Beginning his second year as Marshall's athletic director, Mike Hamrick has overseen improvements at Joan C. Edwards Stadium, including a new video board and complementary display ribbons on the north end, on the Shewey Athletic Building.
Whether you last came to the Joan C. Edwards Stadium in 2007 or just last November, you will get an entirely new experience Friday night.
HUNTINGTON - Whether you last came to the Joan C. Edwards Stadium in 2007 or just last November, you will get an entirely new experience Friday night.
And Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick promises that, aside from how they might view the game's result, fans will come away impressed.
With $3.5 million from Marshall's new contract with multimedia rights-holder ISP Sports, the athletic department has spruced up the football stadium and the Cam Henderson Center arena. With hours ticking down to Friday's MU-West Virginia game, crews have been working out the kinks with the two new video boards and putting the finishing touches on adornments at the stadium.
The new sound system, accentuated by six additional speakers, also is being tuned up for the 7 p.m. kickoff Friday. While the Thundering Herd prepares for 23rd-ranked West Virginia, the surrounding stadium is erupting with activity.
Most notable are the new video displays, measuring about 28 feet high by 49 feet wide at the south end, and about 22 feet high by 32 feet wide at the Shewey Building end. Both boards are framed by a distinctive kelly green block "M," while the smaller board is complemented by two LED ribbon displays, each 82 feet long.
MU officials also brainstormed for creative, less expensive ways to brighten up the stadium, which will begin its 20th season Friday. The ESPN cameras will immediately capture one aesthetic improvement, the new field-level facing of the stands.
After 19 seasons of unadorned concrete, those facades sport a "Welcome to Herd Country" theme, awash in green. Some green decor has been added to the concourses.
Before then, fans will notice a splashy change on the stadium's west exterior. Open areas above the entry games will be covered by eight large, square banners, four featuring former Herd stars Chad Pennington, Randy Moss and Troy Brown.
That serves several purposes: It pays homage to some of the most successful alumni, it covers up the underside of the stadium grandstand and ... just plain looks nice, espcially from a distance.
The back of the south-end scoreboard has just been finished. It's plain, yet striking, using the "We Are ... Marshall" theme to give the stadium better visibility from Fifth Avenue. On the Third Avenue Garage, fans also may notice the giant paintings of Mike D'Antoni and Byron Leftwich.
Back at the stadium, the stands received a power-washing, and are being hosed down again this week. Flower beds are being redone, the south-end hillside is being spruced up and the last of those banners are being hung. The M-Club area outside the southwest corner has been tweaked, though there are bigger plans in the works there.
Speaking of the M-Club, players will run onto the field under an M-Club banner, a la Michigan, in a totally revamped pregame. Designated former players will hold the banner, with the 1971 Young Thundering Herd doing the honors Friday.
The "Thunder Walk," in which players walk from Hodges Hall through campus and the West Lot, will remain. It will start a little earlier, at 4:45 p.m.
HUNTINGTON - Whether you last came to the Joan C. Edwards Stadium in 2007 or just last November, you will get an entirely new experience Friday night.
And Marshall athletic director Mike Hamrick promises that, aside from how they might view the game's result, fans will come away impressed.
With $3.5 million from Marshall's new contract with multimedia rights-holder ISP Sports, the athletic department has spruced up the football stadium and the Cam Henderson Center arena. With hours ticking down to Friday's MU-West Virginia game, crews have been working out the kinks with the two new video boards and putting the finishing touches on adornments at the stadium.
The new sound system, accentuated by six additional speakers, also is being tuned up for the 7 p.m. kickoff Friday. While the Thundering Herd prepares for 23rd-ranked West Virginia, the surrounding stadium is erupting with activity.
Most notable are the new video displays, measuring about 28 feet high by 49 feet wide at the south end, and about 22 feet high by 32 feet wide at the Shewey Building end. Both boards are framed by a distinctive kelly green block "M," while the smaller board is complemented by two LED ribbon displays, each 82 feet long.
MU officials also brainstormed for creative, less expensive ways to brighten up the stadium, which will begin its 20th season Friday. The ESPN cameras will immediately capture one aesthetic improvement, the new field-level facing of the stands.
After 19 seasons of unadorned concrete, those facades sport a "Welcome to Herd Country" theme, awash in green. Some green decor has been added to the concourses.
Before then, fans will notice a splashy change on the stadium's west exterior. Open areas above the entry games will be covered by eight large, square banners, four featuring former Herd stars Chad Pennington, Randy Moss and Troy Brown.
That serves several purposes: It pays homage to some of the most successful alumni, it covers up the underside of the stadium grandstand and ... just plain looks nice, espcially from a distance.
The back of the south-end scoreboard has just been finished. It's plain, yet striking, using the "We Are ... Marshall" theme to give the stadium better visibility from Fifth Avenue. On the Third Avenue Garage, fans also may notice the giant paintings of Mike D'Antoni and Byron Leftwich.
Back at the stadium, the stands received a power-washing, and are being hosed down again this week. Flower beds are being redone, the south-end hillside is being spruced up and the last of those banners are being hung. The M-Club area outside the southwest corner has been tweaked, though there are bigger plans in the works there.
Speaking of the M-Club, players will run onto the field under an M-Club banner, a la Michigan, in a totally revamped pregame. Designated former players will hold the banner, with the 1971 Young Thundering Herd doing the honors Friday.
The "Thunder Walk," in which players walk from Hodges Hall through campus and the West Lot, will remain. It will start a little earlier, at 4:45 p.m.
Single-game tickets for Friday's game are long gone, though the MU ticket office is still selling season tickets. After another sizable batch went Tuesday, those sales approached the 17,000 mark.
While the ticket office wraps that up, MU and its concessionaires are preparing for upwards of 40,000 visitors. The luxury boxes are being stocked and anything that needs fixing will get fixed.
Even without the new adornments, the stadium likely would be in the best condition since ... well, the 2007 Marshall-WVU game. It will if Scott Morehouse, assistant athletic director for facilities, has his way.
Today, he begins a long, long final day before kickoff.
"The last 24 hours, there's no sleeping here," Morehouse said. "In '07, I was ready to take a quick nap for an hour and a half, that was about 3:30 in the morning. In my office, I put my head down, they started tailgating across the street, blaring music. I thought, [forget it], an hour and a half isn't going to do any good anyway."
There are a few issues from the 2007 game MU officials have worked to address. One embarrassing situation will be rectified, Hamrick promised, though the cooler nighttime weather will lend a hand. Remember, the '07 game was played at midday, under sunny skies and temperatures rising to 90 degrees.
"I promise you we'll have plenty of bottled water," Hamrick said. "We've worked hard, we've planned and we think we've got a handle. We're going to have a record crowd, anticipating more people than we've had the first time we had this game.
"It's a Friday night game, which provides some unique logistic issues, as far as crowd control and getting people in and out of here, and a national TV audience. That adds some issues you have to deal with, but these are things we've dealt with before and I'm confident our people can handle them."
Postgame traffic isn't usually a major issue at MU home games, but gold-clad WVU fans will fill out the stadium. In 2007, estimates of visiting fans ranged from 8,000 to 12,000, mostly coming from the east on Interstate 64.
"From everything I've been told, it was handled pretty good, people getting in and out of here," Hamrick said. "We're going to have a record number of state troopers here - we visited with them [Wednesday] morning - to help with the crowd, in and out. But you can only get people in and out of here so quick."
Reach Doug Smock at 304-348-5130 or dougsm...@wvgazette.com.
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