I want to know this too. Idaho's Kibbie Dome situation just kills me. Idaho is a school that could get approved into the MWC if they just had a 35K football stadium. The local Spokane Market is good and as they are the flagship and best established school in Idaho, they are at least #2 the rest of the smaller Idaho markets too. TV wise, those markets combine to amount to about 3 times what Boise State can deliver. That TV share that close by would get the rest of the MWC's attention, unlike Boise State's situation where their only MWC cards are a large mormon population, a reasonable stadium, and current national strong seasons. (Reading between the lines, Boise has won "yes" votes from pro-mormon forces -Utah and BYU- and "no" votes from everyone else - financial bottom line schools). Adding a former JUCO, despite on the feild success, is not going to suddenly make the MWC seem like a worthy FBS conference any more than adding a small private with a fat TV market did. In fact, adding Nevada flagship Reno offers the same number of TVs, has a "yes" vote from UNLV (and probably SDSU), better academics, and a middle of the pack program. Don't think the MWC is looking to add a school to be the conference powerhouse. All they want is to make as much money as possible. Adding a healthy football program at a state flagship (better academics) with nearly 900 TV households does a lot more in regards to BCS status and TV revenues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kibbie_Dome

The Kibbie dome is a small indoor multipurpose stadium that is acceptable for all sports but football.

I don't think it is reasonable for the NCAA to block Idaho from renting Martin Stadium for football games. But be that as it is, there are other options. I think in the position of the Idaho President, I would force the issue by scheduling all home football games at Martin Stadium "until a new stadium that seats 35K that is designed to be expandable in 5K intervals is built on Idaho Soil."

I would "condemn" the Kibbie Dome as an acceptable facility for Division IA football, because it cannot deliver the 15k required to retain membership. This would force the state legislature to recognize the issue's importance to the future of the University and Idaho's national prestige.

If that failed, I would go to the student body and present the case for IA football at Idaho. I'd see if I could get a student referrendum passed for a new student fee of $10 per class hour to fund a new stadium. That would amount to about $150 for a student with 15 hours or $300 a year. Multiply that by a student body of 13,000 and you have $3.9 Million a year. I think you could get the state (or even a well off booster/angel investor) to "front the money to the students" and have student fees pay back the cost over the course of 10 years.

Right now, the NCAA has leverage on Idaho because they can say, " you didn't hit our minimum numbers". If Idaho averaged about 17K playing at Pullman (very reasonable), it would make the case for an on campus stadium.

Idaho paid 7.5K per game to rent Pullman in their run up to IA.

http://football.ballparks.com/NCAA/Pac10/WashingtonState/index.htm

Today, the costs run 25K per game in rental fees plus 7K-15K in staff vs. 7K to play at UI's own kibbie dome w/ an additional 3-7K in staff wages. There are a number of additional fees listed in the article.

It also says a new stadium would run about $1k per seat. So lets say a 35K stadium would run $35K. A student "blessed" fee could pay that off entirely in 10-12 years.

http://www.uiargonaut.com/archives/110300/newsstory1.html

I am flabbergasted that nothing like this is being done with the foreseeable future reputation of the University of Idaho (and the state) at stake. Don't screw around building a new home for basketball and tabletennis (or whatever) when football, your cash cow, might be on the verge of falling out of IA. That is just crazy stupid.

I found this plan for expansion of the Kibbie Dome that looks like it is going through after 2009. I like the plan in that it is cheap and improves what is there, but unless you get the Kibbie Dome up to a capacity of 23-25K, you are in danger of falling short on the attendence requirements. 18K won't cut it, unless you know you can sell out of every game as you go 1-10. And even in that situation, the NCAA is probably just going to raise the minimum to 19K or 20K putting you back in this situation in 10 years. If the Kibbie dome is going to stay, the number 1 goal should be adding seating, not cosmetic walls.

I think this is a good plan to allow a team to be a financial success at division IAA ala Montana.


http://www.klewtv.com/sports/7854057.html

"By Sabrina Beale
By Will Mueller
Watch the video MOSCOW- Changes will soon be appearing at the University of Idaho's Kibbie Dome. A major renovation plan comes after 30 months of research and planning by UI Athletic Director Rob Spear. The changes call for a complete facelift of the Dome, which will leave it with it's own unique style.

"There are some life safety issues that we have to address and that's one of the phases when we replace the end-walls and make the end-walls translucent," said UI Athletic Director Rob Spear. "It will be a fiberglass structure they will allow light in, but wont allow sunlight in, so that will be a nice touch to the end-walls of the Kibbie Dome."

Another phase of the project will impact fans directly.

"People know that in the first ten rows of the Kibbie Dome, your sightline is impaired because you are just not high enough off of the field," said Spear. "So the first thing we need to do is lower the field 12 to 14 feet. And by lowering the field 12 to 14 feet we will be able to repair those sightlines as well as add additional seating, about 2000 more on each side. So being able to increase capacity is exciting."

While the idea of a new, renovated Kibbie Dome is great for Vandal Athletics, it will be difficult and take time to accomplish.

"The first phase is to do the Life safety improvements, which means replacing the end-walls and doing the other upgrades that we need to do," said Spear. "We would like to be efficient and combine those with the lowering of the field. It is going to be difficult because we are going to try and do this and still accommodate those sports that use the facility, I would look at sometime April 2009 when we begin this project assuming that we have successful fundraising, and we will."

Spear also said that plans for a new events pavilion are in the works. The pavilion would house the basketball and volleyball teams, as well as provide the University with a large scale performing arts center. "

While I am bagging on University stadiums there are a few more names I want to throw under the bus.

http://www.worldstadiums.com/north_america/countries/united_states/texas.shtml

UNT could use an expansion to 35K or so at Fouts Feild. Adding some more lower tier good seats or some cheap corner seating in a seperate section with limited access to sell in bulk to local school districts for little kids and their parents would help the University over the football hump in short order. If they were so motivated, lowering the feild COULD make a ton of sense at UNT as well, pulling viewers in closer to the feild. That track really hurts the intimacy of the stadium.

Texas State needs to double Bobcat stadium's capacity to get a Sunbelt invitation and will need a 45K stadium to get CUSA consideration. Running the bleachers all the way to the pressbox would probalbly get them up to at least 25K. Since their stadium is insufficient to generate even 17K averages, they should start expanding immediately. That is a very large enrollment. Attendance should be pretty high. In a worse case scenario, an upgrade would allow the school to build up a nice war chest while they play IAA or reinvest the profits into facilities upgrades. The sooner you expand, the sooner you start making money.

Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston State could both use stadium expansions. Adding a few more sections and getting the seating up to 20-22K would be a tremendous boost for both schools. Most IAA schools lose money. Getting your attendence averages over 15K can make your football program profitable. Can't do that if your stadium seats 14K and change.

Lamar University. Apparently AD Billy Tubbs and the University president are pushing for a return of football. The student body is on board. There is due to be a referrendum in January. I suspect by this time next year it will be a go.

Lamar should be smart and build a 20K seat stadium ala Div III attendence champ West Texas State (call them A&M if you like, but they are WTSU to me), rather than the crappy 14-16K stadiums that litter IAA.