Coughlin Alumni Stadium

[JACKGUY]

Has anyone had discussions with the SDSU Brass about what the Master Plan for Coughlin looks like. As the first Hobo Day since the D1 announcement was made approaches and all the alumni that will be in Brookins it would be nice to see some renderings and descriptions of what the adminsitration is envisioning as the future look of the Football Complex! It might encourage some people to write out a check. Too bad we can't convince Denny Sanford the Chairman of First Premier out of Sioux Falls to send the 35 million he has pledged to a new Univ. of Minnesota football stadium to SDSU. 35 Million would make a nice looking for Sanford Stadium!

[Texas_Jacks_Fan]

Re: Coughlin Alumni Stadium

Jackguy,
I spoke to Keith Mahlum, and Dr. Oien a couple weeks ago about Coughlin. What I was able to surmise was that we arent going to be seeing major changes at Coughlin until the attendence warrants it. although there is some cosmetic plans in place and it sounds like there are going to be new locker rooms on the south end zone for both home and visitors. Back to the attendence point, Its kind of a chicken or the egg senario, I think if we build they will come. I think our administrations point is that when Coughlin cant contain the masses anymore then we will see the new stadium. I think this a little disapointing, I understand it, but still disapointing. We draw great when we have a decent team on the field. Have you noticed our attendence this year? These are estimates... but close...
NWMO ST. 8900
UND 7600
Minnesota St. 5500
The weather was great for all of these games, so that wasnt a factor, IMO what it shows is as our record worsened (and the memory of the und meltdown), people started awaiting basketball season again (this has become all too familiar at SDSU). We will eventually get the new stadium, I think if we can put a competitive team in 1AA we should out draw Coughlins capacity in a hurry. I think one thing is clear. and this isnt a knock on anyone, SDSU is moving up to D1 because of basketball-There are many improvements planned at Frost, which will make a very good arena at the D1 level a great arena. The football program is going to be phasing in scholarships at a rate of 8-10 a year. and I think we will see fan interest increase when people see the excitement that D1 will bring,and attendence will grow to the point where we outgrow Coughlin.

[JACKGUY]

Re: Coughlin Alumni Stadium

Texas Jack Fan,

I agree with you as I would like to see drastic changes to Coughlin sooner than later. I understand we
can't do everything all at once, but I think we need to enhance the image of our football program and playing in a facility that looks and feels like a DII program is not where we need to be. The atmosphere/sounds and natural setting at Coughlin areoutstanding and Iwouldn't trade it for a domed stadium. In addition to the lockerooms it would be nice to see another grandstand with suites and club level seats. New replay scoreboards should also be a priority. I think we have the potential with a good team and opponent to average 13,000-15,000 people. I also feel that the fans were so ready to get back behind this team and than we had the letdown with UND. I enjoy the Football program but like many jack fans the basketball program is my first love and agree this is the real reason we are moving to DI. I was dissapointed they decided to delay the addition of more permanent seats at Frost. Sounds like it will be back on the agenda for next year.

[Texas_Jacks_Fan]

Re: Coughlin Alumni Stadium

I forgot one thing from the previous post, It sound like we will have some pretty outstanding new video boards at both Coughlin and Frost next year.

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Coughlin Alumni Stadium

I am not very surprised by the answer that Texas Jack got, but the new video boards are new to me and welcome news. I was surprised with the Mankato attendence reaching 5000. One reason may have been that the Shriners sponsored the game. Many local business people bought tickets as give aways and maybe we had people at that game that would not ordinarily attend. In the past, the attendence drops off with pheasant hunting, but having an evening game may have helped in getting the hunters to show up.

I expect the attendence to drop off especially if we get some winter weather. If the weather is nice, it will help.

[JACKGUY]

Re: Coughlin Alumni Stadium

I would just assume we played all our games at night as the good weather in Sept motivates some people to other outdoor activities and then we run into hunting in October. I think the night games have a big impact on enhancing attendence!

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Coughlin Alumni Stadium

In this years media guide, the new dressing room and football office complex is mentioned.  I suspect they will add on to the current dressing room and build either east or west. If they go east, those trees will be gone, and not sure if that is a huge loss.  At least this is one thing that will improve our facilities and may win a few more games for us. Having the oppenent walk back to Frost at half time allows the oppenent coaches to re-think their strategy and make good adjustments.  Sometimes this happens like the UND game as a for instance.

I know its old news, but I understand there was a flagrant holding call on the the extra point play that the refs missed in which UND won 25-24.  I did not see this particular hold, but there were others that were never called. UND got a way with murder on hold calls.

One of the fans sitting by me at the game this past week, mentioned that he had seen Dr. Oien talking to Collin Capitan, commisioner of Officals in the NCC, in a most angry fashion after the UND game about this call.  Also I had heard that the game tapes were going to be sent to the NCAA since apparently no sympathy was given by Marcil, the NCC commish on missing this call.  Since this is our last year in the NCC, we may get the shaft on calls and it seems almost pointless to complain.

No matter what we do, we wont get much sympathy from anyone in the NCC and the NCAA probably will do nothing.  The game ending play will stand forever.

[Charger13]

Re: Coughlin Alumni Stadium

Night games are great if the weather is nice, but last year there was a game or two were it was too cold for a night game and that hurt the attendance.

I think the athletic department should focus on the wellness center and an indoor practice facility before Coughlin. The indoor facility would help a lot of the athletic programs. I know that the soccer, baseball and softball teams all do indoor practice in the Barn, on hard wood floors. A wellness center with a indoor facility connected would fit nicely on the practice field just east Coghlin. Then assuming football attendance goes up, I say build new stands on the east side. I would like to do all the projects immediately, but the reality is that the money isn't there, so they're going to need to prioritize. There is no use building new stands to have the old ones sit mostly empty. I think having strong support buildings would help the recruiting and the performance of the teams more than a larger stadium. I think as soon as we average around 10,000 we should build the east side. I believe the west side only holds between 6,000-7,000, so if we are averaging 10,000 they could definately justify adding seats.

That's great news about the video boards though. I also heard they are building a new entrance to Frost on one of the south corners.