@Jdur and Pacifico.. Yeah, you can't go wrong adding a beer garden.. they do kind of pay for themselves and apparently drinking and watching sports is a thing ;) Like has been said on this forum before, stadiums are moving toward the more open seating layout and premium seating stuff. One of the elements that really made Cal Poly Baseball take off was the Krukow section which was a rowdy beer garden area and made the whole place more energetic and fun.

Not that you asked, but can't find a cost for this particular beer garden at Cal Poly it's called "Cal Poly Partners Plaza" while nothing in construction is cheap anymore.. this type of thing is obviously still less expensive than most stadium upgrades.

I was originally against it, because they demolished a kind of historic rose garden closer to O'Neil Green which was a really nice area of campus.. but I guess now that it's built it's fine.

Regarding Davis' stadium- it's definitely more planned and coherent than Cal Poly's which is kind of a hodgepodge of different architectural elements and no cohesive plan really.. It also was weird Cal Poly built those new bleachers on the south end of the stadium (newest bleachers, which were nice) only to have them demolished a few years later to build the Madden Center. A big waste of money because of lack of planning.

RE: The issues of the Madden Center and cost over runs, yes, I am well aware of them. The site probably wasn't the best location for it, seeing as how "almost everything runs under that building that goes to campus including steam" according to our former Athletics Director..

I like the grass berms at Davis though, and that's a nice area for families and for a lot of overflow.. I would be hesitant to remove those.. maybe you guys could build a beer garden above there just kind of taking a little bit of the top off.. Looking at Aggie stadium satellite it looks like that's one of the only areas it could be done.

The original bleachers aren't great- that's also the away seating area. They are ok, just could use more space in between rows and obviously old and rusted.

Wondering if there are any new renderings regarding Aggie Ascent and the Suites that are to be built over the existing press box? I kind of thought they would build a second level above the visitor's side that incorporated suites in the design, but whatever works.

I agree with most of what you said, and the design of the John Madden Center definitely could have been better. Having hardly any seating on the field facing side was a mistake (that aren't just chairs and stools on the balcony levels).

The "High School" side you are talking about is the original grandstands, built in 1935.. They keep saying they're going to do something with them, but I don't see that happening any time soon.



I love the stadium personally- My favorite place to watch football. Usually a nice temperature too.. They repainted the West Side with the boxes, and I don't like the colors they chose, but it's still a good structure:


(this was before the new paint job)

If you sit on the East Side stands (old side) near the top you get to look out toward the 2 dormant Volcanoes looking West which is really a spectacular view.

One part you forgot to show is the new "Beer Garden" they built in the North Endzone which turned out pretty nice:





It has about 3 terraced levels, with a top level where food and drinks are served.

You guys can watch the stadium in all its glory on ESPN for the home opener vs. Idaho. They will be showing the new Madden Center and stuff. Stadium should be pretty full.

Unfortunate for both our schools, construction costs continue to shoot through the roof, especially in California, which is way more expensive building than say in Texas @ UTRGV.

At least both Cal Poly and Davis haven't gotten super over-leveraged on stadium construction cost stuff and into extreme debt (like Cal did with Memorial Stadium). I am pretty sure the Madden Center isn't even completely paid for yet and they still need millions in donations as it went over-budget. It always seems to cost about 1.5X as much as you think it will these days..

I like Davis' stadium too and am pulling for you guys getting it upgraded, it has very good bones and a nice design.

Not going to start a new thread for this, but was reading an article in Vanity Fair about the super elite meet and greet over in Monte Rio that we aren't supposed to know or talk about - you know the place, in the redwoods with the giant owl statue: Bohemian Grove.. This article:

https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/share/895a393a-52cc-46f5-a055-404e91c291bf

Long story short, the author mentions a run in with your former football coach at Bohemian Grove!.. kind of interesting:

Only one elderly gentleman has arrived, so I plunk myself down two chairs away from him. It turns out he is the retired coach of the U.C. Davis football team. We talk football. I tell him about the crucial sack my son, a six-foot-six-inch defensive end for the Yale Bulldogs, made during the 2003 Harvard-Yale game. He says Davis plays in Division I-AA, same as the Ivy League. He couldn’t be nicer. “You sure have a good time in here,” I say as I study the program for this year’s encampment, and the old coach says with a blissed-out smile, “Yes, we sure do.

Small world for sure! Personally, I always thought they were talking about global domination and how to make light bulbs burn out faster there, but never thought they were talking FCS football!

So, I'm thinking.. who could this retired UC Davis "old coach" be at the Grove? The timeline appears to be fitting Jim Sochor.. Thankfully wikileaks gave us the list of attendees from 2008 and sure enough, it's Sochor:

https://wikileaks.org/wiki/Bohemian_Grove_Guest_List_2008 Hilarious!

Since Jim has passed (RIP) Maybe you guys should ask the Bohemian Grove members for money for the stadium expansion, I've heard most of them are super well to do.. They might ask you to sacrifice an effigy in front of a giant owl to get the money, but it's probably worth it if you can somehow screw over Sac State in some sort of Mountain West Conference FBS move.

Recently has been selling out about one game a season. Last year was Montana.

Wow week (usually first home game) generally gets close to selling out. The stadium used to sell out more often obviously.. just hard to do that with so many losing seasons recently.

https://ticketscalpoly.evenue.net/event/ATH26/FB02

Seems like quite a few tickets left still, but Cal Poly people generally buy tickets late we will see what happens. I was surprised Montana sold out last year, and I think it showed a lot of tickets left a few days out from that game also.

They also did remove some seating from the south endzone to build the Madden Center.. but added some "premium" seating to the north endzone, but I think a reduction of around 1,000 seats, so a bit easier to sell out.

The 22K number has been on the website in the facilities section I think since 2008. It isn't happening- at least any time soon.

There were actually some interesting conceptual drawings of a 3 decker stadium east side stand replacement- looked like it was done by the same people who did Sac State's renderings.

As we all know, the east side stands are still there at Spanos, and no real talk about replacing them as far as I know. Has to happen soon though, because getting rusty and kind of dangerious imo.

Hey everybody- Looking forward to next weekend. Always a fun game playing the Aggies - especially at home. Wish the rivalry would have been more even recently, but what can you do.

There is another forum that is more active than the one mentioned above (where I comment most of the time) which is this forum: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/calpolystangs/ in case anyone wants to read that one, it has more going on than the one mentioned above.

Hoping for a good turnout of Davis fans. I have some fun stuff to do in SLO County if anyone wants some suggestions - best places to get food other things to do etc.

You forgot Northern Colorado.. They almost beat Colorado State, but got robbed on a bogus non-touchdown call..

But yeah, most of the Big Sky looked bad this weekend.

So annoying!

I am good luck apparently. When I came in you guys were down like 17 points or something.

Dixie just really really shit the bed in this game.

No way!..

Uh oh..

The ambient wind and distant city sounds are soothing.. after the acid trip..

Whenever the screen glitches out Davis seems to make a good play... not sure what it all means.

.. hmmm.. "protect the quarterback.."....

Would be nice to see the "wobbler"..

Oh no! The voices are starting to sound like the Devil now!.. it's gotten worse!

Dixie State shitting the bed here..

Good luck with that one..

So psychedelic!