As I sit here in Peden looking at the video board being worked on in an attempt to get it functioning it's painfully obvious that it's time to replace it. Do we know for sure it's being replaced and when?

Perhaps we should pass the collection plate around the stadium.

We don't exactly have unlimited funds, but we just raised a s**t ton of money for something silly when the stadium has much more immediate needs.

I was told that the price tag for a new scoreboard is in the vicinity of 7 million. I assume some of the cost is the installation, electrical service and software integration. Plus demo of the old one.
I don't believe that this would be an elaborate score board. Maybe similar to the one at Akron.

About the Academic center. It is a recruiting tool for athletes and their parents, there is not enough space for athletes to study on the 4th floor of Peden, it will serve as a game day amenity and last but not least Ohio University is an academic institution.

Built entirely by private funds.

DFC and I are often at odds but silly is the right word and I totally agree with him. "Bolstering the academic side?" That is what high school does. "Improving the game day atmosphere?" Right now that is up in the president's box. Are they going to vacate that prime seating location and move it down to the worst seats in the house? Those who give want to be where the action is and it's not in the endzone. Quit drinking the cool aide my man.

For those who made the trip to Minneapolis here is some detail on their scoreboard. Not that we could or should have a similar board.

The centerpiece of the stadium is the massive scoreboard, designed and built by Daktronics at a cost of $9 million. 108 X 48 feet -Wikipedia

Akron's board is 85 X 60 feet.

The word I've heard is that the new scoreboard is going to be paid for entirely by Pepsi and that they are also going to pay for a new "hanging scoreboard" in the Convo. In exchange they are getting "pouring rights" for the whole campus for a decade or so. I don't think the $7-million price tag is correct. I believe the cost will *only* be a million or two for each board. I saw the Minnesota board up close and personal two weeks ago, and I'm guessing that OHIO's will be about half the size, which is still *much* larger than our current one.

I was sitting in Peden pregame on Saturday and thinking not only about the new academic center but also the rest of the stadium. My conclusion overall is that Peden even with the new academic center will be one of the ugliest stadiums in college football. Sorry guys, but the stadium should have been torn down and rebuilt. As for expansion, the only place left to expand after the academic center is the east side (student side), and quite frankly, that will not give you much in terms of additional seating. You will probably have to go with a second deck on that side and I am not sure how much actual expansion that will achieve. As for Victory Hill, how do you expand there with the Carrin Center on one side and the score board there as well. Further, even if you put seating where the Hill is it will not add that much.

In short, the facilities in the stadium are a joke. The tower side of the stadium underneath is small, crowded and I doubt if you can do anything to fix any of that. Even with expansion, which I am in favor of doing, the stadium when completed will look like some architect's nightmare. Very disjointed, nothing matches, and some of it you will never be able to rehab or dress up.

Okay, jump on me about funds, we don't have the money, the place is sacred, etc.

yea well UC isn't really any bigger than a MAC team. They'd like to think so.

Adding a thought to this, if you want to tear down the east side, and start from scratch, and upgrade the audio/video in the stadium, you're talking major, major dollars. give that UC just spent $85-90 mil to upgrade Nippert, I'd have to imagine the kind of project we're talking about here would be at least a quarter to a third of their cost. It makes the Academic Center project look small, though I think it should just be PART of a total renovation plan.

Maybe I'm biased towards basketball, but I surely think improving The Convo should be more important than Peden based on usage alone.

Some of you are clamoring for a new or vastly improved Peden based on what? Two sellouts a year at best? The old girl needs work, but I don't think it's very prudent to spend money on something that gets filled two times a year to watch a team that loses money no matter how well they do. This year we'll have six home games. Two will be on Tuesdays in November will well under 10,000 actual humans in attendance. I'm glad we're addressing the scoreboard and I'd love to have new everything, but until we get our own Phil Knight or T. Boone Pickens, I want to see our limited resources used more wisely.

Anyone who wants a new stadium: Are you aware that Akron is cutting jobs in part to service debt on their $61 million stadium? Cincinnati gambled big on renovating Nippert, dropping more than $85 million. They're not even in a P5 conference anymore, and that university has more than a billion in debt right now. I'd much rather have creaking ancient Peden without tens of millions in debt for a building that's used six times a year to play a sport that has an uncertain future.

I say all that as a season ticket holder and frequent donor.

Doesn't a flawed stadium fit right in with an old college town like Athens? It adds character just like Court Street. When that academic center and scoreboard go in you'll be surprised at how much it will upgrade the atmosphere at the stadium. Anything beyond that you are talking the next president/AD/Coach making the call.

I agree with it fitting right in. What I disagree with is the approach. I think the academic center is important, but if it's going into Peden, then why not take more planned approach? Work it into a plan that builds other needs of the stadium into it? It sort of feels the same as the IPF to me, in that it could have been done with upgrades of the east side stands in mind as well. Yes, it costs more, but it sure seems like it would be a more efficient and long term cost effective approach.

Either way, I still think if the AD is pouring money into facilities that The Convo would be a better use of dollars right now.