Stadium renovation or construction plans down the road

[NWLB]

Restrooms:

I have no issues with the men's restrooms, somebody ask Flipper about the women's facilities. However, we could use some family restrooms, and not just for the UT football team to use.

Restrooms on the west side are nastier than you know. Whenever it rains, water drips down through the ceiling. The floors are not angled for the water to go directly do the drains, and so large puddles form. Rain water mixes with whatever didn't make it into the urinals and it gets just nasty in the guys' room.

Did they hire women custodians to take care of women's rooms, or do they still expect the men on grounds staff to wait for an opportunity to get into the women's restrooms to empty trash and restock supplies?

One of the biggest errors BGSU makes on a regular basis is building big and attractive facilities and then not keeping up on regular, scheduled, or preventative maintenance, so that things deteriorate before they should. This goes for both sides of Mercer Street.

An example less obvious to the average fan is the artificial turf on the football field. Administrators have confused "less maintenance" with "no maintenance", and, accordingly, do not have the field groomed as often as it should be to keep the "grass" from matting or the rubber pieces evenly laid. While the Stroh has a full staff including maintenance and custodial dedicated to the needs of the Stroh, staff for the outdoor sports has been reduced to one full time employee, two nine-month employees, and a few students, which is not enough to take care of any of the outdoor facilities properly. Obviously, they all aren't in season at the same time, but it's hardly the amount of staff necessary to service the playing fields with more than the minimum of basic requirements.

In spite of my having a big soapbox with a long rant, I'll step down since it's only slightly related to the dreams being expressed here. Suffice it to say that while they find funds to pay the larger salaries, they "cheap out" when it comes to taking care of their facilities.

Indeed, you are right on the failure to maintain buildings. A lot of places are doomed to be torn down exactly because they have been so poorly kept over the years. It is feeding the tear-down mentality in certain offices, though at once, I don't know that it is intentional than practical. I do think some people want shiny new designs more than to gut-out rehabbing some places. The fall-back is "it costs more than 50% of the replacement cost."

I read in the BG News today of plans for a major refit of the SRC actually. Seems like ever month another building formally comes up for a refit.

[sum1udontknow]

As in regards to the maintenance staff for outdoor athletics you are correct, 1 full timer, 2 9-monthers, and a select group of students. It is an incredible amount of work that we have to do to keep maintenance up on all the outdoor facilities. I would know I am one of those students.

[FalconTurf]

I understand there is a maintenance problem with all public facilities but in reality you can only put so much lipstick on a pig. Most of the buildings at BG are vintage 60's garbage. They were built cheap and fast so there is no way to make them into anything. They would be in better shape with narrow hallways, stairways and small public areas whether maintained or not. Unfortunately BGSU has too many of these misfit buildings that are nearly impossible to bring up to current codes or even be functional in today's world.

I personally like the stadium sightlines and exterior appearance but the entry ramps, hallways for the offices and various other design problems cannot be fixed by maintenance. Major renovation or replacement are the only options. 45 year-old outdoor restrooms leak, 45-year-old pipes rust and certainly the stadium was never built for night games so lighting underneath the stadium and in the ramps is not up to today's standards.

[zete]

Better take care of the attendance problem by building a decent program before building a new stadium.

[NWLB]

I appreciate the thought Zete. It can seem like a debate over what came first, the chicken or the egg. However I don't think you can wait for one to do the other. They are the same under the larger banner of the program. If we waited for an epic period in men's basketball for a new stadium, we would be playing in Anderson Arena another 20 years. Some thought we should wait for one of the now long past runs that a Miami, EMU, or Ohio used to have. Those aren't happening now. Same with football.

I stand by my thoughts on the stadium. Fits all the needs, overall.

[footballguy51]

If we go by performance, the basketball arena was built for them women. What would actually be hilarious would be to force the men to continue to play in Anderson until they start winning. Nothing like dangling a carrot out in front of a team to make them start playing better.