What would you change about Michigan Stadium?
Excluding what goes on on the field.
There needs to be more of a historic presence on the concourse. We need a statue garden/wall of fame. Statues of players, coaches with bios. Crisler Center and Yost I’ve Arena both do great jobs of showcasing the history of the teams that play there.
Plaques underneath the covered concourse that people just walk by aren’t enough.
I’d like to see Michigan Stadium opened up for drop-in visits again. I know it used to happen awhile ago but now you can only do it if you pay $100 for a guided tour.
No. Open one gate and have security checkpoints when you walk in and have some security on the field. Close off the tunnel, just open the NE gate. I feel like Bo and specifically Yost would be disgusted on how closed off things are to the fans. Most outdoor facilities at Michigan you can walk through and walk on the field. The Big House used to be this way. Michigan Football is for all of us.
Curious to hear other suggestions.
Fewer seats so I actually have a little space
Have you tried eating less?
I'm 6'0, 180, in good shape, and I'm still touching at least 4 people at all times when seated. Left, right, front, and back.
I love having the largest audience in... Well, everything. But his critique is not unfounded nor applicable only to fat people.
Same deal. I'm tall with a broad shoulder width and long legs that don't fit well in economy class airline seats. I'm not overweight (OK, maybe I could stand to lose 5 lbs). But I find it a miserable existence to sit in Michigan Stadium. I love the notion of attending games. I love being in the stadium. I love the game day atmosphere. But I sometimes regret the decision to attend a game by midway through the third quarter. I'm sore and stiff from trying not to encroach on people surrounding me, and I'm also pissed from getting kneed in the back and squeezed from all sides.
The older I get, the better those club seats look.
You know how you can avoid being kneed in the back or kneeing the person in front of you? Stand up and cheer! Sorry, I'm kidding... mostly.
I'm not kidding. Stand the F up.
If I could change anything, it would be the "down in front" crowd
The stand up/sit-down repositioning causes many of the problems. It's like a cage-free wrestling match.
I'm with you...I would prefer standing during the entire game, but that's apparently not sustainable in most sections. At 6'4", I also represent an impediment to the row or two behind me. People get pissed when they can't see.
Make the seats bigger, add an upper deck to make up for the lost seats and keep some of the crowd noise in.
Bring back the urinal troughs for expedited bathroom breaks. Kidding...sort of.
Build a giant chasm under the visitor sideline that can be opened up at the push of a button to devour entire OSU teams.
I’m 6’2” 198 pounds. Hit the gym 6 days a week(when it was open)
do you even lift, bro?
If it somehow was economically feasible, another Michigan Stadium expansion, this time to widen the seats, space between rows, and aisles with only a minimal rise in stadium capacity.
I've been in all the pre-expansion B1G stadiums and several other stadiums too; only at Michigan Stadium and Ross-Ade(Purdue) do I feel like a sardine.
My grandfather went to Purdue and had season tickets there. He also attended a bunch of Michigan games. When I went to see Michigan-Purdue with him at Purdue, he said that Michigan had 100,000 seats in their stadium and Purdue had 55,000 but that Purdue could have 100,000 seats too if they painted the numbers as close together as Michigan did.
Sorry, I'm calling bullshit about Ross Ade having room for 100,000 seats.
Even if they expanded to put that many seats in, they would still only get 40,000 fans per game.
Yeah, i was curious too. Ross-Ade only has seating around 3/4 of the stadium and they have 73 rows (less in some areas). Michigan Stadium has 96 rows.
It's called hyperbole from an old grandfatherly type. The joke is that Michigan's seats are really close together. Purdue also has the added roominess of no one attending their games... ...at least in the 80's when my grandfather was alive.
I'm 6'2", so whenever I'm there I'm praying for a part of the game where everyone stands for a long period of time, otherwise sitting down is miserable.
What they should do is add rows in the endzones, where there is room to expand, and then widen each seat. Add comfort while keeping capacity above 100,000.
I feel like I could make a joke about unoccupied space in the end zone.
Lol. I used to call it the medium house with small seats....
Remove all benches and turn the entire stadium into standing room only
I like it. Just me and 250,000 of my favorite SARs-CoV2 vectors enjoying a Saturday afternoon.
A number of soccer stadiums now have entire sections that are standing room only. The first in the US was Orlando's MLS stadium. Each row has metal railings with cup holders.
There are actually flip down seats behind them, but yes, this is correct. It's the supporters section.
Football will eventually adopt it for student sections, but never for the seating bowl. You're more likely to see more standing room decks like baseball stadiums have added. Beer gardens.
UCF already took out seats and added one at midfield. Then again they also have cabana tents just outside their end zones.
I agree with everything everyone is saying. Wider seats and aisles, add an upper deck. Supporters section style standing room seats for students (I did that on purpose).
In your upper deck find a place where people can gather and stand and have a beer and socialize while watching the game.
Gen Z is looking for more social spaces, I think this will be the next wave.
Then obviously the tech piece. Wi-Fi has to work, there has to be a way to interact with the game experience (a video board for fan tweets, video, scores and highlights of other games around the country, something targeted at fans and not the game or stats).
I need to be able to order my concessions from an app and go pick it up when its ready without waiting in line or handing money/cards. Similar to Starbucks.
Along those lines, hawkers are going to be a thing of the past. No one is going to be touching money and passing food around stadiums after COVID. But along the lines of the app...someone can bring my food/drink to my aisle or to a pickup point at the top of my section.
More spaces that are comfortable nursing moms, gender neutral, family friendly. (Not all the in the same space)
Ultimately big stadiums are a thing of old. It's going to be able creating a unique experience. Something that brings you to the game rather than sit in your comfy home with you HDTV, fridge and bathroom steps away.
And somehow you have to do this while LOWERING ticket prices.
Seems unlikely.
some of the scores
Ha! Took the words right out of my mouth XM!
Other than that I wouldn't change a thing. All the good things, and bad things, about the Big House make it the Big House. It is completely unlike any stadium in the USA. You may hate it, but you can't say it isn't unique. Kind of like visiting Seatle or San Francisco...you can not like the cities, but you can't say they aren't one of a kind.
Less advertising on or around the stadium. Don't ever even think about it, Warde. The belfor ad on Crisler's floor can die in a fire(no pun intended).
Structurally speaking, I'm so nostalgic about the place as is, although the new video boards with the massive M's on the exterior are a beautiful sight. I loved gazing over at those during walks back when i lived all the way over on 5th and William.
Don't raze the place and turn it into high rise apartments, a2 city planners? *Ducks*
I'd rather have ads coating every surface than see everyone (particularly students) charged an arm and a leg to attend a game
unfortunately i think the 2 revenue streams are nearly or totally unrelated.
I wish it was a little more cereal bowl than pasta bowl. A little more upright and 110k would be truly intimidating on the noise scale. So many more stadiums get louder than ours - even tiny Autzen (seats 54k).
Less Ohio State fans during "The Game".
Fewer
While the leg work is tedious to know the exact number of OSU fans, I thought of it as uncountable. That’s why I used less.
“None” is a good option, as well
Ticket prices...but that goes for all of college football.
Seems like it shouldn't cost a grand to take your family to a football game.
Oh come on, I'm sure you can get into a WMU, CMU or EMU game with a family for less than $100
Biggest thing is just managing the lines better. Gates, getting into some sections, bathrooms, concessions, etc. I never realized how bad it was until trying to take my kid to a game last year, a 4 y/o's lack of patience really brings it into focus.
I'd like to see better lighting in the covered parts of the stadium, but that's a minor complaint.
Each seat number on the bleachers is fitted with an electrode, only active during defensive series, that shocks the individual sitting there if he / she has not left their seat to stand in the previous 5 minutes of gameplay.
EDIT: Sorry, to the poster below -- I immediately changed my idea and originally had posted about upper-decks in the endzones.
I think it'd look good. I wonder how much it's even being considered at this point with general ticket demand down compared to what it used to be. It probably could help if we could actually win a conference title and beat Ohio St for the first time in a while and demand would be higher.
Mercedes- Benz Stadium (Atlanta) concession prices and an express lane to the restroom at halftime for anyone sitting in row 25 or below.
I would really be interested in seeing the revenue numbers on the MB Stadium experiment with reasonable prices.
A couple of years ago, I read a study on the new Yankee Stadium, where they basically did the math, and determined that it made more sense for the Yankees to absolutely gouge on prices and concessions, in order to make money of the the most expensive 10% of ticket holders (corporate seats, luxury boxes, expense accounts, etc) and have the stadium at 25% capacity than it would for them to make it reasonably priced for the remaining 90% and it have it nearly sold out with families and blue collar fans.
They basically said if they made beers $5, and a regular fan bought 5 of them (vs none) they'd be losing out on the $300 grey goose bottle that they sell in the luxury box to some suit.
This is the reason baseball will not be a major sport in 20 years. The luxury dollar is good for immediate profits, but who is going to watch this game as an adult if they never go to games as a kid because it costs $200 for a family of four?
Something (ex: list big ten title years, NC years, M logo, or even just a freaking maize stripe that goes across the whole thing) on the press-box, rather than just nothing
a "maize stripe that goes across the whole thing" you say? hmm.
I wanted a replica of the stadium about 20 years ago. I have some others (including Yost) from Danbury Mint. The Michigan Stadium they were selling had the halo on it. I called and was like, when are you making a new one without the halo. And they were like, we aren't making new ones until we sell out of these. I was like, good luck with that. Kept waiting for an update. I think in the meantime they've stopped making stadiums.
Might be time for another call. Their page says it has sold out!
https://www.danburymint.com/prod/041/3040-0071/Michigan-Wolverines---Michigan-Stadium
That's the problem. It took them about 15 years to sell out and they stopped making new ones so there is nothing left to buy. At least not from them.
Danbury Mint stopped making them years ago.
But they have some non halo ones on EBay all the time.
Halo free one for sale on eBay.
It might not have been so awful if it wasn’t made of surplus aluminum siding from the 1970s.
We found Tom Goss's MGoAccount.