Stadium Question

[EconVol92]

Since baseball is the one sport that the stadium is not something that has to have certain dimensions or size and since the college world series is played in the same stadium year after year and that stadium plays totally different than LNS, can we change LNS to play more like Omaha or would we need to build a totally new stadium to achieve that goal?

From my experience both playing and watching baseball you have to recruit players whose skills maximize attributes of your home stadium since you play half your games there.

For example, a team that plays well in Wrigley might not be the same team that plays well in Busch stadium. One is long ball oriented and the other favors speed.

 

[Volunteer08]

Since baseball is the one sport that the stadium is not something that has to have certain dimensions or size and since the college world series is played in the same stadium year after year and that stadium plays totally different than LNS, can we change LNS to play more like Omaha or would we need to build a totally new stadium to achieve that goal?

From my experience both playing and watching baseball you have to recruit players whose skills maximize attributes of your home stadium since you play half your games there.

For example, a team that plays well in Wrigley might not be the same team that plays well in Busch stadium. One is long ball oriented and the other favors speed.

You're right, you definitely need to recruit players that not only fit your style of play, but can succeed in your home environment. However, I don't think UT or any school needs to build a stadium like TD Ameritrade in order to have more success at the CWS. We won on the road. We had success in Hoover. We just didn't bring it to Omaha for whatever reason and the pitching we faced was absolutely elite.

 

[VolBricks]

We need to attract better pitchers (no offense to this years pitchers) not build a better stadium. Well on second thought we do need a better stadium but I do not think it needs to be TD Ameritrade good. The teams we lost to, out pitched us and we just could not get any offense going.

 

[youcancallmeAl]

Since baseball is the one sport that the stadium is not something that has to have certain dimensions or size and since the college world series is played in the same stadium year after year and that stadium plays totally different than LNS, can we change LNS to play more like Omaha or would we need to build a totally new stadium to achieve that goal?

From my experience both playing and watching baseball you have to recruit players whose skills maximize attributes of your home stadium since you play half your games there.

For example, a team that plays well in Wrigley might not be the same team that plays well in Busch stadium. One is long ball oriented and the other favors speed.

The roads that surround LNS prevent us from building something of Omaha's dimensions and capacity. To build a facsimile of that park, we would have to build a brand new one. That probably isn't going to happen because of cost and no obvious piece of land on campus large enough to hold it.

 

[taylorvol]

Since baseball is the one sport that the stadium is not something that has to have certain dimensions or size and since the college world series is played in the same stadium year after year and that stadium plays totally different than LNS, can we change LNS to play more like Omaha or would we need to build a totally new stadium to achieve that goal?

From my experience both playing and watching baseball you have to recruit players whose skills maximize attributes of your home stadium since you play half your games there.

For example, a team that plays well in Wrigley might not be the same team that plays well in Busch stadium. One is long ball oriented and the other favors speed.

I personally love the intimacy of LNS. The crowd is right on top of the dugouts and it fosters a "loud and crazy" atmosphere that is electric. I wouldn't change that one bit, but focus on improving the entrance, the overall aesthetics, add more seating, and provide better amenities. It will continue to rock in 2022 and provide a huge home field advantage.

 

[NighthawkVol]

I personally love the intimacy of LNS. The crowd is right on top of the dugouts and it fosters a "loud and crazy" atmosphere that is electric. I wouldn't change that one bit, but focus on improving the entrance, the overall aesthetics, add more seating, and provide better amenities. It will continue to rock in 2022 and provide a huge home field advantage.

I agree with this. Does anyone knock the Duke basketball program’s desirability because they play in an 8000 seat basketball stadium? No. That intimacy is an advantage. We have the Cameron of college baseball. Just upgrade it a little.

We don’t need to be another LSU or Ole Miss. We can be a unique brand in college baseball if we don’t ruin it trying to be like others.

 

[cwbytruckers]

I say close off that road behind the stadium and add more seats down the left field line and outfield.

 

[Rushin Orange Collusion]

I agree with this. Does anyone knock the Duke basketball program’s desirability because they play in an 8000 seat basketball stadium? No. That intimacy is an advantage. We have the Cameron of college baseball. Just upgrade it a little.

We don’t need to be another LSU or Ole Miss. We can be a unique brand in college baseball if we don’t ruin it trying to be like others.

I agree. We could be the Fenway or Wrigley of college baseball. Put up ivy or a Green Monster. Keep it intimate and intimidating.

 

[lukeneyland]

You're right, you definitely need to recruit players that not only fit your style of play, but can succeed in your home environment. However, I don't think UT or any school needs to build a stadium like TD Ameritrade in order to have more success at the CWS. We won on the road. We had success in Hoover. We just didn't bring it to Omaha for whatever reason and the pitching we faced was absolutely elite.

Some pretty bad luck on hard it balls in play

 

[fryeguy93]

When LNS was new in 1993 it was bigger. The grandstand renovations pushed home plate closer to the outfield. In those first 15 years or so, it played much larger even before the bbcor bats and I made light of the small parks like Cliff Hagan at UK.

If I recall correctly, the fences were 15- 20 feet further in those days and that played into Delmonico’s small ball and pitching game. They shrunk down foul territory as well or it would be even shorter.

 

[VolBallGuy]

So someone who has some architectural prowess, how many seats could we realistically add without demolishing the frat house and the road to the left of left? 2k? 3k?

 

[Hallie]

You could put seats in outfield all the way around .. strighten road behind RF for sears out there .. the go all the way down left field with bigger stands .. connect it all the way around ..

 

[GhostVol]

1) Ditch the left field line parking and extend the grandstand.
2) Ditch that stretch of Todd Helton Dr. and ditch the parking out there (it could be simply re-worked but at some point you're going to want seating out there), add 10 ft to the outfield (that'd bring it more in line with larger fields) .
3) Re-do the right field line seating, extending the grandstand down the RF line.
4) Remodel the dugouts (would only account for a few seats but every little bit helps).



I have no idea how much all of that would add to capacity, but if you double-deck the grandstands down the lines it should be fairly substantial.

I gave some thought to simply rotating LNS 180 degrees but that would probably be getting into the weeds....

 

[youcancallmeAl]

I gave some thought to simply rotating LNS 180 degrees but that would probably be getting into the weeds...

You'd be starting over and building a new stadium if you did that

 

[youcancallmeAl]

So someone who has some architectural prowess, how many seats could we realistically add without demolishing the frat house and the road to the left of left? 2k? 3k?

Don't hold me to this, because I haven't done a sharp pencil study, but I would guess we could get 7 to 8 K total by simply extending the lines of the existing stands as far down the left and right field lines as they can go, and place stands beyond the left field home run wall to replace the porch that's there now. We'd lose parking, but that's it.

You could put seats in outfield all the way around .. strighten road behind RF for sears out there .. the go all the way down left field with bigger stands .. connect it all the way around ..

You can't just close a public road whenever you want to. Have to go through a process to justify closing it. Fire, rescue, and police have to be OK with it, and the Railroad (CSX) company would have to sign off. It might not be possible. Can't count on it for expansion.

 

[Voljlt]

Don't hold me to this, because I haven't done a sharp pencil study, but I would guess we could get 7 to 8 K total by simply extending the lines of the existing stands as far down the left and right field lines as they can go, and place stands beyond the left field home run wall to replace the porch that's there now. We'd lose parking, but that's it.



You can't just close a public road whenever you want to. Have to go through a process to justify closing it. Fire, rescue, and police have to be OK with it, and the Railroad (CSX) company would have to sign off. It might not be possible. Can't count on it for expansion.

Todd Helton Dr. could be rerouted just a little behind right field. Wouldn't need to close it and wouldn't have to involve all of the emergency services or CSX. Take out that lot and bend the curve a little earlier which would allow right and center field to be expanded a little - maybe add 10-15 ft. Remove the lot behind left field and can fit a little more space in there. Could probably improve the symmetry a little, fwiw.

I run through there at night sometimes. Would be nice to improve some lighting back behind the field along the road for safety reasons.

 

[savannahfan]

You're right, you definitely need to recruit players that not only fit your style of play, but can succeed in your home environment. However, I don't think UT or any school needs to build a stadium like TD Ameritrade in order to have more success at the CWS. We won on the road. We had success in Hoover. We just didn't bring it to Omaha for whatever reason and the pitching we faced was absolutely elite.

If you have hitters who swing level at the pitch and make line drive type contact you can play well in any ball park. However if you swing up at a pitch as most of our guys (and many others) do you limit the "area of contact" for a hitting style. Watching our two losses in Omaha both teams seemed to me to make a great effort to throw high. This even makes it harder to make contact using an upper cut swing. I have watched the whole tourney and it now seems the games in this late are won being won with line drive contact producing runs, not upper cut homers. Don't get me wrong homer have and do win games, but I think level swing hitting wins games more often than not at this stage of a tourney. (oh, and great pitching)

 

[Zvols]

1) Ditch the left field line parking and extend the grandstand.
2) Ditch that stretch of Todd Helton Dr. and ditch the parking out there (it could be simply re-worked but at some point you're going to want seating out there), add 10 ft to the outfield (that'd bring it more in line with larger fields) .
3) Re-do the right field line seating, extending the grandstand down the RF line.
4) Remodel the dugouts (would only account for a few seats but every little bit helps).

View attachment 376286

I have no idea how much all of that would add to capacity, but if you double-deck the grandstands down the lines it should be fairly substantial.

I gave some thought to simply rotating LNS 180 degrees but that would probably be getting into the weeds....

There were virtual renderings presented to Vitello that showed bleachers and luxury boxes down 3B line with an open courtyard/concourse and a brick, double-decker porch behind LF wall. Vitello even mentioned on the radio, this week, that they have entertained the idea of closing the road down 3B line, but they have to work with other city entities to make those kind of changes. IMO, if this program continues at the current trajectory, you’re going to need to close off the back road for additional outfield seating. Doesn’t have to be done now, but it will have to be done if Vitello continues to grow the brand.

 

[TheMookieMonster]

The stadium renovations will definitely take place in phases, largely because a lot of what Vitello might want to do will take a lot of time because of working with state & local legislatures to get approval (i.e. removing Todd Helton Dr.). At the very least, I would expect this off-season in Phase 1 they extend the LF line and add some more porch seating. Phase 2 will probably involve double-decking some of the stadium and re-doing the amenities and luxury boxes, and then a few years down the line after all the legal garbage is sorted out, if success continues, I wouldn't be surprised to see at that point the entire outfield be reworked/extended and added seating.

I would expect whatever renovations do take place this Fall to be minor, so extending the LF line is probably the best we can hope for in the very-short term.

 

[Zvols]

I believe these already hit Twitter so I don’t mind posting. Pretty sure they’re just initial ideas.

 

[@1RBFjr]

For the past few years the university has been taking over the on campus streets from the city.

 

[Volunteer08]

I believe these already hit Twitter so I don’t mind posting. Pretty sure they’re just initial ideas.View attachment 376329View attachment 376330View attachment 376331View attachment 376332

I don't love the flow from the 3B extension into the porch in the last rendering. If they could make that a solid concourse all the way through it could allow for more concessions, elevate that courtyard or SRO gathering area. In the mock up it looks....cheap

*Edit - there could be additional value to making it connected by the covered storage that would be created. They could also make that an access point for vehicles to the field area.

 

[Zvols]

I don't love the flow from the 3B extension into the porch in the last rendering. If they could make that a solid concourse all the way through it could allow for more concessions, elevate that courtyard or SRO gathering area. In the mock up it looks....cheap

I would connect them like you said and do an SRO with a beer garden area, then below do additional concessions. They don’t need more than 7000 seats in the next few years. They could easily develop the 3B line first and then add additional RF seating if needed.

 

[Hallie]

Don't hold me to this, because I haven't done a sharp pencil study, but I would guess we could get 7 to 8 K total by simply extending the lines of the existing stands as far down the left and right field lines as they can go, and place stands beyond the left field home run wall to replace the porch that's there now. We'd lose parking, but that's it.



You can't just close a public road whenever you want to. Have to go through a process to justify closing it. Fire, rescue, and police have to be OK with it, and the Railroad (CSX) company would have to sign off. It might not be possible. Can't count on it for expansion.

That is correct ..I know all that ..Im just saying if they could get approved that would be scenario ... a road could cut thru from that parking lot next to RF all the way to the main blvd .. and keep the road down left field so you could turn left to get back out to leave ... but yes thats alot to approve but Fire would have access to housing behind RF down that road .

 

[Volunteer08]

I would connect them like you said and do an SRO with a beer garden area, then below do additional concessions. They don’t need more than 7000 seats in the next few years. They could easily develop the 3B line first and then add additional RF seating if needed.

A beer garden?!!? I knew I liked you. Great thinking.