The plans for a new Husky Stadium were unveiled yesterday by Todd Turner as part of a revamped athletic village for University of Washington athletics. As you can see by clicking on the link to view the conceptual drawings that the stadium when finished will be the grandest in the country for a college football team. Nothing nationally will be able to rival the setting and sight lines once this beauty on Montlake is finished.
The question of course is when will this all happen? According to Todd it is the start of a footprint that may take up to 20 years to complete in various phases and costs range upward to 200 million dollars.
At both first and second glance you have to be impressed with what they have come up with even though the drawings do not include the proposed 100 foot off ramp for 520 running through the South parking lot of the stadium. Turner called the project one of the most complex in the world when you factor in 520, and the Sound Transit Light Rail Tunnel.
Turner presented the same drawings to the school's Board of Regents two weeks ago. At that time, the Regents authorized Turner to spend the next four to six months honing the project, then to return "with a more concrete plan," including how to fund it.
Finding money for what would be the most expensive project in the history of the athletic department doesn't figure to be easy, and Turner said all options are on the table, among them premium seating, ticket surcharges and selling partial naming rights for Husky Stadium as the school did for Bank of America Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
Turner said he doesn't necessarily plan to increase seating at Husky Stadium but said the venue, built in 1920, needs an updating to allow it to serve future generations of fans.
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I like what I have seen so far, but like Fleenor says, we are notoriously cheap in giving, which did shock me. Guess we have many SLOB types of fans. OTOH, we do have many who will give. Will be interesting to see how it plays out. I think if people knew it was going directly to HS and football, the bucks will be there. Not sure if I can afford another brick in front of HecEd, but if I have the extra cash, we will donate.
I like it too, and wish I had an extra 200 million in the bank to help out. By the way thanks for the posters, it was a nice surprise when I got back home!
I've never been part of the donation thing so how do you do it? I looked into season tickets awhile back and seemed like more work to go through than I wanted to. Do small donors really help or does it require someone with big bucks to step up? I agree with prrbrr that knowing where the money is truly going is key.
Buying season tickets and making a Tyee contribution is one way to do it, but since you live in Cyprus there is probably a better way to do it. Once they announce the start of fund raising for the project which will most likely be sometime this Summer they will have a number of ways you can make a contribution.
Usually for smaller donars they have a program where you can buy a brick in the plaza for around $500. Do small donars make a difference? They make all the difference in the world once you add it up. Lets say they sell 20,000 bricks at $500 a piece, that would add up to $10 million dollars right there. No small sum, and an easy way for the average guy to help out. In addition to that they will sell naming rights which can garner around 75 million over the length of the contract, in addition to that there will seat licencing and other promotional opportunities. guy's like Fleenor make pledges for example of $10,000 or more over a five year period. The pledges are good leverage for the future and ypu basically donate 2 grand a year over that time period.
Can we raise 200 million? I think they can get it done if it is designated for football. People want to make sure it is going to football first, and that is what made the campaign for the student athlete drag on for years.
Johnb, not to quibble but that brick cost us $5000 in pledges over a 5 yr period with Barbara. However we didn't know that so we paid it in 1. Starting something like a HS capital fund might work to also ratchet up the interest.. Hair, i agree with HIE, since you are overseas it makes no sense for you right now to be a TYEE unless you want to build longevity for future stadium seating priority. You might want to consider buying a season ticket (2 since they are easier to sell) and selling them through the UW partnership sell site (razrgate?) and build your priority that way. Your donations will then accumulate points for future seating.
Shoot, I'm not even sure I can be a Tyee having never attended. I'm just a fan. If you come across ways for me to help, please post them and I'll do what I can. Maybe I'll buy some for the ballas...we always need the fanatics!
Hair, attending the UW is not a requirement to be a TYEE. TYEE is basically the boosters club, who donate additional $$ for a better seat in the arenas. For regular season ticket holders (non tyee)In 2006, if you bought one season football ticket it was $345 plus a $75. per seat license fee (the building for excellence fund). This ticket would start you off in the west end zone, 7 rows from the bottom.the first 6 rows are general admission. Each year you buy tickets you would in theory move higher up and closer to the 50 yd line. After 6 or 7 years, we moved over one section. We joined TYEE at that time. The TYEE seats are mostly on the North upper deck, between the 20 yard lines, with a few TYEE seats in the north side lower bowl behind the student section, and some seats on the south side upper deck. The south side lower bowl around the 50 yard lines are for real long time season ticket holders (50-60years plus); these are the ones that get fought over in divorce court or are held in perpetuum even after death by relatives. For TYEE, there are 3 levels of giving for football: Purple, gold and white or to be crass:$375, $275, $175 per seat. Since you are giving the UW $75 anyway for a general season ticket, by giving only $100 more per seat, you are now a white TYEE and will sit in the nosebleed seats in HS somewhere between the 20 yd lines. Your seats improve based on a few factors, how much you give (1 point per $100 of giving, 5 point per year every year you have been a season ticket holder, and 2 points per year you have been a TYEE). Your points are totalled and then divided by the # of seats you desire annually, and then allocated out in your priority order. Every 3 years there is a major reallocation of seats staggered for the North side, then the S side, kind of like the US Senate. Bottom line is you don't have to be an alum to be a TYEE, we know several good people we see at many road games who never attended the UW but give as TYEEs. BTW, TYEE is a lummi indian word for big chinook (salmon) or as we laugh about it Big Schnook for giving the $$. Hope this helps some of your questions. JohnB sorry to hijack your blog, Prrbrr.
$5000 for one brick? No wonder Bab's never got anything done for crying out loud. She could have sold one helluva a lot more bricks at $500. Of course there will be a lot more room for bricks at Husky Stadium.
Taking over the blog...lol...it's everyone's blog, post as much as you want about anything you want, that is the whole idea. Great explanation on what it takes to be a Tyee.
HIE, yep, another of Barbara's shortcomings in marketing. I would have made the bricks $1000 each, think she would have sold many more. For the heavy hitters she could have offered a mini wall say $20K or so. Getting us little guys involved en masse in contributing is critical, and generates much more income than tapping the golden geese all the time. Plus it gets more fans involved in feeling "being part of the team". Since I am now retired, my income has taken a hit, but we will give to the best of our ability for a remodeled Husky Stadium, even though we probably will not live long enough to truly enjoy it. But hopefully it will be there for the future kids and they too in turn will step up to the plate when the plans call for HS to be remodeled to 150000 seats and video stations at each seat in an environmentally controlled artificial setting. Cold and rain for the SoCal and Az teams, massive humidity for the NW teams on an artificial turf which can be adjusted on a daily basis.
Very interesting...I remember when they added the new deck to Husky Stadium...soon after my dad passed away at the relatively young age of 62...now I am 48 and when they finally get this puppy done I will be lucky to be 62....wow....put me down for a brick.
Hedges was completly out of touch, in fact she wanted nothing to do with the rank and file Husky fan...Todd Turner on the other hand is very open to suggestion from all quarters. 20,000 bricks at $1000 a piece would bring in 20 million dollars. 20,000 bricks isn't very much since it will take about 1400 to do my patio later this year.
I don't think it would be much of a stretch that they could sell 20,000 or more of them and pave the new plaza on the South side and still have plenty to spare.
Thanks for the explanations guys. I'll have to start looking into it.
What I am going to do is wait till Turner comes out with a campaign announcement, that should be some time this Summer. Since I live in Chicago being a Tyee makes no sense, and my brother handles that anyway. However contributing to the new capital building campaign is something I would do if it was football first. I imagine I would make a committment to a thousand a year over five years.
By the way, when Turner does open up the fundraising we will be actively promoting it here on the blog.
20 years???!! Why does it take the state of Wa. forever to do anything?? 20 years is really gonna motivate me to contribute. I'm gonna be in my 40's by then! Oregon had no problem renovating Autzen and neither should UW. Now Autzen has become the PAC 10's most intimidating stadium, an honor once held by Husky Stadium. Turner figure it out man, you should see how many people want you gone.
Wow Mikey! That post was from 2006, you must be doing some catching up today.
I sugest you concentrate on the product on the field. I think husky stadium is fine the way it is now as long as the team wins. By the way if the team wins you won't have to wait twenty years for a refurbished Husky Stadium.
It is all about the money!
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