The Stats:
HOWARD WOOD
Seats: 10,000
Record crowd to date: 8,250
Upgrade costs: $6.4 million (already budgeted)
NEW STADIUM
Could seat:  15,000 – 25,000
Cost: $20-25 Million (this does not include Howard Wood demolition costs)
I guess I’m wondering why we need to build a new 25,000 seat stadium when we are not even close to capacity at Howard Wood? This is a back door attempt to build a new events center where the current Howard Wood is at.
First things first; 1) You need a funding source besides sales tax 2) you need to prove there is a NEED for the new EC. We cannot currently fill the Arena, the Orpheum, Howard Wood field or the Washington Pavilion as it is.
Like I have said before, table the EC idea for another 5-7 years unless you want to build it with private money, taxpayers are not interested in getting gouged more during this recession.
Interesting that they’ve quit proposing to put a dome over it.
I think the reason they want a bigger stadium is so they can attract the SDSU/USD footballl game – once a year… if the two schools agree to it.
HWF is a perfectly good venue for the public schools. It’s suited to track, football, soccer, marching band, and just about any other sport that requires a track or field.
The only complaint I have ever heard is that the concrete is starting to crumble a little in the seating area. Usually concrete gets harder as it gets older though (Think Zip Feed building). It’s like I have said a million times, it’s the SF SUV mentality, “If its bigger it’s better.”
A bigger Arena would be nice – especially DT where it would lead to the growth of smaller clubs like the old Pomp Room.
good point – we are going progressively backwards