I’ve always enjoyed those seats, especially in crummy weather.
I like those seats for the close games. Remember watching much of the second half the Purdue game under the balcony two years ago. Not as stressful when you can only see about half the field.
Just to be clear, and I have stated this before, I definitely see the value in the seats and get why fans would like sitting there ... I am not a straight-up hater of them like I am with the Horseshoe.
I'm also not even saying I definitely think the cons outweigh the pros when it comes to these seats - heck, I love that Wrigley still has that setup with a balcony overhang while every newer ballpark looks so much more modern, more in the style of our west side. I just think there are two rather unfortunate consequences of those seats as they relate to my long-term wish list for Memorial Stadium, and they are somewhat related:
1) While I acknowledge we needed a modern press box, I loved the symmetrical look of the pre-2007 Memorial Stadium. I'm not sure if they could have reconfigured the west side to retain seats underneath an overhang after the renovation, but I have always thought it looked just a little off ever since 2008 that the west side is cut off with this brick wall, and the east side remained as it always was. I think they should have either tried to make West Main still have some seats underneath an overhang, or they should have walled off East Main to have the same look. Looking at the photos below, it seemed like they prioritized making the top of the new press box not TOO much taller than the top of the East Balcony, but in the process they sacrificed the similar look, as the West Balcony became absolutely tiny, and the two sides look totally different now. I'm not sure if this would have worked from an architectural / engineering perspective, but I wish they could have "started" the press box higher up into the West Balcony to retain some of the original look.
Pre-Renovation | West side is almost identical to the east side (making the stadium very symmetrical)
Post Renovation | West side does not match east side (and not only is the West Balcony now MUCH smaller than the East Balcony, but West Main is also much smaller than East Main)
One Alternative | Wall off the east side to match the west side and restore the symmetry (also giving you
over 7K in extra capacity for other sections like the SEZ ... see Point #2!)
2) It is a VERY common retort against my constant cries to renovate the Horseshoe that we cannot justify an increase in capacity because we aren't constantly selling out all ~61K seats. First of all, a renovation of the Horseshoe very well might REDUCE capacity, as we have squeezed the same number of seats in our small Horseshoe (~10K) as Iowa has in its much more imposing new north end zone (also ~10K). However, let's forget that for a second and say that any renovation to the Horseshoe must increase capacity. As a stadium junkie, a fan who watches 99.9% of Illini football games on TV and someone who cares more than most that non-Illini fans recognize Memorial Stadium for the unique gem it is, I would so much rather we use capacity on the weakest part of our stadium that is incredibly visible on TV broadcasts (i.e., the SEZ) than a section that is functionally "invisible" as it relates to our stadium's visual aesthetic and how full our crowd looks on a national broadcast (i.e., the "hidden" sections in East Main). Maybe they already do this, but it would be a huge swing and a miss by the DIA if they are selling any of the top rows of East Main before the East Balcony is entirely sold out, as a half-full East Balcony looks like crap on TV.
With the way modern capacity is more spread out (and often broken up by luxury suites and other higher-ticket sections), an additional 7K seats allocated to the Horseshoe could build something incredibly imposing that would really tie our stadium together, provide the necessary height to trap noise, etc. -
especially now that we have that beauty of a scoreboard!
