Hello all my fellow bobcats, and bobcat football fans! I am coming to you today as a current undergrad student here at the ever so fine Ohio University looking for some help with my Facilities Class. We choose to do Peden Stadium, and what better timing than now! So if you could please take a small amount of time out of your day and take this quick survey on your experiences at OU football games and at Peden, you would be helping out a fellow bobcat so much. Thanks and GO BOBCATS!

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NNCRS5W

Not all but part of the money could come from naming rights. 

Interestingly, when you read the opinions of other MAC fans, Peden typically ranks in the upper half of conference stadiums. There is some significant sprucing up coming in the next 5-6 years, but nothing like a new deck on the visitor's side or elimination of the corner sections.  But it will be significant nonetheless.

There's a lot of justifiable envy expressed on this board toward Akron's stadium, but I see it as a shimmering cautionary tale. We're enjoying a bit of a golden age right now with football, but it's not guaranteed to last and there are huge questions on the near-term horizon. Not only that, there's not even compelling evidence that there is a great need for more seats in the midst of this golden age. One or two games a year, a seat is hard to come by. That's it. "Sellouts" that include thousands of tickets at around $5 apiece rarely translate into an inability to get in the stadium.

It's only a slight exaggeration to say we're one bad coaching hire away from Peden being as populated as InfoCision or Yager. Peden needs better bathrooms, concessions and a better scoreboard. It only needs more seating in the fantasies of a few dreamers on this board. Those dreamers seem to think that spending tens of millions of dollars to fill a few more seats maybe twice a year is a good investment. When you factor in the realities of declining state funding, an uncertain future for traditional residential campuses in general, and massive unanswered questions about the future of non-AQ football programs like ours, dumping significant money into a facility that's used 6-8 times a year is ridiculous folly.

In all honesty I don't think Peden will be or should be upgraded other than concessions and restrooms. Yes, were doing well putting butts in the seats, but when we have weekday games were lucky to have 18,000 people at the game. I would be happy to come back in a few years and see a new student section side with new restrooms, concessions and the glitz and glamour and about 30,000 seats. 

A number of years ago there was a plan (might have been more like a "trail ballon") that was discussed that would involve putting up another tower on the student side and changing the angle of the stands.  Not sure how serious it ever was, or if the new IPF (aka MPF) would make it impossible or more difficult.  I always thought it sounded like a good idea.  For one thing, you could then put TV cameras on that side and see more people in the stands in the second half of games where the lure of the bars becomes too much for the students to resist.

I agree with what a couple people above have said.... I don't view stadium expansion as a result of current success. I think it is an investment in the program that attempts to grow the program and extend the golden age.
 

I think saying "wait and see what happens when Frank leaves" is the wrong way to look at this. We have an opportunity significantly improve the program so that when Frank leaves the next coach is coming into a much more attractive job with more resources to win
 

Expanding to 30,000 is still expanding. We CAN fill 30,000 under Frank and if we continue winning under Frank that would put us in a position to keep winning with 1 more good hire and push this program up to a stadium between 35-40k that is consistently full. I don't like the Marshall comparison either.... We have a lot of advantages over Marshall, including the completion of the bypass.
 

The bypass and the IPF seemed like longshots when Frank came in. Now one is done and one is in progress. A stadium expansion and renovation would put us in position to out-recruit most of the MAC, especially with Frank as head coach.
 

Imagine if Frank can tell a high school kid "Peden is going to be bigger and nicer when you are a Senior in a couple years." The LOIs will come pouring in!

Would they put new scoreboard there as well? Its current position is too far away from the field IMO.

Speaking of Marshall. When they upgraded their scoreboards several years

Would the city of Athens have any say in the size of the scoreboard?  I know they have ruled over the University in terms of signage in other areas of town.