The Bobcat Nation

i'm sure most of you have heard what stanford is doing with their stadium. within hours after the notre dame game last saturday night, bulldozers began razing the huge but antiquated wooden structure, and in two weeks it will be completely gone. construction will then begin immediately on a new more intimate 50,000 seat stadium built on the oregon (autzen) model, and this new stadium (sans running track) will be finished in time for play in 2006. incredible undertaking, with great planning and a ton of money behind it.

but the thought struck me today, why don't you guys start thinking along the same lines? sure, it'd take incredible sums of money, even to build a stadium on a smaller scale, but the audacity of it all might just be what it takes to get your alums to dig down deep in their pockets. it'd be the talk of montana, and it would very quickly and very literally "level the playing field" with the griz. after all, the condition of the field for the griz game was as much an embarrasment for you as your victory was a triumph, and don't think recruits don't notice such things.

i've even come up with a slogan for you--"build it and they will come!"

i'm absolutely serious about this.

I know you say you are serious, but surely you are kidding. First off, this doesn't even belong in the category of "pipe dream," as it is WAY beyond that. Second, we don't NEED to raze our stadium. The alumni side is way nicer than anything at Washington-Read, and it won't be too long before the rest of the stadium is brought up to par. Plans are in the works, and it won't be long before the capital campaign is announced. Third, and I hope this doesn't come as a shock to anyone, the amount of money Stanford can raise with its alumni is just slightly more than MSU can raise.

For the record, I don't see what the big deal is about the condition of the natural grass field during the Cat-friz game. Big deal, that is what happens to a grass field in Montana in winter. Just because the griz can't play football worth a damn on anything other than canned artificial turf doesn't mean the rest of us have to bow to them (shocker, I know). The grass field wasn't an embarrassment to MSU, and in fact I am damn proud of the great field we have and the crew who work so hard to keep it in such great shape. I thought it was a credit to these folks to see how well the field stood up under the weather conditions, as a matter of fact. It certainly looked much better at the end of the game than the old griz field did after many a late November/December football game. That field at Wash-Read has turned the griz into a bunch of spoiled, weak little pussies on the football field. I like my football the way real men play, outside and on real grass.

BozoneCat wrote:I know you say you are serious, but surely you are kidding. First off, this doesn't even belong in the category of "pipe dream," as it is WAY beyond that. Second, we don't NEED to raze our stadium. The alumni side is way nicer than anything at Washington-Read, and it won't be too long before the rest of the stadium is brought up to par. Plans are in the works, and it won't be long before the capital campaign is announced. Third, and I hope this doesn't come as a shock to anyone, the amount of money Stanford can raise with its alumni is just slightly more than MSU can raise.

No WAY!!

I completley support the idea of adding on to the stadium. However, I am a realist. While the east endzone should be bowled in before someone falls off those rickety bleachers and files a lawsuit; it's gonna take more than a year of selling out the stadium to get the adminstration to expand. They simply haven't the money.

Unfortunatley, the football team is still paying off the last stadium expansion. And I say the football team, because you don't see the women's golf team prostituting themselves to schools like Oklahoma State, Colorado State, Washington State (2X), and Colorado to pay for improvements. But, we get what we pay for, and unfortunatley, interest in Bobcat football hasn't been all that high until the Redheaded Grizzly killer came to town.

And because the administration got so burned on the last staduim rennovation, one which was supposed to pay for itself in ticket sales, they are hesitant to lay out any big sums of money. Stadium expansion is on the wish list of things to do after MSU unveils its big Capitol Improvements Campaign, to raise $50 million for improvements on campus.

Maybe the shortest way to ansewer this is like this: MSU's athletic budget is still tight, and getting tighter. Football's budget for recruiting, equipment, etc. hasn't been increased since 1996; thus one can assume football is not a priority for the administration. They are happy to ride Mike Kramer's coattails (Big Human Sized Ones), but haven't located MSU's equivalent of Denny Washington to pay for expanding the football venue.

If I had my wish, the entire staduim would be demolished, and replaced with a horseshoe shaped facility, open to the south. This way the field doesn't turn into a quagmire when we play on it in December (playoffs baby). The Press Box would run along the east side, and be usable for both football games and track meets. New football offices should be located along the north facing Kagy. The most important aspect, tailgating, would be located in the surrounding parking lots. But that's just my opinion... and Pam Anderson would be the head cheerleader.

They'll never know what kind of money we can get until they ask, which I think the administration is kind of dragging their feet on doing. I appreciate being cautious and conservative considering what happened after our last stadium expansion, but I think they are being overly cautious this time around - especially considering they could have ridden the momentum from Travis Lulay's final season while it was still going. Our boosters give a ton of money to the school, but until our administration backs football as well as our boosters, we will not take that next step up to I-AA football elite status.

Easier said from my side of the table, though...

It only took about 80 years for Stanford to get around to fixing up their stadium-which to me was the ugliest looking D1-A stadium in the country. I do like their plan for the new stadium-it should be a nice place.

MSU needs to publish a vision for Bobcat Stadium. It seems as though plans are more secret than the next air force fighter jet. Let's see some drawings of what it's going to look like.

I'm torn on the turf issue. I think the frozen (and freezing/thawing) tundra gives us an advantage late in the season. But players may like the new artificial turfs better-thus hurting our recruiting.

I had tried to start the conversation before, but I also think now is the time to start fundraising for stadium improvements. I for one have been looking forward to writing a modest check since I first heard whispers about it, and I'm sure a lot of other people are as well. Then we can really crank up the guilt trip machine on this board to squeeze some cash out of all of us proud MSU grads.

I'd also love to see a drawing of the proposed plans. I'm confused why it is so hush hush. I'd think it would be something they would be actively marketing to try to get some buzz going about the ideas.

We talk about not having money for improvements in the athletic department, but has anybody ever really asked any of us for money for stuff like this? Or did I just get my name on a mailing list that I wasn't previously on that everybody else already is?

BelgradeBobcat wrote:MSU needs to publish a vision for Bobcat Stadium. It seems as though plans are more secret than the next air force fighter jet. Let's see some drawings of what it's going to look like.

EXACTLY!!! Hard to drum up financial support and excitement without any sort of idea as to what we are going to build. I think MSU is putting too much emphasis on finding that one guy who will be MSU's "Daddy Warbucks" and too little emphasis on drumming up ground-roots support from its thousands of "little men (and women)" supporters. You get a few guys willing to put up a half million bucks, a few guys willing to put up a hundred grand, and a ton of people making donations ranging from $1000 to $50,000, and all that money starts adding up. Plus, we would really get a feel of ownership of our stadium, as opposed to some unheard-of rich guy donating a buttload of money so he can get his name on it. Don't get me wrong, it would be great if we could find that person, but I don't want to wait around for ten years before he comes along.

I wonder if the problems with the SUB renovations will slow things up for future building projects. The paper the other day said bids came in $4 million higher than the architects estimates. Ouch!

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articl ... /03msu.txt

i know that no one really knows, but how much money are we really looking at to upgrade our satadium. and i dont just mean a few more crappy bleachers, but the works such as wash-griz? i ask this because i really have a gut feeling about the lottery tomorrow. so, if i bring in a hundred or so million, i'll gladly throw 5 or so to MSU FOOTBALL STADIUM. i had to yell that part because i can already see all the worthless crap my donation would go to. you'd have to name it after me though. and my press box would be the real-deal. i'll keep you informed. seriously though, how much dough we talkin?

I believe that Peter Fields stated at one time that all the money for stadium expansion had to come from donations (zero university support). That being said the time to start would have been last summer. The excitement over this years team (Lulay's senior year) was the highest I have ever seen. Plus Quast mentioned a tax advantage that was good only in 2005. Plus we had sellouts almost every game. We can still raise money next year but the fans are slightly less optimistic about next years team.

The numbers being thrown around three years ago was about $1M - $1.5M to close in the South end with a structure about half the height of the current student side. The Field Turf would be another $750K (I know many of us are not excited about it but Kramer wants it and could sell the idea of using the stadium for state soccer tournaments). To change the student side to resemble the booster side (for lack of a better way to describe it) and to add suites to the south end and add the corners in the Northeast and Northwest corners would be at least another $12M - $18M best guess (maybe more).

I have plans in my filing cabinet from an architect in Billings that shows the closed in south end zone, a second that shows the north corners and one showing a stadium holding 32K. The 32K one is interesting. The student side has a bell shape at the top so the center has many more rows than the end but with no corners. Just a smooth flowing shape. I don't why they were looking at that unless the D-I question was up for debate.

I've got somewhat of a distorted copy of the CAD sketch that a Bozeman group had commissioned. It's the rough proposal that was put in front of Peter Fields...

Longhorn wanted me to post it, but I can't find it for the life of me... I'll try to find it again and post it.

GavinDonos wrote:I've got somewhat of a distorted copy of the CAD sketch that a Bozeman group had commissioned. It's the rough proposal that was put in front of Peter Fields...

Longhorn wanted me to post it, but I can't find it for the life of me... I'll try to find it again and post it.

alright, you guys drive a hard bargain but you convinced me. after i go through all the legalities of all this money, i'll personally take care of our stadium. i mean, if i have a hundred million on thursday, whats the big deal of ONLY having 80 million on friday. i think i'll live. "THEGRIZAREWHITETRASH" STADIUM, here we come.

Isn't the sports program supposed to be out of the red (that Lindeman so kindly left) by next season? That should free up some $$ for renovations shouldn't it? Isn't that why the cats have had games such as Oklahoma State on their roster the last few years? High dollar games just to play plus get to measure up against bigger schools.

BelgradeBobcat wrote:It only took about 80 years for Stanford to get around to fixing up their stadium-which to me was the ugliest looking D1-A stadium in the country. I do like their plan for the new stadium-it should be a nice place.

ummm, no, that title would go to Idaho.

Bay Area Cat wrote:I had tried to start the conversation before, but I also think now is the time to start fundraising for stadium improvements. I for one have been looking forward to writing a modest check since I first heard whispers about it, and I'm sure a lot of other people are as well. Then we can really crank up the guilt trip machine on this board to squeeze some cash out of all of us proud MSU grads.

I'd also love to see a drawing of the proposed plans. I'm confused why it is so hush hush. I'd think it would be something they would be actively marketing to try to get some buzz going about the ideas.

We talk about not having money for improvements in the athletic department, but has anybody ever really asked any of us for money for stuff like this? Or did I just get my name on a mailing list that I wasn't previously on that everybody else already is?

Being in the midst of capital campaign of my own, here is the successful formula for raising large sums of money.

Phase I: Seek and obtain contributions in size during the quiet period. That is why things are "hush hush" right now. These donors are the ones who will give, in this case, several million dollars. These donors like to remain anonymous in many cases, but also, these include big-time corporations. Phase I ends when 50% of your goal is reached. The time frame is 1-2 years.

Phase II: Second tier donors are schmoozed. In this case, these donors will contribute 10's of thousands to several hundreds of thousands. Phase II ends when you reach approximately 80%-90% of your goal. Time frame is another year.

Phase III: Contributions of any kind are sought to complete the campaign. This is where you see organizations ask for spare change, and we will get the calls from MSU asking for any amount from $10 to $10,000.

The #1 biggest reason for campaign failure is advancing to the next phase before achieving the current phase's goal. What happens is this: You run the risk of having a donor contribute $100,000 when in fact this donor could have contributed $1,000,000, or more. You didn't get the big donation, because you didn't ask. This is why there may be many questions being asked here on the Nation about why folks haven't been contacted. In other words, if you want to donate several millions of dollars, you probably are not taking the time to post here at the Nation.

Typically, you will run a campaign from anywhere from 3-5 years depending on the details of the project.

I have heard that a group of boosters in Bozeman is/was willing to fund the stadium expansion and Peter Fields would not allow them to move forward. Peter's felt that the Bozeman group would be competiting for the same dollars as the capital campaign, ie; only so many donors.

It appears that Peter Fields is not that interested in the stadium expansion, or maybe football at all. It appears he is more of a bean counter and more interested in reducing the debt. He is currently concentrationg on the capital campaign and could care less about the stadium expansion. Maybe we need a new AD?

Bleedinbluengold wrote:

Bay Area Cat wrote:I had tried to start the conversation before, but I also think now is the time to start fundraising for stadium improvements. I for one have been looking forward to writing a modest check since I first heard whispers about it, and I'm sure a lot of other people are as well. Then we can really crank up the guilt trip machine on this board to squeeze some cash out of all of us proud MSU grads.

I'd also love to see a drawing of the proposed plans. I'm confused why it is so hush hush. I'd think it would be something they would be actively marketing to try to get some buzz going about the ideas.

We talk about not having money for improvements in the athletic department, but has anybody ever really asked any of us for money for stuff like this? Or did I just get my name on a mailing list that I wasn't previously on that everybody else already is?

Being in the midst of capital campaign of my own, here is the successful formula for raising large sums of money.

Phase I: Seek and obtain contributions in size during the quiet period. That is why things are "hush hush" right now. These donors are the ones who will give, in this case, several million dollars. These donors like to remain anonymous in many cases, but also, these include big-time corporations. Phase I ends when 50% of your goal is reached. The time frame is 1-2 years.

Phase II: Second tier donors are schmoozed. In this case, these donors will contribute 10's of thousands to several hundreds of thousands. Phase II ends when you reach approximately 80%-90% of your goal. Time frame is another year.

Phase III: Contributions of any kind are sought to complete the campaign. This is where you see organizations ask for spare change, and we will get the calls from MSU asking for any amount from $10 to $10,000.

The #1 biggest reason for campaign failure is advancing to the next phase before achieving the current phase's goal. What happens is this: You run the risk of having a donor contribute $100,000 when in fact this donor could have contributed $1,000,000, or more. You didn't get the big donation, because you didn't ask. This is why there may be many questions being asked here on the Nation about why folks haven't been contacted. In other words, if you want to donate several millions of dollars, you probably are not taking the time to post here at the Nation.

Typically, you will run a campaign from anywhere from 3-5 years depending on the details of the project.

That makes perfect sense ... and if that is happening behind the scenes right now, I am a very happy camper. When it's time for small change, I will be happy when called upon.

Gee how I wish we could raise money like Stanford Unversity!!! They are spending $85 million on the first phase of their new stadium. WOW!! Oh, and it will only seat 50,000 people. Imagine 110,000 plus at Michigan & Tennessee.

I'm not enough of an "Insider" to know what the MSU Athletic Dept. has planned and who they are visiting with for major corporate/ personal donations. I would think Mr. Forbes (Forbes Magazine) and Mr. Siebel (Siebel Systems) among many other weekend Montanans would love some attention. Closer to home: Zoot, Right Now Tech, D.A. Davidson (I know they're griz), et.al..