Furman Football Complex

[PaladinNation]

Due to existing press box issues (Fire Marshall safety issues) Furman has changed plans for Paladin Stadium. The highlights:

• Revamping the press box tower into a five-story building with a two-story football operations complex.

• Building new locker rooms, coaches’ offices and meeting space and developing a new fan-friendly “Heritage Hall.”

• Building a club level area with concessions and special seating, new presidential and corporate suites, and a high-tech press box.

http://www2.furman.edu/sites/becausefurmanmatters/AthleticExcellence/Pages/Football.aspx

[HailSzczur]

Pretty cool, I'm interested to see what it looks like with the stadium though, hard to tell from the video. Are there any other pictures out there?

[asumike83]

Seems like it's going to be a sharp looking facility. It mentions a club level addition, is that going to increase capacity?

[slostang]

Awesome.

[ursus arctos horribilis]

That does look real nice.

[citdog]

heritage hall?


http://impactingdesign.com/boycottdisney.jpg

[PaladinNation]

Great point…

By my count, it looks like the VIP Level Seating will add about 140 - 160 seats plus a very large indoors lounge.
President's Suites Level Seating, six suites 12 seats each with large lounges for each suite.

This is such a big step for the program… super excited for Coach Fowler and Paladin Nation.

[seantaylor]

Much better than what GSU has had to scale down. Our new president sucks besides the fact he is from the south. And we still employ the worst AD in the country.

[JMU2K_DukeDawg]

Much better than what GSU has had to scale down. Our new president sucks besides the fact he is from the south. And we still employ the worst AD in the country.

I dunno. Does your AD build a $65 million stadium expansion only to leave it empty on playoff weekends when it could be filled? That said, our AD has done plenty good things. Playing WVU at FedEx this fall, for example, was a great deal on his part.

[seantaylor]

I dunno. Does your AD build a $65 million stadium expansion only to leave it empty on playoff weekends when it could be filled? That said, our AD has done plenty good things. Playing WVU at FedEx this fall, for example, was a great deal on his part.

Our AD wouldn't know what 6.5 mil looks like let alone 65 mil. GSU has absolutely the worst fans in the country. All about heritage. Any other university would have broken Sammy Baker's knees Jeff Gilooley style.

[PaladinFan]

Been a long time coming, I think. Paladin Stadium has always struck me as one of the prettiest settings for college football I've ever been to. Furman has, despite lagging facilities, managed to put together a pretty strong team the past few years, but I think a dedication to improving the facilities will help get the Paladins back over the hump to where they belong on the national stage.

As a fan, I'm thrilled to see a dedicated area to Furman's football tradition. I'm not sure how other schools handle it, but virtually all of Furman's football history is located in the offices, which are inaccessible to the fan. Furman has the long and storied football history, and all of that has been basically relegated to people's memories. It will be nice to see some of those memories, teams, trophies, etc. be put out for folks to see.

[PaladinFan]

Great point…

By my count, it looks like the VIP Level Seating will add about 140 - 160 seats plus a very large indoors lounge.
President's Suites Level Seating, six suites 12 seats each with large lounges for each suite.

This is such a big step for the program… super excited for Coach Fowler and Paladin Nation.

Watching that video left me with two impressions: (1) Coach Fowler is a calm dude. (2) Nobody managed to cover Colin Anderson last season.

[Mr. C]

I dunno. Does your AD build a $65 million stadium expansion only to leave it empty on playoff weekends when it could be filled? That said, our AD has done plenty good things. Playing WVU at FedEx this fall, for example, was a great deal on his part.

I guess you don't remember Sam Baker, the GSU AD, forgetting to bid altogether for the quarterfinal round of the playoffs in 2010. Georgia Southern had to travel to Wofford of all places for that game when the Eagles should have hosted. One of many blunders by Baker over the years. Sean Taylor and I don't agree on much, but we agree on Baker's place among college ADs.

[Mr. C]

Been a long time coming, I think. Paladin Stadium has always struck me as one of the prettiest settings for college football I've ever been to. Furman has, despite lagging facilities, managed to put together a pretty strong team the past few years, but I think a dedication to improving the facilities will help get the Paladins back over the hump to where they belong on the national stage.

As a fan, I'm thrilled to see a dedicated area to Furman's football tradition. I'm not sure how other schools handle it, but virtually all of Furman's football history is located in the offices, which are inaccessible to the fan. Furman has the long and storied football history, and all of that has been basically relegated to people's memories. It will be nice to see some of those memories, teams, trophies, etc. be put out for folks to see.

There are a lot of us who think that the major blame for Furman's slide in FCS in recent years has been due to facilities. While every other school in the SoCon was improving their facilities, Furman pretty much stayed put and lost the arms race in the past decade. The Paladins couldn't blame that on Bobby Lamb.

[Apphole]

It looks real good. Y'all need it too. I made my first trip to a Furple game this year and was really surprised by how old the stadium looked. It was down right ugly and it stood out like a sore thumb in that beautiful campus. LOVED parking 100 yards from the stadium for free though.

[PaladinFan]

It looks real good. Y'all need it too. I made my first trip to a Furple game this year and was really surprised by how old the stadium looked. It was down right ugly and it stood out like a sore thumb in that beautiful campus. LOVED parking 100 yards from the stadium for free though.

It was built in 1980. Like the other "older" stadiums in the SoCon (Johnson-Haygood, KBS, and Paulson) it needed a facelift.

[eaglewraith]

Much better than what GSU has had to scale down. Our new president sucks besides the fact he is from the south. And we still employ the worst AD in the country.

We haven't scaled anything down with the new building. Maybe so with the Bishop Field House, but with the new one, definitely not. During any development of a new building design will change constantly until it's actually built.

The biggest thing that's delayed it has been the failure of people to donate the money. The 50% mark has been reached though and ground breaking will happen at the spring game.

[apaladin]

Here is a direct link to the drawings without the video.

http://www2.furman.edu/sites/becausefurmanmatters/AthleticExcellence/Documents/footballplan.pdf

[PaladinFan]

There are a lot of us who think that the major blame for Furman's slide in FCS in recent years has been due to facilities. While every other school in the SoCon was improving their facilities, Furman pretty much stayed put and lost the arms race in the past decade. The Paladins couldn't blame that on Bobby Lamb.

I think even Furman fans put a little bit of the blame on facilities and a lack of interest in the administration. I do not think any fans put the blame on Lamb. I think Lamb just got caught in the whirlwind of change. Furman fans, perhaps more so than just about any fanbase, are forgiving of their head coaches. It isn't that Lamb didn't perform, but even the great head coaches have to endure a period of time when they get a little stale.

[OL FU]

I think a lot of Furman fans put the blame on Lamb, probably more than he deserved. My two cents not to drag up an old story, but switching to an offense we weren't suited for and was rather non-descript and unexciting unless you like bubble screens and a total lack of intensity on defense were two critical ingredients.

On the other hand the plans look great, glad we are stepping up. I will however have both hands on my wallet as my move to Atlanta ain't going to be cheap.