Jumpy fans worry UCF, but officials call stadium safe

Some frenzied football fans at the University of Central Florida are calling their new stadium "The Trampoline" -- and treating it like one.

[Fantasyland]

Fatigue; Metal Fatigue. Break out another 10 Million to fix it before the LAwyers make 100 million off an incident. Hear me now, believe me later!

[Dan]

Fantasyland wrote:

Fatigue; Metal Fatigue. Break out another 10 Million to fix it before the LAwyers make 100 million off an incident. Hear me now, believe me later!

You got it Fantasyland!

They skimped on water fountains-- betcha they skimped on structural engineering too!

-Dan, UCF class of 2006, College of Enginnering

[Starflyer59]

I agree. Everyone loves it right now but wait until it collapses and hundreds are killed. It will be a lawyers dream come true.

[Jump DMC]

I certainly hope the administration is not naive enough to think banning a particular song is going to solve the problem.

[Littletommy]

Yet another taxpayer boondoggle. I can envision the meetings when this thing was being planned. I suspect the general concensus was "lets keep the cost down so the public will buy into it..we'll fix it later"!

[shine]

I love UCF but we've got to learn to grow at a gradual pace. Rushing that staduim didn't make sense to me. This is an example of what I'm talking about.

[James]

Can you please post your engineering degree and year you graduated. nothing worse than the internet, where a few guys with a keyboard can spout off anything and feel like a mensa member.

[okw]

RFK Stadium in DC rocked like that, but only on the lower deck that stuck out near the field. Flexing is not normal - at least not flexing enough to see with your eyes.

[Common Sense Isnt]

Spend what it takes to fix the problem now. But you CAN'T ban Zombie Nation. What makes playing at home such a factor in the game is when the crowd is amp'd up and shouting. Nothing has gotten the crowd more fired up than that song and the bouncing. I was at the UCF Basketball game against Presbyterian on Wednesday, and even in the Arena people were bouncing to it.

In the game against UTEP they didn't play it until very late in the game. I think it wasn't until we lost the lead, but once they played it the crowd was energized and the team played with more intensity. We spend all kinds of money on coaches and recruiting. We need to spend the money to ensure we keep the 12th man.

Oh, and safety. Gotta have safety.

[whaaaat]

Yes, by all means. Let's ban the ONE song that gets the entire stadium off their seats, making noise, and pumps up our team. Why don't we just throw in some Pat Boone during timeouts while we're at it?

[xtreby]

Yet another fine example of using the lowest bidder...

[Common Sense Isnt]

Littletommy wrote:

Yet another taxpayer boondoggle. I can envision the meetings when this thing was being planned. I suspect the general concensus was "lets keep the cost down so the public will buy into it..we'll fix it later"!

Psssst. This was not taxpayer funded and it's within structural code and integrity. But since the flexing scares people we'll stop it with reinforcements.

No go back to your drab, dull, boring life.

[Chris]

Flexing is normal. A structure that is too rigid is more likely to fail than a structure that has some "play" designed into it.

[Common Sense Isnt]

shine wrote:

I love UCF but we've got to learn to grow at a gradual pace. Rushing that staduim didn't make sense to me. This is an example of what I'm talking about.

This has nothing to do with "rushing" the stadium. It was built on schedule. The designers cannot forsee every rhythmic impact on the structure. Have you ever seen the video of the bridge that's twisting like a DNA helix? That was because of high winds shaking supports that eventually shook in rhythm and caused the flexing. In the military they call out Route Step when marching over a bridge so they don't shake the structure by stepping in rhythm.

But to put everyone's nerves at ease we'll add supports to stop the flexing.

[Matt]

That stadium is not gonna come crashing down... All of you who think it will are idiots.

It is waaaay stronger than it needs to be.

[FastJack]

"There's noticeable movement," he said, but tests so far show the building is "performing in accordance with Florida building codes."
This is supposed to allay any concerns?? This is the way the builders and UCF explained away the lack of public drinking fountains also... Perhaps the UCF folks should get a "second opinion" rather than rely on the builder's opinion alone... of course the builder is going to say the place is safe... wonder where they got the steel from? China?

[Keep it rockin]

Ha-ha... it's not enough to have armchair quarterbacks. Now we have armchair engineers. All you "doom and gloom" folks having fun?

[FSM]

The swaying is fine, the canned music isn't. I'm glad UCF finally has their own stadium, but one of the things that used to make college football unique was the live music, and UCF has a pretty good band. I graduated from UF just a few years ago, and since they started playing canned music, it seems like every other sport out there, like the NFL.

As for the Zombie Nation song, I agree it gets you fired up, but every single other stadium in the country plays it. What's so unique? The one thing I did see is that when Vandy played at the Swamp, they played the song with their horn section. That was kind of cool.

[PLEASE]

This is a piece of junk, written by somebody who's experience in engineering would be basic algebra, trying to get people to worry for no reason.

This stadium has been reviewed, and peer reviewed, and checked and signed off by engineers from several different firms. It is a safe structure, and the worry comes from idiots.

[Pathetic]

This is why I hate the Orlando Sentinel... It's the week of the championship game and we're still trying to sell the last few tickets and you drop this "Turd" of an article on the cover. The stadium bouncing has happened every week since our Texas game and YOU CHOOSE THIS WEEK to bring this up in the paper?!? You should be ashamed and to the editor, I'm sure you didn't go to UCF, so f' off for trying to cause people to panic.

First you guys make a huge deal out of water fountains ( no one used the ones at the citrus bowl at all) and now this. Can you guys just be supportive for once? The university obviously is keeping an eye on it and the place is safe.

And lastly to the UCF officals who think banning the song will do you any good. Don't rob the fans of the one tradition that we all share in big moments of the game.

Go Knights