| FTBL Expansion news growing legs again...

TerryP

Staff
...and the talk is starting in December of '08 to be completed by opening '10.

The infusion of the $$ from the ESPN deal have been credited to the renewed talk.
 
AlabamaMan said:
Unless they lowered the field, this will be all.
I am not an engineer, but I do not think lowering the playing surface is possible.

First, I have been told the field is already below the sewage lines servicing the stadium and that it would be impossible to adequately drain the field. Compounding this issue is that I have also been told lowering the field would make it far too difficult to grow live grass (something to do with the underground water level in the area and the shadows cast by the stadium structure).

Second, lowering the field would require a major demolition and rebuild of the current end-zone stands to prevent all the seats in the old, lower bowl behind the end-line from becoming obstructed-view seats. As it is, it is almost impossible to see the entire end-zone from those seats and any lowering of the field will mean you may not see any action inside the 15-yard line (depending on how much you lower the surface) on your end of the field (further out if the fans are standing).

(The second issue is far more critical than the first.)

About the only future expansion beyond the South End Zone would be a second decking of either side (most likely the East Side) - like Sanford Stadium at UGa. But given the horizontal distance such a deck would have to be placed from the field, not to mention the pure height, that really does not look feasible.

I think the only way we could increase our capacity would be to blow everything up and start anew - or just build a new stadium better designed for such numbers elsewhere. And there is no way we will demolish or abandon a stadium where we have invested nearly $170MM over the last 20-or-so years. (Unless of course T. Boone Pickens tires of sending all his hundreds-of-millions to Okie St. and adopts us.)
 
alagator said:
AlabamaMan said:
Unless they lowered the field, this will be all.
I am not an engineer, but I do not think lowering the playing surface is possible.

First, I have been told the field is already below the sewage lines servicing the stadium and that it would be impossible to adequately drain the field. Compounding this issue is that I have also been told lowering the field would make it far too difficult to grow live grass (something to do with the underground water level in the area and the shadows cast by the stadium structure).

Second, lowering the field would require a major demolition and rebuild of the current end-zone stands to prevent all the seats in the old, lower bowl behind the end-line from becoming obstructed-view seats. As it is, it is almost impossible to see the entire end-zone from those seats and any lowering of the field will mean you may not see any action inside the 15-yard line (depending on how much you lower the surface) on your end of the field (further out if the fans are standing).

(The second issue is far more critical than the first.)

About the only future expansion beyond the South End Zone would be a second decking of either side (most likely the East Side) - like Sanford Stadium at UGa. But given the horizontal distance such a deck would have to be placed from the field, not to mention the pure height, that really does not look feasible.

I think the only way we could increase our capacity would be to blow everything up and start anew - or just build a new stadium better designed for such numbers elsewhere. And there is no way we will demolish or abandon a stadium where we have invested nearly $170MM over the last 20-or-so years. (Unless of course T. Boone Pickens tires of sending all his hundreds-of-millions to Okie St. and adopts us.)

Also, the endzone stands are already pretty close to the endzone and lowering the field would put the stands in the REDzone. :?
 
rammajamma said:
Didn't they increase the capacity of Jordan Hare by putting the numbers on the benches closer and adding more numbers?

That has been the plan in Neyland Stadium for years. The only expense is for paint. Of course Junior and Lulu have to buy two tickets each.
 
Well that's what they do at Michigan (paint the lines on the seats closer together). How do you think they fit 117,000 people in a stadium the size of Bryant Denny's lower bowl?

I've gone up there a few times and seen games, and the big house is BY FAR the worse game experience I've ever had. No bathrooms (port-o-johns outside the stadium). We bought 5 ticket for 3 of us, and were almost literally sitting on each others laps. Plus I was there in '05 when they beat Penn State with the 2 seconds that the refs gave them, and the crowd was about as loud as Bryant Denny when Bama gets an easy first down in the middle of the 3rd quarter, there was barely any enthusiasm from the crowd.

Well enough of that rant, just be glad that we have a nice atmosphere at BDS.
 
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