I had never heard that about Lambeau or of a similar product existing. I was on the sideline there in pre-game for a Packers-Bears game back in the early-90s and it was just frozen tundra. Some of the hybrid Bermuda surfaces go dormant late in the season (that's why they look yellow on TV) but I haven't noticed that in recent years. Davis could have a similar surface to the Rose Bowl, almost like a putting green.

The radiant heat is enough to ban those artificial surfaces from the planet. The get very hard with age, the infill needs to be groomed and eventually replaced, the injury rates are significantly higher, and obviously the harder the field the greater the risk for concussions. Plus they smell bad. Nothing better than a fresh-cut grass field. What's an extra $75k per year in water costs?!

, @Pacifico2 I had not heard of hybrid turf before but I looked it up and it is a thing. It’s real grass with about 5% reinforcing fibers sewn in after. In my area we use Bermuda grass for fields, typically Tifway, Latitude, or Celebration. We overseed with annual rye so you still have the lateral strength of the Bermuda but the winter rye grows though for color. When artificial fields came into vogue 25 years ago the argument was lower maintenance and better for the environment. As for maintenance, you trade mowing and striping for raking, blowing, and sewing repairs. For the environment, they didn’t really mention that an artificial fields have a finite number of reps before they must be replaced in whole. I think UCDHS is on its 3rd turf. So water and fertilizer/pest control vs a giant non-recyclable pile of plastic every few years. In severe weather natural turf has the advantage in the heat, artificial turf in late season rain. The artificial turf companies don’t tell you that the pellets get everywhere and may be carcinogenic or that vomit, Gatorade etc are difficult to clean up. I prefer natural turf but I understand the optics of water conservation are a weighty factor in CA.

That is really interesting about that surface, pretty cool! I feel smarter today thanks to you guys.

Screw the optics and conservation, bring back the grass man!!! :rofl:

Have you seen the robotic field stripers they have now? They operate off of GPS and can stripe and number a football field in about 60-90 minutes. I hate robots and believe they will eventually kill us all, but this deal is pretty cool.

We have grass all over campus, though less than 30 years ago.

I’m a fan of natural grass too. They have it at NC State. When Doeren became head coach, he wanted synthetic turf and was told “no way”. This was due to the turfgrass program here and also to some extent being an agricultural school.

I have not seen robotic striping machines but sounds cool. I will say there is more than meets the eye to maintaining an excellent grass field in terms of both biology and equipment. And I think @88Aggie that may be up the decider between natural and artificial turf at the high school level at least. Grass is a living thing and has to be responded to in real time. While artificial requires special know how to repair, it can wait for a vendor visit. My high school’s grass was definitely not laser leveled and had gopher holes about the depth of a broken ankle. We probably don’t have good data on what’s safest because so much of the research has been funded by the turf companies. But if I were to hypothesize, artificial turf may be better than a poorly maintained grass field but not as good as a professionally maintained one. @movielover I would vote for real grass here but unlikely to be considered until the turf is worn out. I tend to think it’s worth the water investment when it’s grass people use rather than just look at, especially if reclaimed or irrigation water is available.

They use the striping robot at the college my daughter plays for. It is most helpful on the practice field for setting up drill fields or boxes. The coach programs and walks away.

I vote for natural grass. They have natural grass at the practice facility.

Was looking at photos and damn does the ucenter look good when it’s full. Gonna fit in well with the MW.

I’m hoping they build the other side of the stadium with expanded seating/ luxury boxes & club like Hawaii is doing.

I’m in Fort Collins, CO. The new on-campus stadium is VERY IMPRESSIVE! Plus there are dorms literally across the street. Both FC and Colorado Springs seems so much bigger (and growing!) than Davis - the step up seems like an even bigger hurdle than just a matter of building up facilities. Getting the same level of local fan and financial support is going to be challenging.

Well put. Davis doesn't strike me as the most business friendly town in the world. And let's face it, business drives growth. Maybe that changes someday?

Davis is about half the size of Fort Collins but many times more people live within 30 miles of Davis. If Davis just draws from the city of Davis, then they should stay where they are. College football teams usually can draw from a region.

Isn't Sacramento still primarily a government town?

I get that things are regional, it’s just that the population and growth here just looks much different . Fort Collins and Loveland combined is roughly 250K with alot of new building going on, and plenty of commercial growth. And separated by an hour or more from Denver and any other colleges with sports, they have a bit of a monopoly for sports fans. I walked into our hotel to see two large banners that were CSU related - one offering a loyalist plan to alums. - with CSU merch on sale.

I'm agnostic on whether to move up. If Davis can't draw fans and viewers from Sacramento they shouldn't, but thats an open question to me, maybe someone knows where ticket buyers and media viewers live.

I will say having visiting fans definitely livens the experience. When 14 Northern Colorado fans sit in the away section, it makes the place feel empty. A move to the MWC could help in that regard. Although, the new look MWC won't have the loyal traveling fans like they once did.

I always try to be positive with my posts. It’s just been a bit of a reality check to imagine us adding 10k (or more) paying customers along with corporate suites in a few years. I think basketball is really facing an uphill revenue battle. TV money and P4 payouts will help balance things but game day revenue has to be a big part of the stream.

It doesn’t help that the equestrian people are actively attacking the fans for supporting the school.

On a positive note, if Laramie (isolated city of 30K with 8K undergrads) can average over 20k fans, and 5k basketball fans, there’s hope for us!

I'd say there's more than hope. Winning cures all. Need to keep that up

How about that beer garden on the one end of the stadium?! Since we've been talking on this thread about facilities, that has been my inspiration piece for Davis. I UCD did nothing but create that beer/wine garden pavilion area, beefed-up their press box and offered luxury suites, and placed a small upper deck on one side, it would look and feel like a sporting attraction. Has anyone been to Bakersfield JC? Imagine something similar with suites and only one deck and you have a home run that would hold 15k or so. Husky Stadium back in the day was originally a bowl; they added one deck to it, then finally the other. Very doable from an engineering standpoint and relatively less expensive.

Dunning did a piece a few years ago on moving up. He essentially said that playing big name schools in our stadium would pack the house. My take is we need to continue to win under Plough and beat the FCS heavy hitters and see what kind of interest we can get. We need to reel in bigger corporations. Woodstock is great, but in pizza terms we need Dominos :).

The smart FCS and G6 schools are moving to this model. Fewer GA seats and more differentiated experiences in the venues to generate revenue.

Dunning also said that about the moves to the America West, the CCAA and the Big West.

live in Fort Collins 1993-1998. Went to a few games there including a postponed game to Sunday afternoon against Tulsa in which we had to carve out our seats from snow. Sonny Lubeck era as I recall. First place I experienced where you could buy beer in the stadium.

Came back for a working meeting circa 2015 and couldn’t believe how much the place had grown. So as you note plenty of potential fan base.

Sonny Lubick Steakhouse in Fort Collins is a worthy stop...

The Sacramento metropolitan area is the 27th largest in the country. Only way we are successful is if we think of why it will work, not focusing on why it won’t. Davis just needs to 1. Field a competitive football team, advertise, and have a quality game day experience. Competing in FBS is what it takes to be a competitive football team. This isn’t Montana where they don’t have professional or D1 FBS teams. NorCal has the 49ers (plus many Raider fans) Cal, Stanford, San Jose St, and now Sac State as D1 FBS teams. Davis needs to play higher competition and big brand name schools. Not directional schools.

I hope that in 20 years they replace the new press box they are building now to make both sides look like Colorado states stadium. I’m optimistic about the future of Davis football.

Sac State has games against Fresno State, Hawaii, and a home game against North Dakota State. San Jose State plays. Those are the types of games that need to be on the schedule. We have SMU this year as our lone FBS game. It’s not just about filling the stadium, but TV ratings as well.