Wasn't there talk a few years ago about expanding Tiger Stadium to over 100K seats? Any news or info on if this will ever take place?
Yes...and more recently TAF solicited responses from their supporters regarding the possible expansion of the South Endzone. It would be great and I can only imagine how much louder it would be on the field if you trapped the sound in from the south...but they may need to take a closer look at the CBS contract first. If we continue to play EVERY game during the day, you'll continue to have empty seats. Even though we're #1 and the "announced" crowds are huge...I've seen more empty seats than usual. (The Kentucky game really sucked with the morning start.) They may want to question everyone again to ensure enough people want seats for ALL day games.
Club seats and/or suites would be the deciding factor in my opinion, I think there will be enough people interested.
They are already having trouble getting the grass to grow since the east and west sides are so high now. I wonder if another expansion would exacerbate this problem?
I don't think it would be any louder. Tiger Stadium is loud because of the shape of the lower bowl and it's close proximity to the field. Sound from the upper deck just floats off into the stratosphere.
The stadium did not get appreciably louder when the upper decks were built. The thing about Tiger stadium in that it is a fully enclosed bowl and the lower bowl is huge. Sound reverberates on the field. A new south endzone upper deck would never pay for itself. With all of the games televised in HD, people are not willing to pay high surcharges for high endzone seats far from the field. Especially skyboxes at $40,000 plus tickets a year. No one wants to see an expensive empty upper deck. Worse the life expectancy of the lower bowl is about 25 years before structural problems in the oldest parts (87 years) become a real issue. That is where the highest paying surcharges are found and they suffer from dark ramps, poor concessions and small bathrooms. The whole lower bowl will have to be replaced soon and that is where more club areas and other high-surchage seats can be added. Joe Dean did a study once about enclosing both endzones into a continuous upper deck. They discovered that it would be far cheaper and easier to go out to River Road and build a modern new 100,000-seat Tiger Stadium.
i would rather they not add seats, but use money to refurbish the inside of the stadium. specifically, bathrooms. can they find a way to vent those things? i like the signs in the ladies room that state "it's a sport just to try not to touch the seats". :hihi:
Joe Dean also oversaw the worst era of Tiger football & kept the department in the black by refusing to build, expand, or renovate. Of course he would cling onto anything that said "don't expand or renovate." I think enclosing the SEZ upper would be a great idea. It has worked at Bama, Tennessee, even Ole Miss. If you are worried about the people not coming to day games, you can stop. People will come. Championships put the butts in the seats. If people have a problem with day games, they have bigger problems that no one can solve.
Joe Dean didn't do the study, he just funded it. There have been plenty of empty seats in the upper deck and end zones this season.
