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https://www.wcpo.com/money/local-busines...rt-stadium

Discussion about finances and the possibility of Nippert expansion.

I'm surprised removing "the notches" wasn't brought up.

JK, I don't want Doss to get too worked up.

Seems to me the only possibility will be adding another tier of seating and luxury boxes on the east side. That also makes sense in terms of the available footprint for increased traffic flow. The west side is completely landlocked. I can live with the narrow concourses and portable restrooms six or seven Saturdays a year on that side of the stadium given the quality of experience we enjoy with passionate fans and exciting teams.

Having said that, Cunningham makes it clear we shouldn't rush into anything based upon 2021. A coach moves on, we experience a couple of four win seasons against what suddenly seems to be daunting competition in the Big 12, and demand for seats goes the wrong direction. He's a pretty thoughtful leader.

Love everything in that article. Surprised to see them looking into private plane availability for recruiting. That is awesome and big time.

Don’t mind the waiting for a decision on expanded Nippert. I would go ahead and get some renderings under away. First, visuals help excite donor and fan base even if the final product differs from the initials (Have some DAAP/Engineering students do it for class or fun project). Second, if you have a company do it, then your ready to pounce if it moves forward (probably would want to get closer to the decision point to hire a firm not to waste money).

Would rather have a real company do it off the bat. Don't want to pull the old bait and switch of "oh wow that looks great" and then professional engineers/architects coming along with "yeah... but it's not feasible."

Cunningham said on the last Coffee Talk that expansion would be modest, maybe 5-10K at best. Right now the stadium seats 37K and change; so my guess at best we'd get to 45K eventually. I also seem to recall Cunningham discussing doing other things to improve game day experience is a priority-- improved wi-fi, improve concessions/add food kiosks, etc.

This experience this past season was as good as its been. Cunningham gets it--- its better to 40K people in a 40K seat stadium than 45K in a 65K stadium. It looks good on TV as well, especially with all of our red and black in the stands popping out.

(01-06-2022 02:30 PM)dbernie41 Wrote:  Would rather have a real company do it off the bat. Don't want to pull the old bait and switch of "oh wow that looks great" and then professional engineers/architects coming along with "yeah... but it's not feasible."

Haha good point that is likely exactly what would happen with students.

(01-06-2022 01:20 PM)RuckleSt Wrote:  I'm surprised removing "the notches" wasn't brought up.

JK, I don't want Doss to get too worked up.

That was Prince Lindner's responsibility.

We know it will never happen once they lied and said it was for safety reason.

I think 42,500-45,000 should be the maximum.

Along with that comes the need for more parking, more restrooms, more concessions, and open concourses. Going above 45,000 will make getting those things done that much tougher and more expensive.

And I'd like to know the specifics of how Houston had $8.5 million in ticket revenue.

(01-06-2022 02:40 PM)bearcatfan Wrote:  I think 42,500-45,000 should be the maximum.

Along with that comes the need for more parking, more restrooms, more concessions, and open concourses. Going above 45,000 will make getting those things done that much tougher and more expensive.

And I'd like to know the specifics of how Houston had $8.5 million in ticket revenue.

Those reports of ticket revenue are sketchy as hell. I read one that showed SMU and Tulane reported more ticket revenue than us. Did not make sense to me unless they were charging $250 per ticket/game.

(01-06-2022 01:57 PM)OKIcat Wrote:  Seems to me the only possibility will be adding another tier of seating and luxury boxes on the east side. That also makes sense in terms of the available footprint for increased traffic flow. The west side is completely landlocked. I can live with the narrow concourses and portable restrooms six or seven Saturdays a year on that side of the stadium given the quality of experience we enjoy with passionate fans and exciting teams.

Having said that, Cunningham makes it clear we shouldn't rush into anything based upon 2021. A coach moves on, we experience a couple of four win seasons against what suddenly seems to be daunting competition in the Big 12, and demand for seats goes the wrong direction. He's a pretty thoughtful leader.

I think you can also add one section of upper-tier general seating on the left of Dieterle and another section or two of box seating to the right of it without crowding the building/blocking out too much natural light to the building. That, along with adding the luxury boxes/suites on the east side as you mentioned is probably about the max that can be done without major restructuring. Maybe fill in the corners somehow on the open end of the "horseshoe" (sorry, I'm bad with directions).

But any addition or more than 2,000 seats or so has to come with some sort of improvements in terms of flow, restrooms, amenities, parking, etc. As another poster said in the thread, 45k is probably about the max in terms of a sweet spot without making it too crowded or undertaking a prohibitively expensive engineering project. Nearly all stadium renovations in college football in the future will involve decreasing seats in favor of more luxury seating, amenities, and comfort save for programs like ours that are on the rise.

I could envision a point in time in the next 20 years where a P5 program with an aging 70,000-seat stadium replaces it with a really nice 50,000-seat stadium. I hear on Columbus radio all the time about how Ohio Stadium is badly in need of renovation and is now too big for current demand (they only drew 76k for the Akron game this season). At some point, you'll see them decrease capacity to somewhere in the 80,000-90,000 range. Others will do the same. 45,000 used to be perceived as small-time, but that won't be the case much longer. The newest P5 stadiums, 3 of which are in the new Big 12, are:

TDECU Stadium (Houston) - 40,000
McLane Stadium (Baylor) - 45,140
Huntington Bank Stadium (Minnesota) - 50,805
Bounce House (UCF) - 44,206

I can't envision any need to ever expand beyond 50k, and 45k is probably the sweet spot.

Another thing I'll add is that I would like to see any additions done in a way that doesn't involve us moving out of Nippert for a year. Hopefully it can be done in phases over the course of 2 or 3 offseasons.

Cunningham is smart. If I were him I'd at least wait to see if they can lock CLF in for a few more years first. A program can easily be Tubervilled or Kragthorped. He also has first hand knowledge of how a program can take a step back ala the Brannen fiasco and Miller's slow start.

(01-06-2022 02:40 PM)bearcatfan Wrote:  I think 42,500-45,000 should be the maximum.

Along with that comes the need for more parking, more restrooms, more concessions, and open concourses. Going above 45,000 will make getting those things done that much tougher and more expensive.

And I'd like to know the specifics of how Houston had $8.5 million in ticket revenue.

Makes no sense.

UH $8,500,000 divided by attendance 151,618 = $56.06
UC $4,100,000 divided by attendance 223,388 = $18.35

That means 3 times the revenue per ticket. Does not pass the smell test.

Attendance figures are per Wiki.

(01-06-2022 03:08 PM)doss2 Wrote:  

(01-06-2022 02:40 PM)bearcatfan Wrote:  I think 42,500-45,000 should be the maximum.

Along with that comes the need for more parking, more restrooms, more concessions, and open concourses. Going above 45,000 will make getting those things done that much tougher and more expensive.

And I'd like to know the specifics of how Houston had $8.5 million in ticket revenue.

Makes no sense.

UH $8,500,000 divided by attendance 151,618 = $56.06
UC $4,100,000 divided by attendance 223,388 = $18.35

That means 3 times the revenue per ticket. Does not pass the smell test.

Attendance figures are per Wiki.

70,000 of those seats pay $0 to attend games at Nippert. We also charge WAYYYYYY less than we should as far as normal tickets are concerned.

(01-06-2022 03:50 PM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(01-06-2022 03:08 PM)doss2 Wrote:  

(01-06-2022 02:40 PM)bearcatfan Wrote:  I think 42,500-45,000 should be the maximum.

Along with that comes the need for more parking, more restrooms, more concessions, and open concourses. Going above 45,000 will make getting those things done that much tougher and more expensive.

And I'd like to know the specifics of how Houston had $8.5 million in ticket revenue.

Makes no sense.

UH $8,500,000 divided by attendance 151,618 = $56.06
UC $4,100,000 divided by attendance 223,388 = $18.35

That means 3 times the revenue per ticket. Does not pass the smell test.

Attendance figures are per Wiki.

70,000 of those seats pay $0 to attend games at Nippert. We also charge WAYYYYYY less than we should as far as normal tickets are concerned.

I think 50,000 of those are 10.00 per. (Pretty sure they sold out of the 5000 student season tickets at $70.00 (10 per game with the conference championship)...also may be a little more because some students may have bought the guest student season tickets for $20.00 per game.).... but yea, those are pretty cheap.

(01-06-2022 03:58 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(01-06-2022 03:50 PM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(01-06-2022 03:08 PM)doss2 Wrote:  

(01-06-2022 02:40 PM)bearcatfan Wrote:  I think 42,500-45,000 should be the maximum.

Along with that comes the need for more parking, more restrooms, more concessions, and open concourses. Going above 45,000 will make getting those things done that much tougher and more expensive.

And I'd like to know the specifics of how Houston had $8.5 million in ticket revenue.

Makes no sense.

UH $8,500,000 divided by attendance 151,618 = $56.06
UC $4,100,000 divided by attendance 223,388 = $18.35

That means 3 times the revenue per ticket. Does not pass the smell test.

Attendance figures are per Wiki.

70,000 of those seats pay $0 to attend games at Nippert. We also charge WAYYYYYY less than we should as far as normal tickets are concerned.

I think 50,000 of those are 10.00 per. (Pretty sure they sold out of the 5000 student season tickets at $70.00 (10 per game with the conference championship)...also may be a little more because some students may have bought the guest student season tickets for $20.00 per game.).... but yea, those are pretty cheap.

So, do UH students no attend or pay regular prices?

(01-06-2022 07:21 PM)doss2 Wrote:  

(01-06-2022 03:58 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(01-06-2022 03:50 PM)BearcatMan Wrote:  

(01-06-2022 03:08 PM)doss2 Wrote:  

(01-06-2022 02:40 PM)bearcatfan Wrote:  I think 42,500-45,000 should be the maximum.

Along with that comes the need for more parking, more restrooms, more concessions, and open concourses. Going above 45,000 will make getting those things done that much tougher and more expensive.

And I'd like to know the specifics of how Houston had $8.5 million in ticket revenue.

Makes no sense.

UH $8,500,000 divided by attendance 151,618 = $56.06
UC $4,100,000 divided by attendance 223,388 = $18.35

That means 3 times the revenue per ticket. Does not pass the smell test.

Attendance figures are per Wiki.

70,000 of those seats pay $0 to attend games at Nippert. We also charge WAYYYYYY less than we should as far as normal tickets are concerned.

I think 50,000 of those are 10.00 per. (Pretty sure they sold out of the 5000 student season tickets at $70.00 (10 per game with the conference championship)...also may be a little more because some students may have bought the guest student season tickets for $20.00 per game.).... but yea, those are pretty cheap.

So, do UH students no attend or pay regular prices?

I went to the Sugar Bowl with a Houston professor. He said that Houston is almost 100% a commuter school, and few of his undergrad students are Houston fans.

I read UH is 85% commuter.

You guys do realize that depending on the definition of what a "commuter" is, UC is about the same.

Not discounting that number as being more traditionally determined commuter though. Was down in Houston for a conference a few years back and was shocked at how few residence halls there were on and around campus.