Practice Facility or upgrade the stadium?

[Bobcat1boz]

I personally want the east side renovated with either standing room on top with a beer garden or more sky boxes. I know there is a lot of people in line to get a box and that's good money for MSU. I also want them to Make the North end zone an all student section with no bench seating. Load the students in and have the bobcats run out of the tunnel with students all around them. having the student sections low in both the end zones could make for a loud fun time. If we sell 5,000 tickets for standing room we need to expand the stadium. we do the east side and the north, or stadium is bigger than the griz. 30,000 plus people for a Bobcat game... let's Go CATS Go!!

[MSU01]

Practice facility, 100%. It's what's best for the team - extra seating capacity is only needed if the team keeps winning like they are now. We aren't selling 5000 Standing Room tickets, we're counting every player and coach and stadium worker and band member and cheerleader in the attendance totals.

[AFCAT]

Yup, take care of the players first. Fans can wait. Long playoff runs will require the Cats having an indoor.

[ThoughtUKnew14]

Players first, which will lead to more winning which will take care of everything else…

[Catsrgrood]

As a fan? East side renovation, easy.
Add some seating, add some skyboxes on top, looks way nicer matching the endzone in style, looks, etc.

But for the team and the program? No doubt the indoor facility needs to be first. And that’s ultimately what matters most.

I look at it this way, the sooner they can get the IPF done, the sooner they’ll get to east side renovation and eventually north endzone addition.

[CatBot]

IPF. Next question.

[kennethnoisewater]

With seasons lasting into December and January, having a place to practice indoors is huge. And with the spring in Bozeman, those practices get canceled all the time. Add to that the wildfire smoke we've had in MT the last few years and an indoor facility would be so huge.

At this point it's not like the stadium is atrocious. I would love to see improvements made but the last two head coaches have communicated that the IPF is a huge need. If the stadium held 10k I'd be saying something else...

[Pecos24]

Looks like the people have spoken...

[ilovethecats]

Winning trumps everything. It’s not even a question. Team wins, fans come in droves. We’ve seen that the last few years. Over 20,000 for our last home game last season. Bet we near capacity Saturday. Winning is everything.

Practice facility first. Allow the team every opportunity to do what they do.

More boxes after that if they feel there’s enough people able to commit to about 50K a session. That’s good too!

[GoCats18]

As much as I would love to see some additional seating/east side renovation, I think an indoor practice facility would be huge. That said, I will always be very vocal about this until it happens, the first thing that needs to happen before any of this is a new video screen and new speakers. It’s almost embarrassing how bad those two things are.

[ilovethecats]

As much as I would love to see some additional seating/east side renovation, I think an indoor practice facility would be huge. That said, I will always be very vocal about this until it happens, the first thing that needs to happen before any of this is a new video screen and new speakers. It’s almost embarrassing how bad those two things are.

You and I and everyone we know needs to donate.

In my experience, when people are upset about something and want it fixed, money is key. Get enough of us, and we’ll write our own ticket!

[FA_Q_M]

Selfishly, a renovated stadium is my pick. IPF is the pragmatic choice. If you were a big time recruit would you notice a IPF or the sparkly new stadium? Does the perspective season ticket holder or the local big wig business care about an IPF or skyboxes and gameday experience? Does the an IPF directly generate revenue for the university?

Obviously, results on the field are the big thing here, and ultimately, IPF has to come first. I would love to see those east side grandstands go however.

[tagleason]

No IPF no sustainable success. Ask UMass what happens when you overbuild your stadium, and throw some down years together and lose fans to fill those nice seats. And donors.

[Catfanatic84]

IPF is critical...especially with UM moving ahead with an indoor....we'll need it to keep up in the recruiting wars. If I had it....I'd write a check now for both!

[cats2506]

Think of a recruit coming on his visit in January in a blizzard. Makes it a lot easier to commit when you know yo can practice inside on bad weather days.

[basincat]

If we get an indoor practice facility, it will be mainly for spring ball. Players shouldn't see it during the season. Not much of an advantage playing outdoors in December in Montana if we practice indoor. They need to practice outside if we play outside. It would be a big help in the spring. I also don't buy that it is that big of a recruiting benefit. Lot of teams that play in domes and can't recruit. Kids come to play in front of crazy fans and big stadiums. That leads to winning and more people in the stands and more recruiting and so and so forth. I'd do the stadium first.

[AFCAT]

If we get an indoor practice facility, it will be mainly for spring ball. Players shouldn't see it during the season. Not much of an advantage playing outdoors in December in Montana if we practice indoor. They need to practice outside if we play outside. It would be a big help in the spring. I also don't buy that it is that big of a recruiting benefit. Lot of teams that play in domes and can't recruit. Kids come to play in front of crazy fans and big stadiums. That leads to winning and more people in the stands and more recruiting and so and so forth. I'd do the stadium first.

Not really. There are days in the winter when the team can't practice or have to severely limit practice times due to the cold. That happened during the cold temps in Cat-gris week this year. The Cats practice in the mornings when temps can be at their lowest. Air quality during summer fire season can also limit outdoor practice times. The Cats also play three Big Sky teams that have domes. Practicing indoors is also beneficial before those games.

[kennethnoisewater]

If we get an indoor practice facility, it will be mainly for spring ball. Players shouldn't see it during the season. Not much of an advantage playing outdoors in December in Montana if we practice indoor. They need to practice outside if we play outside. It would be a big help in the spring. I also don't buy that it is that big of a recruiting benefit. Lot of teams that play in domes and can't recruit. Kids come to play in front of crazy fans and big stadiums. That leads to winning and more people in the stands and more recruiting and so and so forth. I'd do the stadium first.

I think you're right that it would be MAINLY for spring ball, but there are a lot of times during the season it would be helpful. Even if a game is going to be played outside that week though, it's helpful to practice inside. Risk of injury goes up when it's cold, so it makes sense to limit that. There are times in November and December where there's ice on the field and the team can't run any play full speed. We can argue until we're blue in the face that MSU's teams have been practicing outside for over 100 years, but that's not ideal. Give the team the best conditions to practice in so they're as prepared as they possibly can be for the next game. And that game in January is played outside, but not on a frozen field with -20 wind chills.

I think we forget that MSU has only been selling out the stadium regularly in the last 2-3 seasons, and that's due to winning. In 2014, the last time the Cats had a home playoff game on Thanksgiving weekend after a Cat-gris loss, we got 7,700 people at that game. The capacity hasn't changed since then. What has changed is that the Bobcats are winning on the field and competing in the facilities game, and now the talent on the team is better. "If you build it they will come" isn't necessarily true. Fans will show up if you win. If the players and prospective recruits know we as a university, community and fan base support them, they'll keep winning and the money will roll in for stadium improvements.

[Bozeman42]

If we get an indoor practice facility, it will be mainly for spring ball. Players shouldn't see it during the season. Not much of an advantage playing outdoors in December in Montana if we practice indoor. They need to practice outside if we play outside. It would be a big help in the spring. I also don't buy that it is that big of a recruiting benefit. Lot of teams that play in domes and can't recruit. Kids come to play in front of crazy fans and big stadiums. That leads to winning and more people in the stands and more recruiting and so and so forth. I'd do the stadium first.

I think you're right that it would be MAINLY for spring ball, but there are a lot of times during the season it would be helpful. Even if a game is going to be played outside that week though, it's helpful to practice inside. Risk of injury goes up when it's cold, so it makes sense to limit that. There are times in November and December where there's ice on the field and the team can't run any play full speed. We can argue until we're blue in the face that MSU's teams have been practicing outside for over 100 years, but that's not ideal. Give the team the best conditions to practice in so they're as prepared as they possibly can be for the next game. And that game in January is played outside, but not on a frozen field with -20 wind chills.

I think we forget that MSU has only been selling out the stadium regularly in the last 2-3 seasons, and that's due to winning. In 2014, the last time the Cats had a home playoff game on Thanksgiving weekend after a Cat-gris loss, we got 7,700 people at that game. The capacity hasn't changed since then. What has changed is that the Bobcats are winning on the field and competing in the facilities game, and now the talent on the team is better. "If you build it they will come" isn't necessarily true. Fans will show up if you win. If the players and prospective recruits know we as a university, community and fan base support them, they'll keep winning and the money will roll in for stadium improvements.

We had a home game Thanksgiving weekend in 2018. Had 10,000 there. Still not great.

[kennethnoisewater]

If we get an indoor practice facility, it will be mainly for spring ball. Players shouldn't see it during the season. Not much of an advantage playing outdoors in December in Montana if we practice indoor. They need to practice outside if we play outside. It would be a big help in the spring. I also don't buy that it is that big of a recruiting benefit. Lot of teams that play in domes and can't recruit. Kids come to play in front of crazy fans and big stadiums. That leads to winning and more people in the stands and more recruiting and so and so forth. I'd do the stadium first.

I think you're right that it would be MAINLY for spring ball, but there are a lot of times during the season it would be helpful. Even if a game is going to be played outside that week though, it's helpful to practice inside. Risk of injury goes up when it's cold, so it makes sense to limit that. There are times in November and December where there's ice on the field and the team can't run any play full speed. We can argue until we're blue in the face that MSU's teams have been practicing outside for over 100 years, but that's not ideal. Give the team the best conditions to practice in so they're as prepared as they possibly can be for the next game. And that game in January is played outside, but not on a frozen field with -20 wind chills.

I think we forget that MSU has only been selling out the stadium regularly in the last 2-3 seasons, and that's due to winning. In 2014, the last time the Cats had a home playoff game on Thanksgiving weekend after a Cat-gris loss, we got 7,700 people at that game. The capacity hasn't changed since then. What has changed is that the Bobcats are winning on the field and competing in the facilities game, and now the talent on the team is better. "If you build it they will come" isn't necessarily true. Fans will show up if you win. If the players and prospective recruits know we as a university, community and fan base support them, they'll keep winning and the money will roll in for stadium improvements.

We had a home game Thanksgiving weekend in 2018. Had 10,000 there. Still not great.

But we'd won Cat-gris, so we had a little momentum. I was making the point about attendance when we're not winning as much.