I think they should put me in charge of public works projects. Here is one example of how I could save millions.
People have been complaining about the cost of a $75 million dollar stadium for the University of Albama at Birmingham stadium.
I did some quick checking on the internet and you can build a basic stadium for under $5 million. It will not be fancy, imagine your average high school football stadium, with an addition 20,000 seats.
But who wants fancy? We want a nice cozy stadium on campus where students can walk to games .
So here is how you build a stadium for under. $4 million. First UAB already has the land, thus no land costs. Use aluminum seating, like high school stadiums and the soccer stadium at UAB does. It is not rocket science, just put 30,000 aluminum seats in a horseshoe shape around the field. 30,000 aluminum seats would cost about$1.5 million. And every fan would be close to the field and get a much better feeling for the game.
Take a lesson from Taledega, the race tack and the porta potty capital of the world. Why spend millions on plumbing when you only have 6 home games a year. The rule of thumb is you need one Porta Potty per 50 people. That means you need about 600 porta potties. You can buy them for about $300 apiece. So the bathroom needs of the crowd can be met for a one-time expense of $180,000.If you don’t like the idea of porta potties, let’s splurge and spend $500,000 on plumbing and toilets under the stands, And we are still not near $75 million.
Concessions stands? Why? Have vendors circle a lot of vending carts on the outside of the horseshow perimeter. You can have drink carts, hot carts, popcorn carts, ice cream carts. So what you now have are 30,000 seats in a horseshow pattern around the field and around that horseshoe pattern colorful vending carts with colorful umbrellas, almost a small town country fair atmosphere.
Lights? Do you need lights? What about a tradition of afternoon games. Wrigley Field did it for years. But if you insist on lights, that should cost about $500,000.
How about locker rooms. Build two concrete buildings for about $100,000 apiece. They don’t have to be fancy. Showers, toilets, training tables, lockers. One building can be painted green for UAB, the other one can be white. And the teams will have to walk through the stands to get to the field, adding to the intimacy of the stadium.So seats, bathroom facilities, locker rooms, concession stands, lights can all be had for under $3 millions. Let’s say I have underestimated the cost of a basic stadium by one million – okay now we are up to $4 million for a stadium on campus that will be cozy, unique and cheap to build.
Another idea – sponsor a contest at every architectural school and offer a prize for any student that can design an great stadium for under $5 million. I bet it can be done.
$75 million – who are you kidding?