Memorial Stadium
- Status
we need a rich mega donor to pledge the first 100 million & kick start the campaign .
I maintain lowering the field 20ft is still necessary to bring fans closer . not sure how doing so could get done in anything other than 18-20 months , so we would need a home away from home for a year . that is another problem
I maintain lowering the field 20ft is still necessary to bring fans closer . not sure how doing so could get done in anything other than 18-20 months , so we would need a home away from home for a year . that is another problem
RabidDawgClassic
- Los Angeles, CA
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Bump! On the flavor of my post in the Illini Football 2025 thread (I won't sidetrack us any further there, lol), I wanted to pose an engineering/architectural question. While I acknowledge this would be unrealistic in the near term (and perhaps in the long term), my "dream" design for Memorial Stadium would be to enclose it to trap the crowd noise and make for a better environment but NOT to have it look too much like a standard bowl. I love the uniqueness of Memorial Stadium's "square" design, seen in the picture below of the East Side:
And an example of an absolutely iconic stadium in Europe that "closes in" its stands while maintaining a unique square architectural pattern is Borussia Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park in Germany. It's considered one of the coolest soccer venues in Europe, famous for its "Yellow Wall" of fans that bear down on the field:
If we ever wanted to, say, replace the Horseshoe with a mini-version of the East Main/East Balcony setup to get that architecturally consistent look, would it even be possible without obstructing the southeast column tower between East Main/West Main and the Horseshoe?? In my head, I envisioned having the lower level of this new SEZ structure come down to field level and then having the balcony set back and not start until "behind" the side of each column tower.
To help visualize, I did this majestic work of art in MS Paint one time as a guide, lol:
I assume this might present structural problems, but I think this would be infinitely cooler and more unique than just putting a more bland/modern-looking structure where the Horseshoe is. You could still have upscale amenities in a concourse, but the exterior and stadium-facing interior should honor the architecture of the stadium. I also feel that this would not add too much capacity. The entire East Side has a capacity of 28K, and the Horseshoe has a capacity of a little under 10K. Using the proportional dimensions of a football filed, a "mini-East Side" in the Horseshoe would have a capacity of about 12K to 13K. So if you remove the Horseshoe's 10K and add a new 13K, you only add 3K seats to the stadium ... an actually good Illini football program should have zero problem putting 64K fans in the stands.
And an example of an absolutely iconic stadium in Europe that "closes in" its stands while maintaining a unique square architectural pattern is Borussia Dortmund's Signal Iduna Park in Germany. It's considered one of the coolest soccer venues in Europe, famous for its "Yellow Wall" of fans that bear down on the field:
If we ever wanted to, say, replace the Horseshoe with a mini-version of the East Main/East Balcony setup to get that architecturally consistent look, would it even be possible without obstructing the southeast column tower between East Main/West Main and the Horseshoe?? In my head, I envisioned having the lower level of this new SEZ structure come down to field level and then having the balcony set back and not start until "behind" the side of each column tower.
To help visualize, I did this majestic work of art in MS Paint one time as a guide, lol:
I assume this might present structural problems, but I think this would be infinitely cooler and more unique than just putting a more bland/modern-looking structure where the Horseshoe is. You could still have upscale amenities in a concourse, but the exterior and stadium-facing interior should honor the architecture of the stadium. I also feel that this would not add too much capacity. The entire East Side has a capacity of 28K, and the Horseshoe has a capacity of a little under 10K. Using the proportional dimensions of a football filed, a "mini-East Side" in the Horseshoe would have a capacity of about 12K to 13K. So if you remove the Horseshoe's 10K and add a new 13K, you only add 3K seats to the stadium ... an actually good Illini football program should have zero problem putting 64K fans in the stands.
Last edited:
my guess , as an interested observer and voracious reader of info , is it will be 2-3 years at a minimum before anything is announced .
Timing is everything when doing these things . There really is no reason to act right now . Let’s get 2-3 years of really good football results in a row and the line for big donors will be long .
If we want to compete in the top tier of the league , we need to have sell outs and those sellouts need to be more than just 1/2 the people that those big time programs have every home game .
do the math
20,000 more people in the house at $1000 per season ticket is $20,000,000.
give the Illinois fan a reason to go to Champaign 6-7 times each fall and there is no reason we can’t sellout 75,000 seats
Aside from being around to bounce a great grandchild, or two, or three off my knee, I can't think of anything that would make me happier than walking into a newly remodeled and impressive looking south end zone before I move on.
Illini Football Fan For Life
Illini Football Fan For Life
I'm confused - why is there a thread for this? I thought something had been announced, but I'm not seeing anything.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
I believe some of us posters just loved discussing potential (and hopefully inevitable...) improvements to Memorial Stadium, and we were taking up a decent amount of space in one of the past Illini Football threads. So, Dan cleaned things up and gave us our own spot, haha.
I will throw out the bold and cautiously optimistic prediction that we could get a bit of a "surprise announcement" after next season if we are good again and match the hype. Let's remember that THIS was announced while the Illini were sitting at 1-4 and hadn't had a winning regular season in over 8 years, pretty much basing its foundation on the hype that Lovie Smith (in his first year) might someday make us competitive, lol:
And even the watered down version that is still technically "on the books" as the Phase 2 of the Smith Center work looks like this...
I get that this was all before the NIL Era got going, and priorities have obviously shifted ... but it's not outside the realm of possibility that this has somewhat been offset by (A) our Big Ten media payout growing drastically since then and (B) our football program and the resultant revenue being LIGHT YEARS ahead of that time. It's difficult to tell just what the interior of the South End Zone would look like in that third picture, but it would clearly be a huge step up from what we have now.
FWIW, the original SEZ renovation (first two pictures) announced in 2016 would cost $172 million or so in today's dollars. Comparatively, Iowa's north end zone seats that most people here seem to think would be a home run replacement for the Horseshoe cost around $117 million in today's dollars:
And Mississippi State managed to get this done for under $85 million:
If we finish with 9+ wins this year and in the top 25, and we are projected to once again enter 2026 ranked preseason ... that will mean our crowds are getting really big, and I wouldn't be shocked if we got an "early" announcement.
Setting aside the stadium renovations, which I imagine will take longer due to the costs involved, one thing that’s bothered me for a while is the quality of our turf (from a TV). While I believe most fans would prefer natural grass like Purdue or Penn State, I can’t help but wonder what’s preventing us from having a visually higher-quality turf, similar to what Tulane uses. This may be due to the lighting involved but there is something so much more appealing about the image below than what we have which appears dull.
Battle89
- Cary-Grove, the better Trojan team
I get that this was all before the NIL Era got going, and priorities have obviously shifted ... but it's not outside the realm of possibility that this has somewhat been offset by (A) our Big Ten media payout growing drastically since then and (B) our football program and the resultant revenue being LIGHT YEARS ahead of that time.
@Fighter of the Nightman - those plans are gorgeous, I just worry that your (A) will be offset by (C) revenue sharing. Players before provisions.
@Fighter of the Nightman - those plans are gorgeous, I just worry that your (A) will be offset by (C) revenue sharing. Players before provisions.
I would think real grass would be the best, but perhaps we just use the stadium for practice WAY more than we did 30 years ago and they are concerned about daily wear and tear, and therefore plastic turf makes more sense.
I will say we (and all schools in general really) havent had the turf injuries that ravaged teams (esp in NFL) 20-40 years ago
I will say we (and all schools in general really) havent had the turf injuries that ravaged teams (esp in NFL) 20-40 years ago
Last edited:
If I recall the reason we don't have natural grass is because ar the time the decision was last made we hosted the high school championship games and didn't want the turf messed up for the illini home games as they would happen during the season.
But yes, our field looks awful after one game, this pellets making the orange look brown but the second quarter.
But yes, our field looks awful after one game, this pellets making the orange look brown but the second quarter.
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Shameless self bump, but ... I never really realized that I might actually like that "watered down" renovation plan on bottom even better. The exterior of the new South End Zone looks a lot more consistent with the East and West column exteriors than the 2016 plan ... in fact, while the interior of the 2016 plan looks great, the exterior actually looks kind of gaudy and less elegant than the vibe that Memorial Stadium should have....
And even the watered down version that is still technically "on the books" as the Phase 2 of the Smith Center work looks like this...
View attachment 39175
...
As for the interior, it's REALLY difficult to tell what the second plan would look like on the inside compared to the first. On one hand, the angle of the stands looks similar. However, it looks like it might be missing that row of suites below the scoreboard? Either way, I think that second plan would be closer to my aforementioned idea of "squaring in" the stands at Memorial Stadium, so I am all for it. Anyway, just some random thoughts!
I go the impression it was more maintenance than upgrades.
Ope, I wonder how even more visually unappealing the view of Memorial Stadium from the south has become
nothing is done for no reason . time will tell why exactly . they aren’t starting the SEZ renovations anytime soon unless someone quietly gave them $200 million . And I can assure you , we would have heard about that .
My guess, beer garden vs. basketball beer cave. There was some land there between the the brick wall and Kirby that was wasted space. A few conifer trees. They set up the TV trucks in that area.
Edit, that area was pretty nasty looking with chain link fencing and stuff. It's a good time to spruce up the area by knocking down a spruce or two.
Edit2, this to go along with whatever promotion they had - getting into the stadium early for discounts. Buy a beer and get a free wiener in the new party beer garden. Far better than what it is now.
Last edited:
I heard new scoreboard, audio system, and ribbon boards from someone with a work order to install them
- Status