Michigan Stadium thoughts and theories

Submitted by Anonymous Coward (not verified) on

It's been on my mind quite often lately and I can't be the only one.

Is there a possibility with the massive boxes added on both sides of Michigan Stadium and the two very large score boards on each endzone, that Michigan Stadium could somehow expand capacity?

I found this article long ago by former over lord slave ruler Dave Brandon http://www.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/29601474

Also out of curiousity, what did people on the board think about the expansions being added back in the time they were being added? What kinds of discussions were going on here?

Also, if anyone else finds anything regarding the issue I'm highly interested.

MGoBoard

bighit97

December 19th, 2015 at 8:53 AM ^

I hear people say that the students cram in and move down.  This simply is not the case.  They move down yes, because there are empty seats.  My question would be, how come students never crammed in and moved down in the 40 yrs that Michigan was good, but all of a sudden they cram in now that Michigan is mediocre.  

To the OP: I remmember being at a game, I think it was the famous 86 Minnesota game, and the halftime show was about a "futuristic" Michigan stadium.  I remmember the announcer saying "welcome to double decker Michigan stadium"  

My opinion for now is that I think they should put a canopy on the open ends of the stadium for noise purposes and to keep the rain off the people in the upper most rows.

 

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uncleFred

December 19th, 2015 at 9:15 AM ^

Other than the frats each of which bought tickets as a group and did whatever they wanted in the space those seats provided, if you were in someone's seat you were asked to move and if you didn't you were asked to leave. I worked Friday nights until 2:30 to 3:00 am Saturday morning. Rarely got to sleep before 4:00 am and would generally be at my seat just in time for kick off. My seat was always waiting for me. 

In the second half, students would move down to empty seats, but the rule sit applied and if someone arrived late, you were expected to return to your seat if asked. 

 

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Jack Hammer

December 19th, 2015 at 11:46 AM ^

student seats 90-98 here. always stood in assigned seat. And the top seats were coveted for drinking, etc. The "cluster" phenomena baffles me. if there are now empty seats at the top - abandon assigned seating and sell 3000 more student seats. Maybe students are simply smaller now?

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MgoHacker

December 19th, 2015 at 11:57 AM ^

The problem with that is if you want to sit with your friends during the game you're not going to be in your assigned seats. Even if you are able to make your seating group, which you can do only 6 months before the season when tickets go on sale. You probably wont know who your going to end up going to the game with considering all most of your friends are stupidly drunk 30 minutes before gametime.

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ThadMattasagoblin

December 19th, 2015 at 6:44 AM ^

We could add an upper deck around each scoreboard. I could see us some day going to 120k but eventually you get to a saturation point where you can no longer fill the stadium because there just aren't enough fans no matter how much winning you do.

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1974

December 19th, 2015 at 6:51 AM ^

I can envision a few games where it would be easy to sell 120K (or more) tickets, but expansion doesn't seem like a good idea. A significant chunk of the people in that stadium are from a socioeconomic class that is shrinking by the day. I don't see that trend reversing any time soon.

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look up see blue

December 19th, 2015 at 7:02 AM ^

I'm not a fan of adding more seats just for the sake of it. From an aesthetic standpoint, I wanna see the endzones enclosed with a matching brick exterior like the skyboxes, but please no upper decks!

Some examples from other stadium projects:

Notre Dame

Auburn 

Oklahoma

Our best solution for keeping the traditional bowl at Michigan Stadium:

Florida State (build around and above the endzones but keep the bowl unchanged)

Green Bay (This would be my favorite, the original Lambeau before they added the upper decks).

 

 

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UofMfanJJ (not verified)

December 19th, 2015 at 7:13 AM ^

I always felt it was weird not enclosing the stadium, especially for look sake and noise sake.. Also, I honestly kinda liked the idea of an upper deck while at the same time feeling it takes away the bowl look / design of the stadium. Michigan Stadium will always be one of a kind to me.

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look up see blue

December 19th, 2015 at 11:07 AM ^

I always felt it was weird not enclosing the stadium, especially for look sake and noise sake.

It was clearly done with future expansion in mind. I'm also not a fan of the exposed steel and blue halo, although it gives it a more college stadium look. When they finish it some day, hopefully it ends up matching like Kinnick.

 

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M-Dog

December 19th, 2015 at 8:31 AM ^

It's questionable whether they would be able to fill upper decks at each end zone.  But what they could likely sell is suites around the end zones, Lambeau-style.  

For economic reasons, the most likely expansion is suties that go all the way around.  

If they do it, they need to "give back" to the regular fans and students and not make it all just about rich donors and corporations.  Designate 2 of the suites - one for fans and one for students - and invite them and a friend up for a quarter every game, based on random ticket drawings.

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Bo4President

December 19th, 2015 at 7:06 AM ^

There be expansion no matter what;
So be ready. Many stadiums want
The honor of being the largest-we are called the big house for a reason. Diminishes our Image of we are not.

Telling me if Ohio State starts packing in 115k Michigan won't react to that ?

When the expand my wish would be they I can get an extra ass cheek on the bench and more room next to my fellow wolverine!

Maybe they start going up now on the ends row by row.

You know how loud it would get in there. Wow!!! Blow your head off be so loud.



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Swazi

December 19th, 2015 at 11:09 AM ^

Michigan has expanded by a total of about 6600 seats since 1955.

Not exactly rapid expansion going on at Michigan.

Ohio State's current capacity is at 105k.

Developing a plan to add 10k seats is going to be fairly difficult, and expensive, for them. Most older stadiums like Ohio, Michigan, and Beaver stadiums are pretty much capped out.

The only threat at this point really is if Penn State elects to build a whole new stadium instead of fixing up their current one.



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look up see blue

December 19th, 2015 at 4:39 PM ^

The only threat at this point really is if Penn State elects to build a whole new stadium instead of fixing up their current one.

Good luck with that. The cost of building new stadiums (thanks to rising steel prices) has soared in recent years. To get a 100,000 seat stadium built, they would need over a billion dollars. 

IMO, the only threat is DKR Stadium in Texas. They could reach 115,000 if they enclosed the south endzone, but with their recent struggles I don't see it happening any time soon...

Attendance drops as Longhorns struggle on the field

Attendance at Longhorns games peaked in 2012 at 100,884. Since then, the Longhorns have been losing a lot of games and fans who once came out in force to any Texas home game are now staying home. In 2015, the average attendance at Texas home games is 89,182. While that's still a great number compared to some schools, for Texas, it's a 12 percent drop in home attendance. It also doesn't completely measure the actual attendance at games, which has looked much smaller than the actual tickets sold.

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Blarvey

December 19th, 2015 at 7:10 AM ^

Here's a crude mockup I did in mspaint a while back of filling in one of the endzones:

(Pic is a link to a full-size)

That looks pretty cool to me, and it doesn't really show the cantilevered stack that would be necessary due to the viewing and box angles. It would have to keep the sound in and I imagine it would add some tricks to the wind.

Another option would be to do something like Lambeau where the boxes stretch through one end zone and there are bleachers at the other end:

That would kill the symmetry though. Instead, maybe just filling it in with boxes all the way around is the way to go. That way the tops of them can act as the footing for the inevitable expansion to 200,000:

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umbig11

December 19th, 2015 at 8:52 AM ^

You could easily expand by closing in both end zones. Architectural plans have been drawn up and approved in the past by the Athletic Dept. Absolutely no funding has been applied and the Regents have not been asked to support or fund this project yet. The estimates called for 12,500 seats in both end zones and new scoreboards. Most here would agree that our scoreboards have been a huge disappointment. I believe the waitlist is back, but the demand for 25,000 new seats just isn't there. Add in economic issues and a trend of moving away from attending games in person and you just can't support those numbers yet.

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ABOUBENADHEM

December 19th, 2015 at 8:31 AM ^

more seats I would expect that UM would follow the lead of NFL stadiums in creating tiers of "premium" seating vs. simply adding more seats like we have. For example, the Jaguars NFL stadium has a unique "Terrace Section" in one end zone that includes food & drink (yes, inc. free alcohol) with the price if the ticket. The other end zone has a different set up, but still "premium" type seating. This type of seating provides fans a middle choice between regular seats and expensive skybox type seats.

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DreisbachToHayes

December 19th, 2015 at 8:32 AM ^

Overhead. Seating. Section. Imagine laying on a massage table (on your stomach) ABOVE the 50 yd line, receiving a massage while watching the game. Leaders and Best. #creatingthefuture

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Tkriz

December 19th, 2015 at 8:38 AM ^

It doesn't seem like expansion is necessary as we seem to have trouble filling what we have when the opponent is not OSU or MSU. Not that 110k is anything to be ashamed of.



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M-Dog

December 19th, 2015 at 8:48 AM ^

Fortunately for us, the stadium arms race is coming to a close.  Attendance is down, even at places like Alabama.  

You are starting to see a phenomenon that you never saw before at elite places with big stadiums like Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Texas, etc.  The stadium will still be filled for a big game . . . but it's not always filled for games against lesser opponents, or in bad weather, or when the team is on a losing streak.  That did not used to happen.  The stadiums were filled no matter what.

There is a big risk now in financing a major expansion.  It's not a given that it can be easily recovered. One bad run . . . some losing seasons, a bad caoching hire, a string of bad weather or unappealing opponents, could derail the whole thing.

Programs that would have eyed expansion so that they could pass us and have the biggest stadium are going to think twice about it now.

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