According to the report, which was contracted by the university and completed in August, Spectrum Stadium’s rust problems have affected the structural integrity of the 45,000-seat venue at the university’s main campus in east Orange County, Corrosion affects more than 80,000 square feet of the stadium, it said — four stairways had heavily rusted supports and a potential for “significant section loss” at the time, the TLC Engineering report found. Areas of the stadium’s fireproofing were cracked, corroded and graded “failing.”
They built on the cheap. You get what you pay for.
I once read an article that they call it the “Bounce House” because the stadium moves/bounces when all the fans jump around and get get excited after a big play.
You can see it on TV from some of the camera angles. The picture bounces from the camera moving
So if they host the championship game, I guess they’ll have to find another venue.
I sure hope this isn’t a problem we will be facing in the future.
Time to expand to 60k.
This is a huge problem for them. Architectural standards have changed over the years especially, steel, steel re-bar and re-bar reinforcing to name a few. When a structure starts rusting from the inside the entire structure is compromised. It makes no sense that this is even happening. This stadium was built in 2006.
Jack Murphy Stadium aka Qualcomm stadium now SDCCU Stadium was built in 1967. It suffers from the same issue except that it is now irreversible. I am afraid that the UCF stadium will share the same fate.
They are facing yearly repairs costing $M’s. You can be sure that a lawsuit is already open. It is sad. Tax payers are going to have to pay more. In case it is as severe as it could be the entire structure would need to be scrapped. The firm might contend this but that’s the harsh reality.
Sounds like it is time to start section by section removing the steel supports and replacing them with concrete. It will be expensive as hell, but should get the job done.
You can’t if it is at the core. It will cost just about as much as half a stadium. This is not even counting the cost of compromised concrete. Again, this is bad new for the tax payers or the University itself.
Part of that is probably that corners were cut upfront, it is a 45,300 seat stadium that they built for $54M, $65M adjusted to today, so the coating was probably insufficient given the climate (salt air), but it is likely what was paid for. Apparently UCF sprayed bleach on the stadium to clean it, and it speed up the degradation of the coating from the steel.
As you know plans have to be approved. Even though quite a bit of work go to JC’s everything is being reviewed to the highest degree. This is especially true for public bids. For the stadium to pass inspection on multiple occasions it makes no sense.
Wow, and to think just how old Robertson was and we were still able to play in it.
USF will bounce the bounce house.
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