Interesting. Thanks.

I agree.  Looks a good 8-10 yards narrower than normal.

I swung through Athens last Friday and took some still pictures and video of the facility.

First off, I am 100% sure that the facility has a pole vault pit as I confirmed that with the track coach.  I did not ask about a long-jump pit, but I would assume it probably does.

Since we know there is a pole vault pit and we know there is track, the case can't be made that this is a football only facility. I know the track is not regulation in terms of length or the degrees of the turn, but the track would enable the track team to practice sprints, hurdles and possibly work on relay handoffs. 

The track and the field itself would allow other athletic teams to use the facility for general conditioning.  I read one article about a variety of nets that will be installed so that more than one activity can take place at a time.

I would imagine the baseball team for example could run in the facility, along with throwing and taking some ground balls.

After walking around the facility in person, I am pretty sure the field is regulation width.  However, it appears in the picture that the corner of the end-zones may be rounded off which would eliminate the deep corner pass route.  This is common at many facilities that also include a track including the Akron indoor facility pictured below.  I think the Akron track has more of the end-zone and the field cut off for a regulation size indoor track.  It appears less of our end-zone is cut off since it is a general purpose running track.

By rounding off the end-zone to include a track, one cannot say this is a football only facility.

All in all I think the facility is wonderful.  Yes it would have been nice to have a regulation size track that could host meets, but that was not possible most due to the lack of funds and possible the amount of space at the location.

I thing the University has done the best they can based on funding.  I made a five year pledge in part since the facility is not a football only facility.

I hope this is a joke Alan.  The sad thing is we don't do enough of this.  I know we have had the opportunity to put logos on the Convo floor and we have turned the money down....

by definition any Marching 110 practice facility that also accommodates the football team is a multi-purpose facility.

I like that it has camera platforms for recording practice. Akron's facility doesn't have them. What Akron built is an Indoor Track & Field facility that contains a football field. Walter Fieldhouse is a true football event facility designed to enhance the performance athletically and musically on the field. I can't see the spring game there but it sounds like an excellent venue for the annual equipment sale. Student tailgate is best to be outside where its visible. I thought it wasn't allowed on punchcard park but if they've changed their polices that is where it belongs.

Akron's facility is little too spacious for football and doesn't have the garage door bays that Walter Fieldhouse does. All the new designs have the garage doors so players can flow right in for practice. You could have the water set up inside out of the heat easily accessible from the outdoors. Northern Illinois is the only other school in the MAC with the garage bays. Ohio then has 1 and 1/2 practice fields fitted in behind the IPF. From a space utilization standpoint its an excellent set up.

I would guess that the Akron facility was much more expensive than Ohio's. Extra width is going to add much, much more to the cost than extra length because it means much more expensive steel to span the distance. It isn't  like you can drop posts half way across. Thus width for a full track and for stands is going to be very expensive. If Ohio's field isn't quite full width, the reason would be to accommodate a track while keeping to a low cost.

the Akron style/full indoor track with bleachers set up would have been nice in that it would probably be the only one of its kind in the region and could be used like the Convo is for regional high school events as well as regional college events.

if I remember that was taken into consideration but it didn't pan out from a cost/benefit analysis.

Akron was smart in how they built their facility - they integrated their student rec center into a single facility and then got students to agree to a fee to help pay for both.  We of course did it the hard way.

 

or a money available basis