(09-26-2025 01:12 PM)TheOwl84 Wrote:  

(09-25-2025 02:10 PM)Ourland Wrote:  

(09-24-2025 04:15 PM)OwlWKIF Wrote:  I have very little complaints with HRS.

Sure, modernize the electricity situation, improve concessions, power wash the stands, that sort of stuff... fix up the press box, whatever. Get a new PA system and replace the old scoreboard on top of the R Room. But how much can this really cost... certainly not a wild amount. If this stuff isn't affordable, then Rice is talking to the wrong contractors.

Why should the upper decks be torn down, unless they are going to collapse? What does it truly accomplish?

Fan experience.

We're so used to the upper decks, that we don't even realize how cavernous they make the stadium feel. All of those empty seats kill the game day atmosphere.

Once they're downsized, or gone altogether, the stadium will have a much more exciting and intimate feel. The awnings will help with that. The stadium will probably feel a lot more "closed in."

What we have right now is a gigantic open space the feels completely empty. What we'll have afterwards is a small, closed in space that feels more full. I think that's the goal, anyway.

This exactly. I like the upper decks, the front row of the upper deck with the rotting chairs is my favorite place to watch the games. But for games like the Bayou Bucket, it stinks to have your largest attendance in a decade still look half empty. Tulane gets that full house feeling for bringing in those same 30,000, Charlotte gets it for 15,000. Get rid of the East upper deck and now you'll see the Med Center in the distance instead of 10,000 empty seats while also seeing a more filled stadium

This.

My preference to not tearing down the upper east deck are solely based on cost/benefit and potential.... as in, if you had only 50mm to spend, what would you spend it on.... and my primary focus was on making the west side experience better

As we have now shifted all the home fans to the west, an empty east side is mostly really only an issue for visiting teams (and the Shaeffers, lol)... so I'm not really worried about seeing an empty upper east, if the west side looks and feels like it did against UH. Sure, in a simple yes/no binary, it's yes... but in a 'prioritization', it was not on the top of my personal preference list. Hell, we just moved the diving teams dry practice facility there, lol.

I have and do agree that the benefit of eliminating the upper east is a likely amazing view of campus and the med center from the now hopefully packed west side... AND I might add, a potentiallly very compelling view from the campus and med center of a very full west side.





BTW, for those of you who love Rice Stadium (like me)... there is something very clever and fun coming