• Hi Guest,

    We've updated the site to combine all the forums that were part of the Big Sky Fans Network into one location. This will make it easier to navigate and participate in all the discussions for each school without having to have multiple accounts, etc. We are still working out some tweaks but please let us know if you notice anything.

    With the migration, in some circumstances, your username could have been merged with one of your other usernames from the other forums. If this is the case, you can request to change your username in your account details page of your profile.

Downtown Stadium

P

Phantom Hornet

Active member
With news of the Republic possibly having a new big money investor getting involved, don't be shocked if you start hearing news about Sac State football sharing a new stadium downtown with the soccer club. Rumor is the team approached Sac State several years ago but coach Taylor wanted to keep the games on campus.

Personally, I'm over Hornet Field. Went to a bunch of games last year and really was sick of the stadium and the bathrooms and long food lines by the end.

Thoughts? I see pro's and con's to both.
 
I’ve always been in favor of this. It would have been nice to have it on campus, but a Stadium nicer than Hornet will be nice wherever it is.
 
While Hornet Stadium is in need of some improvements, I'd prefer the games be played on campus. Better atmosphere, true home stadium feel, easier for students to attend, etc. Eventually a stadium renovation is needed but in the interim, there are some steps (relatively easy in my view) that could be taken to alleviate the re-occurring criticisms about restrooms and concessions. Go Hornets!
 
I think an auxiliary building could help with restrooms and other concession needs. More lipstick on the pig couldn’t hurt either. I think the main reason I’d be excited to see a ground share with Republic would be to see them on a field without a track.
 
The challenge is ticket revenue. Hornet stadium we keep ticket revenue. Go to another stadium and might keep 50% of the ticket sales.
In addition we get revenue from vendors and at another facility we probably would receive zero.
Ticket prices would need to go up 2.5X to probably break even with our home stadium.

Ideally MLS rebuilds hornet stadium and we give them sweet deal for 10 yrs in exchange for big renovation funding project to an FBS quality stadium.

Would be great for everybody!!!
 
As nice as a facility shared with the Republic could be in a revitalized railyard and downtown area, I believe having it on campus is a priority. Keeps it close to where students already go including the dorms, brings alum back to their Sac State days, provides campus parking for pre-game festivities, and mitigates possible "out of sight, out of mind" sentiments about a stadium many may never see.

SJHornet2 said:
I think the main reason I’d be excited to see a ground share with Republic would be to see them on a field without a track.
Click to expand...

Whenever anything is ever seriously done with Hornet stadium, designing out the track should be in plan. No disrespect to the track and field team, but reality is that T/F means much less to students and alum compared to football. The track has limited value in the grand scheme of Hornet athletics compared to the valuable stadium space it takes, stealing away a close-in football experience. I remember cheering on a Sacramento Surge touchdown from temporary seats right behind the endzone, not distanced by many track lanes. I know it's hosted some major T/F events, but those are very infrequent and certainly diminishing with improved, dedicated track facilities such as at U of Oregon. The brown ring is a bad look for Hornet football.

A stock photo Surge field view from the end: https://www.gettyimages.be/detail/nieuwsfoto%27s/overall-of-sacramento-surge-fans-at-hornet-stadium-on-the-nieuwsfotos/106958397
 
Agree. Track & Field should have a different location from the Football Stadium.
Building a quality stadium that would be Football and MLS and our university College teams would be the best fit! Hopefully our new president Dr Wood & Mr Orr are pro actively welcoming these conversations with the new MLS owners and the City Mayor.
The timing couldn’t be better for SAC ST athletics and a chance to join MWC if the dominos keep falling correctly!
 
To Phantom Hornet's point:

https://fox40.com/sports/soccer/sacramento-republic-fc/sacramento-republic-fc-owner-kevin-nagle-on-reviving-mls-dream-with-belinda-stronach-as-potential-new-investor/

EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. (KTXL) – Sacramento Republic FC owner Kevin Nagle speaks with FOX40’s Sean Cunningham about potentially landing a new lead investor in Belinda Stronach to lead the club’s pursuit of Major League Soccer expansion.

With plenty of work left to do before a new investment group enters the fray, Nagle, speaking from his office in El Dorado Hills, talks about his cautious optimism and confidence that Sacramento will still land an MLS team, his thoughts on Stronach and her CEO Kevin Gilmore as potential business partners, his plans for a soccer stadium in Sacramento’s downtown railyards site and the possibility of partnering with Sacramento State to provide a future location for an athletics venue.
 
From what I've heard, the talks are somewhat advanced and it's much more likely that Sac State will be sharing a downtown stadium with the Republic than any more upgrades to Hornet Field.
 
I doubt Sac State will participate in a football stadium off campus. While it would look cool. It hurts in the very worst way! FINANCES!
Unless the group owning Sac Railyard property sold the property at discount to SAC ST got a tax break of below market price. SAC STATE would need ownership to make sense in my opinion. SAC could build a few small buildings as well. Satellite campus similar to new Roseville campus”.
 
Some really good points posted above. Bathrooms and concessions should have been addressed years ago. There's no excuse to not have addressed this issue, especially 5 years into our title run.

Hard pass on an off-campus stadium though. It would kill student attendance, and if it's downtown then you can kiss tailgating goodbye. As mentioned, the Hornets would only get a cut of the gate vs 100% of whatever we are pulling in per home game now. I can't think of any positives other than being closer to the action (no track) and being able to say the Hornets play in a fancy new stadium they don't own. Imagine parking somewhere only for you and the fam to get harassed by the local homeless population on your walk to the game. No thanks.

If we remain FCS, a concessions/bathrooms facility could be built behind the west grandstand. A modest facility could be built for a few hundred grand. Again, there's no reason why this shouldn't have happened already.

If the goal is FBS, an entire Hornet Stadium rebuild is needed. Tear down the stadium (yes the new elevator and press box too), get rid of the track and build a stadium that can be expanded to the 35-40k range (rebuild would need to be 25k minimum upon opening). Keep the Broad and expand it east to accommodate the added space needed for FBS operational levels.
 
They could rebuild the stands closer to the field, with the lower half able to be retracted during track and field meets. Kinda like what West Ham does with London Olympic Stadium, but, better. My main desire for a ground share would be better sight lines and amenities, however, i am totally aware and supportive of the benefits of staying on campus. Auxiliary facility amenities should be planned and implemented immediately.

For those who want a FBS move, it ain’t happening with our current stadium. It’s probably not even up to MAC standards. New MLS railyards stadium would meet requirements, but, it wouldn’t be ours. Would it please the MWC? Not really sure.

We’d hit the lottery if we could partner with a USFL or XFL franchise, much like how we have with CFL and Mountain Lions in the past.
 
SJHornet.,, we’ve already hit the lottery. Great AD, undefeated season. 3X champs! A Prez that likes football and was supportive of San Diego states new stadium.
We have a good chance to get a new mls team to share stadium build with us.
You are still acting like great things are not happening? Thankfully AD Orr has a “Can do attitude!”! Winners get things done. Cheer Up!! Life is good for us Hornets these days!! Cheers 🍻
 
HornetFootballFan said:
SJHornet.,, we’ve already hit the lottery. Great AD, undefeated season. 3X champs! A Prez that likes football and was supportive of San Diego states new stadium.
We have a good chance to get a new mls team to share stadium build with us.
You are still acting like great things are not happening? Thankfully AD Orr has a “Can do attitude!”! Winners get things done. Cheer Up!! Life is good for us Hornets these days!! Cheers 🍻
Click to expand...

Hey, I’m well aware of how lucky we are! The three peat was like a dream! Not to mention an administration that was/is commuted to success. Just saying we can partner with a club or owner and get some cost reduction (or dare we dream freebies). We are in a good spot, but FCS and FBS are a large jump. For those who haven’t, check out the FBS facility videos on YouTube. Even mid-tier FBS teams have facilities pro organizations would kill for!
 
The bathrooms aren’t up to par. But they aren’t my biggest concern honestly.
I’d rather see funds improve concessions stands and entertainment for halftime (sound system), I think if I had a few limited dollars I’d stay in the path of bringing the best game experience.
Let’s hope for a new stadium Football / MLS / Hornet Soccer. Restrooms included. 😂😂😂
 
Bathrooms should absolutely be the highest priority at this time. Anyone who has been to a game in the last few decades should know and understand this. More temporary trailers were added in recent years but a permanent solution is badly needed. Concessions can be, and to a large extent already are, addressed by having food trucks fill that need.

Orr has done great things here and Hornet faithful have never had it better, but one of the glaring items missing on his resume is getting major capital projects planned, fundraised, and built. He didn't gain that experience at St Mary's, and after 6 years he has made little to no headway on this issue here. To be fair, I don't fault him for not knowing how to get major facilities built, I fault him for not bringing in someone that does.

President Wood was at SDSU and got to see first hand the gargantuan task of getting major facilities built. He was also a student when the event center referendum passed and can't be pleased that it was never built. Hopefully we see movement on the facilities front from the new boss. Time will tell.
 
As someone who knows MLS, just an advisory.

You’ll notice that a market the size of Sacramento- namely Portland- didn’t really cement a partnership between the Timbers and Portland State. Hence why PSU is playing in Hillsboro now.

If your argument is going to be “San Diego did it so we can do it too,” just know that you will have the losing argument. MLS knew it wasn’t going to get into downtown San Diego. They don’t want a permanent on-campus stadium in Sacramento, they want the Railyards.
 
Agree completely. The truth is the Republic’s Kevin Nagle has been in talks with Sac State the last few years and this is a downtown stadium or stay at Hornet Field with minor improvements. No in between. The Republic aren’t building anything on campus. That’s the reality.

While there may be short term money lost from not having games on campus, there will be new revenue streams opened because it will most likely allow Sac State to jump to a larger conference with better revenue sharing.

The university would also most likely save money by moving graduations from G1C to the new stadium.

Who knows if it’s gonna happen, but the options are really only stay at Hornet Field as is or partner with the Republic. All these other suggestions are not reality at this point.

Pounder said:
As someone who knows MLS, just an advisory.

You’ll notice that a market the size of Sacramento- namely Portland- didn’t really cement a partnership between the Timbers and Portland State. Hence why PSU is playing in Hillsboro now.

If your argument is going to be “San Diego did it so we can do it too,” just know that you will have the losing argument. MLS knew it wasn’t going to get into downtown San Diego. They don’t want a permanent on-campus stadium in Sacramento, they want the Railyards.
Click to expand...
 
The reality is that you aren’t a decision maker. Kevin Nagel interview sounded like Sac State zPartnership is a legitimate conversation. I will go with his comments rather than your opinion. Hopefully something great happens however the T&C’s play out. 🙏🏻🏆🏆🏆🏆
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top