But LSU would love it because it means they can push every last "No Contribution" seat in the West Upper Deck to the new endzone upper deck. Take a look at this chart for 2010: 2010 Tradition Fund Chart You see those "No Contribution" seats in the West Upper? That is a ton of revenue for LSU. They can charge $210+ a seat for every last one of those & move all the "LSU OWES me free seats" people into the back of the endzone. Like I said before, enclosing the upper deck in the South endzone is less about butts in the seats and more about increasing revenues. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
The primary reason it was rebuilt was to convert 2700 seats to club level seating to bring in more cash. But the east deck has two skybox levels, while the west deck has 3 club levels. I have. The west upper deck supports already are 2 feet from South Stadium Drive. Bringing the upper deck all the way around would definitely cause the rerouting of the street and destruction of about 30 oaks. Untrue. LSU is very concerned about unfilled seats and that issue has been and will continue to be a serious argument against further expansion. LSU does not sellout all of its games.
You caught me in semantics there. Yes, a big reason of rebuilding the West Upper was to get the new club seats & press box, but the other reason was to match the pitch of the East Upper for future expansion. The elevation of the decks match. The two levels of suites take up the same space as three levels of club seats since the club has a shared concourse as opposed to individual suites. Two feet? Are you serious? The structure for the West Upper Deck is close to South Stadium, but there is enough room for a 10 foot sidewalk, and the only reason for that sidewalk is because of the fence that was placed to keep people in/out. There is no reason why the stadium cannot extend all the way to the street. Now, I will defer to the architecture & engineering experts, but many stadiums have gotten around this type of situation by using cantilevered structures. There is no reason why LSU cannot employ that here, especially when the only area of concern is the Southwest corner & not the entire endzone. Finally, the actual oak tree loss would be more like 10-12, not 30. Still a loss, but not as big as you make it out to be. I am not saying that LSU is not concerned with empty seats, but they are more concerned with selling those seats. Dollars in their pockets will do a lot more for LSU than butts in the seats. I am also not saying that this expansion will start next year. I have heard that the talks about expansion will start when the waiting list for season tickets get long enough. I know it was not that long this year because I was on it to get some more season tickets & I got a call. Finally, take a look at my post just above yours where I point out the "No Donation seats that are currently in the West Upper. That is tens (possibly hundreds) of thousands of dollars that is being left on the table to placate a minority of fans who feel entitled to something for nothing. Expanding the endzone will allow LSU to push them into the endzone & sell those seats at a premium.
I think you overestimate the number of people who are willing to pay surcharges for very high seats with poor views of the field. The ONLY reason that there are no surcharges there already is that they just won't sell with surcharges. Many games they don't sell without surcharges. LSU is offering them for $25 bucks a ticket this week in a desperate attempt to fill them. With every game on HDTV and hard economic times, people are not dropping major bucks for poor seats. That south endzone upper deck would be a long way from the field and behind the goalposts. I'm a huge fan but I'd watch on TV before I'd sit there. I doubt that they could charge $40,000 for endzone skyboxes either.
