UC wants to be in the mix bad!:

http://www.gobearcats.com/view.gal?id=131630

Going forward with Big Time football, if you don't pay, you don't play!  I never thought I would say this but I am beginning to think that there really are 50 or so schools who should just configure themselves into some kind of Big Time-B Division in college football.

Just seems like no way the MAC-types can compete with their lack of financial resources.

More power to UC but it may be too little too late.  If so, it will look like they are wasting $70 million!

I simply meant that most MAC schools are not in position to put $70 mil into a football stadium now.

Time will tell if this pans out for UC.

This will buy you a 1-11 record........http://www.gozips.com/athletics/facilities/InfoCision

Ohio can't pony up this type of money.  Period.  We need to compete with schools who have comparable potential regarding financially supporting a football program.  A school and fan base can still have a lot of fun with football even if you're not at the highest level.

 Millimeters?

Jeff Mck, if we can afford to spend $2.6 BILLION in building projects on campus, we can surely shake $60 - $70 million loose for Peden.  Its all in what you want to do. 

The question is what is the plan. The stadium has got tent cities set up on game days in both endzones for fans that are like stadium refugees without a seat. The South endzone is completely unfinished behind Victory Hill with a tarp fencing enclosing the stadium. I would think for $5-$10 million dollars the school could finish off the south endzone with a permanent exterior and a concession stand. Build some general admission seating without numbers to close in Victory Hill to look more like a grass berm. raise the height of the existing scoreboard. Is this too many additional seats? Sell the first rows of the student side as Phillips Club tickets as they were intended to be and turn all the bleacher seats of the away side over to the students. This keeps the away side full while having permanent seats in the end zone to accommodate band day and over flow crowds. Another idea I thought was good was to knock out the back of the student side and extend it as a courtyard toward the new practice facility complete with staging areas for food vendors like the Burrito Buggy. It make sense to put bigger bathrooms in on the student side accessible to most of the fans or something even between the student side and Victory Hill. Convert the concession stands on the home side to bathrooms and put concessions throughout the north horseshoe of the stadium for easy fan access from both sides. The stadium hasn't had any significant work done for 10 years. 

I'm pretty sure you'd lose that bet.

The student side of Peden does need to be torn down and replaced.  But, only with something just slightly larger.  Anything more than 30,000 seats is a waste.  Just like the Convo has about 4,000 seats of wasted space.

Jeff and I disagree about the Ohio football fan base's appetite for lower division football.

Really? 

bearcatsnation.com/2012/11/30/details-finally-released-of-whit-babcocks-master-facilities-plan-for-cincinnati/

The Convo is also the Largest MAC school basketball arena by 3,000 seats. It's also larger than every Pac-12 school except two, beats out Crisler Arena, Camden Indoor Arena, and some other historic basketball arenas. I encourage getting rid of the light green seats and build a pressbox, club seats, or something else there other than unused broken seats. 

Would be nice to cover those convo seats with some of the huge plastic-like sign stuff you see at other stadiums or something.  Or somehow curtain it off.  But, probably better things to spend money on right now.

Yes I realize that $2.6 Billion is a lot of money.  My point is that the University has a track record of spending money on everything but athletics.  Even what we currently spend on athletics only accounts for approximately 3% of OUr entire annual operating budget.  I am not advocating for spending $2.6 Billion on projects for the University.  I will leave that to the powers that  be.  What I am saying is that if we can spend that type of money we can surely cut loose whatever amount is necessary to bring Peden into the 21st Century.  It all comes down to where you want to put your money and Peden is as much a part of the University as any other edifice on campus.

Also, for all you who want to put sheets or covers or whatever over 4,000 seats of the Convo, let me be the first to congratulate you on your small thinking.  Same thing goes for those who want to downgrade to D-IAA/FCS.  If that is the direction you want to go to save the University money, why not just drop to D-III and save the University a ton of money.

I don't know. I haven't heard many complaints about dumping money into a basketball arena that has sold out what 5 times in its history. Ohio averaged 22,000 or 92% of capacity this season and that is including in that capacity Victory Hill. The purpose of Victory Hill was that for unusually large crowds (meaning Pitt game) the university would have plenty of extra seating, It has come to the point where that hill is packed 3 times a year and 1 time a year fans are being turned away. For a school that has one of the smallest stadiums in the MAC and all of FBS which for that reason alone the stadium should be bigger we simply don't have enough seats. Its not like the stadium needs a huge 10,000 seat increase based on the numbers but at least getting the stadium up to 27,000 to be more in the mid range of MAC capacities makes a lot of sense. Allow the students to have the entire away side and push the walk up tickets to the corner seats. Spread the fans out more across the stadium.