in my mind. The issue is that the structure was built in the 1930's I believe way before ADA.

Now that said, I agree with Shotgun that the M-Club building needs to go/be enclosed with premium seating. My parents are M-Club members and as I have shared before it is so bad that my parents will not go to games anymore. There is nowhere for them to sit unless you drag a chair in front of the window and hope you get there before some former MSU o-linemen or basketball player gets there first. And sitting up there is weird- it's like a vacuum. You can see the people cheering but there is no sound except for when the cannon is fired after a MSU score. And even that is muted quite a bit. Our former athletes deserve a better place to watch the game.

And I think that will happen in the next few years probably.

Not sure if you guys mean East or West in your posts. The East side ramps are 10 times as big/steep as the West side ramps

[Goldendawg]

Ticket sales are dropping at most schools. It's gotten too expensive for people to go to games. We've probably hit the wall of expansion for awhile.

The change in the tax code really hurts also, not getting to count off Bulldog Club contributions. BTW, I read that UM season ticket FB sales on really down ( offering seats next to those already bought, but unsold for 1/2 price for the tickets and 1/2 off the seating contribution to purchase). This was discussed in a NaFoom thread. We too, offer the discounted 3 and 4 game packages. Most all games being televised doesn't help. I think many schools are showing a decline in attendance.

[jacksondawg]

If it were me, I would do the following.

Continue the bottom seating bowl across the endzone adding around 2000 seats. I would make a premium seating area similar to the gridiron club in that area down low.
I would add a party deck area that the M-Club opens into on the upper level on both sides including the junction side.
I would incorporate a large cowbell into the design so big pocket donors and prime recruits can ring the bell 2 hours and 1 hour before the game, letting everyone in the junction know its time to get into the game.
Upper levels to include the new M-Club banquet areas and premium seating decks and boxes.

Re-design the jumbotron into the design above the new building.
Redesign the north jumbotron to match. Big white back looks terrible.

I would take down dorman and relocate those people to a new building in front of the Landscape Architecture building.
Getting really crazy, I would put a new gameday center or something where dorman currently is. With classrooms on the upper floors.
Gameday center to include:
Catering pickup
concessions
restrooms for tailgating
rock climbing wall
large artificial turf area - agility challenge with a large door like a hangar to open up the space.
TV's everywhere for the people that do not have a tailgate
band stage
cornhole competition space

Most importantly, a building with actual appeal to it better than dorman.

I like where your going with game day center but I?ve always thought it would be a cool place for an on campus hotel that had balconies overlooking the junction and a parking garage on the back side.

[DawgFromOxford]

Even better. Lets not let a sub-par, ugly building lessen Davis Wade Stadium in hopes that we will expand the south endzone in time. We may not expand the south end zone for another 10 years. Meanwhile, we've got an eye sore making the university look cheap on TV in front of millions of viewers.

It's a complicated answer because everyone wants to expand the South end zone, but how long are we going to hold off before addressing this?

I realize it doesn't bother some, many people but it's an eye sore on TV. It really isn't a good look for the university

Easy solution. Go to the games and quit watching on tv and you won't notice the eye sore. (Kidding... kinda).
I'm confused though? Your solution is to tear down the M Club, replace it with a nicer looking building, and then tear that building down 7 or 8 years after its built to expand seating in that portion of the stadium? Yeah cause that makes a lot of sense.

Does the M Club look great? No. Does the M Club look like atrocious? Also no.

[RocketDawg]

You must have never been to a game there then.

Yeah, it's pretty bad. I was afraid the place was going to collapse before I had a chance to leave. The structure makes Ole Miss's latest addition look solid.

[RocketDawg]

The M-club doesn't look that bad, it's the awkwardness of the scoreboard in front of it. Some people like it though because it looks like a bulldog sitting.....sort of, if you can really use your imagination. In today's college football, I'm not sure you can justify bowling it in because it's so hard to sell tickets. I think we've only had more than 60K twice since Dak left. It could definitely look better, but it's not awful.

Could bowl it in and put chairbacks everywhere except in the student section. It'd keep about the same capacity and enable some more premium seats to be sold. Plus, it would look good.

Gotta be careful about limiting yourself to no further expansions though ... might need them 25 years down the road, or might not even need what we have now if the concussion thing curtails football.

[RocketDawg]

one sellout....yikes. We had 39 straight sellouts, or something like that. Then expanded and it was spotty, then Dak left and it takes Alabama to sell it out. That doesn't give the admin much reason to spend millions on any more expansion. With TV the way it is now, it's really hard to envision that we'll ever bowl it in - it's just hard to get people to come to games, let alone stay for four quarters.

Somebody mentioned Cohen wants an indoor tennis facility ... and that's something that none of us will ever see, and will only benefit a handful of athletes. Hate to say it, but I don't really care if we have a tennis team or not .... It's certainly not something I can see us spending millions on.

[Lord McBuckethead]

Not sure if you guys mean East or West in your posts. The East side ramps are 10 times as big/steep as the West side ramps

I will have to disagree with the east being "steeper". I have sat on both sides within the past two years, the west side I
Ramps for the lower bowl are shorter, but at a steeper grade.

[Lord McBuckethead]

I like where your going with game day center but I?ve always thought it would be a cool place for an on campus hotel that had balconies overlooking the junction and a parking garage on the back side.

Not a big fan of on campus hotels, but it could be something.
I just know that classroom space is needed right now. Also, Ole Miss is working on a 150 million dollar STEM building. Which is 5X the facility than our new STEM building is going to be. Wish our 30 million dollar new one both looked a little more significant and going where Dorman is currently.

Seems like a no brainier to highlight our engineering school at this new Dorman spot and do it big. 70-90 million.

[RocketDawg]

The only thing that disappointed me in that structure was they sort of goofed by not building it further towards the junction by about a 100 feet. The last two sections on each side of the southern end of the stadium cannot see the board and the sections next to them have to strain their neck to see it.....and the answer was to build another jumbotron on the north end of the stadium. So we spent around 15 million (from what I hear) to build that gigantic south end jumbotron. Now we are going to tear it down....hmmm.....we must be flush with dough. There's a unique concept in most really good engineering schools and in good engineering itself. It's called planning. Sometimes I wonder if we teach our grads about planning and the costs of poor or no planning for at least 20 years down the road.

That's true, it could have been set back a bit. And it's going to be in the way if we ever do bowl in the south. But the big one in the south endzone is the one I find myself looking at all the time. To me, the picture quality is much better, and the one on the north end is a bit too small to see well from my lousy club level seat on the south goal line. Even if I have to strain a little to see it, I like it better.

[Goldendawg]

Are we still going to have the "trolley cars" in front of the M Club building this year or did they go the way of the cabanas? Two seating answers that I wasn't too sure of whom asked the questions.**

[RocketDawg]

Not at all. I think it's ridiculous to argue that the East side concourse is unsafe.

If I actually thought there was anything unsafe about it, I would completely agree it should be the number 1 priority

Just curious ... where are you season tickets located? East or west?

[RocketDawg]

Yeah the Southern Miss game a couple years ago, I slipped on the West side and knocked myself out on the pavement for a bit. Dislocated my shoulder, slight tear of my Labrum. Yeah, the west side is safer?
In all fairness, they textured and repainted the west side ramps that week between games. Still doesn't help my shoulder though.

Just imagine how it was before they installed handrails, in Davis Wade and in the Hump. It was impossible for an older person to navigate.

[Lord McBuckethead]

There is nothing unsafe about the ramps on either side of the stadium. True, they do not meet ADA requriements. Some things in this world just do not meet the ADA requirements. Not to mention, those ramps are not required to meet ADA.

[Johnson85]

The change in the tax code really hurts also, not getting to count off Bulldog Club contributions. BTW, I read that UM season ticket FB sales on really down ( offering seats next to those already bought, but unsold for 1/2 price for the tickets and 1/2 off the seating contribution to purchase). This was discussed in a NaFoom thread. We too, offer the discounted 3 and 4 game packages. Most all games being televised doesn't help. I think many schools are showing a decline in attendance.

Our discount ticket package is a great deal. I figured we must have a lot of capacity to offer a deal like that.

[Outsider]

Is there some reason why they didn't put the scoreboard on top of the building instead of in front of it? I just think that they could have engineered it to incorporate the legs into the building.

[ScoobaDawg]

Is there some reason why they didn't put the scoreboard on top of the building instead of in front of it? I just think that they could have engineered it to incorporate the legs into the building.

$$$ you would have had to re-engineer basically the whole building to have that thing sitting on top.. Might as well tear the whole thing down and start over at that point

[Outsider]

Granted, I am not an engineer, but simply building the supports into the walls does not seem to be a huge engineering feat. Even if it was on the outer walls, just not in front. That's my only complaint. One thing is for sure, the outside part of the building and the back of the scoreboard are very impressive and looks great on TV.