Would you ever be in favor of reconfiguring the endzone seating at Michigan Stadium?
Went to the spring game yesterday and no matter how many times I walk into Michigan Stadium I am always amazed at the big cavernous bowl. Got me thinking though how different/neat it would be if the endzones were to ever have decks or be completely reconfigured making the stadium more loud/intimidating. The bowl is extremely shallow and that causes seat views closer to field level to be not as good and for noise to evaporate up. Included a few pictures of what some other schools and venues have done. I really like what LSU did especially. Thoughts?
I drew up this prototype in MS paint. Looks almost real, doesn't it?
I'm just playing around here, so don't shoot me. I know that no moron would ever do this in real life.
The legend of Tom Goss
Naw. I like Michigan Stadium the way it is. I don't want to look like any other stadium.
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the logistics of this seem impossible. Plus most UofM faithful would hate it
An endzone addition like LSU did, while making the bowl steeper, would solve those problems.
I snuck on the field once during the summer. Pretty cool. Ran thru the tunnel. Climbed to the top of the ring and looking outs aw the goregeous view of Ann Arbor. This was pre luxury box.
I like loud, and get what the OP is saying. But theres something feng shui, or ergonomic, or something about the bowl and Fing withit is not a good idea, generally speaking. I wish they could take down the luxury boxes, honestly.
is the second largest seating capacity stadium in the world.
Need to find a way to surpass North Korea's Rungrado May Day Stadium's 150,000 seats.
Rather than add more seats to the Big House, I say we just send in a few missles and take out 50,000 of their seats. And I say we should make them pay for the missles.
Problem solved.
What could possibly go wrong?
more than one way to skin a cat.
OTOH, I would like to see the official seating capacity at Michigan Stadium surpass 110,000. Or at least I would like to see the 3,000 seats lost in the lastest renovation restored.
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The dirty little secret of Michigan Stadium is that it does not really hold 110,000 people. They just shoehorn 110,000 people into it.
If you looked at the actual square-footage of the seating area, it's probably not bigger than a lot of stadiums that seat 90,000.
Hence I said it lacks intimidation.
Unless you have to find your seat after the game has started.
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Kind of the point I had in mind when starting the thread. I love Michigan Stadium, but it could be better.
I wonder if you are a season ticket holder. If not, why do you care? (Yes, I am and back up my views with my dollars every year.)
Finally, your comment makes you seem like a jackass troll. Take it down a notch, dude.
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Here are some really crude mspaint mockups I did of the endzones filled in various ways:
This must be after Harbaugh wins a shitload of National Championships.
Coke bottles aren't filling it.
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I actually think the "cavernous bowl" look is part of what makes Michigan Stadium what it is, or what we would like it to be - that is, an intimidating place for others to play. I suppose if you could find a way to do it that was consistent with the look and didn't look like a cheap attempt at a look, then we could look at proposals, but I guess I don't see a good reason at the moment to add to the stadium either in look or capacity. There's also the location to consider - adding more structure might be problematic given where the stadium is.
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Michigan recently completed stadium renovations costing a quarter of a billion dollars.
I'm no architect, but ripping apart the existing structure and adding a deck would probably be enormously expensive, and for what? More crowd noise?
The biggest flaws with all stadiums with upper decks are potentially compromised/obstructed views below, and seats a mile away from the action above. To avoid overhangs requiring pillars, the upper decks need to be recessed.
Michigan's bowl (like the Rose Boow) fits the largest number of fans most efficiently IMO. I attended a game at the ultra-swanky new Levi's Stadium, and the seats near the back of the upper level (especially in the corners) feel like they're in a different time zone.
Adding capacity used to be seriously considered; as other stadiums added capacity, there was a desire to maintain our position as "The BIg House". It seems recent trends work against that idea (increasing attendance issues around the country, TV innovation, etc.). For example, if Texas goes forward with their oft-discussed expansion, I can't see Michigan continuing the arms-race.
Unless there's a long, long period of scarcity, with a huge waiting list and the stadium always bursting at the seams, adding capacity would be a bad idea.
Finally, you said you love Michigan Stadium. I do too. What is it you love about it,? It's certainly not the benches or the concessions. Personally, I love the elegant, symmetrical bowl, and the feeling that you feel part of the game even when seated in the top rows.
The renovations were for the luxury boxes. The endzones weren't touched.
With respect, wasn't the Athletc Department already having to fudge the attendance stats for certain games in the recent past to keep that 100K+ streak going?
Yes, with Harbaugh it's easier to fill up the stadium, but seems to me that there should be a useful purpose beyond adding crowd noise to spend a few hundred million bucks, and add to game-day issues. There should perhaps at least be demonstrably higher demand for tickets?
There may be a practical limit to the numbers of fans who'll turn out for games. Whether Michigan/Northern Ohio's population within driving distance will support a bigger stadium with regular turnout above the numbers we're seeing now, is one important question that needs to be addressed.
Then pile on additional parking problems, stadium entry/exit issues, more traffic than A2 can currently handle, and you could have a less pleasant game day experience that might encourage folks to stay home and watch games on TV.
I'd hate to see rows of empty seats at Michigan Stadium on game day, as happened at many games in the 50s and early 60s when I was still being taken by my parents.
So there may be compelling reasons not to do this beyond the tradition of the Big House's configuration, and even beyond whether the view from the seats would be worth the price of admission.
"If" you want to make money, then put in a South/North endzone club section. The PSDs would likely be significantly more affordable in those zones than current club seats.
"If" you want the stadium to be louder with real human noise then do the above and with the extra money, move the students back closer to the center of the field and give two free slices of pizza and a coke/soft drink to all the kids who show up at least 10 minutes before gametime.
With that said, my understanding is that the stadium in already designed out to have another concourse go around north and south endzones with fill-in bench seating.
They should run lines acrossed the field and dangle fans from them, the guys with body paint and costumes only. That would increase both noise, intimidation factor and give a target to the punters/ kick off specialists.
Bowl designs are condusive to advanced crowd wave techniques! Michigan fans are truly wave blackbelts! At the Northwestern game we were doing normal waves, speed waves, reverse waves, half waves, silent waves all in one long continuous effort. This was also the game the entire stadium was on it's feet for half the game and chanting "Defense" at the end. Get goose pimples when I think about it.
So in response to the OP...
