I took a trip to Akron, Ohio yesterday to see a US NCAA I College football game and also to see the InfoCision Stadium. The game was between the Ohio Bobcats and Akron Zips (unfortunately the Akron Zips seldom win and the fans have started staying away in droves). One person that I know in Akron said that he is too frustrated by their play to go to the games.
I went by car, which is about a 5.5 hour drive from the western side of the GTA, but if anyone from the Halifax-area would like to visit this stadium (perhaps members of the steering committee) then it would be easy to fly to Cleveland, rent a car and drive south to nearby Akron, Ohio. The Akron Zips still have two more home games and the tickets are relatively inexpensive -
http://www.gozips.com/sports/fball/2011-12/schedule .
It certainly is a beautiful stadium and the complete stadium structure cost only $61.6 million to build, including the luxury suite/classroom tower. Here is an Akron University weblink showing all the amenities that are included -
http://www.gozips.com/athletics/facilities/InfoCision .
I took about 160 pictures and posted several below.
This picture was taken while approaching the InfoCision Stadium on the luxury-suite/classroom building side of the stadium.
This building contains media space, luxury suites, 80,000 square feet of classrooms, etc. It appears to contain at least 150,000 square feet of finished space (about 400 feet long and it appears to be 7 stories tall). This alone would probably cost about $20 million to build of the $61.6 million stadium cost. Although it is impressive, it probably wouldn't be required for a Halifax stadium. The general spectator washrooms and concessions are separate from this building. It is essentially a stand-alone building with the top three levels overlooking the stadium field.
This is the luxury_suite/classroom building on the inside of the stadium (the green glass and panels). A picture doesn't do it justice, it looks even better in person. But a low-cost Halifax stadium wouldn't require such a luxurious building (it might be better to put that money towards folding seats and a modest partial roof over the stands).
InfoCision Stadium is a sunken bowl stadium, as are many stadiums. Some people like to just sit on the grassy hill at one end of the stadium. This is inside the stadium though, so they would have to pay to sit there. (ticket prices are very reasonable though, I bought a higher priced center-field seat for $20)
The next two pictures show the wheelchair accessible area. This area is raised above the lower bowl seating so that people who are in wheelchairs can see over the heads of people who are seated in the lower bowl even if those spectators are standing. Ramps aren't required to get to the wheelchair accessible area since it is at street level. There are also seats in this area for non-wheelchair guests.
This picture shows the opposite grandstand. The grandstands on the two sides of the field are almost identical in layout and amenities (the tall luxury suite building makes it appear as though one grandstand is more grand
, however that is not the case. Both sides have all the necessary amenities).
The following three pictures show the grandstand concourse on the media tower/luxury suite/classroom building side. However, as shown in other pictures, the opposite grandstand has all the same amenities. This is at street level and wheelchair level - so no ramps are required to get to the concourse level which serves both the lower bowl and upper bowl. I think a great deal of thought went into making this stadium exceptional at a reasonable price.
This picture is taken from the upper tier. Even though this stadium seats over 27,000 spectators, all seats have a great view of the field. The brick building at the end of the stadium contains the changerooms and other amenities for the Akron Zips. The visitor player changeroom is under a grandstand concourse which is accessed from the vehicle ramp. To save on cost, a Halifax stadium could have all changerooms and referee rooms under the concourse on one side of the stadium (it would save building a separate brick building in the endzone area).
This is a close-up of the media tower/luxury suite/classroom building. The upper 3 levels of this 7 story building are reserved for stadium use. The other 4 levels contain 80,000 square feet of classroom space. This building, although overlooking the field, appears to be built to be a free-standing, auxiliary building.
This picture is taken from above the Akron Zips changeroom/office building in back of the endzone.
The lower level has 21 rows plus the elevated wheelchair accessible row. This lower level isn't much more complex than the SMU stadium design. However, hopefully the Akron Stadium was built with a more solid foundation than the SMU Stadium.
This is the grandstand on the opposite side from the media/classroom tower. Even if Halifax just built two grandstands like this, without the luxury suite/classroom tower, the municipality would have a great stadium at a low cost (I think it could be built for $60 million including land and some parking if the tower was excluded, and maybe even have 20,000 folding seats and a modest partial roof).
There are player changerooms under the concourse which are accessed through the vehicle ramp.
This is directly next to the vehicle ramp.
Even though this is a low cost stadium, it is nicely landscaped and the exterior brick detail makes it a very appealing stadium. It would look good anywhere in the Halifax-area. It is not surprising that it turned out so well - the architectural firm that designed it was HNTB which has designed several major league, minor league and college stadiums -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HNTB
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