… and it’s — guess what? — gonna be more expensive.
“Ten to 15 years ago, it was about how many seats can we have to say we have the largest in the SEC,” Hill said. “We probably need to be looking to the NFL. They have smaller stadiums than we have in the SEC.”
Meanwhile, Alabama in 2010 increased its capacity by 9,000, adding 72 skyboxes, and Auburn is in the process of turning its press box into a club area. The school already plopped down $14 million to install what it calls the biggest video board in college football, 190 feet long.
Ole Miss and Mississippi State have combined to spend more than $100 million in renovations, recently adding a combined 12,000 seats, new video boards, club levels and the ever-popular field-level premium seating.
Missouri is spending $98 million on a new south end zone complex that will include 16 new suites, a 750-person field-level club and a 1,254-seat indoor club area. Tennessee announced plans for a $340 million project at Neyland Stadium to, for one, renovate restrooms and concessions and incorporate more premium seating.
Arkansas is in the process of completing $160 million in renovations to Razorback Stadium with “seating types and amenities that fit what the fans are asking for,” the school said in a release this spring. Translation: roomy premium areas with alcohol available.
Meanwhile, Kentucky’s Commonwealth Stadium underwent a $110 million renovation in 2015 that actually decreased the capacity of the place by 1,000 seats. Why? Because renovations included replacing general seating with club levels and suites.
This is the future.
“If you were to build a stadium now from scratch, there would be fewer seats and more levels of premium club seating,” said Thompson, the Ole Miss administrator and research head for the SEC game day experience working group.
“Bigger seats. Less people. It’s making that experience way more unique and way more memorable with the amenities we talk about. You’re trying to create unique experiences people will remember.”
Waters, the bowl association executive, believes Atlanta’s new $1.6 billion Mercedes Benz Stadium is the standard bearer of stadiums. The arena provides roomy general seats, large premium areas and discounted concession prices.
“They’ve figured it out,” Waters said. “It used to be, ‘Get the fans in and squeeze every (dime) out of them.’ They’ve gotten where it’s better to get people in the house rather than sell a $10 Pepsi.”
The irony there is that it’s booze that’s driving the train.
You can read the rest of the article if you like, although it’s a thoroughly depressing run through of cluelessness…
“Something did surprise me in there,” he said. “People aren’t concerned about the length of games. People are concerned about the intervals and stoppages in the game — TV timeouts, instant replay. Those are the things that bothered them more than the length of the game.”
and stubborn resistance to the same things fans have been bitching about for years about which the schools have no intention of doing anything.
Home opponents are also an issue, Guyote said.
LSU’s marquee non-conference games since 2010 have mostly kicked off at a neutral site. Excluding 2017, in the previous eight seasons, LSU has hosted 22 nonconference opponents. Two of them were from the Power 5 conferences in football: West Virginia in 2010 and Washington in 2012. LSU has won those 22 games by an average of about 32 points — lopsided affairs that keep fans home or chase them out of Tiger Stadium in the third quarter.
“The home slate has been awful,” Guyote said. “I know they get big payouts to play (neutral-site games) in Houston and Dallas. Well, I don’t live in Houston and Dallas to catch the good out-of-conference games.”
Bottom line: welcome to the corporatization of college football, sports fans. You’ll love it!
Get The Picture 
I know I am going to sound like a guy yelling for you kids to get off my lawn, but yeah it is depressing.
From the article: “You’re trying to create unique experiences people will remember.”
Huh?
We didn’t have any of that stuff the article says will create memories, but I have great memories, many of them from the games themselves. We didn’t have piped in music; we had live music. We didn’t have skyboxes; we had the railroad tracks and the lawns in the corners of the end zones. We didn’t have purchased tailgating lots; we had the ability to park conveniently on campus for free. There were lots of memories before they started adding things to ‘give you memories’. The only reason they need to do that is because they took the other memories away.
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You summed up my feelings exactly. Unfortunately those times are gone.
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More like “You’re trying to monetize experiences people will overpay for.”
BRB, going to go spend $6,000 on the bowl game package the Alumni Association has put together and drop another $3000 on two national championship tickets in the nosebleed sections in hopes that the college football team makes it.
Maybe by the time I’m 60 I too can afford to start making memories…
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Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! Everybody is spending major amounts to renovate their stadiums except us. Not to worry, the recruits will have a nicer place to hang out. So glad you opened up Hartman Fund contributions to allow your ticket holders to boost their scores above 20,000 only to announce later that the cutoff was 32,000. The customer always comes first!
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I didn’t fall for the scam- thankfully- and took my medicine and didn’t go to the SECCG. Not surprisingly I received an email Sunday nigth from the Hartman Fund reminding me that although I didn’t initially submit an application for post season bowls they would accept one from me until Noon today. So basically the deadline for 2 weeks ago was a big, fat, lie. Now they want to make it up to those of us who got shafted by giving another opportunity? I can’t wait for the email asking for more $ to raise your score for bowl consideration. It’s a matter of time.
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“Atlanta’s new $1.6 billion Mercedes Benz Stadium is the standard bearer of stadiums.”
Awesome. Corporate crowd that shows up to eat good food and drink expensive liquor at the bars while the Falcons are playing whatever team is in the building. If you have watched the Falcons games this season you know that this formula is a loser in terms of getting passionate fans in the stadium.
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The counter punch to this, though is Atlanta United. Those fans (including me) are there for the match, but soccer fans are a different breed. The amenities are pretty sweet but they’re just gravy.
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I remember when Wrigley Field was a place where working folks went to see baseball. That ship sailed years ago.
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I swear I’m going to spend Saturday’s at the farm. I’ll listen to SH broadcast (As painful as that is). This game is getting too big for me. The mercenary behavior of the coaches in the athletic association‘s is really starting to offend my sense of fairness
It’s not even NFL light this is a brand of Fuckery In a league of its own
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I posted this yesterday but here’s my 1984 Rose Bowl ticket. $29.37 plus 63 cents tax and free parking!
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I have always thought that UGA should be tearing out the bleachers in the lower bowl and replacing them with seats. Seems like it would increase the experience of the fan greatly, and maybe reduce some of the strain on the other infrastructure there with less people.
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Infrastructure of the lower section is actually better to handle the increased patrons. At least there is a plaza so foot traffic can disperse better. The upper decks have zero space, and the concession lines block foot traffic during the game.
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I’d def. like to have a seat so that the very large posterior of my neighbor isn’t all up in my koolaid
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Is it the “corporatization” of college football or the “ESPN/Rivals/247Sports” of college football? Media attention and hype is feeding the frenzy.
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No problem with the size or location of the seats at my house. Big and comfortable. Also, the drink prices are great and there isn’t a line for the bathroom. Great view of the TV. That’s the future of college football as far as I’m concerned.
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This cynical attitude is silly. These investments are making the game experience unequivocally better. Mercedes stadium is unbelievable. No bad seats in there. ND stadium after their renovation is also incredible. Stop hating. No matter how bad you yearn for standing around watching games at Herty Field, the influx of money makes the sport better.
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