Gies Memorial Stadium

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#152      
Zweebs
Just seems like a waste when there's so much to fix with the stadium.
 
#154      
Fighter of the Nightman
illini0440 said:
This right here is the epitome of the board lol
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I think it's totally fair for fans to be frustrated if they feel that the DIA seems to not really view the Horseshoe as a problem to be solved. Memorial Stadium is absolutely beautiful and we proved to actually be capable of an awesome home field atmosphere a couple times last year and this year ... many fans like myself want so badly to take that next step and be spoken of in the same breath as the Kinnick Stadiums of the world. And while some might see it as overly dramatic, I don't think that is ever happening while the Horseshoe stands as is. Having an entire end of the stadium taken up by gradually sloping stands that are almost comically far from the field and that just look so much less cool than the rest of the stadium is an eyesore to be fixed, not something to shrug off.

With all of that said, I am excited about the video board! And I am also in no way assuming that a renovation of the SEZ is not on Josh's radar. I frankly think he is too competent to not think about that topic. In the meantime, there is nothing wrong with less "transformative" improvements like this! So, I guess I agree that it is kind of unreasonable to complain about a literally awesome new videoboard simply because we didn't get everything we would ever want in one announcement! :ROFLMAO:

P.S. Shifting gears here ... I'm sorry, but there is no actually good excuse for the long-term plan to be to keep the SEZ stands that far from the end zone. Practice space?? Good Lord, I am sure that is indeed a short-term logistical argument for not, let's say, putting temporary bleachers that bring the stands down to field level ... but that is some small-time thinking if we ever let that temporary convenience get in the way of a proper renovation of our stadium.
 
#155      
Mr. Tibbs
thefalcon5 said:
Honestly, not saying it isn’t valid to be at least disappointed all we’re getting is a giant scoreboard, but I do get why this isn’t some massively exciting news to some.

I’m going to be indifferent about it, and just be happy this regime is willing to put the money into upgrading the stadium, even if some want massive changes I’m glad they aren’t just squirreling away funds.
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you gotta start somewhere

jmo, until we have 3+ years of sellouts , don’t expect a lot of dialogue about major re-construction of the SEZ & East side .

i’m confident it’s in the long term agenda
 
#156      
illini0440
Fighter of the Nightman said:
I think it's totally fair for fans to be frustrated if they feel that the DIA seems to not really view the Horseshoe as a problem to be solved. Memorial Stadium is absolutely beautiful and we proved to actually be capable of an awesome home field atmosphere a couple times last year and this year ... many fans like myself want so badly to take that next step and be spoken of in the same breath as the Kinnick Stadiums of the world. And while some might see it as overly dramatic, I don't think that is ever happening while the Horseshoe stands as is. Having an entire end of the stadium taken up by gradually sloping stands that are almost comically far from the field and that just look so much less cool than the rest of the stadium is an eyesore to be fixed, not something to shrug off.

With all of that said, I am excited about the video board! And I am also in no way assuming that a renovation of the SEZ is not on Josh's radar. I frankly think he is too competent to not think about that topic. In the meantime, there is nothing wrong with less "transformative" improvements like this! So, I guess I agree that it is kind of unreasonable to complain about a literally awesome new videoboard simply because we didn't get everything we would ever want in one announcement! :ROFLMAO:

P.S. Shifting gears here ... I'm sorry, but there is no actually good excuse for the long-term plan to be to keep the SEZ stands that far from the end zone. Practice space?? Good Lord, I am sure that is indeed a short-term logistical argument for not, let's say, putting temporary bleachers that bring the stands down to field level ... but that is some small-time thinking if we ever let that temporary convenience get in the way of a proper renovation of our stadium.
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Would the DIA love to do something with the horseshoe.....absolutely but do you know how expensive that is? Got any more 100 million dollar checks laying around? Not to mention the time it would take to re do it. This is a great start that costs 5-7 million to do. They will also continue to upgrade the stadium in other ways.
 
#157      
ChiefGritty
Fighter of the Nightman said:
Practice space?? Good Lord, I am sure that is indeed a short-term logistical argument for not, let's say, putting temporary bleachers that bring the stands down to field level ... but that is some small-time thinking if we ever let that temporary convenience get in the way of a proper renovation of our stadium.
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Would you look Bret Bielema in the face and tell him you're taking functional space he says he needs to prepare his team away from him?

The temporary bleachers thing could be retractable and removable though, surely SOMETHING is possible.

illini0440 said:
This is a great start that costs 5-7 million to do.
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I was going to say, much like 60 inch flat screen HDTV's cost shockingly little these days, I bet this costs less than we might think.
 
#158      
Chiieeff
I already have a habit of turning around in my horseshoe seats to watch the video board, especially during replays... Think it might be time for me to pursue season ticket seats either on the East or West sides to take advantage of this humongous video board. I really wish they would have prioritized improving the horseshoe, but the larger video board will be nice.
 
#160      
fuddrules
Chiieeff said:
I already have a habit of turning around in my horseshoe seats to watch the video board, especially during replays... Think it might be time for me to pursue season ticket seats either on the East or West sides to take advantage of this humongous video board. I really wish they would have prioritized improving the horseshoe, but the larger video board will be nice.
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Better think quick on where you're going to sit. :) This may put more pressure on tickets outside the SEZ and reduce demand in SEZ??

Per Illinois email: Season ticket renewals for the 2026 season will begin on Tuesday, January 20. More information will be shared in the coming days.
 
#161      
Pikeillinifan
illini0440 said:
Would the DIA love to do something with the horseshoe.....absolutely but do you know how expensive that is? Got any more 100 million dollar checks laying around? Not to mention the time it would take to re do it. This is a great start that costs 5-7 million to do. They will also continue to upgrade the stadium in other ways.
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Seriously, we're talking at least three more $100M donations to fix it, it's not a $100M project.
 
#162      
Fighter of the Nightman
illini0440 said:
Would the DIA love to do something with the horseshoe.....absolutely but do you know how expensive that is? Got any more 100 million dollar checks laying around? Not to mention the time it would take to re do it. This is a great start that costs 5-7 million to do. They will also continue to upgrade the stadium in other ways.
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Fair enough, but I think based on the wording after the announcement of the Gies gift, a lot of fans developed the pretty darn reasonable expectation (again, based on the wording of the announcement) that part of the $100 million would go toward a "stadium renovation." Given that the east/west sides of our stadium look Blue Blood-level quality, the north side looks like about a B+ and the south side looks like we stole it from a semi-decent MAC field ... I think a lot of us reasonably assumed a renovation of the SEZ would at least be on the medium-term horizon. :cool:

ChiefGritty said:
Would you look Bret Bielema in the face and tell him you're taking functional space he says he needs to prepare his team away from him?

The temporary bleachers thing could be retractable and removable though, surely SOMETHING is possible.
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Hell, if I had the chance to talk to Coach Bielema, I wouldn't use that opportunity to talk about anything more than thanking him for the once-unthinkable hope he's given many long-suffering Illini fans because of what an incredible job he has done here. But if he said, "Thanks man, want to go grab a beer and shoot the $hIt?" I would absolutely ask him if there wasn't some other way we could move whatever the hell we are doing in the dead Horseshoe space to some other similarly sized space anywhere in Champaign-Urbana, and I would certainly bring up that clearly 90%+ of programs don't feel the need to have this massive, empty patch of grass between the end zone and the first row of seats. :ROFLMAO:

While I would prefer to have a proper SEZ renovation, the minimum expectation for that area if indeed it is determined to need to stay as is for the foreseeable future should be temporary bleachers to fill the space in on gameday and create a better home field advantage. If we could do it in past decades, I am quite positive Josh and Co. can figure it out now, especially with the demand for tickets to the point where we get multiple sellouts per year! And JMO and all, but I personally think even that small improvement actually makes a very noticeable and positive difference.

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Pikeillinifan said:
Seriously, we're talking at least three more $100M donations to fix it, it's not a $100M project.
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That's sort of the point of frustration, though. The only options for the Horseshoe should not be (A) do absolutely nothing to improve its setup or (B) secure the funds for a $400 million A++ renovation. If a "big" renovation isn't in the cards for the next decade, fine! We can accept that the structure is here to stay. At least fill in the seats down to field level and think about adding more seats at the top on either side of the scoreboard. The exterior looks awful anyway, until it's redone at least we can have taller stands that trap more noise.
 
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#164      
fuddrules
Pikeillinifan said:
Seriously, we're talking at least three more $100M donations to fix it, it's not a $100M project.
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Rarely is a capital improvement project of that magnitude 80%+ funded by upfront pledged donations.

At some point when it gets done there will be quite a bit of long term financing involved. It won't take that much in donations.

What Illinois needs right now and I believe what they're doing is waiting. Waiting to pay off loans they have and hoping for interest rates to drop. I read somewhere where that in 2029 they'll have a chuck of their debt paid off.
 
#165      
Fuze
People forget that this has been planned for years. This was probably happening with or without the $100mil from Gies. I get wanting more done to the SEZ, but that takes a lot more time and money than this is costing us. And despite some claims in here and on twitter, this doesn't prevent those changes from happening. Just about every major renovation at other schools in the last 10-15 years involved moving the existing scoreboard to a new location. This is obviously understood to an extent, since a few weeks ago, people in here were suggesting putting the old board in the NEZ.

I get having some level of frustration because we want more, but that wasn't going to happen right away. What I don't get are the people who seem genuinely upset over this. This doesn't write anything off, and I highly doubt it pushes anything more substantial back. A more substantial renovation has the same timeline, with or without us replacing our old scoreboard.

The $25-30mil that Whitman quoted a couple of years ago for the new scoreboard, lights, and sound system in the media roundtable was not going to make a difference in how soon any SEZ renovation would come.
 
#168      
redwingillini11
illini0440 said:
Would the DIA love to do something with the horseshoe.....absolutely but do you know how expensive that is? Got any more 100 million dollar checks laying around? Not to mention the time it would take to re do it. This is a great start that costs 5-7 million to do. They will also continue to upgrade the stadium in other ways.
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I can appreciate that. Certainly, if this "only" costs $5-7M, and other upgrades to sound, wifi, etc. are coming, then this does make some good sense.

I guess my only remaining question is that if this is such a no-brainer, why aren't other schools putting up 10,000+ sq ft video boards? I imagine the answer is that we are re-setting the standard, and others will soon follow suit.

Regardless, it's all fine. And I will certainly use it for bragging rights over other B1G schools whether I would have made the decision to do this or not.
 
#169      
ChiefGritty
redwingillini11 said:
I guess my only remaining question is that if this is such a no-brainer, why aren't other schools putting up 10,000+ sq ft video boards?
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Well, part of the consequence of our dinky little SEZ is that not many other venues have a place to put a board of that size that virtually the entire stadium has a good sight line towards.
 
#170      
Pikeillinifan
fuddrules said:
Rarely is a capital improvement project of that magnitude 80%+ funded by upfront pledged donations.

At some point when it gets done there will be quite a bit of long term financing involved. It won't take that much in donations.

What Illinois needs right now and I believe what they're doing is waiting. Waiting to pay off loans they have and hoping for interest rates to drop. I read somewhere where that in 2029 they'll have a chuck of their debt paid off.
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That is helpful to know. I was wondering where we were on paying off the $300M in debt we have, knowing it has to be a barrier to doing a massive project on Geis Memorial.

But I always thought we needed to have a large portion of the funds committed, meaning if we were to spend $400M on the stadium, we'd have commitments for the majority, knowing they would come over X amount of years, and we would borrow that amount up front, then use the donations over the years to repay the loans.

Regardless, great things are happening; it's an exciting time for Illini sports.
 
#171      
Pikeillinifan
Regarding the size of the new video board, for at least a year, every home game we have, the nation will hear how we have the largest board in college football, and the fifth largest, including the NFL. It's a great addition and will be a great talking point for the stadium.
 
#172      
IlliniInBuckeyeState
Dan said:
fightingillini.com

Illinois, Daktronics Install Largest Video Display in College Football - University of Illinois Athletics

16 LED displays added to Gies Memorial Stadium ahead of 2026 season.
fightingillini.com fightingillini.com
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Within the press release, there are details about the other boards. A "super ribbon" to go above the student section in the north endzone that will measure 12.5 ft by 180 feet. That is approximately 3x the height of our current ribbon boards, and pretty much confirms that it will be used primarily as a scoreboard with some ads and messaging for fans (i.e. not videos).
 
#174      
Illiniguy74
Another excellent FotN sermon. Now, please rise and open your hymnals to page 77.

"Praise God from Whom all blessings flow
Deliver us from the South end zone here below.
Praise Him above, you heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Galloping Ghost"
 
#175      
Illiniguy74
I've often wondered if some sort of nice looking, closed in superstructure could be built on top of the south end zone to produce the desired effect. It would remain until such time as the permanent design is finalized and the required funds are secured in one form or another. As for securing the funds, I'd like to see a "rallying cry" world wide Stadium funding drive much like what was done in the1920s. I'd certainly pony up as much as I could afford.
 
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