Rightupinthere wrote:The piece of cement could have been the size of a football for all we know.
Saw it yesterday...it's about as big as a mattress. Cause for concern? You bet...but cause for alarm? I'm not sure. Let's wait and see if there's a danger of other slabs falling. We've got more than two months to get this figured out.
Metz, got your pm.
That's a big chunk and that leads me to be a tad alarmed. The Doyt needs work - I know I would not get any argument about that.
When it comes to these type of issues, I'm ignorant. I'm not a structural engineer - well, unless you're talking boats, so I'm not going to start saying "We should do this. Then we should do that...."
I would like to invite Tech83 to comment about what CAN be done to the Doyt and - perhaps - what he thinks should be done. He's the architect of the group. I'm sure he would lick his chops at a wack at the Doyt.
"Science doesn’t know everything? Well science KNOWS it doesn’t know everything… otherwise it’d stop."
Dara O'Brian - Comedian
Seriously, I'll bet they have to have it inspected. And it is sound, structurally. That piece may have been a freak thing. I doubt the whole place is crumbling that bad.
how bad or minor this incident was. Regardless, though, I have no doubt the university will have the Doyt in working order for the first game. Maybe the athletic department could use this as a marketing tool to show people just how desperately we need new funds to upgrade and maintain our current facilities.
Wow! I hate when copy and paste goes extremely wrong! This is what I meant to post. Sorry bout that one.
Does anyone have any pictures of the piece that fell off? This way we could all see just how bad or minor this incident was. Regardless, though, I have no doubt the university will have the Doyt in working order for the first game. Maybe the athletic department could use this as a marketing tool to show people just how desperately we need new funds to upgrade and maintain our current facilities.
I'm heading over there right now. I'll take a camera with me just in case, but I would imagine it's probably been cleaned up by now. Maybe it has, maybe not. I'll check it out though.
Ok, here's what I came up with. This was actually at the south east corner of the stadium. It took a minute to find it, because I was first looking at the northeast corner, and there were barricades and safety tape blocking off that area too. I thought I had to be in the right place, but I wasn't.
The north endzone is unchanged. They are using the area where the bleachers used to be to park lawn care equipment, etc... I have some pics of that too, but didn't post them since there's really nothing new to see. If anyone wants to see them anyway, let me know.
It goes without saying that it's a good thing this didn't happen during a game. It hit in a high traffic area, right were people line up for the concession stand, near the ramp leading into the stadium.
Here's where the piece came from:
And here's the aftermath. Notice in the first one, you can see the large groove left in the asphalt where it hit:
Thanks for taking and posting, Jason. I never noticed how much of the underside of the Doyt is cracked from age.
It is very fortunate no one was injured.
My gears are grinding on this issue. The Doyt is a GREAT venue to watch a game. I love it. There is a lot of history in that bowl. But, it needs work. No one has argued that at all.
Why build the SEBO when the Doyt has obvious improvement needs. My mind goes back to the possibility that the SEBO is just the tip of the iceburg. There's more in store, I'm just unsure of what, when, and how much.
"Science doesn’t know everything? Well science KNOWS it doesn’t know everything… otherwise it’d stop."
Dara O'Brian - Comedian
No, we've had a guardian angel watching out for us. I have full confidence that the Athletic Department will spend whatever it takes to make the venue safe in time for the October opener and homecoming game. There's no option, really.
Metz wrote:
Yes the stadium needs fixing but heck, the SEBO center doesn't even have enough money to be built yet. Until everyone that complains about these facilities starts chipping in, the facilities are just going to keep chipping away.
People can complain all they want about our lack of facilities, and the condition of a lot of them, but until we get a guy that can come in here just for fundraising purposes then we will be stuck with the state of our facilites for a while. E.G. NIU just hired a guy in their athletic departement specifically for fundraising.
How is it that Miami can do a MAJOR overhaul of their stadium, NIU has enough money to get their endzone project started, which they announced 6 months after we did. Central builds a 25 million dollar practice facitlity, Akron gets a brand new field house, Western totally renovated Waldo and adds a practice facility. But yet we can't even raise 7.5 million dollars to get our endzone project underway. Where is all the other schools getting their money from? Private Donors? Coroporations? Trusts? It's pretty hard for BG to raise 7.5 million when they are only targeting past Varsity Winners for the projrct.
I agree that the Doyt needs about a 15 million dollar renovation and needs to be done soon, I just wish their were more resources out their for money, and I believe their is, but I don't think the University is looking in the right spots for them.
Miami's efforts have been through a decade's worth of work and effort. The improvements haven't been through a single summer and have been part of continuous efforts of the Athletic department to get large donors to foot the bill.
Much of the planning has long gone on, but it takes a while for things to come to fruition.
TG1996 wrote:Fortunately, those panels look like they can be removed and/or refastened fairly easily.
And you're right. It's a damn good thing it wasn't a game day. that's no chip of concrete that came down there.
First - sorry but the architect hasn't been to this forum for awhile.
For what I see in the photos - TG is correct. The panels look to be pre-cast and then hung in place. They are decorative - thats a good thing. The anchorage for the other panels should be reviewed and before the season opener. This is something to be concerned about and should be addressed quickly.
As far as exposed re-bar that others are mentioning.... not a good thing overall, but typical of concrete construction. Repair can occur, much like bridge repair. I have no idea as to cost and what that would do to the SEBO project. My best quess would be nothing and that when the stadium proper is renovated these things will be part of the repair. Remember that the OSU horseshoe is also concrete, much older than ours, and was repaired.
I think the University has only just now begun to come into its own in raising substantial funds. A school such as Miami has had more alumni out there longer, and that helps their efforts greatly. With a growing number of very old alumni passing on, odds are we’ll have a growing flow of insurance and estate gifts coming in. The vast bulk of BGSU’s alumni graduated in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. So the pool of donors should really start growing. Then you have the younger alumni such as myself and the like whom are now in a position to start kicking in some cash.
After the "silent" phase, a very large portion of the money being heralded as raised, was announced with fanfare over the last three or four years. That might tempt some to be disappointed. However the entire concept of set-peace campaigns is outmoded.
Obviously the University couldn’t wait for the official capital campaign to raise funds. The “building dreams” campaign is serving to promote giving, but even before the last dollar is raised, the University will be well underway towards whatever comes next.
Since you can’t run major campaigns constantly, I’d guess well see a continuation of the family and staff campaigns, and much more structure in public efforts to generate money. I’d think that if things are being done well, we’ll continue to see two and three million dollar donations from estates, retiring boomers, and other such sources.
I’d have to think athletics might have a freer hand to push for alumni and community money after the campaign is over.
NWLB
********************************* http://www.CruiseAficionados.com - A Community for Cruise Fans. (Try the mobile app "Cruise Aficionados)
Thanks much for the pictures. They always help to see what everyone is talking about. When I first read the thread, it really sounded as thought the stadium was falling apart. But after seeing the photos, I was relieved to see it was part of the facade and wasn't a structural part of the stadium. Thank God no one standing there when this happened!!! None the less, I too agree the stadium should be inspected, but I imagine it must be from time to time anyway. I'm not sure how often, but they should happen.
Here down at Virginia, we've had two incidents happen in recent years along these lines. About five or six years ago, Virginia had an inspection of the basketball arena (called University Hall) one summer and shortly after the inspection started, the crew noticed a huge problem, stopped their inspection, and gave everyone who worked and had offices in the arena one hour to pack up what they needed (computers, files, etc.) and get out right away!!! Turns out, when they drilled through the cement to look at the support cables that help to hold the round roof on top of the building, they found over half of the cables had snapped and others where about to and that the roof could come down at any time!!! Fortunately, the problem was noticed before anything happened. They shut down the arena for several weeks, people had their offices moved in temporary trailers (we had a parking lot that looked like a trailer park) and a company come in and replace the cables, etc. and reopened the arena in time to start the basketball season. I'd be lying though if I said I don't get a little nervous every time I go into the arena now. Looking up at tons of cement above me makes me a little more nervous now than it did before. Funny enough, Virginia is now building a new arena that will be open next year.
The other situation was at the football stadium. It wasn't as bad, but about a year or two ago, part of the lower section of the stadium crumbled and fell onto the sidelines of the stadium. It was mainly a wall and part of the seating. This actually happened after an 86 millions dollar renovation took place at the facility just a couple years ago. Fortunately, it happened in the summer again and the stadium wasn't in use. But it was in the student section. Since then, they fixed the wall and have been working in stages during the off-season to make structural repairs to other sections because this section of the stadium was part of the original part of the stadium and wasn't part of the 86 million dollar renovation.
