Surprised that no one has mentioned OSU adding another 2,500 seats (proposed), and if you saw this, you probably also saw the $2.5 Million dollar cost. To me that is jaw dropping for 2,500 seats, and makes me really question if we'd be crazy to expand at those prices!
A normal stadium expansion of Peden would not cost that much for an extra 2500 seats. They will be placing a bridge of seats over the tunnels connecting the horseshoe to the south stands, which is the likely reason for added cost.
Then why don't we get it done? Those corner sections are 2500 seats a piece and you could fit one in on the other side of the student stands between Victory Hill. It would raise the capacity of the stadium only slightly but there would be more seats for students. Knock out the back of the student section to open it up more and to fit in architecturally with the remainder of the stadium including strategically placed concessions and bathrooms. The young alumni section can be added to to the sides of the student section which might displace some students to corner seats but it would make the stadium look more full.
You might not realize that Jim Schaus has been trying for nearly a year to raise a paltry $400k for a FB locker room renovation and to date has raised less than half that amount. His initial deadline passed a few months ago. So coming up with "extra" funds for a stadium expansion seems far fetched. Amazing to me that we could come up with $600K in a few months for Bball locker room but are sucking wind on a smaller nut for FB. Can't say I'm impressed with our revenue stream.
Part of the problem is that project or sport specific donations no longer count for your seats. In other words, if you give $1000 to the locker room enhancement project and you have 4 seats in the basketball platinum section, you need to give an addtional $700 to get those seats. That $1000 used to count toward those seats but but that changed a year or two ago.
SBH - I think it simply comes down to do you have the donors that area ready to make the gift. In basketball, we did. In football, we did for the indoor. I don't think the fact that the deadline passed necessarily means the gift is not there. We are talking about a lot of money and while a "deadline" set by the department or university is nice it does not really mean anything. It is all going to be on the donors timeline. If it takes them a little longer to get the check in our make the commitment, you have to sit back and play the waiting game. That is just how it works.
When you are dealing with a larger project, six figures or more, it takes a hell of a long time to raise the money $1,000 at a time. The reason is that you have to go to 100+ people which takes a ton of time and effort. The way they do it is by going to a handful of people to get the bulk of the project funded and then announce the options to support at lower levels to bring it home. It takes less time going to the smaller people and getting gifts at that point because of a thing called momentum. You announce a big gift and a project that is important for the department and people get excited about supporting it and see that it is almost there. You start it the other way and you never have momentum, never get there and any momentum you did have dies along with people's confidence in your ability to get it done. Please see IPF or MPC project as an example. Lead gift, larger support gifts (5 and 6 figures) then small gits ($5,000 and less). They probably just need that first domino to fall.
I would still be impressed with our revenue streams considering the drastic improvement the department has seen in donations (annual and major), ticket sales and licensing over Schaus's time. It has grown substantially. I don't know that it is where it needs to be yet, but man has it come miles compared to what it was.
Swankster - The restricted gift counting for seats stopped more like 5 years ago (roughly). We know you don't like it! You have made it abundantly clear that you want to support women's volleyball, but at the end of the day you want your CEO (Athletic Director) to be able to determine how to use the money in the best interest of not just one program, but all programs. They think with the bigger picture in mind and that is why you will find a very small percentage of division athletic programs that accept restricted gifts for seat donations.
Also, your argument that part of the problem is that the $1,000 won't count toward seats is not backed by anything. You have no numbers to show that that is part of the problem and are simply taking the opportunity to jump to a conclusion to voice your opinion on their seat donation policy that we all know you do not like. It is a broken record.
How do you know that this isn't part of the reason they are raising more money? Perhaps people give their required donation and then see projects like the locker room or the IPF, sorry MPC, and think "man I am really excited about that and want to be a part of it. I wonder what opportunities there are?" Then they find out they can get something for $1,000 and think wow that is reasonable and I can swing it. As a result they get the $700 and the $1,000 totaling $1,700. Seems to me that if they allowed the $1,000 to count they would only come out $300 ahead with your $700 example. I am not saying that this is the case, but I am not saying that it is. If you have numbers to back it up, present them. Don't just claim something in an effort to stir the pot on one of your favorite rant topics. Based on the way the department's fundraising has trended (he has a proven track record), I am going to side with Schaus. However, if you provide any type of evidence outside of a "source" close to the department I would be glad to throw you a bone.