On Jeremy Warner's podcast, he mentioned it would take several hundred million dollars to renovate the stadium and DIA has decided to spend on roster/coaching upgrades (ironically, my thought was what you would say about that!). I was thinking that seemed really high, but a quick google search showed the Northwestern Stadium cost $870 mil for the 35k seat stadium.
Gies Memorial Stadium
BZuppke
- Plainfield
So what do you do long term? It will need upgrades for safety eventually and costs aren’t going down.
altgeld88
- Arlington, Virginia
Thanks; enjoyed that. It's nice to see an opposing fan truly appreciate the absolute gem that is GMS.Ironic he just posted this video yesterday…Memorial Stadium talk at 15:10, with a funny little bit on the wasted space at 16:00
Also nice to see someone who shares my view that Michigan Stadium is just a huge, uninspiring bowl. The hideous Frankenstein monster that is Beaver Stadium is an order of magnitude better than The Big House.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I get that we need to focus on other things, I just wish they would articulate a vision. If Josh said the goal is the renovation floated in 2016 but we can’t make any progress with the SEZ until $X million dollars are secured … fine! But IF there isn’t some long term vision for the SEZ, then some of this $100 million should go toward relatively inexpensive fixes like filling in the stands so they go closer to the field.
In other words, the “do nothing to the Horseshoe until we can REALLY renovate it” only makes sense if there is some long term plan to renovate it. And when I hear the DIA talk about it, they seem 110% fine with the SEZ as is, which would be really disappointing if true.
I’ve wondered lately what $100 million could have bought if all of it was just used on the SEZ? I like the new scoreboard and the ribbon boards and even the new lights, whatever they will look like, but if that money was just spent on extending seats down closer to the endzone as part of a first phase of a renovated SEZ what would that look like? Josh mentioned they have used an architectural firm for ideas but is there an overall plan, a concept for the south endzone or are these improvements just for the whole stadium right now? Are those previous renderings for the SEZ still on the table or is that overall design no longer valid? I still think a football HOF should be in the SEZ with a grand focal point. Any ideas what Josh said about a new Southeast renovated entrance and what that might look like?
They’re probably reluctant to make changes improving or adding seats in the SEZ until the east main is consistently sold out.
I get it that attendance has improved greatly but they still have to use pricing and ticket release gimmicks to sell those seats.
There is another project that will be bidding in a few weeks for the South Tunnel and Parking Lots. The project will reconstruct two parking lots located near the southeast and southwest corners of Gies Memorial Stadium. The curved brick retaining wall around the south horseshoe of the stadium exterior will be replaced and a new driveway and south gate will be constructed to the south stadium tunnel. The north sidewalk along Kirby Avenue will be replaced and pavers will be added to the parkway. New accessible entrances and ramps will connect the parking lot improvements to the adjacent lower building areas at the stadium. The southeast vehicular ramp along the east concourse of the stadium will be replaced, and a new loading dock will be retrofit along the west side of the ramp. There will also be improvements to the lighting, landscaping, fencing, storm sewers, and retaining walls within the area.
This along with pushing money to the student athletes.
Unless you have a very competitive team, fans would be able to buy $5 to $10 tickets and then sit in any section they want. Been there, done that.
Edit: To add to a previous post - people have mentioned that south tunnel entrance bottleneck under the SEZ. People traffic flow from east to west under the SEZ was problematic. Hopefully this improves that problem while still being able to view the band when they enter that stadium.
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217sports
- Springfield
No stadium is going to be absolutely perfect. These days, if they did renovate it would probably mean just more suites and kick out a large group of locals that are in the horseshoe becaues its cheap. $100m doesn't go very far these days especially in an old stadium that needs various upgrades as is (WiFi). Funnel most donations to NIL and keep upgrading the game day experience (tailgating) then most will be happy.
If someone pays $5-$10 for an ubstructed view and moves down the east main into better empty seats on game day is that the fans fault or the DIA’s fault?
The DIA has overvalued their inventory since at least 2022.
We have to be the only P2 team in the country who sells end zone seats better than seats between the 30s.
Agree! Crazy how long it takes to get out the stadium.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I'm genuinely skeptical that they couldn't sell seats in a(n even modestly) renovated SEZ much more easily and for more money than in the back rows of East Main hidden underneath an overhang that prevents you from seeing punts, lol. Maybe they don't discriminate by anything beyond the section (i.e., a ticket in East Main 105 near the 50-yard line is going to be the same whether you are in row 10 or row 70), but that would sort of surprise me. We think of the Horseshoe as this "economical seating area" (and I am sympathetic to people who don't want that aspect to go away, even if my desire to see the stadium "completed" definitely outweighs that concern), but that is only because it is a super outdated, cramped seating section that is a comical distance from the field. In other words, simply being "end zone seats" does not stop those seats from being really desirable.
Using Iowa's new(ish) North End Zone section as an example yet again of exactly how you do this...
Before (End Zone Section at Top of Photo)
While not as bad as the Horseshoe by any stretch, it was similar in that it was just sort of what had always been there ... pretty outdated, needed sprucing up and (most importantly) blatantly obviously the next area of the stadium that needed care after the South End Zone (bottom of the photo) had already been renovated this century. This was achieved for a total, all-in cost of $90 million:
After
Again, I'm not arguing that the DIA does not have the appetite to fix up the Horseshoe unless there is some massive windfall of cash, the donor specifically wants it to go toward the SEZ, the DIA already feels it has enough NIL money, we have every ribbon board known to man, we've sold out a billion home games in a row, etc. I'm just saying I personally think that is very disappointing, lol. This is obviously where I differ from the DIA and apparently a lot of folks here, but ANYTHING is better than nothing when it comes to the Horseshoe. And that includes temporary bleachers.
Just because there are not season tickets in the Horseshoe available for sale doesn't mean we sell end zone seats better than the sidelines. They deliberately cut off season ticket sales in the end zone to allow availability of single game seats at multiple price points.
Illini in Italy
- Illini HQ, Florida Panhandle
All this gnashing of teeth about the stadium configuration pales in comparison to the stadium’s biggest flaw.
Put real seats in the stadiums with backs instead of the aluminum bleachers. The bleachers just out and out suck.
Put real seats in the stadiums with backs instead of the aluminum bleachers. The bleachers just out and out suck.
Yes! It is not a comfortable stadium to sit in. Granted what do you expect it’s an old stadium. But a grand old stadium that can use some tweaks which is what Josh and team are trying to do. Still like the idea of chair back seats. Can make some blue and some orange. A new SEZ should have all chair back seating. People might pay extra for a nice seat.
I feel like the fact that proves my point.
If they are delisting horse shoe seats out of concern for over selling the section while they have many seats available between the 30s that means they’re better at selling horseshoe seats.
Ultimately, my point is that East Main seats have been too expensive, and they’ve struggled to sell those sections every year because of it. Adding more seats or renovating the horseshoe will just make selling overpriced east main seats that much harder.
The imbalance is indicates the relative pricing needs an adjustment. Supply and demand. Econ 101, literally. Increase Horseshoe price while decreasing East Main (upper tier).
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Thanks for posting, Dan, it looks awesome! And on the note of my "anything is better than nothing" attitude when it comes to the Horseshoe, look at this screenshot from that video:
The new scoreboard is literally twice or even three times as tall as the Horseshoe stands when standing at field level, and this other photo below makes the difference seem even more extreme:
If there is no appetite for an actual SEZ renovation, let's just find S-O-M-E-T-H-I-N-G to put on either side of the new scoreboard to provide similar height on either side! It will help to trap noise and make that end of the stadium look a lot less incomplete. This goes back to my totally over-emphasized point that something is better than nothing, but if there is no plan for the SEZ any time in the foreseeable future, why would we not take this...
Last Year (i.e., Before the new scoreboard)
... and turn it into this?
New Version (i.e., New scoreboard and banners on either side to add height)
While acknowledging we would definitely be too cheap to make the wall brick (that was just Chat GPT's preference!), this would be SO easy, would cost almost nothing, would go a LONG way toward trapping more crowd noise / improving our homefield advantage and would give the stadium a finished look it's been begging for on the south end for a century now.
This would cement the current SEZ "skeleton" as permanent, which saves the DIA a lot of money down the line. Then you roughly do these "mini" renovations in order as the (now WAY lower amount of) money becomes available, with each step being both less of an immediate priority, more expensive and more reliant on future demand.
1) Touch up the existing seats as necessary and, in the process, reconfigure the seats to come down to field level and remove the ugly gap in front of the first row.
2) Renovate the concourse area to at least get up to Twenty-First Century standards, lol.
3) Renovate the exterior to be less of an eyesore.
4) If the appetite develops, build some sort of impressive concourse into the exterior (e.g., an "Illini Hall of Fame").
5) If and when the demand is there, take down the inexpensive walls / banners and build some luxury, revenue-generating suites.
6) Finally, if we are bursting at the seems as far as capacity, build a second deck on top of the luxury suites to finally tie together the SEZ look with the west and east sides, creating a true "Horseshoe" ala Ohio State.
EDIT: I noticed that Chat GPT changed the color of the photo I uploaded, but I just noticed that it also changed the clouds ... lol, it is so weird sometimes.
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I think we have the least expensive seats in the Big Ten.
KBLEE
- Montgomery, IL
Yes - but everyone seem to want the cheapest of the least expensive seats.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Random, non-scoreboard related question. I have always been really interested in how steep or gradual the slope of a stadium is, and my preference is DEFINITELY for the former, as it helps create a much better gameday environment! With that said, would anyone who has traveled to many Big Ten stadiums have a comment on where GMS ranks among our peers as far as steep vs. gradual slopes?
On the obvious "bad" end of the spectrum is the Big House, which has such a gradual slope that it looks like it was done on purpose to be a joke, and this notoriously makes the crowd MUCH quieter than you would expect for 110,000 people...
On the other end of the spectrum, I have always heard Clemson's stands are super steep (especially the upper deck!), and this no doubt plays a role in its reputation as a really tough place to play.
Any ideas / opinions as to where Memorial Stadium and other Big Ten stadiums would fall on that spectrum? I know every area of the stadium might be a bit different (e.g., East Balcony seems the steepest, East Main seems more gradual, the Horseshoe seems even more gradual yet, etc.), but I was just looking for an overall assessment. I have only been to Kinnick and Camp Randall out of the other Big Ten stadiums. Kinnick seems a little steeper than GMS, but not by that much. Camp Randall felt really gradual, and my Badger friend has said it suffers from a diluted version of Michigan's problem, in that it never got as loud as you feel it should have because it sucks at trapping noise.
On the obvious "bad" end of the spectrum is the Big House, which has such a gradual slope that it looks like it was done on purpose to be a joke, and this notoriously makes the crowd MUCH quieter than you would expect for 110,000 people...
On the other end of the spectrum, I have always heard Clemson's stands are super steep (especially the upper deck!), and this no doubt plays a role in its reputation as a really tough place to play.
Any ideas / opinions as to where Memorial Stadium and other Big Ten stadiums would fall on that spectrum? I know every area of the stadium might be a bit different (e.g., East Balcony seems the steepest, East Main seems more gradual, the Horseshoe seems even more gradual yet, etc.), but I was just looking for an overall assessment. I have only been to Kinnick and Camp Randall out of the other Big Ten stadiums. Kinnick seems a little steeper than GMS, but not by that much. Camp Randall felt really gradual, and my Badger friend has said it suffers from a diluted version of Michigan's problem, in that it never got as loud as you feel it should have because it sucks at trapping noise.