Old scoreboard

[TomCat88]

2) I don’t know that MSU was ever planning for those windows to be permanent viewing for games. I don’t even know what’s on the other side of those windows.

Behind most of those windows are the coaches' offices, so definitely not intended as a viewing area during games. The coaches' viewshed of the mountains may have been diminished with the new scoreboard, but somehow I doubt they'll mind too much. Vigen still has a great view since he's in the corner office that isn't blocked.

That’s what I was guessing. Yes, in that case, there’s nothing lost since the coaches aren’t kicking their feet up on their desks and smoking cigars whilst taking in the view.

Getting back to the space in that EZ, by my eye there’s a good deal of room there and depending on what they do there’s room for close to ten rows of seating and in the neighborhood of 2,000 seats.

The view from the offices is still pretty good. I’ve been in those offices a bunch of times, but not with the new board installed.
The seating in the endzone will be tricky. If the Cats go with an elevated seating area, with luxury boxes underneath like the Husky’s have, then I don’t see much available seating there. The angle to the windows will be real shallow with elevated seating and the scoreboard pilings will cause really poor viewing angles, if seats are put behind them. I can’t visualize more than a couple of rows in that area right up to the pilings with a nice flat plaza area to the windows for standing behind the rows. The corners of the endzone and will provide the best opportunity for more seating. The new East grandstands won’t provide much new seating itself, just better seating angles than we have now with more luxury boxes possible above. I wouldn’t put much stock in that seven year old facilities plan other than a general idea of what they wanted to do back when it was made.

I guess “I don’t see too well” but after looking at the space in the SEZ yesterday and then the NEZ, I came to my conclusion. I could be way off though.

[The Butcher]

I believe the exact timeline of stadium improvements would be:

1998 - West Side Stands/Press Box
2008 - First artificial turf field installed
2011 - End Zone Expansion and New Scoreboard
2012 - Lighting for Night Games
2017 - New field installed
2021 - BAC Opens
2024 - IPF construction begins

That 1998-2011 was a hell of a quiet phase! Nicely done Fields!!!

[TomCat88]

2) I don’t know that MSU was ever planning for those windows to be permanent viewing for games. I don’t even know what’s on the other side of those windows.

Behind most of those windows are the coaches' offices, so definitely not intended as a viewing area during games. The coaches' viewshed of the mountains may have been diminished with the new scoreboard, but somehow I doubt they'll mind too much. Vigen still has a great view since he's in the corner office that isn't blocked.

That’s what I was guessing. Yes, in that case, there’s nothing lost since the coaches aren’t kicking their feet up on their desks and smoking cigars whilst taking in the view.

Getting back to the space in that EZ, by my eye there’s a good deal of room there and depending on what they do there’s room for close to ten rows of seating and in the neighborhood of 2,000 seats.

The view from the offices is still pretty good. I’ve been in those offices a bunch of times, but not with the new board installed.
The seating in the endzone will be tricky. If the Cats go with an elevated seating area, with luxury boxes underneath like the Husky’s have, then I don’t see much available seating there. The angle to the windows will be real shallow with elevated seating and the scoreboard pilings will cause really poor viewing angles, if seats are put behind them. I can’t visualize more than a couple of rows in that area right up to the pilings with a nice flat plaza area to the windows for standing behind the rows. The corners of the endzone and will provide the best opportunity for more seating. The new East grandstands won’t provide much new seating itself, just better seating angles than we have now with more luxury boxes possible above. I wouldn’t put much stock in that seven year old facilities plan other than a general idea of what they wanted to do back when it was made.

I guess “I don’t see too well” but after looking at the space in the SEZ yesterday and then the NEZ, I came to my conclusion. I could be way off though.

From pacing and eyeballing just now, there’s about 50’ in depth to work with. There’s room for about ten rows in height.

For some reason they’ve cut holes on each end of west grandstand that line up with the seating rows. This goes up about tens rows on each end. Anyone know what that is for? It looks like something that you’d do if you were extending the grandstand a few columns on each end. ???

[RICO CAT]

2) I don’t know that MSU was ever planning for those windows to be permanent viewing for games. I don’t even know what’s on the other side of those windows.

Behind most of those windows are the coaches' offices, so definitely not intended as a viewing area during games. The coaches' viewshed of the mountains may have been diminished with the new scoreboard, but somehow I doubt they'll mind too much. Vigen still has a great view since he's in the corner office that isn't blocked.

That’s what I was guessing. Yes, in that case, there’s nothing lost since the coaches aren’t kicking their feet up on their desks and smoking cigars whilst taking in the view.

Getting back to the space in that EZ, by my eye there’s a good deal of room there and depending on what they do there’s room for close to ten rows of seating and in the neighborhood of 2,000 seats.

The view from the offices is still pretty good. I’ve been in those offices a bunch of times, but not with the new board installed.
The seating in the endzone will be tricky. If the Cats go with an elevated seating area, with luxury boxes underneath like the Husky’s have, then I don’t see much available seating there. The angle to the windows will be real shallow with elevated seating and the scoreboard pilings will cause really poor viewing angles, if seats are put behind them. I can’t visualize more than a couple of rows in that area right up to the pilings with a nice flat plaza area to the windows for standing behind the rows. The corners of the endzone and will provide the best opportunity for more seating. The new East grandstands won’t provide much new seating itself, just better seating angles than we have now with more luxury boxes possible above. I wouldn’t put much stock in that seven year old facilities plan other than a general idea of what they wanted to do back when it was made.

I guess “I don’t see too well” but after looking at the space in the SEZ yesterday and then the NEZ, I came to my conclusion. I could be way off though.

From pacing and eyeballing just now, there’s about 50’ in depth to work with. There’s room for about ten rows in height.

For some reason they’ve cut holes on each end of west grandstand that line up with the seating rows. This goes up about tens rows on each end. Anyone know what that is for? It looks like something that you’d do if you were extending the grandstand a few columns on each end. ???

We need to put AFCAT on the case.

[kennethnoisewater]

2) I don’t know that MSU was ever planning for those windows to be permanent viewing for games. I don’t even know what’s on the other side of those windows.

Behind most of those windows are the coaches' offices, so definitely not intended as a viewing area during games. The coaches' viewshed of the mountains may have been diminished with the new scoreboard, but somehow I doubt they'll mind too much. Vigen still has a great view since he's in the corner office that isn't blocked.

That’s what I was guessing. Yes, in that case, there’s nothing lost since the coaches aren’t kicking their feet up on their desks and smoking cigars whilst taking in the view.

Getting back to the space in that EZ, by my eye there’s a good deal of room there and depending on what they do there’s room for close to ten rows of seating and in the neighborhood of 2,000 seats.

The view from the offices is still pretty good. I’ve been in those offices a bunch of times, but not with the new board installed.
The seating in the endzone will be tricky. If the Cats go with an elevated seating area, with luxury boxes underneath like the Husky’s have, then I don’t see much available seating there. The angle to the windows will be real shallow with elevated seating and the scoreboard pilings will cause really poor viewing angles, if seats are put behind them. I can’t visualize more than a couple of rows in that area right up to the pilings with a nice flat plaza area to the windows for standing behind the rows. The corners of the endzone and will provide the best opportunity for more seating. The new East grandstands won’t provide much new seating itself, just better seating angles than we have now with more luxury boxes possible above. I wouldn’t put much stock in that seven year old facilities plan other than a general idea of what they wanted to do back when it was made.

I guess “I don’t see too well” but after looking at the space in the SEZ yesterday and then the NEZ, I came to my conclusion. I could be way off though.

From pacing and eyeballing just now, there’s about 50’ in depth to work with. There’s room for about ten rows in height.

For some reason they’ve cut holes on each end of west grandstand that line up with the seating rows. This goes up about tens rows on each end. Anyone know what that is for? It looks like something that you’d do if you were extending the grandstand a few columns on each end. ???

I heard they bought handrails for the east side and then said "screw those idiots, let's add extra handrails for our favorites".

[AFCAT]

2) I don’t know that MSU was ever planning for those windows to be permanent viewing for games. I don’t even know what’s on the other side of those windows.

Behind most of those windows are the coaches' offices, so definitely not intended as a viewing area during games. The coaches' viewshed of the mountains may have been diminished with the new scoreboard, but somehow I doubt they'll mind too much. Vigen still has a great view since he's in the corner office that isn't blocked.

That’s what I was guessing. Yes, in that case, there’s nothing lost since the coaches aren’t kicking their feet up on their desks and smoking cigars whilst taking in the view.

Getting back to the space in that EZ, by my eye there’s a good deal of room there and depending on what they do there’s room for close to ten rows of seating and in the neighborhood of 2,000 seats.

The view from the offices is still pretty good. I’ve been in those offices a bunch of times, but not with the new board installed.
The seating in the endzone will be tricky. If the Cats go with an elevated seating area, with luxury boxes underneath like the Husky’s have, then I don’t see much available seating there. The angle to the windows will be real shallow with elevated seating and the scoreboard pilings will cause really poor viewing angles, if seats are put behind them. I can’t visualize more than a couple of rows in that area right up to the pilings with a nice flat plaza area to the windows for standing behind the rows. The corners of the endzone and will provide the best opportunity for more seating. The new East grandstands won’t provide much new seating itself, just better seating angles than we have now with more luxury boxes possible above. I wouldn’t put much stock in that seven year old facilities plan other than a general idea of what they wanted to do back when it was made.

I guess “I don’t see too well” but after looking at the space in the SEZ yesterday and then the NEZ, I came to my conclusion. I could be way off though.

From pacing and eyeballing just now, there’s about 50’ in depth to work with. There’s room for about ten rows in height.

For some reason they’ve cut holes on each end of west grandstand that line up with the seating rows. This goes up about tens rows on each end. Anyone know what that is for? It looks like something that you’d do if you were extending the grandstand a few columns on each end. ???

I am absolutely no engineer or stadium seating architect at all, so my opinion is just a fans opinion. I'm trying to find a photo I did of a mock up seating area in the North end zone, overlaid with the Sonny Holland end zone seating area but it's on an external hard drive that I can't access at this time. If the Cats just decided to put a Sonny Holland Student section-like area in the North end zone, it would work okay. If you follow the open walkway area around the stadium, a future walkway expansion would end up directly underneath the windows of the BAC, with a student section like area fitting in nicely underneath to the field. Now, if the Cats decide to raise the stands up for a UW-like party area underneath the end zone stands, then they would need to raise the North end zone area probably eight to ten feet high, which is much higher that the South end zone seating area. Starting from that raised point back to below the windows limits how many rows they can put in. They are also limited by the scoreboard pilings because you don't want to have obstructed seating behind the pilings where fans can't see wide areas of the end zones or field. The location of the scoreboard pilings hurts the Cats for seating in that area. I may be completely wrong but with an amateurs eye, it seems to me like the Cats are really limited to in what they can do there.

[AFCAT]

TomCat photos that he asked me to post.

[TomCat88]

Thanks AFCAT!

[TomCat88]

2) I don’t know that MSU was ever planning for those windows to be permanent viewing for games. I don’t even know what’s on the other side of those windows.

Behind most of those windows are the coaches' offices, so definitely not intended as a viewing area during games. The coaches' viewshed of the mountains may have been diminished with the new scoreboard, but somehow I doubt they'll mind too much. Vigen still has a great view since he's in the corner office that isn't blocked.

That’s what I was guessing. Yes, in that case, there’s nothing lost since the coaches aren’t kicking their feet up on their desks and smoking cigars whilst taking in the view.

Getting back to the space in that EZ, by my eye there’s a good deal of room there and depending on what they do there’s room for close to ten rows of seating and in the neighborhood of 2,000 seats.

The view from the offices is still pretty good. I’ve been in those offices a bunch of times, but not with the new board installed.
The seating in the endzone will be tricky. If the Cats go with an elevated seating area, with luxury boxes underneath like the Husky’s have, then I don’t see much available seating there. The angle to the windows will be real shallow with elevated seating and the scoreboard pilings will cause really poor viewing angles, if seats are put behind them. I can’t visualize more than a couple of rows in that area right up to the pilings with a nice flat plaza area to the windows for standing behind the rows. The corners of the endzone and will provide the best opportunity for more seating. The new East grandstands won’t provide much new seating itself, just better seating angles than we have now with more luxury boxes possible above. I wouldn’t put much stock in that seven year old facilities plan other than a general idea of what they wanted to do back when it was made.

I guess “I don’t see too well” but after looking at the space in the SEZ yesterday and then the NEZ, I came to my conclusion. I could be way off though.

From pacing and eyeballing just now, there’s about 50’ in depth to work with. There’s room for about ten rows in height.

For some reason they’ve cut holes on each end of west grandstand that line up with the seating rows. This goes up about tens rows on each end. Anyone know what that is for? It looks like something that you’d do if you were extending the grandstand a few columns on each end. ???

I am absolutely no engineer or stadium seating architect at all, so my opinion is just a fans opinion. I'm trying to find a photo I did of a mock up seating area in the North end zone, overlaid with the Sonny Holland end zone seating area but it's on an external hard drive that I can't access at this time. If the Cats just decided to put a Sonny Holland Student section-like area in the North end zone, it would work okay. If you follow the open walkway area around the stadium, a future walkway expansion would end up directly underneath the windows of the BAC, with a student section like area fitting in nicely underneath to the field. Now, if the Cats decide to raise the stands up for a UW-like party area underneath the end zone stands, then they would need to raise the North end zone area probably eight to ten feet high, which is much higher that the South end zone seating area. Starting from that raised point back to below the windows limits how many rows they can put in. They are also limited by the scoreboard pilings because you don't want to have obstructed seating behind the pilings where fans can't see wide areas of the end zones or field. The location of the scoreboard pilings hurts the Cats for seating in that area. I may be completely wrong but with an amateurs eye, it seems to me like the Cats are really limited to in what they can do there.

It is a limited area. They have about 30’ in depth to work with from flush with the scoreboard forward to the dashed line in the EZ. If each row is allotted 3’, that’s 10 rows. If they add a walkway it drops to about 7 rows. About 200 seats per row. Ups the seating capacity to over 19,007. The UW thing would probably knock out two rows. Still 1,000+ seats.

If, and it’s a big IF, they’re also adding seats to the ends of the west grandstand, then it starts pushing 20,007. That’d be a nice number to get to.

[TomCat88]

Speakers just fired up and even sappy country sounds good. All kidding aside, it sounds incredible.

[TomCat88]

They’re doing a jet takeoff. Amazing

[TomCat88]

[AFCAT]

Good news is that I just scored two more season tickets this season that I'll give away to friends. I also made sure the seats weren't next to mine, so I don't have to get into needless conversation or share anything with friends during the game. Yeee Haaa!

[TomCat88]

[AFCAT]

[TomCat88]

You literally need to yell to talk to someone. I was trying to talk to someone and had to plug one ear to hear myself. Crisp sound. No static.

[AFCAT]

2) I don’t know that MSU was ever planning for those windows to be permanent viewing for games. I don’t even know what’s on the other side of those windows.

Behind most of those windows are the coaches' offices, so definitely not intended as a viewing area during games. The coaches' viewshed of the mountains may have been diminished with the new scoreboard, but somehow I doubt they'll mind too much. Vigen still has a great view since he's in the corner office that isn't blocked.

That’s what I was guessing. Yes, in that case, there’s nothing lost since the coaches aren’t kicking their feet up on their desks and smoking cigars whilst taking in the view.

Getting back to the space in that EZ, by my eye there’s a good deal of room there and depending on what they do there’s room for close to ten rows of seating and in the neighborhood of 2,000 seats.

The view from the offices is still pretty good. I’ve been in those offices a bunch of times, but not with the new board installed.
The seating in the endzone will be tricky. If the Cats go with an elevated seating area, with luxury boxes underneath like the Husky’s have, then I don’t see much available seating there. The angle to the windows will be real shallow with elevated seating and the scoreboard pilings will cause really poor viewing angles, if seats are put behind them. I can’t visualize more than a couple of rows in that area right up to the pilings with a nice flat plaza area to the windows for standing behind the rows. The corners of the endzone and will provide the best opportunity for more seating. The new East grandstands won’t provide much new seating itself, just better seating angles than we have now with more luxury boxes possible above. I wouldn’t put much stock in that seven year old facilities plan other than a general idea of what they wanted to do back when it was made.

I guess “I don’t see too well” but after looking at the space in the SEZ yesterday and then the NEZ, I came to my conclusion. I could be way off though.

From pacing and eyeballing just now, there’s about 50’ in depth to work with. There’s room for about ten rows in height.

For some reason they’ve cut holes on each end of west grandstand that line up with the seating rows. This goes up about tens rows on each end. Anyone know what that is for? It looks like something that you’d do if you were extending the grandstand a few columns on each end. ???

I am absolutely no engineer or stadium seating architect at all, so my opinion is just a fans opinion. I'm trying to find a photo I did of a mock up seating area in the North end zone, overlaid with the Sonny Holland end zone seating area but it's on an external hard drive that I can't access at this time. If the Cats just decided to put a Sonny Holland Student section-like area in the North end zone, it would work okay. If you follow the open walkway area around the stadium, a future walkway expansion would end up directly underneath the windows of the BAC, with a student section like area fitting in nicely underneath to the field. Now, if the Cats decide to raise the stands up for a UW-like party area underneath the end zone stands, then they would need to raise the North end zone area probably eight to ten feet high, which is much higher that the South end zone seating area. Starting from that raised point back to below the windows limits how many rows they can put in. They are also limited by the scoreboard pilings because you don't want to have obstructed seating behind the pilings where fans can't see wide areas of the end zones or field. The location of the scoreboard pilings hurts the Cats for seating in that area. I may be completely wrong but with an amateurs eye, it seems to me like the Cats are really limited to in what they can do there.

It is a limited area. They have about 30’ in depth to work with from flush with the scoreboard forward to the dashed line in the EZ. If each row is allotted 3’, that’s 10 rows. If they add a walkway it drops to about 7 rows. About 200 seats per row. Ups the seating capacity to over 19,007. The UW thing would probably knock out two rows. Still 1,000+ seats.

If, and it’s a big IF, they’re also adding seats to the ends of the west grandstand, then it starts pushing 20,007. That’d be a nice number to get to.

3-5 rows is about max in what I'd expect to see if they don't want to limit the sight lines. The UW-like party area and the scoreboard hurts them for seating but the party area probably makes up for the money they would lose with more seating anyway.

[AFCAT]

Now, we expect you to come by and sit there everyday until we see some video of the board itself in action.

[kennethnoisewater]

2) I don’t know that MSU was ever planning for those windows to be permanent viewing for games. I don’t even know what’s on the other side of those windows.

Behind most of those windows are the coaches' offices, so definitely not intended as a viewing area during games. The coaches' viewshed of the mountains may have been diminished with the new scoreboard, but somehow I doubt they'll mind too much. Vigen still has a great view since he's in the corner office that isn't blocked.

That’s what I was guessing. Yes, in that case, there’s nothing lost since the coaches aren’t kicking their feet up on their desks and smoking cigars whilst taking in the view.

Getting back to the space in that EZ, by my eye there’s a good deal of room there and depending on what they do there’s room for close to ten rows of seating and in the neighborhood of 2,000 seats.

The view from the offices is still pretty good. I’ve been in those offices a bunch of times, but not with the new board installed.
The seating in the endzone will be tricky. If the Cats go with an elevated seating area, with luxury boxes underneath like the Husky’s have, then I don’t see much available seating there. The angle to the windows will be real shallow with elevated seating and the scoreboard pilings will cause really poor viewing angles, if seats are put behind them. I can’t visualize more than a couple of rows in that area right up to the pilings with a nice flat plaza area to the windows for standing behind the rows. The corners of the endzone and will provide the best opportunity for more seating. The new East grandstands won’t provide much new seating itself, just better seating angles than we have now with more luxury boxes possible above. I wouldn’t put much stock in that seven year old facilities plan other than a general idea of what they wanted to do back when it was made.

I guess “I don’t see too well” but after looking at the space in the SEZ yesterday and then the NEZ, I came to my conclusion. I could be way off though.

From pacing and eyeballing just now, there’s about 50’ in depth to work with. There’s room for about ten rows in height.

For some reason they’ve cut holes on each end of west grandstand that line up with the seating rows. This goes up about tens rows on each end. Anyone know what that is for? It looks like something that you’d do if you were extending the grandstand a few columns on each end. ???

I am absolutely no engineer or stadium seating architect at all, so my opinion is just a fans opinion. I'm trying to find a photo I did of a mock up seating area in the North end zone, overlaid with the Sonny Holland end zone seating area but it's on an external hard drive that I can't access at this time. If the Cats just decided to put a Sonny Holland Student section-like area in the North end zone, it would work okay. If you follow the open walkway area around the stadium, a future walkway expansion would end up directly underneath the windows of the BAC, with a student section like area fitting in nicely underneath to the field. Now, if the Cats decide to raise the stands up for a UW-like party area underneath the end zone stands, then they would need to raise the North end zone area probably eight to ten feet high, which is much higher that the South end zone seating area. Starting from that raised point back to below the windows limits how many rows they can put in. They are also limited by the scoreboard pilings because you don't want to have obstructed seating behind the pilings where fans can't see wide areas of the end zones or field. The location of the scoreboard pilings hurts the Cats for seating in that area. I may be completely wrong but with an amateurs eye, it seems to me like the Cats are really limited to in what they can do there.

It is a limited area. They have about 30’ in depth to work with from flush with the scoreboard forward to the dashed line in the EZ. If each row is allotted 3’, that’s 10 rows. If they add a walkway it drops to about 7 rows. About 200 seats per row. Ups the seating capacity to over 19,007. The UW thing would probably knock out two rows. Still 1,000+ seats.

If, and it’s a big IF, they’re also adding seats to the ends of the west grandstand, then it starts pushing 20,007. That’d be a nice number to get to.

3-5 rows is about max in what I'd expect to see if they don't want to limit the sight lines. The UW-like party area and the scoreboard hurts them for seating but the party area probably makes up for the money they would lose with more seating anyway.

Maybe they could do a double decker party area. The bottom one is the worst sight lines but it's indoors and climate controlled. The upper one is just an elevated version of what they're already doing. That's better sightlines than the current one and would be a fun way to watch a game.

[TomCat88]

Now, we expect you to come by and sit there everyday until we see some video of the board itself in action.

I wish.

Important to keep in mind that the sound my mic is picking up is from the opposite end of the stadium and there’s a 15-20 mph wind blowing.