July 21, 2010 Alex Brown

d.alex.brown@gmail.com

    Being the overenthusiastic Georgia Southern fan that I am, sometimes I find myself thinking about the possibilities of what’s to come.
    Take Paulson Stadium, for example. Wouldn’t it be sweet to see “The Prettiest Little Stadium in America” expanded to hold more people? Currently, the listed seating capacity of 18,000 is less than the university’s enrollment. If every student at Georgia Southern wanted to attend a game, there would be no place to put them all (let’s assume most don’t want to sit on the grass) — and that doesn’t even count alumni and other supporters.
    There’s no reason to renovate it to seat 50,000 people right now, but I would personally like to see it seat at least 25,000 with overflow room on the hills. Sure, the stadium isn’t packed to capacity every weekend, but with some wins it could be. With student enrollment increasing every year, eventually something needs to be done. The student section is the same now as it was when enrollment was half what it is presently. When this program gets back on top, attendance numbers will soar — if there’s room for everybody.
    The feasibility study released a couple years ago addressed this issue and the committee’s recommendation was to build upward instead of bowling an end. This would increase the number of seats at the 50 yard line rather than put seats in an endzone.
    Try to imagine with me a Paulson with a second deck and luxury suites on either side, and a new, not-brown-sheet-metal press box. What if we even added some seats in the Bishop endzone just off the front of the building? Maybe even put the band there to allow more room for student seating in the current student section?
    This setup would also enhance the team entrance. Personally, the “just gather at gate and run in” doesn’t do it for me. I love the players head-butting Erk, but it just seems like something’s missing. If there were a tunnel for the players, they could come out one or two at a time to head-butt Erk beforehand, but then have smoke and a big entrance when the entire team comes out to the fight song… I’m just thinking out loud here.
    Some other issues I’d like to see addressed — and these are less aesthetic and more necessity. The public address system is horrible. The home side gets blown away while the student side of the stadium can barely hear anything. Also, the video board and scoreboard could use some upgrading.
    Don’t take this as me griping. As I stated a couple of weeks ago, if we want nice things and want the program to grow, it’s up to us as alumni and fans to support the program. But how nice would it be to see all these enhancements?
    Looking around at other facilities in the Southern Conference, it’s time for Georgia Southern to improve Pauslon Stadium. It has gone from one of the premier facilities in the nation at our level to just average, honestly. The Eagles’ record on that field (153-29) is still impressive even after posting a 12-12 mark at home over the last four seasons. Hopefully that homefield magic will return with the return of the triple-option.
    Again, all of this is just me dreaming — and these are just ramblings from my mind, so you can take that for what it’s worth. Nobody asked me for my opinion and I’m sure there are better ideas out there. I just hope a few years from now we’re back to winning championships and people are piling into Paulson on Saturday afternoons like old times. And I hope we’re filling up our new upper deck.

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