Old scoreboard

[ECBobcat]

TomCat’s pictures of the north and south ends of the west-side seating are interesting. Anyone have an idea what’s going on?

[Joe Bobcat]

It is interesting why they would cut out those shapes that look like they're from the video game tetris. Tom if you saw that and didn't go up for a close inspection of what can be seen behind those openings you need to increase and improve your curiosity and investigative skills.

My ridiculously wild guess is that they opened that up to look for any and all loose change that has somehow fallen down there. Impossible but that Leon will not rest till he's searched everywhere for the last penny needed to complete whatever project he's currently working on.

[bobcatozzy]

The spaces they cut out there is rebar on the inside of those areas. Maybe they we checking to make sure they were solid.

[TomCat88]

It is interesting why they would cut out those shapes that look like they're from the video game tetris. Tom if you saw that and didn't go up for a close inspection of what can be seen behind those openings you need to increase and improve your curiosity and investigative skills.

My ridiculously wild guess is that they opened that up to look for any and all loose change that has somehow fallen down there. Impossible but that Leon will not rest till he's searched everywhere for the last penny needed to complete whatever project he's currently working on.

I was afraid to. Too many episodes of Scooby-Doo, I guess.

[TomCat88]

The spaces they cut out there is rebar on the inside of those areas. Maybe they we checking to make sure they were solid.

It's seems strange for sure. I've seen it done or heard of it. Coupling it with the fact that there's lots of space on both ends had me wondering if they were going to extend out from there. They could go out about 15' from the south end and quite a bit more than that from the north end, actually all the way around to the east grandstand.

[Joe Bobcat]

It is interesting why they would cut out those shapes that look like they're from the video game tetris. Tom if you saw that and didn't go up for a close inspection of what can be seen behind those openings you need to increase and improve your curiosity and investigative skills.

My ridiculously wild guess is that they opened that up to look for any and all loose change that has somehow fallen down there. Impossible but that Leon will not rest till he's searched everywhere for the last penny needed to complete whatever project he's currently working on.

I was afraid to. Too many episodes of Scooby-Doo, I guess.

That's a legitimate reason I had not considered.

[Mtcatfan]

The goal posts look a little short, though.

[CatBot]

The goal posts look a little short, though.

They match the play clock. It's a thing I guess according to the illustrious BN posters around here.

[AFCAT]

I took this photo last year from inside one of the coaches offices/team rooms. They still have a nice view even with the scoreboard in place. The bottom of the new scoreboard is even slightly higher than the old board was.

[St George]

The spaces they cut out there is rebar on the inside of those areas. Maybe they we checking to make sure they were solid.

They cut those holes to install seat warmers under the seats on the west side. Kidding, I am just blowing hot air up your butt.

[TomCat88]

It is interesting why they would cut out those shapes that look like they're from the video game tetris. Tom if you saw that and didn't go up for a close inspection of what can be seen behind those openings you need to increase and improve your curiosity and investigative skills.

My ridiculously wild guess is that they opened that up to look for any and all loose change that has somehow fallen down there. Impossible but that Leon will not rest till he's searched everywhere for the last penny needed to complete whatever project he's currently working on.

I was afraid to. Too many episodes of Scooby-Doo, I guess.

That's a legitimate reason I had not considered.

I must add that MSU is being very secretive about this. I’m thinking there is something along the lines of crop circles, cattle mutilation or alien abduction going on. Mister we could use a man like Robert Stack again!

[lutecat]

It is interesting why they would cut out those shapes that look like they're from the video game tetris. Tom if you saw that and didn't go up for a close inspection of what can be seen behind those openings you need to increase and improve your curiosity and investigative skills.

My ridiculously wild guess is that they opened that up to look for any and all loose change that has somehow fallen down there. Impossible but that Leon will not rest till he's searched everywhere for the last penny needed to complete whatever project he's currently working on.

I was afraid to. Too many episodes of Scooby-Doo, I guess.

That's a legitimate reason I had not considered.

I must add that MSU is being very secretive about this. I’m thinking there is something along the lines of crop circles, cattle mutilation or alien abduction going on. Mister we could use a man like Robert Stack again!

They did have that side closed off during the spring game. And all sorts of fence up to keep people out. I tried to go in on that side and the lady said it was closed off because they were storing equipment for the scoreboard there. But that didn't make a ton of sense to me. It's not really convenient to get things in and out of those tight areas. The east side would make more sense. I smell a cover up!

[Hi-Line Bobcat]

For all you engineering guys, is it possible to support an already existing structure, like our stands that are already there? Can they put additional supporting beams underneath it, or would it have to be a total demo? Watching a thing about our bridge infrastructure got me thinking, on how they actually fix things like bridges, stands, etc. without demoing them and starting over.

[Montanabob]

It is interesting why they would cut out those shapes that look like they're from the video game tetris. Tom if you saw that and didn't go up for a close inspection of what can be seen behind those openings you need to increase and improve your curiosity and investigative skills.

My ridiculously wild guess is that they opened that up to look for any and all loose change that has somehow fallen down there. Impossible but that Leon will not rest till he's searched everywhere for the last penny needed to complete whatever project he's currently working on.

I was afraid to. Too many episodes of Scooby-Doo, I guess.

That's a legitimate reason I had not considered.

I must add that MSU is being very secretive about this. I’m thinking there is something along the lines of crop circles, cattle mutilation or alien abduction going on. Mister we could use a man like Robert Stack again!

They did have that side closed off during the spring game. And all sorts of fence up to keep people out. I tried to go in on that side and the lady said it was closed off because they were storing equipment for the scoreboard there. But that didn't make a ton of sense to me. It's not really convenient to get things in and out of those tight areas. The east side would make more sense. I smell a cover up!

heard it from a contractor for the indoor practice facility that they are putting in a tunnel walkway underground from the BAC to IPF and the area where they were cutting concrete is the BAC entrance to the tunnel.

[snarf]

It is interesting why they would cut out those shapes that look like they're from the video game tetris. Tom if you saw that and didn't go up for a close inspection of what can be seen behind those openings you need to increase and improve your curiosity and investigative skills.

My ridiculously wild guess is that they opened that up to look for any and all loose change that has somehow fallen down there. Impossible but that Leon will not rest till he's searched everywhere for the last penny needed to complete whatever project he's currently working on.

I was afraid to. Too many episodes of Scooby-Doo, I guess.

That's a legitimate reason I had not considered.

I must add that MSU is being very secretive about this. I’m thinking there is something along the lines of crop circles, cattle mutilation or alien abduction going on. Mister we could use a man like Robert Stack again!

They did have that side closed off during the spring game. And all sorts of fence up to keep people out. I tried to go in on that side and the lady said it was closed off because they were storing equipment for the scoreboard there. But that didn't make a ton of sense to me. It's not really convenient to get things in and out of those tight areas. The east side would make more sense. I smell a cover up!

Looks like this would all be under project 22-0514 Stadium West Side Improvements Phase 2. Looks primarily like stair retreading and PM on the structure.

https://www.montana.edu/pdc/projects/bids.html

[MTmadeCat]

2) I don’t know that MSU was ever planning for those windows to be permanent viewing for games. I don’t even know what’s on the other side of those windows.

Behind most of those windows are the coaches' offices, so definitely not intended as a viewing area during games. The coaches' viewshed of the mountains may have been diminished with the new scoreboard, but somehow I doubt they'll mind too much. Vigen still has a great view since he's in the corner office that isn't blocked.

That’s what I was guessing. Yes, in that case, there’s nothing lost since the coaches aren’t kicking their feet up on their desks and smoking cigars whilst taking in the view.

Getting back to the space in that EZ, by my eye there’s a good deal of room there and depending on what they do there’s room for close to ten rows of seating and in the neighborhood of 2,000 seats.

The view from the offices is still pretty good. I’ve been in those offices a bunch of times, but not with the new board installed.
The seating in the endzone will be tricky. If the Cats go with an elevated seating area, with luxury boxes underneath like the Husky’s have, then I don’t see much available seating there. The angle to the windows will be real shallow with elevated seating and the scoreboard pilings will cause really poor viewing angles, if seats are put behind them. I can’t visualize more than a couple of rows in that area right up to the pilings with a nice flat plaza area to the windows for standing behind the rows. The corners of the endzone and will provide the best opportunity for more seating. The new East grandstands won’t provide much new seating itself, just better seating angles than we have now with more luxury boxes possible above. I wouldn’t put much stock in that seven year old facilities plan other than a general idea of what they wanted to do back when it was made.

I guess “I don’t see too well” but after looking at the space in the SEZ yesterday and then the NEZ, I came to my conclusion. I could be way off though.

From pacing and eyeballing just now, there’s about 50’ in depth to work with. There’s room for about ten rows in height.

For some reason they’ve cut holes on each end of west grandstand that line up with the seating rows. This goes up about tens rows on each end. Anyone know what that is for? It looks like something that you’d do if you were extending the grandstand a few columns on each end. ???

I am absolutely no engineer or stadium seating architect at all, so my opinion is just a fans opinion. I'm trying to find a photo I did of a mock up seating area in the North end zone, overlaid with the Sonny Holland end zone seating area but it's on an external hard drive that I can't access at this time. If the Cats just decided to put a Sonny Holland Student section-like area in the North end zone, it would work okay. If you follow the open walkway area around the stadium, a future walkway expansion would end up directly underneath the windows of the BAC, with a student section like area fitting in nicely underneath to the field. Now, if the Cats decide to raise the stands up for a UW-like party area underneath the end zone stands, then they would need to raise the North end zone area probably eight to ten feet high, which is much higher that the South end zone seating area. Starting from that raised point back to below the windows limits how many rows they can put in. They are also limited by the scoreboard pilings because you don't want to have obstructed seating behind the pilings where fans can't see wide areas of the end zones or field. The location of the scoreboard pilings hurts the Cats for seating in that area. I may be completely wrong but with an amateurs eye, it seems to me like the Cats are really limited to in what they can do there.

It is a limited area. They have about 30’ in depth to work with from flush with the scoreboard forward to the dashed line in the EZ. If each row is allotted 3’, that’s 10 rows. If they add a walkway it drops to about 7 rows. About 200 seats per row. Ups the seating capacity to over 19,007. The UW thing would probably knock out two rows. Still 1,000+ seats.

If, and it’s a big IF, they’re also adding seats to the ends of the west grandstand, then it starts pushing 20,007. That’d be a nice number to get to.

3-5 rows is about max in what I'd expect to see if they don't want to limit the sight lines. The UW-like party area and the scoreboard hurts them for seating but the party area probably makes up for the money they would lose with more seating anyway.

Maybe they could do a double decker party area. The bottom one is the worst sight lines but it's indoors and climate controlled. The upper one is just an elevated version of what they're already doing. That's better sightlines than the current one and would be a fun way to watch a game.

This is what I was thinking as well. Could be a cool idea to fit in two tall corner bleacher sections on the North side (think of the wings of the bowl on each side of the SEZ). And then leave the front of the BAC for two party decks/standing room areas. Maybe repurpose the “old” video board on top of the Sonny Holland Zone (or invest in one slightly larger) so new seating on the North side of the stadium has a view too.

[coachouert]

Not directly scoreboard related, but the Kagy fence has come down on the eastside stadium lot and they already have a crew on the westside stadium lot working on paving.

Lifts were working on the scoreboard. Once something goes up on the sides and back, I'll take some more pictures. Not much new to see right now.

[AFCAT]

Yeah, I see that they aren't messing around. looks like the East lot is already being graded. Gotta move fast since football season is just around the corner.

[PHAT CAT]

Knife River has their Roto-Mill in there taking out the old asphalt. Putting in storm drain will be next. Sime busy cleaning up the back end of where the IDPF will be.

[TomCat88]

Knife River has their Roto-Mill in there taking out the old asphalt. Putting in storm drain will be next. Sime busy cleaning up the back end of where the IDPF will be.

Not sure when I'll be down to Bozeman again, so it'd be interesting to see a picture of the IPF site now. There were a lot of "portable" structures (ticket booths, concession booths, etc.) back there that I'd assume need to be moved. Wondering if those are still in there.