Notes from today's event staff meeting (Stadium capacity to 120,000, "keep the red out", yellow cards)
Forgive the typos; I typed this list on my Atrix this morning during the annual Event Staff meeting at the Stadium. There were some really interesting things revealed, including that the Stadium's next expansion is already late in the design phase... Everything after I start citing Dave Brandon is from the AD himself. Everything else is from various Athletic Department admins. So without further ado, here is what was imparted to the event staff today:
The student section has expanded to end halfway through 34
Straws and lids are back
Event Staff gets new uniforms! They are a huge improvement over the nasty baggy yellow shirts they used to give us. They're mostly blue with maize accents. If they didn't say "EVENT STAFF", I'd be happy to wear it on non-game days. I'll post pictures later on.
There is a new level of event staff: Response Team. They act in place of law enforcent in minor incidents and can issue yellow cards to fans causing problems. These function the same way as soccer and collecting too many leads to ejection from the game. The cards are bright yellow and say" This is Michigan" on one side and list the fan policies on the back. The Response Team will wear an inverted uniform (maize with blue accents). They will also patrol the fence to keep out prohibited items.
Along with the Response Team, a new incident management program is in place. All incidents called in by ushers etc will be tracked on a map and followed up on post game. This group is responsible for dispatching Response Team members.
No Smoking will be enforced heavily on the concourse this year by ticket ta kers after everyone is in the Stadium and the Response Team.
Media parking moved from Pioneer to the dirt triangle lot near Crisler.
Event staff will have special hats for the night game, but no picture yet.
Pedestrian areas will be lit around the Stadium for the night game.
Our credentials now have bar codes on them so we can be scanned in.
Yellow cards have a unique number on them.
The Stadium is no longer open to the public on non game days. This has been the during renovations but is now permanent policy. Tours can be arranged through the Athletic Dept.
Seat cushions are a go and are fastened to the benches. They are managed by an outside company that has done this elsewhere (Alabama, most rcently)
Dave brandon showed up and says that every suite and club seat is sold out, there are not 2 seats.next to each other remaining for any home game this year, and that they could have sold 175,000 tickets to the Notre Dame game. He guarantees that it will be the highest attendance at the Big House in history. He says 115,000 and that the Stadium will be bursting with fans. Special things planned for each game planned already: There will be flyovers, "special flyovers", a parachuter, fireworks, a tribute to Desmond Howard, a tribu te to Lloyd Carr.
DB says night game is a test and it's for the fans and players. A bad experience would make this the only night game. Good experience = a night game per year.
DB confirms: design completed for filling out bleachers to top of scoreboard in south end. Capacity will raise to 120,000. Opponent tickets will be up at top next to scoreboard.
No number retirement due to large squads and number sharing issues.
ESPN put together a financial package that makes the 2012 vs Alabama game MORE profitable than a home game.
Scoreboards will be complete by Aug 5 and tested in all weather and lighting conditions throughout August.
Best of luck to you, sir, and should be a great game!
The yellow cards have a unique number on them to increase demand by memorabilia collectors?
This is 100% correct. Gotta catch 'em all or something.
I'm pretty pumped to get a yellow card for the ND game so I can frame it along with my tickets.
Could someone explain to me what these yellow cards are exactly?
It there's a guy in your seat, and you bump him, he'll often fall down in apparent agony like someone just shot him in the kneecaps. The stadium staff will come and card you, at which point the guy you bumped will get back up like everything is fine.
Just be sure you don't bump anyone in the luxury boxes... that's a penalty kick.
Are the Red Cross response teams going to be armed with the patented soccer "magic healing water" squirt bottles?
I'm interested to see if they actually believe they can stop the large groups of people smoking in the corners of the concourse at halftime. My guess is that they will try very hard the first game, and will eventually just give up after a couple more.
The enforcement approach is changing from "HEY YOU STOP SMOKING" to "See me standing here, you with the lighter? Yeah, and that guy standing over there? And over there? We're all wearing giant no smoking signs. You know what that means."
So the stadium won't be symmetric? I guess I don't understand the reasoning of expanding it on the South but not the North.
Also, didn't Yost originally build the stadium saying that it could one day hold 300,000 fans? I feel like we still have a lot of expansions ahead of us (yes, I know it's absurd to think we'll get there, and I don't, but there will be a lot more expansions IMO)
DB, Let's close in the north end zone first. We need sunshine on the field, especially later in the year.
Maybe 300,000 people back in Yost's day.
Now that we're all McDonald's lovin, Twinkie eatin, corn fed fatasses you can cut that number in half.
The footings were designed for the bowl to expand to hold 200,000. The luxury boxes ruined this, but a second level wasn't a thing back then and could more than compensate at some point in the distant future.
And the luxury boxes likely killed any chance of reaching 200K
Let's hope the night game goes good, so I can attend one in 2012 or 2013. Not even a prayer of attending this one. Will be watching from a bar in Texas
Beware the wrath of John Pollack.
In addition to his exploits at Tienanmen Square, I heard he is singlehandedly responsible for the Arab Spring as well.
FYI I was also at the meeting today.
"No number retirement due to large squads and number sharing issues."
Brandon also made the point that retiring a jersey and retiring a number are two different things.
"ESPN put together a financial package that makes the 2012 vs Alabama game MORE profitable than a home game."
He also mentioned that the 2012 game has helped recruiting, pointing out that the first game that the recruits might play in is at the Jerry-dome, on prime time tv. I'm personally not a fan off the off-site game thing but I see how such a spectacle would be attractive to recruits.
My goal is a complete set of yellow cards from the Notre Dame Game.
How long until they expand the big house to I-94?
he should be trying to keep the ohio state fans from taking over the stadium as well as nebraska
uh tsio fans also wear red.... the issue was raised when someone in the audience mentioned the unfortunately large tsio contingent in the last meeting. He however then went on to talk about Nebraska fans and how they will travel from Nebraska to away games - without tickets - and try to buy them at the games.
does the athletic department plan on handing out shirts for the night game to make it a TRUE maize out?
i love seeing other school being able to pull it off but michigan never can get a solid color outside of the student section.
granted there are alot more poeple but even penn state does something sweet during the white outs.
Yeah bright yellow cards of which none are identical and have "This is Michigan" on them? Sounds like something that a lot of people would strive to get...
Was just about to say that. I want one!
you are correct, the only way to get a true maize out is to hand out shirts...way to hard to get 115,000 people to remember to wear maize that day.
This growing concern for how many opposing fans show up is becoming pretty humorous. I wonder why Brandon thinks it would be such a big problem this year.
I know, I mean why would an opposing fan want to spend a lot of time in another fanbase's domain anyway?
I guess brandon didn't get his letter out soon enough, already have my tickets. Just need to find an excuse to wear red now......
I suppose turnabout is fair play. After all, I DID sit in the middle of the Notre Dame student section (with my student ticket) proudly donning my maize and blue.
You may pass. Enjoy the game.
Please feel free to wear red at that night game this year (less green of course, and maybe we'll be able to spot the Irish!)
Walk down Michigan Avenue in Chicago, on a weekend in July. You will know, absolutely, who the Cubs are playing that weekend -- the Cardinals, the Dodgers, the Reds, the Brewers -- the opposition fans are out in full force. A trip to Wrigley is on their bucket list. And they come to Chicago, to spend some money.
I don't think it is such a stretch, to put "Michigan Stadium" and "Wrigley Field" in the same bucket-list category.
I see it as just business. Not a gang war.
And the last thing I want is to connect the Wolverines to the Cubs. The Cubs are a long way from contending, and aren't very good. Not something I want for Michigan.
You have to separate the team from the venue. Wrigley is a landmark. So is Michigan stadium.
So they will actually hand out the cards to the unruly fans?
<br>While t shirts would be nice to create an amazing maize out, do they ever do anything like towels or pom pom type things for all the fans? I know they do that elsewhere.
They handed out maize and blue pom poms for the '97 Ohio State game.
never making it out to simply wander into the stadium on non-game days now that I no longer can, but it's for the best. Idiot vandalism is at an all time high.
Thank you for sharing this. I will not likely be able to attend any games this year, as I am in exile in Iowa currently, but still interesting stuff.
DB confirms: design completed for filling out bleachers to top of scoreboard in south end. Capacity will raise to 120,000. Opponent tickets will be up at top next to scoreboard.Sounds good to me! Give 'em the nosebleed seats.
I'm curious to see how this will look building around the scoreboard
..mimic the brick facade they have built already and continue it to the scoreboards leaving an opening for them. Im not the biggest fan of expanding the exhisting bowl. If we want to create more of a homefield advantage, in terms of intimidating facilities and volume level, I would love to see a second deck at the endzones that incoorporate the scoreboards and create a structure that contains the sound like the new side suites do. If anything it should be symetrical or it will look funny, imo.
yellow cards!..love it. that is only going to make it rowdier unless your a season ticket holder and you might want to comply.
cant wait to see the renderings!
"one man!, goodbye!!, Hello Heisman"
Be sure to buy lots of concessions and merchandise, because when db says "successful experience" he means "makes gobs of money."
I hate hearing that--it's Nebraska's first season with the Big Ten; their fans willing and eager to travel, and they are CLAMORING for tickets. They're nice people--all the delusional insanity of OSU fans but with better manners. I can't wait to hear what they have to say after visiting the Big House. So I can see making special efforts to keep them out in the future, but this year, let 'em come!
<br>/cornhusker roots showing
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<br>That said, there can't have been an issue with Michigan indifference towards that game. It's not like it's easy for Nebraska fans to get tickets, special AD efforts or not.
I would love to see UM do a maize and blue alternating pattern instead of a straight maize out. I know Iowa did it last year, so it's a rip off, but everything is a rip off these days and I think it'd look sweet at night. Odd # sections wear maize, even # sections wear blue.
it was just incredible how well they did that. And the mustard yellow was all the same correct tint no less. Nobody just threw on their "close-enough" yellow rain poncho at the last minute. I don't know if we could be this organized.
Enough with the night game, people are starting to say “Wolverines are afraid of the dark” and we all know it's not true, right?