(04-24-2018 04:56 PM)olddawg Wrote:  I was hoping (for ODU's sake), that they would have been able to build over at the Powhatan Ave site by the river & rail yard. Would have given them room to grow, build without constraints and still be on campus. Just seems like they'll be shoehorning their new stadium in at the Foreman site.
We don't have much room to talk about tight spaces either. We put the cart before the horse by building the parking deck first.

The location of the first JMU parking deck was a strategic move by Rose, guaranteeing that the stadium would stay in the middle of campus. Whether you agree or disagree with his decision (I personally agree because I like centrally located, on-campus stadiums), Rose's decision was purposeful.

Planting a 500 space parking deck next to the lake was seen as a rather odd location at the time, but Rose had an agenda. Placing the deck in that location did place constraints on future BFS construction, and Rose (who as we fans all know was against moving JMU to FBS FB) was limiting the potential opportunities to expand BFS.

In the end, however, the design of the new and expanded BFS made the most of its location, and it really was a well-thought out and well-executed plan. Should JMU ever need to expand BFS's seating capacity (hopefully this comes to pass) it retains the potential to cap out at around 40k in a configuration that will look natural and balanced. Despite Rose's objection to reclassification, and his decision to build the garage where it is and limit JMU to a central (and constrained) location, its all good. The goal now should be to keep filling the available 25k seats, and build the demand that will see the Godwin side built-out sooner than later.