(06-27-2017 06:02 PM)USM@FTL Wrote: YES we need more seats! Are you kidding me?? How are you going to recruit HS talent when your stadium, and support, is smaller than their HS?
Expanding without getting to 40,000 was huge mistake. Giannini botched that expansion in every way. He put it up for a popular vote, then he lost the vote and settled for a design that makes it very difficult for us to ever get to 40,000. Only hope would be to build something in the North end zone, I guess. You could put bleachers there, but who'd want to sit in bleachers in the North end zone? You could put boxes there, except that the South end zone has enough boxes to meet demand for the foreseeable future, I'd imagine.
40,000 is a psychological thing. It seems small, since our capacity is already 90% of the way there, and we don't sell out consistently anyway. But to a recruit, coaching prospect, conference commissioner, etc. giving us the once-over, 40,000 makes an entirely different statement than 36,000. 40,000 is Georgia Tech; 36,000 is running elbows with LA Tech.
I've always thought we should build the infrastructure to make ourselves a destination road game for P5 schools: capacity, hotels, etc. We're not going to fill up a big stadium with the local yokels, but the fans of Bama, Auburn, A&M, etc. spend money that's just as valid. Spend more of it, probably. Giannini seem to have at least had this thought at one point, but then he lost his stupid referendum and gave up on it.