Michigan Stadium seating capacity reduced by 2k

They added more ADA seats, but isles and railings were still an issue that needed to be resolved.

I agree, but don't people in wheelchairs use the same aisles as everyone else to enter and exit? I feel like if there was a mass evacuation, they'd be stuck waiting until everyone else left, unless there were some generous people trying to hold back the hundreds of people pushing forward from behind to let them go first.

It was a multi-year process and they are just announcing the completion of it now. 

I'll avoid politics here but must say I find it interesting how much has to get specified in the consent decree. 

And to think it all started in 1997 for the fellow in the article.  The consent decree timeline starts with a complaint in 1999, by 2000 there was no problem, it popped up again in 2004, investigation took at least 3 years, and then while investigating in 2007 the Michigan Paralyzed Veterans of America filed their suit - that finally went for a "quick" settlement as laid out in the consent decree, reached in 2008.  Decree lasted 5 years, so it was done in 2012 or 2013.  15 years, plus the 3 more years to get to today.

Interesting that it was a UM lecturer who defended the plaintiffs against UM.  Learned in this article that he is blind.

As predicted in article, the 1% requirement was dropped back.  I see that 2010 ADA rules for stadium wheelchair seating are:

• For seating capacities exceeding 5,000, the number required is 36, plus 0.5% of the number of seats in excess of 5,000.

If the 109,901 had been held to that status instead of the agreed-upon consent decree, there'd need to be 561 wheelchair spaces.  For 107,601, that would be 550 seats.  By the decree, there were only 329 (plus 329 companion seats).

In a Michigan Daily article on the settlement,

Because wheelchair-accessible seats take up about 12 times as much space as normal seats, the changes will also drop the stadium's seat capacity from 107,501 to an estimated 106,201 for the 2008 and 2009 seasons. That will make Michigan Stadium the second-largest football stadium in the country after Penn State University's Beaver Stadium, which holds 107,282.

University officials said they don't know what the stadium's capacity will be after the expansion project and said they don't know whether it will again become the biggest. The project will add a total of 5,100 seats, but some of the stadium's existing seats will be removed to make room for the addition.

The pre-settlement project estimate said the stadium's capacity by the conclusion of the project in 2010 would top 108,000, an addition of 500 seats from the start of the project. But because today's settlement will remove an estimated 1,500 seats from the bowl, it's unclear whether that will be enough to make Michigan Stadium the biggest again.

So the math seems to be:

107,501 minus 2300 from the lawsuit takes the '08/'09 capacity down to 106,201.  Expansion would have added 500 to get to 108,001 but the settlement reduces that by 1500 (huh??), resulting in 106,501.  But the expansion actually ended up getting the capacity up 2400 to 109,901.  And it looks like the original 2300 reduction from the settlement is what brings that number down to today's, 107,601.

Original descriptions of the expansion project included "wider aisles and handrails in the aisles."  So there's that.

But, best part of your links - learned a new word "vomitory" - woo!

widening the aisles in phases for several years now.  It comes out to less than 1 seat per row/per section.  Barely noticeable in terms of comfort.