End zone Renovation Project

[Wilson’s Mustache]

The University of Iowa board of regents just recently approved a $90 million renovation to their North Endzone.

the project would replace the existing cramped, general-admission quarters in the North End Zone with “upper and lower general admission seating bowls, two general admission concourses and a premium club level.” The club level could also be used for “non-game-day uses.” The proposal calls for a new skywalk to be installed between the West Campus Transportation Center to provide club-level access.

“If we want to be a first-class program, we need to keep pushing forward,” Ferentz said. “We certainly hit the jackpot with this building.”

Total seating the renovated end zone would be 10,234 — 8,516 general admission, 1,570 outdoor club seats and 148 loge/premium patio space.

Hawkeye Central

The primary reason I bring this up is because it is very similar to the proposed design to renovate & expand the South end zone at Rice-Eccles. While Utah’s RES design is not nearly as costly. For reference the proposed renovation could cost anywhere between 30-60 million depending on how ambitious they are with seating capacity & the addition of premium seating/suites.

It bothers me that a program like Iowa, that is very comparable to Utah understands the importance of continually improving on facilities and how important it is for recruiting as well as for the fan experience to have a first class football stadium. I just don’t understand why Utah is dragging their feet. At the very least I wish they would announce that they have plans to do it and are trying to raise funds for the project.

I know some here will say that Utah has already invested a ton of money into other projects recently, but Iowa has also recently done major renovations to their Basketball arena & have built themselves a brand new Football complex that is very comparable to what Utah just built.

Anyways I just thought some of you would be interested in seeing this. Really is a going to be spectacular when it is finished.

[RedLine]

Met with Chris Hill last week and he said an announcement could be coming in November. We’ll see. Here’s hoping.

[Wilson’s Mustache]

I really hope so. I do believe that it will happen eventually. I just think they have really dragged their feet with it.

[rbmw263]

Its so long overdue….

[uteman12]

So with that being said, how many seats would this stadium renovation add?

[Wilson’s Mustache]

From the plans proposed I have seen estimates between adding 10,000 – 15,000 more seats at Rice-Eccles stadium. It really just depends on how ambitious they want the project to be and how much money they want to spend.

I think bringing the capacity to about 55,000 feels about right, but I still think Utah could fill up 60,000 seats with frequency.

[AZswayze]

I went to RES stone cold sober for the first time a few weeks ago (vs Arizona). I’ve been to several stadiums without having a good buzz going, and never had a bad experience. RES was an eye opener. I was getting highly agitated by the traffic in the east concourse, and figured being properly lubricated had always kept me from caring. People were very pushy and rude, although it was hard not to be at least a little pushy with how crowded it was. I chalked the rudeness up to people either being intoxicated, and/or just being used to the overcrowdedness. I don’t know why it gets so incredibly crowded (I’m thinking part of it is having a single level), but unless they correct it adding additional seats is only going to make matters worse. I’m sure thats part of the plan, unless I’m crazy and being overly sensitive (which is always a legitimate option).

[Wilson’s Mustache]

I imagine if they do the renovation hey will completely demolish the SEZ. Build it up with an addition of roughly 10,000 seats, new locker rooms underneath & add a new, connecting concourse with concessions & bath room facilities. That would be the only logical way to go about it.

Any other way will just compound the issues.

[Anonymous]

[Wilson’s Mustache]

Currently RES is just below University of Northwestern & Syracuse in seating capacity both 49,000+ & right above Reser stadium in Corvallis.

At 55,000 we would be tied with Georgia Tech’s stadium, below Arizona, UNC, Purdue & Louisville. Slightly above Auzten.

At 60,000 (which seems slightly too big) we would be in the Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Illinois, West Virginia & Kentucky size.

[leftyjace]

I think we could handle 60,000 and continue to sell out. I really do. No foolin’.

[Anonymous]

Parking not so much…….PIA to get in and out of that damn place.  Imagine adding 10k more. 

[Wilson’s Mustache]

As bad as RES may be on Game day, it pales in comparison to Kinnick Stadium (Iowa) or Michigan Stadium. They are right in the middle of residential area & Iowa’s has the added horror of being immediately adjacent to a major University Hospital. Neither has the benefit of a mass transit system like SLC’s.

[Wilson’s Mustache]

Old information but a good reference

Most Crowded CFB stadiums – Athlon Sports

[High Uintas]

Parking and traffic is easy at RES compared to other stadiums. Just park in any of the lots on the outskirts of the campus, enjoy a leisurely walk across the beautiful campus and enjoy.

[KiYi-Ute]

While I could support renovating the south endzone area, I don’t think we should expand the stadium by very much, if at all. The primary appeal to renovating the south end zone to me is re-doing the locker rooms, which are said to be pretty sub-par. If that comes with adding a few seats, I’m okay with it.

I read an article a while back that when we first joined the PAC, Chris Hill met with other athletic directors who unanimously told him that expanding the stadium wasn’t a great idea. There’s the appeal of new and shiny seats, until you no longer sell out your stadium and then the country sees all of those empty seats in your stadium.

Look at the Rose Bowl this last weekend, the place was empty. Salt Lake/Utah is a small market. Yeah, we’ve had a ton of consecutive sellouts, but I’m just not sure there is much more demand that isn’t currently being met that would benefit from a large-scale expansion.

My two cents.

[Wilson’s Mustache]

The problem with this is that SLC is not Los Angeles & RES will never seat 90,000+. Even at 55,000 the stadium wouldn’t be considered big even by college football standards. There is no reason that the Salt Lake City area that doesn’t have a professional football team shouldn’t be able to fill a 55,000 seat stadium even on years like 2012 & 2013. Its crazy to think that adding an additional 7,000 seats will cause RES to have a tons of empty seats. Ticket demand/prices alone give reason to think expanding makes logical sense.

[Great1Ute]

I think adding 8K to 10K is about right. I love having a packed stadium. The Wasatch Front is still expanding and I think a stadium at 53K to 56K would be great.

[Tacoma Ute]

I would think expanding to 53 to 56 K would be a good start but do it in a way that future expansion can be done easily. How? Don’t ask me. I’m no architect. 🙂

[Wilson’s Mustache]

To be fair RES was already constructed with expansion in mind. A second tier can be built on the East side if it ever came to that.

[Tony (admin)]

According to my pops, and I’m not sure where he gets his information, the U isn’t big on expanding because the dollar value of the seats they are adding would not cover the costs of the expansion for a very long time. Anyone have thoughts on that?

[Wilson’s Mustache]

My thoughts, this is why you would rebuild the SEZ with a lot of premium seating, similar to Iowa, more bang for your buck.

Secondly, your payoff isn’t just in monetary value. It would be in increased exposure & recruiting, as well as allowing you to build and maintain your fan base. I am sure its very frustrating for many fans that can’t get season tickets.

If schools would only expand stadiums if they could pay it off in 5 years you would never see expansions. Iowa is spending 90 million on a complete North end zone renovation and are reducing the seating capacity by nearly 1,000 seats.

[High Uintas]

According to my pops, and I’m not sure where he gets his information, the U isn’t big on expanding because the dollar value of the seats they are adding would not cover the costs of the expansion for a very long time. Anyone have thoughts on that?

Most of the time I hear comments like this is because they are mixing the cost of tearing down and rebuilding the Clark Building (SEZ) with the cost of adding the incremental seats. It’s like if I wanted to build an apartment over my garage but the current garage is in such bad shape I have to tear it down and rebuild it first. You can’t include the cost of the garage with the cost of the apartment.

So when you hear expansion cost numbers like $60-65 million, remember that probably half of that is demolishing and rebuilding the Clark Building which HAS to be done anyway and likely very soon. Personally, I think there are some disingenuous people out there who intentionally lump the two together because they are against expansion. I really hope that when they rebuild the Clark Building they fill in the corners and extend the concourse. RES will always look like a small time stadium until they do.

[Anonymous]

It will be tough to make it pencil out based on the incremental revenue. You’d be adding be cheapest seats in the house and they pay minimal in donations for them. New locker rooms would be a good thing. There is value in continuous sell outs as it keeps ticket prices and donations high. This is business and not some charity show.

[Texasute]

Completely tear down the south end zone and bring back the trees like it was when I was a kid……

[ufan]

If they expanded the stadium to 65,000 (or more) it would still sell out. They could lower ticket prices if needed to sell more tickets.

Salt Lake is much bigger than Eugene. And if you count Ogden and Provo, Salt Lake is even bigger than Portland. There is no reason we should have a smaller stadium than Oregon. And with them selling more than capacity every game, they need to expand their stadium too.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if there has been a delay because they can’t get enough businesses to take the premium box spots?
Seems like everyone will sponsor something stupid between media timeouts but not a box?

[Author]

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