THE IUP Football Thread

[IUPbigINDIANS]

What's crazy to think is how easy it is for high schools to update their stadiums - and nobody questions it. Turf needs a $600k replacement? Add it to the budget. At a school like IUP, that $600k is an unworldly expense and if many staff knew how much it cost just to do lifecycle replacement would throw a fit. Meanwhile at many high schools, nobody blinks. Plus the local businesses line up to put their names in the stadiums - often without any sort of tax deduction and probably less eyes on the sponsorships compared to how often college stadiums are used. Anyone who thinks PASSHE schools are havens for financial waste should spend a few hours in athletic facilities then go to the closest 4A or 5A high school and see who is living on pennies.

Local to Indiana, Apollo-Ridge spent a fortune a couple years ago. And, A-R is an incredibly poor school district. As you mentioned, the town didn't say a peep and supported it.

[Fightingscot82]

What's crazy to think is how easy it is for high schools to update their stadiums - and nobody questions it. Turf needs a $600k replacement? Add it to the budget. At a school like IUP, that $600k is an unworldly expense and if many staff knew how much it cost just to do lifecycle replacement would throw a fit. Meanwhile at many high schools, nobody blinks. Plus the local businesses line up to put their names in the stadiums - often without any sort of tax deduction and probably less eyes on the sponsorships compared to how often college stadiums are used. Anyone who thinks PASSHE schools are havens for financial waste should spend a few hours in athletic facilities then go to the closest 4A or 5A high school and see who is living on pennies.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Sad thing is there's plenty of room there to do a total demo/rebuild. The gigantic practice lot / frisbee area / metal detector haven behind the home bleachers just sits there unused most of the year. They could demo Miller and turn the field the opposite direction. I hit 9-irons down there a couple days a week in the summer.

Wishful thinking, of course. But, when that pressbox eventually collapses (and falls either forward or backward) ... not going to be a cheap lawsuit to settle. Not to mention, you know, people could die.

Nation's list was pretty spot-on for a quick(ish) fix.

* The chain-link, old, ugly fencing has to go (like 20 years ago).

* The entire home side is a disaster. Blow it up. The restrooms over there are like taking a trip to 1977.

* Fix the wall inside the stadium (along the Field House) before it is beyond repair. If anything, it is a major eyesore.

* The most simple fix: Clean the place up on game day. Get all the track stuff and soccer nets, etc., out of there. It just looks like a jumbled up pile of garbage in the endzones.

* Another relatively inexpensive fix would be to landscape the whole hill area (from the ticket booth area down around the steps). Plant some nice trees, etc.


There's potential there (even with what it is today). But, as you said, the list is so long that they may not know where to start. And, minor detail, somebody has to pay for it.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Speaking of stadiums, the Steelers home will now be called Acrisure Stadium. Cue yinzer outrage.

Hearing Yinzers pronounce that will be classic.

[Chuck Norris]

Speaking of stadiums, the Steelers home will now be called Acrisure Stadium. Cue yinzer outrage.

[Fightingscot82]

That was a really neat feature. I wonder if they'll rebuild it.

From what I've heard they will not. Current president has been using an end zone tent and prefers to watch the game from the sideline. However, he's leaving next summer so things may change. Maybe there will be a Brandon Fusco Lodge in the future.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

A home side like Bloomsburg would be awesome.

In other stadium news, the sky box at Slippery Rock is coming down...literally. The ground under the foundation slid so it's got to be torn down.

That was a really neat feature. I wonder if they'll rebuild it.

[IUPNation]

A home side like Bloomsburg would be awesome.

In other stadium news, the sky box at Slippery Rock is coming down...literally. The ground under the foundation slid so it's got to be torn down.

If only the whole ground opened up and swallowed The Evil. :-)

[Fightingscot82]

A home side like Bloomsburg would be awesome.

In other stadium news, the sky box at Slippery Rock is coming down...literally. The ground under the foundation slid so it's got to be torn down.

[IUPNation]

[EyeoftheHawk]

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Literally fairly new restrooms on the visitors side next to the fairly new stands.

The visitor side is nicer than than the home side. I still prefer to sit on that side but you get roasted over there in early season games. A lot of IUP fans sit on that side. It's a bit less 'stuffy'. People actually cheer on that side unlike the funeral parlor across the field.

In reality, unless it's Cal or SRU at Miller, no other team travels aside from a handful of parents.

[Fightingscot82]

Literally fairly new restrooms on the visitors side next to the fairly new stands.

Okay that makes sense. Its been a few years since I was at Miller and I couldn't remember. I'm usually a 'go before you get there' kind of person.

[IUPNation]

I think the order of 4-5-6 is spot on. Edinboro has the second-largest away side after Rock and adds the benefit of separate away side parking, ticketing, and full service bathrooms. IUP has newer turf and a video board but its away side is pretty basic - are there bathrooms or anything else on that visitors side? I can't remember. Clarion has parking near the away side but its just moveable bleachers - no amenities.

Literally fairly new restrooms on the visitors side next to the fairly new stands.

[ctrabs74]

I dunno. Doesn't look all that bad, relatively speaking.

That must have been recent renovations, because my recollections go back about 6-7 years ago, when they didn't have much of a press box that I could recall. When I was a freelancer, I was looking to cover a game at NDC, but was warned by their own SID staff that the press box facilities weren't that great or something along those lines. Now that I look at the pictures of Mueller Field off their own website it's, well, not that impressive. Cal High School has a better stadium than that.