919 Brown

December 17th, 2009 at 12:24 PM ^

Was there ever any discussion of auctioning off chunks of the press box? Seems like there would have been plenty of interest, and I know I would have snatched something up.

Joined: 10/23/2009

MGoPoints: 1276

a2bluefan

December 17th, 2009 at 12:39 PM ^

Q: Do you plan to sell or give away any discarded parts as mementos? We do not plan to have any discarded materials available that would be suitable for public distribution. Before demolition of an area, we do work with qualified reuse centers to capture any usable fixtures, etc. Opening up this process to the general public would be beyond our available resources. Source: http://www.umich.edu/stadium/faq/

Joined: 12/29/2008

MGoPoints: 2760

Zonereadstretch

December 17th, 2009 at 11:34 PM ^

Yes, the lettering is being saved. I had inquired mid season what was being saved as I thought they might save the "blue" bricks and auction them off as memorabilia, but apparently those were unfortunately destined for the dumpster. Any items of note, which sounds like there wasn’t much were going to be saved.

Joined: 11/21/2008

MGoPoints: 185

a2bluefan

December 17th, 2009 at 12:32 PM ^

I can't remember where I read this (probably somewhere on this board!)... but I saw somewhere that the iconic "Michigan Stadium" letters were going to be preserved, and perhaps used somehow/somewhere in the stadium. Take note that they've been removed in that annarbor.com photo... so they must be doing something, else they'd have bulldozed them with everything else. One can hope, anyway.

Joined: 12/29/2008

MGoPoints: 2760

NHWolverine

December 17th, 2009 at 12:35 PM ^

I heard they're going to be put outside the stadium above an entrance. It's just going to be rough to see the stadium shots on TV or the pregame hype videos showing the stadium and not see the lettering. I though it would be cool to hang them in the concourse. Does anyone know if there are plans to put up Michigan memorabilia around the concourse as they do at the Joe, Comerica, etc.?

Joined: 07/14/2009

MGoPoints: 79

FabFiver5

December 17th, 2009 at 1:33 PM ^

There is more than one set of those letters. If you noticed this year, they were painted a brighter yellow than ever before. If you walked around the concourse behind the press box during a game this past season, you could have seen the old (possibly original?) letters sitting in a fenced-in storage area.

Joined: 09/24/2008

MGoPoints: 1948

thevictors85

December 17th, 2009 at 12:30 PM ^

does anyone know where the cameras are going to be positioned on the new press box? i ask because the new press box is going to be much higher up than the old, and i worry that the camera is going to be one looking too far "down" on the field (think osu)

Joined: 11/01/2008

MGoPoints: -29

60blue

December 17th, 2009 at 1:01 PM ^

I may have missed this but what are they doing with the blank spot that the old press box occupied? I assume filling it in with more bleacher seats, no? If so, I think it would be pretty cool to arrange the seats in that spot to form something like "1817" like they do with the block M on the other side of the stadium.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 618

Yostal

December 17th, 2009 at 1:43 PM ^

Does anyone else remember during the 500th Game that "Michigan Stadium" and "500th Game" were painted on the field in the Art Deco style at the 20s? I think, if done well, having "Michigan Stadium" on the field, in the art deco style lettering, could be a nice touch (I understand and support the idea that people love the clean uncluttered look of the field at Michigan Stadium.) Actually, one other interesting thing: Michigan and Ohio State are the only two members of the Big Ten, I believe, to not have the Big Ten logo on the field. I wonder what the deal is with that.

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 7697

a2bluefan

December 17th, 2009 at 3:47 PM ^

My thoughts exactly. I'm one to generally lean more towards the traditional when it comes to Michigan football. But when I saw the plans for the first time, I was completely on board with the renovation. But this press box, outdated piece of crap that it had become, was home to some serious maize and blue history.

Joined: 12/29/2008

MGoPoints: 2760

MichiganPhotoRod

December 31st, 2009 at 9:06 AM ^

They dismantled it and put it back together inside the stadium. For a cool quarter billion, that would be a mere drop in the Little Brown Jug. It is likely, however, they deconstructed Section 22 entrance area and brought it in that way. I imagine this kind of heavy machinery ballet is a lot like newlyweds on their honeymoon in the 1950's: Very tight "work".

Joined: 08/04/2009

MGoPoints: 520

turfboy

December 31st, 2009 at 9:45 AM ^

my brother owns that piece of equipment (he owns rental company for cranes and bigger excavators) -so we were there monday bullsh - ing with contractors and i walked over there(had same idea in my head when i first saw the pic posted above) - that machine flattens to about 8 feet with boom flattened out - they ran it through concourse and out onto platform...and away they went - it's been nice having access to the stadium as things progress, but it's a bit sad seeing it quiet as well...

Joined: 12/01/2009

MGoPoints: 41

jmblue

December 31st, 2009 at 3:30 PM ^

Were the "MICHIGAN STADIUM" letters once painted blue? My recollection is that they were until sometime in the late '90s. I might be wrong, though.

Joined: 11/07/2008

MGoPoints: 102859