expansion

Since the latest upgrades to Michigan Stadium, I continue to hunt and peck around the ‘net for tidbits regarding some of the processes that went into the $226 million “facelift” and came across this interesting piece on who and how the new signs and wayfinding were made, including the shields that outline the lower concourse.

I found enjoyable that the name of the company used to produce the graphics was 'Harmon Sign.'  How apropos.

Enjoy!

http://www.signweb.com/content/michigan-stadiums-new-signs-and-wayfinding

I like Maryland more already.

An analysis of the expansion from Maryland's SBNation blog, TestudoTimes, declares the following.

And if you think Maryland doesn't fit in because they're a basketball school, Indiana, Michigan State*, and Illinois say hi.

State has been better at basketball than they have at football for some time, but try telling a state fan that they're a basketball school and enjoy the livid, fuming tirade that ensues. Good show, Maryland. It's like prison. Shank a guy on the first day, and then things will be alright.

*emphasis mine.

An article placed at cbs sports an hour ago says Maryland will vote as early as tomorrow on their invitation to join the Big Ten. Says that university's biggest donor backs the move. Hard to imagine that this is not a twofer deal, with Rutgers right behind. 

The article notes that the $50 million exit fee might be a stumbling block for Maryland. But from what I've read elsewhere the league may take all or part out of future revenue to the school.

Perhaps it's been noted elsewhere, but this gives the Big Ten access to 35% of the nation's viewers, bringing in the DC and NY areas, and extends the league across a fairly contiguous--that is, plausible--swath of the country, from Nebraska to the Atlantic coast. I realize that Rutgers and Maryland aren't the most appetizing draws in an immediate sense, but I like having the league entering NY and DC, taking in part of the South now, too. (And there's no reason why those schools cannot get better, including in football.) Obviously, the expanded TV revenue is the big draw for the league itself. Will be interesting to see if the league uses the pretext of expansion to reconfigure the divisions, which are pretty unpopular, at least here.

Link:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/eye-on-college-football/21...

http://sports.yahoo.com/top/news;_ylt=AjMIP7ABppN0WYbh1QTweP4cvrYF?slug=ap-big12-missouri

Thought it was funny that Missouri would leak info that we were their knight in shining armor, but the SEC is okay too, they guess.  I wonder about the rationale behind this line of thinking.  Cash? They'd rather be an average team in-conference than a conference door mat?  Cash?  Better academics and less stigma about cheating (sans OSU)?Cash?

Anyway, just thought it was interesting that they would put out these feelers.  Nobody in that University would leak this information if they did not want to test the waters with the Big Ten.  If Missouri was a chick, I'd say she's flirting with another attractive guy to get our attention.

Didn't see this posted.

Northwestern Rivals message board post

Yes, I am referencing a message board post from the NW Rivals site.  Hence the RUMOR in the title, but this guy seems at least a little bit more credible than a random troll.

The gist of the article:

Earlier this evening, Notre Dame and Texas jointly presented the Big Ten Conference with their proposed terms of entry into the conference. These terms resulted from lengthy discussions among both schools and the Big Ten over the past several months.

 

Michigan Athletic Director David Brandon confirmed with me in a one-on-one interview on media day that a working design is ready for the next stadium expansion, which would start on the south end zone.

The specs include all-bleacher seating, which will rise up to enclose the spaces between the sideline structures to the scoreboard at a height that the scoreboard will appear as if it is "set into" the new seating area.

The design would also make the seating appear like a second deck, as a concourse will be included in the new construction below the new seating.  Brandon said the waiting list for season tickets supports the expansion.

He offered no thoughts on a how soon he would take this project to the Regents for approval.  He said the south end zone expansion would increase the stadium's capacity by 6,000.

This can only mean that a similar NORTH expansion would follow at another time in the future to balance the stadium's appearance from within the bowl.

With this updated information, one can reasonably conclude that including a north expansion of an additional 6,000 seats, we can project the capacity of Michigan Stadium will eventually increase to at or near 122,000 (and 1).