I know this subject has been discussed mulitiple times before related to the sell- out crowds we’ve experienced the past two years. Yes..Nippert is old and structurally outdated from an amenities standpoint. Having a Top 10 team means that big crowds impact things that the Athletic department can’t control..so fans just have to deal with it. Parking issues…get down early and enjoy campus. Crowded concourses…be patient and enjoy the crowds as you move slow…or just stay in your seat. Long concession lines….don’t eat as much. But I absolutely can’t understand the issue with the restrooms. I realize many will have their “secret” restroom spots where there are smaller lines…..but the Athletic Department should care more about the game experience for the 10,000-15,000 NEW fans who have jumped on the bandwagon in the past 2 years, than those of us who have been going to Nippert for years.

All that being said..the restroom situation on the East side of the stadium is beyond ridiculous. The lines at the portolets at times yesterday literally stretched 50-60 deep at one point. Not that it affected me directly, but I heard several comments of wait times in the 30-40 minute range. It’s simply beyond unacceptable from a game experience standpoint. The upper concourse (by the tennis courts) has enough room where you could easily rent and locate 30+ portolets....enough to minimize the problem.............yet there were 6. 6. It would be one thing if the situation was structurally unable to be addressed (like the width of the concourses)....but any sort of planning to utilize the upper concourse outside 5th/3rd arena by the tennis courts more effectively would correct a problem that is ridiculous for an organization that has worked sooo hard to attract and retain the type of crowds we all want to see on a game in and game out basis.

I’d love to understand the reasoning from UCMarketing for the lack of having a huge increase in portable restrooms available. IF it’s simply a cost move…there is no excuse.

(10-25-2009 08:50 AM)mbl95 Wrote:  I know this subject has been discussed mulitiple times before related to the sell- out crowds we’ve experienced the past two years. Yes..Nippert is old and structurally outdated from an amenities standpoint. Having a Top 10 team means that big crowds impact things that the Athletic department can’t control..so fans just have to deal with it. Parking issues…get down early and enjoy campus. Crowded concourses…be patient and enjoy the crowds as you move slow…or just stay in your seat. Long concession lines….don’t eat as much. But I absolutely can’t understand the issue with the restrooms. I realize many will have their “secret” restroom spots where there are smaller lines…..but the Athletic Department should care more about the game experience for the 10,000-15,000 NEW fans who have jumped on the bandwagon in the past 2 years, than those of us who have been going to Nippert for years.

All that being said..the restroom situation on the East side of the stadium is beyond ridiculous. The lines at the portolets at times yesterday literally stretched 50-60 deep at one point. Not that it affected me directly, but I heard several comments of wait times in the 30-40 minute range. It’s simply beyond unacceptable from a game experience standpoint. The upper concourse (by the tennis courts) has enough room where you could easily rent and locate 30+ portolets....enough to minimize the problem.............yet there were 6. 6. It would be one thing if the situation was structurally unable to be addressed (like the width of the concourses)....but any sort of planning to utilize the upper concourse outside 5th/3rd arena by the tennis courts more effectively would correct a problem that is ridiculous for an organization that has worked sooo hard to attract and retain the type of crowds we all want to see on a game in and game out basis.

I’d love to understand the reasoning from UCMarketing for the lack of having a huge increase in portable restrooms available. IF it’s simply a cost move…there is no excuse.

There's a guy on television who suggests Avodart.

I will bring this up in our Monday meeting.

(10-25-2009 09:14 AM)UC Marketing Wrote:  I will bring this up in our Monday meeting.

Appreciate the fact you review the board and are willing to take feedback. I sincerely believe something can be done to improve this situation.

The bigger problem than that is the actual seating itself. Those seat cushions on the seats take up so much room that there's absolutely no leg room...and God forbid anyone in your row get up to leave. Whenever anyone would need out, people literally had to climb up and stand on their seat so someone could get through. My step-father's 60 years old climbing up and down off his seat and I have a real nice bruise on my leg where I kept hitting it on the metal climbing up to let people through. The seat cushions are a nice idea, but just aren't working. All kidding aside, someone's going to get seriously hurt up there. One of the times I stumbled forward before the people behind me grabbed my arm. I'm a big boy (6-3, 235)...I don't think the 60-70 year old women in front of me would have faired to well from me falling on them.

(10-25-2009 09:36 AM)DelhiBearcat Wrote:  The bigger problem than that is the actual seating itself. Those seat cushions on the seats take up so much room that there's absolutely no leg room...and God forbid anyone in your row get up to leave. Whenever anyone would need out, people literally had to climb up and stand on their seat so someone could get through. My step-father's 60 years old climbing up and down off his seat and I have a real nice bruise on my leg where I kept hitting it on the metal climbing up to let people through. The seat cushions are a nice idea, but just aren't working. All kidding aside, someone's going to get seriously hurt up there. One of the times I stumbled forward before the people behind me grabbed my arm. I'm a big boy (6-3, 235)...I don't think the 60-70 year old women in front of me would have faired to well from me falling on them.

Thank god no one has those seat cushion things in front of me. They need to go asap. bring your own portable butt cushion or a blanket to sit on.

But c'mon delhi- you need to tell those people to sit the hell down and watch the game! We had a dude in our row during the fresno game that got up like 10 times during the action and we had to move. I wanted to push him down the bleachers, but resisted the urge on behalf of my fellow bearcat fans sitting below me.

There is no leg room with or without the seat cushion. But then again, I am not 6-3, 235, but I can see how those extra 3 inches make it that more cramped.

Agree with the port o johns. Where I entered the stadium by CCM there were 6 port o johns, and there was room for 50, they could have lined the whole outside of the stadium with them. There was a huge line at each port o john.

(10-25-2009 09:48 AM)bww Wrote:  There is no leg room with or without the seat cushion.

Yeah...it's always been a bit of a tight squeeze, but nothing like it is with those seat cushions. The die-hards maybe willing to put up with it, but I don't know about the casual fans. That's a lot of money to spend to be packed like sardines and have to climb up onto your seat to let people pass through every 15 minutes. I heard nothing but complaints within earshot of me.

The seat cushions that are atttached to the bench seats with metal back-rests are very restricting. The seat cushions installed on the seats with no metal back-rests are a good improvement. They allow people to pass by with relative ease by others just standing up.

At 6'5 1/2" and 300 pounds I always have to sit on the aisle to stretch my legs into the stairs.....

As much as I've always loved attending games at Nippert I'm starting to believe the situation is beyond fixing. It's a 35k seat stadium that can't handle crowds over 25k. Now we want to expand it over 40k? I know part of any plans would be to add restrooms and concession stands but I just don't see where you put it. We may have to look at going the Pittsburgh and USF way of sharing an NFL stadium.

(10-25-2009 09:14 AM)UC Marketing Wrote:  I will bring this up in our Monday meeting.

Please do something about this. There is room for dozens more port-o-potties against the walls of the loading dock for the Shoe/Lindner Center. I missed a lot of the game yesterday due to waiting in line to use a port-o-potty. Probably spent a total of 45 minutes during the game to use the restroom. I will not be purchasing any concessions in the future if I can't use the restroom and get back in a reasonable amount of time...

That was the first time I've ever seen lines 20 people deep before the original kickoff!

(10-25-2009 10:08 AM)mlb Wrote:  

(10-25-2009 09:14 AM)UC Marketing Wrote:  I will bring this up in our Monday meeting.

Please do something about this. There is room for dozens more port-o-potties against the walls of the loading dock for the Shoe/Lindner Center. I missed a lot of the game yesterday due to waiting in line to use a port-o-potty. Probably spent a total of 45 minutes during the game to use the restroom. I will not be purchasing any concessions in the future if I can't use the restroom and get back in a reasonable amount of time...

That was the first time I've ever seen lines 20 people deep before the original kickoff!

Honestly, what did you expect? Record crowd for homecoming, people been there all day drinking and living it up. Better believe the restroom lines will be long. I didn't have too much of an issue. I went at halftime to the RR (not porties) and waited in line maybe 5-10 minutes. I went with about 6 min left in the 4th and waited less than that. Portapots are disgusting- I'd rather just hold it. But if you're into that, I agree that adding a dozen more would be an easy improvment.

Another easy renovation in the men's bathroom would be to rip out the sinks that are adjacent to the stalls (leave the ones along the wall as you go out) and add more urinals, you could probably fit about 3 on each side. This probably would not require a huge construction cost and could be done in the offseason.

In the future, all of the old concession stands need to be ripped out to make the concourses wider. Just use temporary (portable concessions like the Donatos huts and beer trucks, carnie style stuff) until you can redesign/renovate. You could probably get quite a few rolling concessions in there.

One thing that was satisfactory was the beer lines were rolling pretty smooth. Although I was drinking warsteiner while most everyone else was downing that cheap light crap.

I'm a man... I can handle using port-o-potties. If I was a woman, I'd maybe think twice about it. Either way, something has to be done about the long lines.

On a side note, my wife just complained to me about the lack of baby changing stations in the women's restroom.

Hey, look at the bright side....At least we are not Miami. They "announced" 9,000+ in attendance for their Homecoming yesterday. Real # was closer to 7,000 from folks that attended. No lines at those bathrooms, baby.

(10-25-2009 10:08 AM)mlb Wrote:  

(10-25-2009 09:14 AM)UC Marketing Wrote:  I will bring this up in our Monday meeting.

Please do something about this. There is room for dozens more port-o-potties against the walls of the loading dock for the Shoe/Lindner Center...

I saw something similar at Toledo's Race For The Cure (5K run/walk) earlier this month. There were 8 TOTAL port-o-johns. There were 16,000 participants. 2,000 participants for every john. Rediculous. A lot of antzy runners wanting to relieve themselves couldn't and had to run on full bladders, myself included. That boggled my mind.

I've also been to a Tracy Lawrence/Luke Bryan concert at the Lucas County fairgrounds that maybe had 500-1,000 people there. That event had porta-potty land, where about 50 johns resided...

It's not that hard to figure out. Assuming you have the space, take your total number of participants/spectators and divide by a reasonable number of que line. The resulting number is how many units you'll need...

How bad do you think the port o potty situation will be for the West Virginia game when their drunken fans roll into Nippert?

(10-25-2009 09:14 AM)UC Marketing Wrote:  I will bring this up in our Monday meeting.

To use the cliche- with all due respect - how could anybody not know before the game that lack of restrooms would be a problem? It's not like it was the first sellout in years. And people have complained about the restroom, concourse, and concession problems for years.

UCMarketing - you and your department are doing a great job. Believe me - I appreciate you as I'm sure most Bearcat fans do. And we know you have a limited budget. But if you have to bring this up in a meeting now that just does not sound very good to me.

(10-25-2009 09:14 AM)UC Marketing Wrote:  I will bring this up in our Monday meeting.

Thanks UC Marketing. But I hope you're not saying that this is the first time this issue is being brought to the attention of the athletic department. Having many more port-o-lets should have been S.O.P. many games ago (actually seasons ago). If you don't think it takes away from the game experience, think again. (and again, this is not just for heavy beer drinkers...who by the way, are willing to contribute to coffers at almost $6 a beverage).

Some will laugh at such a suggestion, but the lowest cost way to add $ to the drive for the Indoor Practice Facility may be to simply add port-o-johns. Sometimes you have to think "small" before you think "big".

A loyal fan.