Faurot Field Renovation Ideas?

. . . a quality look does not have to be expensive, just well done. Just make sure the bricks have plenty of mortar between them – we would not want any of them out on the field the way we used to throw oranges back in the ’60s and we were vying for Orange Bowl appearances.

Too much like kU…..like the wall ideas. Like to expand the stadium to 90,000 by around 2020.

The parts of the stadium that are brick just look classy and appropriate. Adding that theme elsewhere would be good.

That being said, I don’t like the idea of blocking the view of Hearnes. I know it’s not the fanciest building ever or anything, but it’s Mizzou history. If we can add stands there, then that’d be one thing, but blocking it with a giant brick wall for the sake of blocking it would upset me.

On the note of adding more seats there, it was my understanding that there was some kind of concrete reason that wasn’t possible – I was thinking it had to do with the water table, but I don’t truthfully know. Someone commented a while back talking about it.

Anyway, short version is, I think some aesthetic improvements would be fine, even desirable, but I don’t think it’s worth pursuing seat additions until we’re consistently selling out what we’ve got. The lack of consistent sellouts is a lot more detrimental to our image than is the size of the stadium at this stage.

Oh, on the parking. I hate parking garages. I mean, they make sense in that they add a lot of parking in a small footprint, but they’re real eyesores. Plus, parking garages are a problem for football in that you can’t tailgate in one. Or, you can’t grill in one, anyway. The parking situation isn’t going to change unless they level Hearnes to add another lot.

Final statement: let’s sell out games, come early, stay late, wear gold, and be loud. The rest will work itself out.

Foundations? The parking lots? Or are we talking a larger renovation than I’m imagining?

I’m all for tearing down the top half of the east stand and rebuilding with some luxury boxes in the middle but are luxury box owners really going to want to sit above the student section? I’m not knocking the kids cause I was pretty obnoxious in my day, and still am, but the student section isn’t exactly the most polite place to sit near. I think you would have to put them high enough above the students to entice big money alumni to buy em.

Brick on the outside of the west stands would look great. Where they’ve installed “The Zou” letters on the northwest corner, the concrete is cracked and crumbling.

Since we don’t sell out every game, and that seems to be a problem with stadium expansion ideas, I think adding actual seats instead of benches to the “alumni stand” would look really nice. Between the 20 yard lines filled with gold seatbacks similar to Heinz Field. That would take total capacity down so now you can remodel and add seats to other areas of the stadium (east stands) so the total capacity doesn’t increase too much.

I would like to see something done with the south end personally. Maybe knock it down and just completely rebuild it with a nice brick facade and an entrance there for people that tailgate/park south of the stadium.

And yes, I hate the temporary stand and the wooden camera tower in the north end zone.

But if our AD says selling seats and funding are the issues, then we can just "inexpensively" renovate it right now, quickly and easily.
I’m for adding either a second tier or suites that are the width of the stands to the South (and expanding the suites at the North to the width of the stands) and raising the South stands, but if not selling enough seats and not having enough money is the reason we can’t do it yet, then we can just do some much less expensive touch-ups to make Faurot look and feel like a bigger stadium. Alden says that expanding Faurot Field is years away from now, so why not just quickly and inexpensively renovate it now?
From our newly renovated Athletic Training Complex, people (and recruits) who look East towards the suites at Faurot, if you add a high brick wall to each side of suites it would make our stadium look much bigger.
Adding high brick walls around the North entrance would make a grand look and entry from Stadium Blvd. and the main campus.
On TV, you see the East stands and then the top of Hearnes. I love Hearnes (had season tickets there for years), but I just don’t like the look of the outside of it. Add a high brick wall to the East stands, and it’s brick on the outside of the stadium, but inside the stadium we can design/decorate it with gray touch-ups and whatever else to keep it consistent with the rest of the stadium, that way you’re not just looking at a plain, red brick wall.
While we’re adding brick walls to the West, North and East, may a short brick wall on the South.
Obviously, we keep the Rock M on the Hill, but I think we can move the Hill closer to the North endzone by simply adding more "earth" (dirt) to it. This will bring the fans closer to the field, and take away the need to put up those tacky temporary seats at the North endzone. We could also add bleachers around of the Rock M and have the bleachers extend high up.
Like I said, I’m all for expanding Faurot Field right now, but if our AD says we don’t have the money to do it for years, then I just suggest quick and inexpensive renovations right now. These suggestions are so quick and not that expensive, and can really enhance gameday experience.

Picture this:

An outdoor party mezzanine area South of the existing press box, along the “top rim” of the stadium.

Then, using up maybe the top 20 feet or so of the North Lawn, putting in a “North Ring” of seats, with plenty of wide avenues between them for fans to make their way on to the Hill. They would stand up maybe 30 feet above the existing concourse level, and give a more continuous, natural feel to the eyes as they move around the stadium.

The Rock M, obviously, untouched.

On the East Side, brick the exterior up nicely, and then maybe do brick arches (or some other repetitious architectural design element) along the top rim, and get some ivy growing up there.

If there is a South Side water-table issue, then, it can just chill until a major expansion project.

But the overall feel of the stadium would get an upgrade, without anything too seriously structural going on. Hearnes would get a little extra blockage, but in a classic, pleasing way. And it would add seating, but not qualify as a major expansion.

Oh yeah. And some hedges down at field level. Something darker green to ring the corners (and North end) of the field, (Then we could have fun Tshirts that say, “The only thing stopping Mizzou WR’s is the Faurot Hedges”. And such.)

I would be most appreciative.

I’m all for making cosmetic touches to Faurot, but I have another question, as someone who has never watched a home game on television: How often is the camera panning high enough to see the Hearnes?

I am not sure about the expanded suites but I could possibly see that happening in 15-20 years.

What I would really like to see is better walk ways for the crowds within the stadium. The stairs and 90 degree angles makes getting around in the stadium annoying. Frankly, the space under the stands do not allow for an enjoyable time trying to get food/drinks or use the facilities.

 Make larger circular walkways that do not have stairs, at various points also put in guarded elevators for disabled access. This might help set up further expansion as well, because I would assume (probably wrong) these walkways would have to be set up on the outer rims of the stadiums’ existing overhangs.

Later the stadium could handle much bigger crowds, faster surges have people (ends of quarters), and allow for a more enjoyable less “Elbowy-Mc Stumbly” experience. This might help get more people to come, and thus allow an easier transition to handle an expansion of the stadium when the time is appropriate.

Just ramblings however, I really have no idea about architecture and the feasibility of this.

Would love to make images of these quick and easy renovations to show how much better we can make Faurot look right now, but I’m not that good with Photoshop. Anybody here good at PhotoShop and can just add these things to current pictures of Faurot?

But I would demolish the south stands and replace them with another berm hill ala the North end, aside from whatever internal structures there are, like the team tunnel. It would be like a set of parenthesis, sort of.

When you talk expansion, you have to add seats between the goal lines. Having worked on the field at Husky Stadium (which is both old and ugly) – which has kind of a “reverse” design to Faurot with the top of the horseshoe being closed in – I can tell you that having 70% of the seats between the goal lines makes a big difference. So I would expand the west and east stands first.

Then, honestly, if you are going to make it any bigger (capacity wise), you have to move the Rock M to the South (which we bermed, remember?) and enclose the north end with seats. Hate to say it, but the original design should have been A) moved forwards about a thousand feet or B) been reversed.

I think we should expand get some more seats, and make things a bit more traditional. I think the M should be involved in a change, the M is there for tradition for students. But I still think we should involve the rocks somehow in an introduction when our team runs out to the field. We need more seats.

More and updated restrooms, wider concourses, concessions, etc. If the east and west stands are ever going to allow for more than our current capacity these items will need to grow.
As for seats, I think the one area that could be utilized that is really dead space now is the area where the track used to be. The first row of seats needs to be closer to the field especially in the endzones. We definitely keep the brick look with historical names as the divider between the cheer squads and the fans but we could add some premium seats in that area. I don’t know that we could get away with lowering the actual playing surface to keep the sight lines but any seating renovations could be moved towards the field.

And even if we meet those two criteria, he says it would be years from now until we actually did anything. So that’s why I just suggest we build really high brick walls around the stadium, it would make the stadium look and feel a lot more grand, could help with recruiting, improve the gameday experience, and it can be done relatively quickly and inexpensively.
Then again, if we want to raise more money, we could build money-making suites on the East side of the stadium… but still add the high brick walls all around.

But here’s what I’m thinking:

The south end zone is a dead idea. They’re crappy seats. Period. And some of you want more crappy seats? No, thank you.

Remember, the concourse is basically ground level for the area around the stadium…so everything below the concourse on the east and west sides represents the original stadium. I think what you do is knock the 40-50 rows or whatever it is that are above the concourse, so only the original 30 rows or so are left. Then you build at least 2 levels of suites between the 20’s and you toss a 50 row balcony on top of that. The balcony should be positioned so it overhangs both levels of suites, and some of the higher seats in the lower level. This brings those 50 rows of seats closer to the field, even though they’re a little higher…if that makes sense.

The other suggestion is one I nearly kept to myself, if it weren’t for someone suggesting they move the Rock M to the South Endzone (I’ve heard some “ideas” in my day….wow). I’m not gonna suggest something THAT drastic, but….

The reason the hill is so far away from the endzone is because the stadium originally had a track around the football field. In 1995, when they renovated the stadium, they removed the track and lowered the field level 9 feet. By lowering the field level, they were able to extend the seats closer to the sidelines, create the (now) iconic brick wall and berm and still have room for the one lane from the SW tunnel around the field to the SE tunnel.

I would suggest taking the Rock M off the hill, and regrading the hill from it’s existing highest point (i.e. concourse level) and extending the bottom of the hill to an appropriate distance from the endzone. By making it a reasonable angle (I have no idea what the angle would be…but it would be MUCH easier to walk up and down) you could even build (perhaps in concert with the proposed east side renovation I’m suggesting) a multi level restaurant, or even better, a “wine tasting area” or something for the real snooty. Perhaps get Les Bourgeois out in Rocheport to sponsor it or something.

Seriously…between the water table, the lack of access (more seats means you need more gates, where you gonna put them on the south without building escalators?), and the general crappyness of the seat location makes the south endzone a dead idea to me. The east and possibly north is where the work needs to be….

Is TCU’s $105 million stadium renovation a way to make themselves more appealing to be added to the Big 12 or any BCS conference? Again, I’m not saying we need to spend that much money (although it would be nice if someone gave us that much), but it kind of reminds us of the importance to renovate Faurot Field.

http://www.stadium.tcu.edu/gallery.asp