HOUSTON - New Robertson Stadium (40,000)

[slipperydog]

Simple-designed $120 million stadium will not start construction until funds are secured.

EDIT: Being built on site of Robertson Stadium

[rantanamo]

Site of Robertson or elsewhere on campus? off campus?

[weava]

This stadium is most likely only being proposed this week to help their chances of getting into another conference with the big shakeup going on. The current stadium is old but looks fairly nice from what I've seen of it on TV. Its not like Houston has any shortage of football stadiums.

[KingmanIII]

Rice could use a stadium like this one, maybe a little smaller.

[Benn]

Why not just expand Robertson like the old proposals?

This is kind of ugly and its gotta be more expensive than a refit to add 10,000 seats, suites, loges ect.

[en1044]

I always thought Robertson Stadium looked nice. At least adequate enough for a smaller level school.

[SJAnfield]

Originally Posted by weava

This stadium is most likely only being proposed this week to help their chances of getting into another conference with the big shakeup going on. The current stadium is old but looks fairly nice from what I've seen of it on TV. Its not like Houston has any shortage of football stadiums.

Mountain West calling?

[RaiderATO]

It might be cheaper in the long run to build a new one now (one that has planned expansions up to 70K or so), rather than attempt to expand Robertson. (I'm not sure if it was planned well enough to expand to the desired size.)

A public university in Houston should aspire to have a 60-70K stadium one day. If they don't, then they're not dreaming big enough.

Also, it's good to put this out there now that conferences are shuffling.

[mattec]

Originally Posted by KingmanIII

Rice could use a stadium like this one, maybe a little smaller.

why?

they already have this one




i mean, yeah its a bit big for them, but it would be far easier to just remove an upper deck or 2 than to build a brand new stadium.

[KingmanIII]

Originally Posted by mattec

why?

they already have this one

i mean, yeah its a bit big for them, but it would be far easier to just remove an upper deck or 2 than to build a brand new stadium.

Yeah, I started to think the same thing for a moment. Maybe use the outer façades on both ends to house boxes and club/donor seats or something, plus refurbish the seats, concourses, personnel facilities and landscaping.

If it can be done for about half the cost of a new 30,000-seat stadium, it may be worthwhile.

[sbutlik]

image hosted on flickr

[Jim856796]

The Robertson Stadium and the now-deceased Jeppesen Gymnasium were part of the same complex and were built in the same year. In 1996, the Jeppesen Gymnasium passed away to make space for a new scoreboard for Robertson Stadium. Now I think that Robertson Stadium needs to pass away for this new stadium.

[Spacecityroller]

The old Robertson Stadium is scheduled to be razed in December 2012. The new stadium will be built on the same location.
This stadium is the home of the University of Houston football team.



An RFQ was issued by the University on January 9, 2012. The RFQ includes

40,000-seat capacity, expandable to 60,000 in the future in 10,000-seat increments (phase two would be 50,000 seats, phase three would be 60,000 seats).
Premium seats (suites, club, loge, etc.) would be about 4,000.
A club lounge that would have view of the field, the downtown skyline and premium food and beverage amenities would be approximately 12,000 square feet.
Individual suites would be about 274 square feet apiece.
The Cougars’ locker room would be around 8,500 square feet and would include toilets, showers, separate coaches accommodations, training, treatment and exam facilities and equipment and manager space.
A 20,000 square-foot multi-purpose academic center.
The press box (which would include a visiting athletic director’s suite) would be above the main suite level.
The entire square footage for the stadium (including field, seating and concourses) would be 450,000 square feet.

The project will also include new scoreboards, video boards, lighting, a new sound system and a new playing surface. It is also noted on the RFQ that the stadium is to preserve the view of the downtown skyline, so for those fans that enjoy that part of the charm of the current Robertson Stadium, that won’t go away.

[JJG]

... looks like they've changed the look of the original proposal.

[Spacecityroller]

Originally Posted by JJG

... looks like they've changed the look of the original proposal.

I believe that more likely than not the final design of the new stadium will look nothing like this rendering. I think they released this and previous renderings for PR reasons ( to look more attractive to the Big East, recruits, prospective private donors, and possible new stadium naming rights partners). Once the architect and builder are chosen we should see the actual design not long after.

The budget for the new stadium is 120million and the University has already raised 60 million in donations. Also, the UH student body voted to add a $45 per semester fee to student tuition to help fund the building of the new stadium and the renovation of Hofheinz Pavillion. Almost 10k students voted and the fee passed by almost 74% for. So there wont be any delays with the current timeline.

[JJG]

Oh, btw.... there's already a thread for this.

New Robertson Stadium

It's happened before to alot of people. That's why I knew something looked different.


But thanks for keeping us posted. I didn't know when they were supposed to start.

[Spacecityroller]

Oh.... Thanks. Didn't notice that. If someone could merge that would be greatly appreciated.

[JJG]

Originally Posted by Spacecityroller

Oh.... Thanks. Didn't notice that. If someone could merge that would be greatly appreciated.

Chances are, it will.

But I'm glad someone gave an update. I don't really blame ya for starting another because it's been a while since we've had anything on this.

I look forward to it as much as seeing The Carter finished @ TCU. Robertson really needs something new.

[Spacecityroller]

The timing now makes more sense also because they are in the middle of construction of the new stadium parking garage.



You can see the current Robertson Stadium in the back left of this image. The amount of parking that would be taken up by the construction of the new stadium would cause a parking nightmare. The new stadium parking garage will have 1500 spaces with space for retail on the ground floor of the stadium side of the garage. The garage will be finished in May 2012. Also, the new SE light rail line is expected to take away 100-150 parking spaces from the parking lot behind the stadium.



This image was take later from the Holman street side of the parking garage....I would bet that there will be a sky walk from the top floor of this parking garage into the new stadium.

[Spacecityroller]

image hosted on flickr


You can see the current Robertson Stadium in the lower right corner of this image.

This image shows the portion of the parking lot that is going to be taken by the SE light rail line. But the great thing is that there will be a light rail station adjacent (the yellow in the top right) to the new stadium. The SE light rail line is expected to be completed in early 2015 and the new Robertson Stadium is expected to be completed for the 2014 football season.