(09-11-2019 08:42 AM)mairving Wrote: (09-11-2019 08:31 AM)Titans3775 Wrote: All we have to do is chairback the whole stadium. That would drop our capacity to 38,171 (which is too low if you ask me), but it would create scarcity.
Always the conundrum. They won't permanently remove seats because they still want to fill it up for the Liberty Bowl. Really just need a new stadium that seats about 40-45K but can be expanded.
A couple of comments in here get to the fundamental issue with the liberty bowl. There are multiple, competing interests that do not always align.
University of Memphis - almost certainly wants a smaller, on-campus stadium. At 40-45k, this would create the scarcity needed and make the stadium look fuller on the days where we have Southern or South Alabama show up.
Southern Heritage classic - a once per year game that brings in teams and fans of HBCUs in the area. From what I can tell, this does sell pretty well? Not sure on tourism money for the City though.
Liberty Bowl Committee - the drivers of the stadium. They want the stadium seating to be as large as practical. Need to sell tickets for that sweet sweet bowl tourism revenue.
City of Memphis - trying to avoid having yet another stadium that is essentially mothballed. But, it seems their primary driver is keeping the Liberty Bowl Committee happy, followed by UofM. I don't understand the exact relationship between the City and UofM, but it seems that only lately has the City cared much about what UofM thinks. This seems to be very dependent upon the state of the economy and state of the City finances. The relationship between the City and UofM could go south with a change in mayor or City Council or UofM president...
For UofM - The southern heritage classic can be a pain. We must schedule an away game every year about that time. The Liberty Bowl Committee's wants a large stadium for ticket revenue. However, this creates issues for Memphis since it is hard to sell anything over 40k ahead of time. My guess is that this also creates issues for the vendors in the stadium - how many food stalls do you need open at any one game to avoid wasting cash.
Another issue for UofM is the layout of the liberty bowl stadium itself. With the TV pointed at the visitor side due to the orientation with respect to the sun, the Liberty bowl will always look barely full since TV pointed at side with fewer people regardless.
So whats the solution?
The most obvious, long term solution is the On-Campus stadium. But that really isn't happening anytime soon. I still feel like the South lot is being prepped for an on-campus stadium (decade out). I have no inside information on this, just gut feeling. The garage on the south lot by the bridge is huge. They are doing major upgrades to that area of campus. I am not sure that UofM has anywhere near the same amount of parking that the Liberty Bowl has. But, UofM could be pretty creative about game day parking.
The less obvious solutions?
Put up sun shades around Liberty Bowl to enable TV camera moving?
Put up even more tarp to force people towards the bottom of the stadium?
Chair backs everywhere (already discussed, and liberty bowl committee would not be happy).
Anything else? It's a tough situation for UofM. Especially when you compare the atmosphere (fullness) of a football game to a basketball game. When you put 15,000 into FedExForum, it's pretty awesome. For the Liberty Bowl, we would need 48,000 or more for the approximate equivalent experience.
I also hate the Liberty Bowl tunnels. At the Ole Miss game, there was essentially no room to walk. This is makes taking little people tough. The vendors need to be moved back a solid 20 - 30 ft and it would be awesome (but haha, almost certainly never happening)