North Dakota State has enjoyed a mostly successful first year in the FBS, starting 6-2, but a Bison insider sees a glaring need.
The Fargo Forum’s Mike McFeely couldn’t ignore the home stadium of NDSU’s most recent opponent in New Mexico and how the state is paying for major upgrades. McFeely recently sounded off on how he believes the North Dakota state legislature needs to do the same for the Bison amid an 18,000-seat Fargodome that opened in 1992 and can’t easily expand seating.
“Like New Mexico, NDSU plays in a stadium that famously needs improvements,” McFeely wrote. “The 34-year-old Fargodome needs many of the same renovations that University Stadium will get, yet nobody can quite figure out how to pay for them.”
“There’s also some chatter that NDSU might be interested in building its own stadium, so it doesn’t have to deal with the city of Fargo government [which owns the dome] and the Fargo Dome Authority [which manages it],” McFeely added.
He went on to explore the costs and what both New Mexico and Hawaii have done for similar stadium projects in the Mountain West Conference. His column can be read here.
Until the day arrives for the Bison to have a new stadium, the program has a fierce home-field advantage, with a 206-29 home record through the Division II and FCS eras. That hasn’t changed in the FBS with a 4-0 home record thus far.
New Mexico Coach Made Admission on Fargodome
New Mexico head coach Jason Eck, who had coached at the dome before with South Dakota State, admitted before the season that the Bison would easily have “one of the toughest places to play” in the conference.
“The Fargodome will be one of the toughest places to play, if not the toughest place to play coming into the league… NDSU won’t have [attendance] issues,” Eck told reporters via the Forum in February.
That has come true for the Bison thus far with dominant wins at home over Jacksonville State, Fordham, Wyoming and Nevada. Even with Nevada’s big start, the Bison took control of that game in the second half in typical Bison fashion.
NDSU will look to do more of the same on Saturday with UTEP coming to town. The Bison can still make the Mountain West title game by winning out and getting help from UNLV, New Mexico and Wyoming in particular.
However, the Bison hosting the Mountain West title game looks most unlikely with a second conference loss unless UNLV and Wyoming can both beat the Lobos.
Fargodome Outlook For Bison
Until NDSU gets a new stadium, the Fargodome will serve as a unique homefield advantage, and 18,000 fans filling the place each home game seems promising based on the first year in the FBS.
It wouldn’t be the end of the world for NDSU athletics to have a smaller venue for a time, though it could naturally result in rising ticket prices. That will also likely occur if future home games get increased conference stakes, such as UNLV or New Mexico coming to the dome in a future season. Or that could also happen if the Bison could land premiere a Group of Six team or even a Power Four team in non-conference action.
After all, NDSU’s home environment and gridiron success drew ESPN College GameDay to Fargo twice, so the Bison could have plenty of success ahead at home with the program’s current turf.
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NDSU Insider Sounds Off on Program Future