VCU Athletic Masterplan?

IbleedVCU

IbleedVCU

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Hey I was wondering if VCU has any type of Athletic Masterplan? I was looking at George Mason and they have an athletic master plan that compares their facilities with that of BCS schools as well as VCU. It shows future developments and renovations to their Patriot Center. Could be very useful if VCU developed one of these, especially with space limited within the city.

Here's the link
http://facilities.gmu.edu/masterplans/index.htm

Does anyone have any insight? Thanks
 
i have heard there is but I have yet to see one. I am a donor and they keep telling me that they have drawings, plans... I am sure whatever they present is going to critqued because VCU is such a large diverse school with many diverse viewpoints. Maybe someone else has seen a plan? I heard the admin was heartbroken when the shockoe stadium fell thru but that was coming from someone who claimed to have talked to a member in the department. I feel like the admin is playing possum with the football thing. Everytime I mention it to someone in the department they just say "nah" and shrug it off but I think they have got to be considering it. They just do not admit it. The department keeps striving for more donors; how about getting us more empowered by being slightly in the know.
 
For me I would like to see a University Athletic 20 year Masterplan with these sports added

1) Football
2) Softball
3) Mens & Womens Swimming and Diving
4*) Renovate and expand capacity for Siegel Center
This would allow us to expand to 20 sports which puts us up there with BCS programs.

I would like to see a detailed information of a football stadium where the diamond is currently located
Add a softball stadium and a swimming & diving facility somewhere nearby

Right now I see within the 2012-2016 biennium, VCU will build a state-of-the-art Tennis Center for our nationally ranked tennis teams and an Athletic Field House that allows for indoor training of baseball, soccer, track, field hockey, and golf. Hopefully we will also have a new minor league baseball stadium by then.

I would also like to see a goal of moving from the CAA conference to Conference USA (when we add football and make them competitive.) From there I hope VCU can find it's way into the Big East. We are in perfect location with the Big East and being a city school we would fit in well with Pitt and Louisville.....
If we add football, I see us and Old Dominion moving up the ranks of conference affiliation.

Here's how ODU added football
1) They added a 7 dollar fee per a credit hour
2) Created an 8 million dollar endowment within 2 years of announcing football
3) They will add Womens sports within the next 10 years to offset football
http://www.odusports.com/genrel/061405aac.html
 
I don't mind football, but only if it doesn't take a penny away from basketball.

Can't say that I agree with the C-USA suggestion...at all.

It makes zero sense for us, with or without football. Travel costs alone would skyrocket. CUSA has 5 teams in Texas, and 1 each in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee and West VA.
 
Ibleed, are you ready to pony up? Perhaps we can use some of Obama's stimulus money?
 
Ibleed, are you ready to pony up? Perhaps we can use some of Obama's stimulus money?
Click to expand...

Well I am graduating this Spring and become part of the Alumni association and hope to have season tickets next year. I'll try my best

A Masterplan doesn't mean the money is there right now. It means that we have a goal to reach.
A goal for VCU is to get a football team
A goal for VCU is to move into a higher conference to reach more fans and more exposure
*Virginia Tech use to be in our conference just 15 years ago. Look where they are now.

Isn't our motto "Building Pride, One Victory at a Time."
Shouldn't that pride develop into something bigger than a mid major basketball team playing in a 7,500 seat arena. Master plans are to study how to grow and where to grow

I feel by the announcement of some sort of Athletic Masterplan we could raise money to reach this goal. Tell people what we are planning to build and people will respond by giving money to see VCU reach that goal.
 
IbleedVCU said:
*Virginia Tech use to be in our conference just 15 years ago. Look where they are now.
Click to expand...

Sports analysts constantly question why Tech got into the ACC. The last month alone RTD came out with like 3 articles saying Tech basketball never does anything and that the ACC never got the "football powerhouse" that it expected.
 
We were in Tech's conference 15 yrs ago? I don't believe it. Which? Basketball and ? everything but football?
 
The ACC never got the powerhouse they thought they were getting? Good thing since Tech has won it all every year but one hasn't it?
 
vcu70 said:
The ACC never got the powerhouse they thought they were getting? Good thing since Tech has won it all every year but one hasn't it?
Click to expand...

3 ACC championships in football
9-14 Bowl record.

Basketball- 2007 was the only appearance in the NCAA tournament since 2000(no sweet sixteens,etc)
No ACC championships in basketball
 
We were in Tech's conference 15 yrs ago? I don't believe it. Which? Basketball and ? everything but football?
Click to expand...

Yea we were in the Metro conference with them from 1991-1995. Their football team was in the Big East but everything else was in the metro conference
 
From IbleedVCU

For me I would like to see a University Athletic 20 year Masterplan with these sports added

1) Football
2) Softball
3) Mens & Womens Swimming and Diving
4*) Renovate and expand capacity for Siegel Center
This would allow us to expand to 20 sports which puts us up there with BCS programs.

I would like to see a detailed information of a football stadium where the diamond is currently located
Add a softball stadium and a swimming & diving facility somewhere nearby

Right now I see within the 2012-2016 biennium, VCU will build a state-of-the-art Tennis Center for our nationally ranked tennis teams and an Athletic Field House that allows for indoor training of baseball, soccer, track, field hockey, and golf. Hopefully we will also have a new minor league baseball stadium by then.
Click to expand...

This discussion has been brought up several times. VCU lacks both the land space and funds to pursue many of these desired enhancements. Due to that, VCU has to rely on the City of Richmond or the Sports Backers organization to provide facilities. Most likely you can expect the baseball team to remain at the Diamond. The city commissioned a study of what to do to the area and nothing has come of it. The city has no money to replace or improve the Diamond and no money at all to replace the decrepit Richmond Coliseum. I believe VCU would like to have the indoor/outdoor tennis facility over there along with the current track/soccer facility. You wont see a swimming team. As much as I personally would love to have one, the current structure of team personnel and required facilities puts this out of reach. Like many other olympic type sports, swimming has taken a significant hit. A great many schools, including those with larger budgets and better facilities have dropped sports such as swimming and wrestling.

Additionally, I believe we converted our old gym on Franklin Street into the basketball practice facility. If the future plans are correct, that whole complex maybe razed to build new housing. If so, will the proposed Siegel Center upgrades include expanding some spaces to accammodate a new facility?

ODU was in a unique position to add football and comply with Title IX. They have both alumni, local area business and student support for their expansion, and to date, its working. Long term, time will tell, but for now they have done it right. They have renovated the football stadium, added a new indoor/outdoor tennis facility, added a new field hockey/lacrosse facility and have eventual plans to improve their existing soccer and baseball facilities. All of which are on campus.

I would crave modern facilities for our current sports on campus. Again, just won't happen. As long as we rely on others, especially a disfunctional city of Richmond to provide the school facilities, we will always languish. I know President Rao is taking a pragmatic approach towards improving VCU athletics and football may always be an option. However, the timing is just not right. Couple the fact that VCU and the Athletic Department have not published a strategic plan on both desired VCU NCAA sports, required facilities and funding plan just leaves us all speculating on forums such as this. I love this school, but sometimes they just leave us in the dark for either good or bad reasons.
 
Folks, all of these "desires" require that alums and others donate a whole hecka' of a lot more than they currently do. We are very low on the CAA totem pole with respect to donations. Just think if every alum pledged $1,000 per year (I know there are currently a few of us that donate considerably more than that now) what our athletic budget could become. The problem is we don't have a particularly good track record, especially considering some of our CAA peers, with alumni donations and don't seem to have any other Stuart Siegels.
 
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