Round 2 of Facilities Improvement Started

BTG_Fan1 · February 1, 2017

Also, should be hearing soon about the practice facility and more from WB.. Tonight would be a great time for him to announce it as well..

Wag Tag · February 1, 2017

Orr had a great write up in the DMN Saturday

He had a quote something like "When people mention my name and they can only say he was a great football player then I have failed!"

Def got to have a big graphic of this guy.

Would also see if he would entertain a Grad Assistant?

THOR · February 1, 2017

got this email from a unt employee friend:

We will begin construction on a new soccer/track facility soon, which will be followed by the demolition of Fouts Field. Given our challenging parking situation, we plan to convert Fouts Field into a new parking lot as well as implement a number of other transportation initiatives to help us manage parking.

not totally sure timeline wise, but good to hear something (possibly again)

MeanGreen22 · February 1, 2017

Still not a fan of that drop ceiling crap.

But it's signing day, so I'll stay positive.

greenjoe · February 1, 2017

Not too too long ago I wrote here of a friend I sent to look at Apogee as she drove north on I-35E. She called me back in a few minutes and told me our stadium looked "OK but it looks small and old." She was looking at Fouts. They tore down the wrong side. Finish the job. Tear that sucker down.

GO MEAN GREEN

Cr1028 · February 1, 2017

Glad this is happening. I was disappointed in the "remodel" of the locker rooms last year. Let's do it right this time and for santity's sake fix that UGLY ceiling!!

NorthTexan95 · February 1, 2017

44 minutes ago, greenjoe said:

Not too too long ago I wrote here of a friend I sent to look at Apogee as she drove north on I-35E. She called me back in a few minutes and told me our stadium looked "OK but it looks small and old." She was looking at Fouts. They tore down the wrong side. Finish the job. Tear that sucker down.

GO MEAN GREEN

Karen Ashton did the same thing when she arrived for the first time as Head Coach. She saw the stadium driving into Denton and thought it looked a lot like the old stadium. The person in the car with her said "Look on the other side". lol

BTG_Fan1 · February 1, 2017

1 hour ago, Wag Tag said:

Orr had a great write up in the DMN Saturday

He had a quote something like "When people mention my name and they can only say he was a great football player then I have failed!"

Def got to have a big graphic of this guy.

Would also see if he would entertain a Grad Assistant?

Would love to have him do that, but I think they should design something for him.. If he wants to Coach let him coach, if he wants to do Admin stuff hire him as a High School Relationship director or something.. Also, they need to plasture him all over the place

1 hour ago, THOR said:

got this email from a unt employee friend:

We will begin construction on a new soccer/track facility soon, which will be followed by the demolition of Fouts Field. Given our challenging parking situation, we plan to convert Fouts Field into a new parking lot as well as implement a number of other transportation initiatives to help us manage parking.

not totally sure timeline wise, but good to hear something (possibly again)

Was just about to post this section of the email as well.

13 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

Glad this is happening. I was disappointed in the "remodel" of the locker rooms last year. Let's do it right this time and for santity's sake fix that UGLY ceiling!!

Well the last remodel was done most likely under RV, I would think that with the upgrades to the Women's Locker Room we should expect some solid/ good improvement. Also, I wanna say that WB had tweeted out recently saying that there will be an announcement soon about the Indoor Practice Facility... Hoping that they talk about it tonight, but at the event for fans.

TreeFiddy · February 2, 2017

Looks like Benford got the bathroom he was asking for as well:

Image result for piss bucket image

drex · February 2, 2017

Fouts west side should have come down first...what an eyesore.

UNTFan23 · February 2, 2017

23 minutes ago, drex said:

Fouts west side should have come down first...what an eyesore.

Still need the press box, even for track events. I guess they could have built a "temporary" one on the other side but it would have added time and costs to the demolition project.

greenjoe · February 2, 2017

The entire stadium should have been torn down at one time and if needed, a temporary building used for Fouts events. Leaving it up for over 6 years now doesn't make sense. Get the Kernal Korn machine out and push that eyesore over.

UNTFan23 · February 2, 2017

30 minutes ago, greenjoe said:

The entire stadium should have been torn down at one time and if needed, a temporary building used for Fouts events. Leaving it up for over 6 years now doesn't make sense. Get the Kernal Korn machine out and push that eyesore over.

Why put in the extra costs of tearing down the stadium and then building something that will also eventually be torn down? If it was your money, would you do something like that when it adds costs to your personal project?

greenjoe · February 2, 2017

It IS my money. I contribute to the Mean Green Club, buy season tickets, and pay taxes. I also, in my very small way, contributed to the construction of Apogee Stadium. But when people travel up and down I-35, Fouts is more visible than Apogee. Again, Fouts should have been torn down and upon the few times a building is needed to host an event at Fouts, bring in a temporary building that would not be such an eyesore. Use it 2 or 3 days a year and give everyone a view of the beautiful North Texas campus or of Apogee Stadium.

GO MEAN GREEN

UNTFan23 · February 2, 2017

Just now, greenjoe said:

It IS my money. I contribute to the Mean Green Club, buy season tickets, and pay taxes. I also, in my very small way, contributed to the construction of Apogee Stadium. But when people travel up and down I-35, Fouts is more visible than Apogee. Again, Fouts should have been torn down and upon the few times a building is needed to host an event at Fouts, bring in a temporary building that would not be such an eyesore. Use it 2 or 3 days a year and give everyone a view of the beautiful North Texas campus or of Apogee Stadium.

GO MEAN GREEN

OK, but you're taking away money that will be used to build a new track facility over on the other side of the stadium. Meanwhile, while you're demolishing the old Fouts stands and building "temporary" structures to accommodate the sport, the area in and around Fouts has to be closed during all the construction and so the student athletes have no place to train on campus and the school has to rent other facilities from nearby high schools.

I suspect at a minimum you'd need some type of press box type structure, some stands, and other support structures like restrooms and equipment storage. It all adds up and would take time to build, even if you were to buy all pre-fabricated structures. Those funds have to come from somewhere and would likely delay building the new track facility because you've had to divert funds.

I get that Fouts is an eyesore and whatnot but i'm not sure if we were to replace it with cheap buildings will make that space look that much better. Sadly, the softball stadium was thrown together in a cheap manner with temporary buildings (that are shared with the soccer stadium) and still today we haven't done much to improve that facility.

MeanGreen13 · February 2, 2017

As far as I am concerned, the AD should be trying to find any way possible to expand the weight room... like double or triple it. and the indoor training facility for as many purposes as possible. Track and Baseball facilities being build would then put us on par with our conference and those we aspire to compete with. I personally think that the indoor facility should be placed where the practice fields currently are and the intramural fields should be made into the practice fields. this way, the indoor facility is as close to both the training fields and weight room as possible.

Army of Dad · February 2, 2017

2 hours ago, UNTFan23 said:

Still need the press box, even for track events. I guess they could have built a "temporary" one on the other side but it would have added time and costs to the demolition project.

I thought we weren't hosting any home track meets. If that's correct then you don't need a press box...

UNTFan23 · February 2, 2017

4 minutes ago, Army of Dad said:

I thought we weren't hosting any home track meets. If that's correct then you don't need a press box...

Not for collegiate sports perhaps but what about other events? If you're fine with bare metal requirements all you'd need are restrooms, storage, and maybe a locker room? Still money that is diverted from building the new facility plus the closure of Fouts while all this is going on.

As it stands, it's the university and not Athletics that will be funding most of the costs for the new track facility. The university needs the land Fouts sits on and so to fast track this effort the school is going to contribute a major chunk of funds to get this project finally off the ground, otherwise Fouts would be standing there for years to come.

Cr1028 · February 10, 2017

Needs more of this type of ceiling.

DT 90 · February 10, 2017

NM

Edited February 10, 2017 by DT 90

oldguystudent · February 10, 2017

I'm gonna miss driving out-of-towners up I35, pointing to Fouts, and saying, "There's our football stadium," then pointing left and saying, "There's our other football stadium."

BTG_Fan1 · February 10, 2017

On 2/2/2017 at 11:42 AM, MeanGreen13 said:

As far as I am concerned, the AD should be trying to find any way possible to expand the weight room... like double or triple it. and the indoor training facility for as many purposes as possible. Track and Baseball facilities being build would then put us on par with our conference and those we aspire to compete with. I personally think that the indoor facility should be placed where the practice fields currently are and the intramural fields should be made into the practice fields. this way, the indoor facility is as close to both the training fields and weight room as possible.

Just saying Baseball alone is on average a net loss of 1.6 to 2M per season.. WB is right, that money could be poured into other areas to improve recruiting and facilities.

Also, the superpit is nearing the end with the costs of repairs and keeping it up to date, nearly costing as much as a new stadium would. From what I have heard is some big debt is about to come off the books in a year or 2(maybe 3) and I'm assuming that is Apogee, so I figure that is when the new Superpit would come around(but no idea). This is all information I've been told in a facilities class here at UNT.

Don't be get me wrong, I would love to see baseball. Heck being in DFW there is enough talent here alone.

Cerebus · February 10, 2017

7 minutes ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

Also, the superpit is nearing the end with the costs of repairs and keeping it up to date, nearly costing as much as a new stadium would.

Superpit is operated by the University, not athletics. Athletics is not responsible for it's upkeep.

8 minutes ago, BTG_Fan1 said:

From what I have heard is some big debt is about to come off the books in a year or 2(maybe 3) and I'm assuming that is Apogee,

Payoff of the Apogee construction bonds is on a much longer time frame.

laxtonto · February 10, 2017

On 2/1/2017 at 11:47 AM, THOR said:

got this email from a unt employee friend:

We will begin construction on a new soccer/track facility soon, which will be followed by the demolition of Fouts Field. Given our challenging parking situation, we plan to convert Fouts Field into a new parking lot as well as implement a number of other transportation initiatives to help us manage parking.

not totally sure timeline wise, but good to hear something (possibly again)

This has been in the UNT master plan now for several years. Glad to see that they have the funding in the AD to finally make it happen.

Primary goal in all of this is to change the orientation of campus and to make the public face to enter UNT to be the area right off the freeway with both massive parking and visitors center there and continue to work on developing the green spaces to make it all walkable or busable from there to the union.

DeepGreen · February 10, 2017

I would think that the superpit will be torn down at some point. The land it is on is really valuable to the university for buildings or even parking. They will build a new basketball arena across the highway.