An expanded stadium centerpiece of UH plan Athletic director says it would boost school's reputation By JEANNIE KEVER Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle July 31, 2008, 1:14AM Like something out of Field of Dreams, the University of Houston is proposing a $38.7 million addition to Robertson Stadium. If it builds luxury suites and club seats, a new locker room, offices and classroom space, the school is hoping it can increase attendance at games, raise the school's profile and even boost it into a more desirable athletic conference. It apparently, however, would not be enough to persuade the Dynamo, Houston's professional soccer team, to remain on campus and drop plans for a stadium of their own. Athletic Director Dave Maggard said the new facility planned for the stadium's north end zone -- to be named after longtime civic leader Wilhelmina Robertson Smith -- is part of a larger effort to improve UH's national standing. "If you look around the country and see the great universities, they all have good athletics," Maggard said. "It's going to help with recruiting," he said. "I think our crowds will be bigger. This fundraising campaign is going to pull people in that have never given to the university before." The plan will be presented to a committee of the school's governing board on Aug. 5 and to the full board of regents Aug. 19. If they approve, fundraising will begin in earnest. Of the $38.7 million cost, $18 million will come from private donations, said Dave Irvin, associate vice chancellor/associate vice president of plant operations. So far, $12 million has been pledged. The university will kick in $5 million to cover 10,000 square feet of academic space, while the remainder will be raised through revenue bonds, to be paid with money from the sale of club seats and suites and rentals of a ritzy club area, Irvin said. The addition could be completed by the 2010 football season. Robertson Stadium -- named for former UH regent Corbin Robertson, Wilhelmina Robertson Smith's first husband, who died in 1991 -- was built in 1941 as a joint project of the Houston Independent School District and the Works Progress Administration. It was last renovated in 1998. The Dynamo have played at Robertson Stadium since 2006 but are eager to build a stadium designed especially for soccer east of downtown. Plans call for Texas Southern University's football team to share the space. Oliver Luck, general manager and president of the Dynamo, said he was pleased to hear about UH's renovation but does not expect it to change his team's plans. Parking remains a problem at Robertson Stadium, he said. Midweek games -- such as Tuesday's 2-1 win over the rival Pachuca -- aren't bad in the summer, Luck said, because there are fewer students on campus. "In the school year, it's not easy to accommodate a professional sports team." The renovation would allow the football program to move into the stadium, freeing about 8,000 square feet of space in the Athletics/Alumni Center, Irvin said. The team now changes in locker rooms there and is bused to the stadium. But the new facility wouldn't be all sports, all the time. "When you look at the grand scheme of the campus (construction plans), dorms are going to be built in that area," Maggard said. "That's going to be a very, very busy area." The addition will house a Hall of Honor to recognize students, faculty and alumni who have excelled in any field. A plaza out front will serve as a gateway to the campus, near a planned Metrorail station for a proposed rail line serving UH, Irvin said. But for many Cougar fans, the proof will come on the field. That, too, needs to change, Maggard admitted. "We need to make a statement that we're serious," he said. "We've had all these starts and stops at this campus in athletics." He's been at UH for six years, and he knows fans want to compete in a more prestigious collegiate athletic conference. UH presently is in Conference USA. "That's all I heard when I first came here," he said. He thinks a fancier stadium will help. "We have to have success. We have to draw more people to our games, both home and away," he said of the desire to be accepted in a different conference. "People have to look at us as, 'They really do mean this.' "
You got that right. After the Rice renovation UH will move to last place in terms of basketball gyms. Here's the new ranking of local college team gyms: 1. Rice 2. TSU 3. HBU 4. UH
Im a little confused as to how its going to turn out as an addition to Robertson.. I fear its going to look like a very obvious add-on and very out of place. That being said, I'm glad they are doing something to improve the facilities- its hard to attract recruits when your facilities are in bad shape. I think Robertson is first because Houston is a "football town" so unfortunately, Hofeinz will have to wait. Also, I totally feel for the Dynamo- they should have a great facility of their own... it kinda sucks for a professional team to be in their situation...
There is NO chance UH gets an invite to Big 12, as long as DeLoss Dodds is the athletic director at Texas. Dodds and UH have bad history, and the only school they would kick out is Baylor, but they bring so much money into the conference that the Big 12 couldn't get rid of them, no matter how bad they are. SEC is the only conference that COULD that UH, but UH's attendance is so poor that it wouldn't be a good fit. It's sad to say that it looks like UH is going to be stuck in C-USA for the foreseeable future.
Not really. The choice came down to Baylor or UH. Ann Richards got involved, and the rest is history. Bottom line, Baylor belonged in a bigger conference (they have been competitive in several things in recent years). UH did not.
TSU and HBU, are you kidding me? I've never been to their high school gyms, but even as bad as Hofheinz is it's still an arena.
A nice End Cap to a 30,000 seat stadium isn't going to get UH into a better conference. They probably won't be filling it up right away, but they need to get the capacity closer to 50,000 for any chance at the Big 12 or SEC. I'd spend the 39 million on raising the seating capacity.
