[IPF Images]

Argyle High School

Prosper HS

Air Force Academy

 

[Sample images of other college track and soccer stadiums]

Can't talk about college track facilities without mentioning Hayward Field, paid for by Nike of course.

 

U of H has the Carl Lewis International Complex

and Yeoman Fieldhouse for Indoor T&F

I like the way UNC has their setup at Fetzer Field. The Carolina blue track surface is a nice touch.

I'm gonna say right now that someone needs to get Wren's ear about us getting a green track. 
Baylor just got one at the new Clyde Hart Track & Field Stadium.

 

The combined press box idea is exactly what Kansas just did at their new Rock Chalk Park. Awesome execution there. (Yeah its a rendering, sorry)

University of South Florida has a pretty nice place at USF Track and Field Stadium. Used to be their soccer field too until 2011.

The Mike Long Track at Florida State is nice too, nestled there in the pine trees.

 

 

 

And now, what I think it's probably one of the nicest soccer/track venues in the NCAA.

If we even tried to copy this for our new place, I wouldn't be mad.

Northern Arizona University's Lumberjack Stadium in Flagstaff. This is a Big Sky Conference facility y'all. FCS.

It was their football stadium until 1977, then served as track only and then started hosting women's soccer in 1997. In 2011 it was renovated as a part of their newly built $100 million Health and Learning Center which they built on the land right next to the stadium, which had been a parking lot. The glass walls and flying roof overhangs are part of the Health and Learning Center building behind it. It seats 1,000.

Now, can you imagine something like that, but with a green track, green chair back seats and greenish glass that matches Apogee brickwork that matches the Hurley? 

 

I can.

 

[Did Seth Have To Good Of A First Season?]

Too*













Sorry couldn't help it. This ain't Pony Fans.

[MGB breaking news -- regents approve new venue]

Yep, track offices and locker room are the old football locker room. With Dickey-era logos still intact.

[Facilities tour by Leadership]

7 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Wren is flying the plane.

So we've gone from driving the Buick to flying the plane in just around 10 years. Nice.

[Super Pit Banners]

12 hours ago, EagleMBA said:

My favorite banners in the SuperPit were the ones we used to see when we were winning. Like "Put In The White Boys!" when we were rolling and in control in the second half.

Those were the best banners of all.

The great Micah Bracy?!

 

[ATM stolen from Rudy's in Denton, later found in Dallas]

People steal ATMs from Rudy's.

They steal whole briskets from Bet The House.

Feel free to draw your own conclusion...

[Not to change the subject, but......]

14 hours ago, Christopher Walker said:

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the color/lighting profile on this image is darker than it should be. @TheWestie can confirm.

Yup.


Now to go search out that epic uniform color breakdown post I did a few months back...

[Round 2 of Facilities Improvement Started]

#1 most important issue with The Super Pit from a University standpoint is ADA compliance.

There is no elevator in the building and to get from the concourse level to the arena floor you have to go outside and around to one of the tunnels. And those ramps are very steep. It was a huge pain in the ass dragging an 80 pound rolling camera bag up those ramps: I can't even imagine how awful it must be to try to muscle a wheelchair up that ramp by yourself. And beyond that, once you're down at arena floor level, I believe there is only one restroom downstairs that is ADA compliant. It's a unisex bathroom right across from the old gymnastics room/Mean Green Club hospitality room. The others restrooms downstairs are in the spare locker rooms and those have steps that you must step up to get to the toilets. Than once past that, the space you need to maneuver around in the toilet area probably isn't big enough for a wheelchair. 

Revamping the spare locker rooms/bathroom aren't that big a project. Easy fix.

It will be a MAJOR undertaking to put in an elevator.  A lot of the building is several feet thick of reinforced structural concrete and steel beams that the seating platforms rest on. Any elevator will have to be added on the outer side of the concourse ring, and because of the layout on the East side of the building, that means it'll have to be on the West side, where the Hall of Fame plaques are now. They could extend the concourse out that way and stick an elevator that comes down into one of the offices or something down there. 

 

And The Super Pit is used all year round. It's not like it sits empty and abandoned outside of basketball season. It's used nearly every single day for about a solid month during graduation season in May and June. It's rented out for cheerleading competitions, UIL drill team contests, UIL robotics competitions, last year it was rented out by a church, it's where they host big draw Distinguished Lecture Series speakers, etc.

Shutting it down for a few months means a loss of revenue for that time period, so it's a project that can only be done once the University is in a financial position that it can go without or offset that lost money.


Point is, the building was grandfathered in and is not fully ADA-compliant. That makes it that much less desirable to rent out to potential renters. 

[Round 2 of Facilities Improvement Started]

On 2/10/2017 at 8:03 PM, BTG_Fan1 said:

 If you look at ground level entry doors that are towards the Pohl Rec center, you can see that they had to cut an access door/panel on left hand side for them to run wiring for generators at times.

Dude, no.

 

If you're talking about the access hatch next to the giant loading doors at the North ramp that is for cabling for broadcast trucks. When games are televised, the production company that produces the broadcast runs their own cabling between the cameras and mics out to their production and transmission truck, where the producers and editors cut the broadcast together live. Miles of cabling running to semi trailers which are powered by rental generators are a common sight at every broadcast college basketball and football game, NFL, NBA, MLB, awards show, etc.

TV production crews use generators so they can have their own source of power in case something happens at the stadium, like say an earthquake during the World Series or half the power in the Superdome going out and other reasons including not having to pay the arena owner for using their electricity. 

 

[Round 2 of Facilities Improvement Started]

7 hours ago, Ryan Munthe said:

All of you folks calling for the Pit to not be demolished must have never seen it behind the scenes. 

It either needs millions dumped into it or to be torn down. 

 

 

I've been in, behind, on, above and under nearly ever inch of the Super Pit. 

 

Updated and renovated for 21st Century facility technology and current college basketball arena standards? Yes. Lots that can be done.

Need to tear it down and start all over? Hell no. The Pit ain't Fouts. 

And given the way the Pit was built, demolition is gonna cost many millions of dollar. Can't just tear it down like Fouts. Soooooo much reinforced concrete and steal beams in there.


 

[MGB: Remake of staff continues as LeBlanc is reportedly moving on]

10 hours ago, THOR said:

for some, they are theys is...

FIFY

[So there's a state hiring freeze on?]

11 hours ago, Eagle-96 said:

We've had a basketball coaching vacancy for 5 years.

Hall of fame post right there y'all.

[Man Cave stuff!]

I have a Bruce Hall lunch tray somewhere at my parents house that I borrow to sled down the hill in the snow behind the PEB.

I wish I still had the seating section sign I lifted from the Fouts Field trash can years ago.

[MGB: Thoughts on where UNT could turn for new OL coach]

3 hours ago, greenminer said:

I'm not completely sold on former players with zero coaching experience just because of their successful playing careers and ties to the school.

Sooooo.... We shouldn't call this guy?

[Which signee are you most excited about and why?]

[What kind of features would you like to see at the new stadium?]

Officials who don't totally suck.

[Women's Locker Room]

5 hours ago, MeanGreenTexan said:

Thread title will have some of y'all like:

Ahhhh the sweet relief of derailing a thread.

[What hotel do the UNT recruits stay in on their official visits?]

5 hours ago, Cerebus said:

It's not the driving.  It's the parking.

Parking at NT has only gotten worse since they killed a rather large lot for the new Art Building.

 

 

I use to complain constantly about never finding parking at West Hall and moaning when I had to park at Fouts near Traditions or over near College Inn, even when I knew it was my own damn fault because I got home from a date at 3am...
 

 

 

And then I visited friends at UT, Baylor and A&M.

UNT students have no idea how lucky they have been with parking. Students living in dorms don't have to take a bus that goes several miles away to a parking garage to get their car like in College Station, or lucky to find anywhere at all for their car like at Baylor (though they have built a bunch of parking garages since my friends went there, one of them even has a Chili's in it). I thought UNT parking prices were outrageous until my sister started at UT. I think paying to park in the Jester garage for a full semester cost as much as tuition at UNT my freshman year. 



All that being said, come on Wren, get that track stadium built so they can tear down the rest of Fouts and build a new parking garage. Doesn't matter how far away you gotta park as long as there actually is enough room for folks park.

Oh and freshman shouldn't have cars on campus if they live in a dorm.

[Breaking NSD News!!]

I'll text Steve to let him know there won't be any food.


(The past couple years there may have been food. Don't remember.)

[Baylor Problems Worsen... A Lot.]

2 hours ago, Mean Green 93-98 said:

Punishing Baylor is one thing.  But how do you change the system . . . as in, FBS football, particularly P5 football, across the board . . . so coaches and colleges aren't tempted to tolerate, much less promote, this kind of behavior?

 By pretty much tearing it all down to the foundation and rebuilding the entire structure of how college football works. Which nobody wants to even talk about, let alone actually do. Too much money involved and connected to too many people and too much money to be made off of all of it, all on the backs of a bunch of 18-22 year olds. And too many grown-ass adults with too much money who want to glorify and perpetuate jock culture that they're either long past or never got to be a part of to begin with.

 

Here's an idea to rein in a lot of problems:

Don't let athletes live off campus. Too many times have I heard of crap going down at some athlete's apartment of a house where a bunch of them live together. If they're in a dorm and have a curfew it narrows down the chances for someone to act like an idiot. I don't care if you're a senior. 

Let college athletes have friggin' part time jobs if they want! UNT kids stealin' TV's because they're bored, TCU kids dealin' pot because they couldn't afford gas money. How many countless times have we heard stories about athletes who couldn't afford to travel home over the winter break. And I mean like driving from Denton to Houston. Or kids who couldn't afford to eat on the weekends. It'll also set athletes up for after graduation: a lot of guys never have a real job in high school because of the protectionism people lay on high school athletes and then they're forbidden from having a job in college. That's eight years of work experience they've misses out on.


 

 

[Sports "Creative Director"]

On 1/25/2017 at 2:07 PM, SilverEagle said:

JIm, here is a 1960's aerial shot of the old Eagle Field before the Willis Library was built on it.  I remember the field was used for intramural sports and the annual "Greek Olympics". I remember one spring, our HS band was attending the regional band contest (hosted by the school of music) and me and some of my buddies stood out on the back porch of the "Lab School" (the right side of the field in the photo) and watched the "Greek Olympics"......complete with chariot races. 

Not to derail this or anything but I never put 2 and 2 together and realized that the little curved driveway that leads to the service parking spots behind Willis follow the path of the track!

[Can UNT win one conference game with Benford as coach?]

9 hours ago, untjim1995 said:

But college hoops is the rare animal that can see huge turnarounds really quickly. It takes one good player and a solid coaching staff to get back to being a winner. It can be done very quickly--at least at other places it has been done quickly. If Baker can get the right guy here and he can use the talent that is here to gel, this thing could be competitive again next year--maybe not top of CUSA solid, but .500 or better in CUSA play is possible.

 

And there lies Benford's biggest failure as a coach. He can't coach 5 guys into a team. It's just been 5 dudes out there in the same uniform.

Immediately upon his arrival we saw a group of players who meshed incredibly well under a different coach begin to look lost and disinterested. The same players who only a few months before had been making no-look passes to each other and selflessly setting each other up for plays began to be ball hogs and taking really dumb, selfish shots when half of the team was wide open. A really visible symptom of his bad coaching was the relentless and constant substitutions, which always served to kill any kind of scoring momentum we would get and the merry-go-round of guys in the lineup kept any group of players from getting comfortable with each other. (He's also been really bad about clock management). 

 

Every college coach, and every NBA coach for that matter, has the task of taking a group of players who don't know each other, some who may have even played against each other before, and getting them to trust and believe in each other and play as a cohesive unit. Benford has not done that. I'll even argue that his shortcomings as a coach are what drove Tony Mitchell to declare for the draft when he did, which was too early. Mitchell was two completely different players under Johnny and under Benford. 

[Can UNT win one conference game with Benford as coach?]

4 hours ago, MeanGreen_MBA said:

this whole paradox of is firing Benford now or the end the season best for the University is certainly analogous to the Schrodinger's Cat theory....  Is the team both dead AND alive??? 

Were they ever alive?

Has there been any point in Benford's time here after he ran off Johnny's players that we've had a team that gelled together and played well as a team?

Benford's whole time here has been a revolving door of recruits who never pan out or who are such basket cases that he's never had a team that could find itself as a team. It seems like every October we find that half the starters are new and there's always some additional new guy who will hopefully become eligible at the semester break and solve all the problems. 

[MGB: Recruiting status update -- Yes rankings matter]

Looks like 247 Sports finally changed our logo to the correct diving eagle.