Ford expansion drawings

[RE Tycoon]

These are the original renderings from when Ford was built and are very conceptual for seeing how many seat are possible. I would expect A LOT more premium type seating similar to what TCU is doing, and less overall seating totals, but not dramatically so (maybe topping out at 48,000).

My other concern with the second deck on the East side is what I brought up on the residential common threads. I don't see how they have the needed fire clearance between a stadium addition on that side and the placement of the western most building in the residential commons. Not insurmountable, but it appears the school wasn't planning on the athletic department ever needing to add a deck.

BTW, this can be solved. The Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field Outfield bleachers are blocked in by city streets (Waveland and Sheffield). To solve the problem and add seats, they partial cantelevered some of them over the sidewalk, but they didn't add a separate deck above.

At Ford with a new, second tier deck, you can build both over the current seats and the east side promenade without effecting the road.

Less of an engineering issue and more of a fire code issue. Cities like a certain separation between buildings (and uses), especially one that will potentially have 50,000 people in it. They also want to be able to access the residential building with their ladder truck from the road splitting Ford and the commons. Again, not insurmountable and with a cramped campus like SMU deals with, something we will see more of, but it was clear the school never expected having to add a deck.

[RednBlue11]

i thought the bigger hurdle was getting the UP building code changed so that we could go up

[GRGB]

i thought the bigger hurdle was getting the UP building code changed so that we could go up

That deck won't be higher than the press boxes.

And the road can be shot eastward, or closed altogether. What's the point of Airline there anyway? There's another road just east of the book store that is a better fit.

[MustangSTATS]

Does anyone know the what the build time and cost on this would be?

[Charleston Pony]

52,000 people at an SMU game on campus would be unbelievable.

better plan on more parking garages before that day ever arrives

[skyscraper]

Interesting to see the plans for something we've been chatting about for a while.
Hopefully we'll actually get to use these one day!

[RednBlue11]

52,000 people at an SMU game on campus would be unbelievable.

better plan on more parking garages before that day ever arrives

i think you named the primary problem, there is barely enough parking for a 35k stadium as it is

[Wuba]

52,000 people at an SMU game on campus would be unbelievable.

better plan on more parking garages before that day ever arrives

i think you named the primary problem, there is barely enough parking for a 35k stadium as it is

There is plenty of street parking in the surrounding neighborhood.

[Stallion]

...or you could reemphasize off-campus parking. Since I was coming from the Coast I heard about Texas A&M's FREE offcampus parking at a local mall that was directly on my way. It was a great deal-the shopping mall was about 3-5 miles away but must have been 10,000+ using that option. There are unlimited weekend parking spot at or near Ford.

[RGV Pony]

...or you could reemphasize off-campus parking. Since I was coming from the Coast I heard about Texas A&M's FREE offcampus parking at a local mall that was directly on my way. It was a great deal-the shopping mall was about 3-5 miles away but must have been 10,000+ using that option. There are unlimited weekend parking spot at or near Ford.

Coit & Forest for.instance..not to mention dart forest station

[Dutch]

52,000 people at an SMU game on campus would be unbelievable.

better plan on more parking garages before that day ever arrives

you ever been to a big time college football game? parking is miles away, and it seems to work just fine. we could park at mockingbird station. that's a lot closer than we parked at A&M last week, and we weren't the farthest by any stretch of the imagination

[RednBlue11]

@ wuba....no there is most certainly not

[Wuba]

@ wuba....no there is most certainly not

I park 3 or less blocks away in the neighborhood for every game, including tcu when it was full. If we expand to 50k and people have to walk a couple miles through the park cities they will be fine. This is for 6 days a year, people would manage. Could have shuttles if needed.

[RyanSMU98]

52,000 people at an SMU game on campus would be unbelievable.

better plan on more parking garages before that day ever arrives

you ever been to a big time college football game? parking is miles away, and it seems to work just fine. we could park at mockingbird station. that's a lot closer than we parked at A&M last week, and we weren't the farthest by any stretch of the imagination

Just work a deal with DART, something like buy a game ticket and get a free (or discounted) DART rail pass for each game ticket. You could utilize any number to available DART lots, and run shuttles to/from Mockingbird. Really not that big a deal.

[RednBlue11]

@ wuba....no there is most certainly not

I park 3 or less blocks away in the neighborhood for every game, including tcu when it was full. If we expand to 50k and people have to walk a couple miles through the park cities they will be fine. This is for 6 days a year, people would manage. Could have shuttles if needed.

shuttles from where? UP just enacted a residential permit that bans non residents from parking near campus from 9-5pm everywhere west of campus.

if people could use the parking lot by the phoenix and have a shuttle from there that would be nice but in honesty we haven't sold out in forever so we really cannot measure the logistical problems of 35k let alone 50k