Michigan Stadium seating capacity reduced by 2k

Submitted by The Mad Hatter on

Following several seating adjustments, Michigan Stadium's ticketed seating capacity has been slightly reduced.

The iconic 88-year-old Michigan Stadium remains college football's largest venue, but increasing its accessibility and configuration adjustments for major non-football events led to a decrease in the total number of seats by just over 2,000 to create the new official capacity of 107,601.

http://www.mgoblue.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/080715aaa.html

 

Generic MGoBlogger

August 7th, 2015 at 10:36 AM ^

Maybe for this year, but it is widely speculated that the Tennessee/Virginia Tech game in 2016 will break the record for most attended college football game.  It is being held in Bristol Motor Speedway, so we will keep the record for most attended game in a legitimate college football stadium for the time being

CRISPed in the DIAG

August 7th, 2015 at 11:50 AM ^

Seems like the Super Bowl sells a ticket to hang around outside of the stadium - or they did a year or two ago.  This sounds Brandonian, but I could easily see the department sell tickets exclusive to a "Victors Experience" or somesuch that allows fans to mill around inflatable bounce houses, food trucks, shitty live Americana bands and a large game screen.

winterblue75

August 7th, 2015 at 10:19 AM ^

 

The most noticeable changes to Stadium seating relate to ADA accessibility, as seats had to be eliminated in order to widen aisles and install hand railings around the entire bowl with the exception of the student seating section.

 

I'm thinking that if most of the seat reductions were in relation with the ADA then there should be no complaining.

MeanJoe07

August 7th, 2015 at 10:23 AM ^

Should.  But there shall.  WIth modern technology I thought they would let those with disabilites use rocket boosters to get around.  The future is boring.  I'm starting a kickstarter for the development of rocketbooster contraptions for those with disabilities.

LSAClassOf2000

August 7th, 2015 at 10:19 AM ^

The last digit in seating capacity has been "1" since requested by director of athletics Fritz Crisler in 1956. The final seat was later said to be reserved in honor of the Hall of Fame football coach.

You know, I knew about the seat supposedly reserved for Crisler, but not the tie to "1" being the final digit in the capacity. Interesting actually. 

To be fair though, making the bowl easier and safer to navigate for as many people as possible was something that needed to happen, so while it is a shame it takes out 2,000 seats, I have a feeling that it could have been more if the improvements weren't as seamless as possible too. 

1464

August 7th, 2015 at 10:22 AM ^

If my estimation is correct, that works out to about a 4.5 seats per row.  There are around 450 total rows in the stadium.  That's might actually be noticeable.  They need to tack those 2,000 onto the back of an endzone along with another 10,000 and use that as the cheap seats and the visitors section.

EDIT - Nevermind.  If they're widening the aisles, then maybe there won't be any more butt room.

skurnie

August 7th, 2015 at 10:31 AM ^

The handrails are a welcome addition, in my opinion. I saw someone catch an elderly man who got dizzy climbing the stairs and nearly take a nasty tumble down the steps during halftime of the Utah game. The averted disaster is the only fond memory of the Utah game I have. 

clarkiefromcanada

August 7th, 2015 at 2:24 PM ^

Anyone who would (sincerely and not /s) complain about accessibility improvements because they reduce able bodied capacity is a jackass.

Bottom line is that we are all going to get older and most disabled in some form or another. As one who has attended multiple events with disabled colleagues (basically enabling them to now enjoy Michigan Stadium when before they could not) these improvements make a ton of sense. 

Dignity is worth 2000 seats.

M-Dog

August 7th, 2015 at 10:32 AM ^

I think this was announced a long time ago, that they would be doing this and that it would reduce capacity by a small percentaqge.  I believe this has been in the works for a while.

ThadMattasagoblin

August 7th, 2015 at 10:35 AM ^

You can add around 10K seats in an upper deck in one of the endzones. 117500 would be filled. Any more than that and I don't even think one of the biggest fanbases in football could fill it.